It's over.

It's over.

PARTY LIKE IT'S 2012!

It's almost over

It's almost over and I still don't realize it yet.

I think that's good. One of these days, soon, I will probably be sitting in my papasan, enjoying life and suddenly realizing that "Shit, there ain't no more CSL", and then start to reminisce and feel nostalgic but then, oh, too late. I keep myself from looking back.

Don't look back. You tend to start moving backwards.


The only analogy that's coming to my brain fried from studying is the scene where mini Anakin Skywalker is seen leaving his home on Tatooine.

It's a shit place. You're happy to be leaving for new opportunities but you also feel sad about leaving some people you love behind.
Know what you gotta do and do it. Know what you want and work for it. Keep moving. Life's not going to wait for you.
(Edit: and if you do end up wearing a mask, go all darth vader-y and conquer the galaxy, think of me)

Remember,
It's not only about what you learnt from the classes but also about what you learnt from the experience.

The hardships should have taught you something far more valuable than anything you learned in any of the classes.

May the Force be with you.

=================
And in the Spirit of the Exams:

Think: "Failure is not for me. It is only for the others. "

Teachers strike

You'd think we were in Paris.

Or maybe somebody among the teacher's syndicate just want a day off to enjoy summer. (Oh by the way, it's raining today)

There wasn't much talks with the government before the strike. (Or at least, the media didn't really cover it.)
With surprising efficiency, this time, within a week, the teachers' syndicate has already decided on a day to go on strike. Pardon the chat-lingo that's going to come up but this was my face: (O.O) When they said they were going to go on strike, I just took at as a balloon of hot air. But fuck, it took off!
Usually, these things drag on and on, both sides bitching, making progress and undoing it the very next day.

No endless round-table negotiations that go nowhere? No political sparring? A preemptive strike instead?! Whoa! That's a first.

Now only if people can be more expeditious when it comes to fixing the fire alarm panel.

===========================
Oh by the way, around 1 billion dollars for a G20 summit.
57,000 $ of which for a fake lake. Which, admittedly, isn't much relatively, especially when compared to the 200,000$ toilets and the 100,000$ gazebo. But have you looked at a map of Canada lately? (Or of the area in question?)
It's so full of natural, genuine lakes that it looks like somebody bombed the place. Why would you need to make a fake lake!?It's only 10 cm or so deep, so it serves no future purpose either except as a breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Watch the video, the goof makes it funny, plus you might learn something.
http://video.msn.com?vid=cbcc2010-0806-1220-0038-151655448700

WEEEE!

I finally finished a script that I started.

Now,  I have no excuses for not updating the blog.

Hey funny thought.
Remember that firealarm panel I talked about a few posts back?
It's letting out intermittent buzzing and the "defectuosité" light comes on once in awhile again. So, if you're a fan of arson......

In other news...

Sometimes, all it takes is silence to find out just what a bitch a girl is. Some of 'em have really short fuses. If they don't get what they want, they go from sweet to bitch so fast....

Just stand there and smile, while she bitches her head off and generally makes a fool of herself. :)
Ahh sigh, what a waste of a perfectly mate-able female.

=============================

Tomorrow's post is going to be about preemptive strikes in the war of the syndicates.

In Soviet Russia, we nuke leaking oil wells

This has got to be the most cliche thing related to russian vs usa ever.

Picture this:
Americans are jumping around, panicking and blaming either BP or Obama.
On one side, Omaba is standing a puddle of sweat, as his plans for economic stimulation go down the drain 'cause he has to sign new laws/bills limiting/postponing deepwater drilling. Did I mention the fishermen out to get him too?
On the other, BP executives and technicians and scientists are also in a good deal of stress. They've tried for a month now to stop that monster pissing black crap into the gulf and for all the money, technology and manpower they've got in there, and despite trying a plethora of ideas ranging from smart to retarded, they still can't do it. Wat a wonderful display of impotency.

Oh, also pitch in the rest of the world also looking on, totally helpless.

And then picture a bearded russian coming up, in a russian accent saying:
"Ooh yes, oil leak, is no problem. We just blow it up with nuclear bomb. Problem go away."
Faced with wide-eyed astonishment he adds "We do it five times already."
I shit you not. They have. Google it.
 
Owing to the limited nature of my knowledge in the field I won't comment on whether it's a good idea or not. However, it sounds a lot more efficient than shooting 'junk into the hole' and 'shooting mud and drilling fluid down the pipe' while oil is still gushing out.

On a side note, notice how they still call it a leak as a way to downplay the seriousness of the problem. A leak is something you can stop with a hand. A leak is something you take a few times a day. It's not 1,900,000–3,000,000 litres a day rocketing out of a pipe. If that happens to you even once a day, please, be a firefighter!

DROP KICK DK.

Die Kravtz die!

When you see things like the above (and worse) on msn status messages, you know that somebody, somewhere, is tearing their hair off trying to finish DK. So once again, due to a tremendous urge of generosity, I have decided I'm going to help you out.

2- Type of Novel: The predictable kind.

4- 3 Supporting characters: Simcha, Cohen, Virgil. Simcha to get him started, inflating his head with ideas of shit like man with no land is nobody. Cohen to keep him going when he starts feeling guilty, and Virgil because the author needs an epic betrayal at the end to get the reader's sympathy.

5- Plot scheme:

And now, as I have better things to do, I bid you a good night. Muhahaha.

What Green Day is not

Before we start, this is not about the band. We've had white day. White day is a day in winter where everybody of the school goes outside to have some fun. Guess what Green Day is.

Now for what Greenday is NOT.

It's NOT a date. It's NOT a marriage. It's NOT an evaluated event. It's NOT a job interview. It's NOT something that matters in that insignificant life of yours.

And yet, there are people scrambling up and down, left and right to switch out of their teams because GASP!, of out the 15-16 people in it, there's one or two people they can't stand.

What bullshit. You spend at least 180 days a year with your friends, plus all the outings, parties and hanging out, not to mention all the future events like prom, reunions, and more outings, parties and hanging out, and you can't stand 3-4 hours without ALL of your friends in your team?

If you're like this now, what about when you get a job? You'll be in a team FULL of people you don't know, and that you may or may not like, and you will have to go with it anyways. Surely, you can take half a day in a team with only SOME of your friends  and still manage to have some fun and co-operate enough to perhaps play a friendly game of VOLLEYBALL? (perhaps but unlikely) Not asking you to start a family here.

And if seeing one or two people can mess up your day, fuck man, I pity you, you're going to have a bitch of a life. I know I won't be enjoying it as much as I would have if I had all my friends together, but to start whining and pestering the organizers about it like if it's the end of the world is fucking childish. They tried to the best of their ability and knowledge to pair up compatible people together. And knowing all the intricacies of the human nature, I'd say they did a satisfactory job of keeping the nitro and the glycerin in different teams.

You know you fucking suck when you've got Sec 4s talking about absolutely how absurd you whining about to change teams is. So, suck it up, get your shit in line, and fucking go with it. Who knows, if you get in there with an open mind, it might turn out okay. Not great, because that'll be asking too much of you, but okay.


PS: If you get pissed enough to get into a fight, well, that can be fun to watch too. (Or be in, depending on who you're asking)

Living under more danger than we have to

A nice complicated panel with about 22 lights which was linked to smoke detectors in about 20 areas of the school. Funny thing? Of the other two lights, the one with the label "défectuosité" was lit for about two weeks on an otherwise dark panel.


It's only after a microwave going kaput (either from it's old age or because it got some help), producing smoke and a foul smelling combination of burnt food and electronics without the smoke alarms tripping did we finally see somebody, a day or two afterwards, hunched over that panel.

But of course, those two weeks shouldn't have affected you all that much I expect. You all know how the building can't burn because of the asbestos in it, or that if it did burn, most of us would burn with it because of the outrageously small stair cases and strategically constricted hallways.

And damn, when is that new building coming around?

Time for a Hero

We need heroes in trying times. We need role models took look up to, for inspiration, motivation and I really don't know where I'm going with this cliché opening so I'll just stop.

This is NOT an advertisment for

Shit is going down in Greece because of the economic clusterfuck that's going on over there. People ain't happy, and when people ain't happy, they protest.
And since quite awhile now, protesters in Athens, Greece, have a dog as their frontliner. One kickass dog that isn't afraid of going against a wall of riot police.


Here's Riot Dog's facebook page.

We still don't know if it's a stray, or if it has a owner, or if it even is the same dog. But either way, it just goes to show that in trying times, it's good to have a hero.
Keep on protestin', you Greekstas!

(They say QC's on her way to the same fate. But who believes that, eh?)

PS: demotivational poster depicts Hitler had he been accepted into that art academy.

Here's a random thought...

You know those classified poem(s) you had to do?

Have you ever asked what their purpose was?

Well, their purpose is, aside from being an example treehuggers give about Reusing, 

is being a way for criminals too cheap or low tech to type their threats to get their message across.

Keep that in mind the next time you need to type a cleverly versed ransom note, but your printer's out of ink because of all those darn MTI formatted reports you've just printed.

Report from Australian news reader

It's confirmed once again: CATS HAVE NINE LIVES!

Cat falls eight storeys and survives!



Now those who are well versed in the saying, or are just not interested, may have noticed it was a Australian news website. Don't ask why I read Australian news because I have no explanation.

Actually, it's a new project I'm thinking of starting.

Those of you who aren't still in the young age of denial, innocence and optimism may have noticed that shit happens all around the world. You may have realized, one morning, drinking your coffee and eating your high-in-fiber cereals that: "Shit, the world's fucked up."

Too right you are. (And also, all the fiber you eat just ends up in the toilet bowl, and yet, they charge so much more for high-in-fiber cereal, does that seem right to you?)

 Regardless, depending on location, cultural differences, etc, I'm sure that each country's news websites will vary in the type, amount and presentation of whatever shit is happening on their soil. So, starting from next week, for one week, I'm going to read at least three different country's top news websites and hopefully, come back here with a humorous but totally meaningless report about news in other countries. Feel free to help.

French End of Year Writing Eval

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107035919339339&v=wall

I think this says it better than I can.

Thanks to sister for finding it.

Post 127

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Who decided that today would be Earth Day? And what does that mean anyway? Everybody does something nice to the Earth? See if the Earth cares. You're doing it for yourself. In which case, be nice to yourself and do something good for your environment everyday, not just on a piss ass 24 hours between the 21st of April and 23rd of April.

On another note, if you haven't noticed, the school is falling apart around us. Cracks are everywhere, snaking around supporting beams, walls and window frames. Paint's peeling and a whole section of the hall looks like a shootout scene because the wall's got so many holes in it. The ceiling is falling on our heads and water collects in pitiful tarps hung from the ceiling. It looks like those showers they have in a village in Asia that work on solar energy.
(Not solar panels, but in the form of water stored in a tire inner-tube filled with water on the roof.)


We are so poor. But I like poor better than rich.

Don't cha wish our sex ed classes were this fun?

http://www.healthunit.com/article.aspx?ID=15160

The beauty and curse of Language

Blue! Baby! Purple! Hippo! Umbrella! 

Nuances. Pictures in your head. Imagination.

The possibilities are endless with any language. It's what's good about words. It's also what's bad.

We almost got to the issue in French class, during which insecure people were endlessly questioning the studentteacher about which answer is "correct" and how to answer in future tests.  "What if..." "What if..."

There is no solution. What makes language great is that interpretation, past experiences and imagination varies from person to person. I admit, it's also a bitch sometimes when misunderstandings occur, but if you can't live with that, stop using words and speak only Math. (Danny will be more than willing to help, I'm sure) There, a 2 is a 2, no matter the context.

Also, if the debate had persisted, perhaps the issue of the counterproductivity of reading comprehension tests would have emerged as well. It's absolutely normal that one person does not interpret a work in exactly the same way as the next.  But, reading tests absolutely want one specific answer, and in that way, education dulls the imagination like nothing else.

There are standard meanings for certain things, but past the basic necessities to understanding, is it really beneficial to allow yourself to be limited by some bozo who didn't even write the text and therefore can't possibly know exactly what the author meant but who decides which answers are "right" anyways?

People Giving Up.

5 years of IB. 5 years of endless hours producing BS, making links, sounding more knowledgeable than we really are, putting up with the stress, and I digress before you develop the need to see a shrink.

You'd think some people after all this time would have learned something more than just how to make professional sounding sentences and digging up grey matter to find even the darkest of links. Everytime you get through a difficult project, sleepless nights, a stressful and disastrous presentation, something should click. You should learn from it.  

One thing you could have learned, among the innumerable—except maybe the lesson about procrastination (let's keep it real eh)— is to not give up. We hit a few walls, and every time, we dug a hole, put up a ladder, blew the wall up. Proof: all of us are still here aren't we? It'll be easier and easier to give up as the end approaches. But you shouldn't. Think of it as a test of character. 5 years of hard work, and you're going to take a nap before the finish line and let the tortoise win? What the hell is this? What are you worth then?

Yet, there are indeed people giving up in various classes and being a general ass in class and ignoring class etiquette.

Worse, it's not "stop working harder and working smarter". Letting go of the ones that you don't need and focusing on the ones you need in CEGEP is a passable excuse in certain cases. But no, they're letting go in every subject and predictably, preventing others from learning because of their disruptions in class. 

Going through IB isn't just about the BS. If it was, it'd be long gone by now. I'd like to think it's also supposed to build a little moral character no? A little development on the personal side? 
In this sense, some people have failed the IB. They gave up right after their *conditional* acceptance into CEGEP. Giving up before the end. Needless to say, they might impact the bottom rather spectacularly. You don't want to be one of those people.


I'll leave you to ponder on this:

A parachute seller once said: If it doesn't work, bring it back and I'll give you a new one.

Another Disaster in the Making

http://www.montrealgazette.com/vision+Turcot+Interchange/2727142/story.html

Turcot interchange, built in the 60s, started disintegrating in 2007. Now, three years later, they still haven't come up with a plan to rebuild the darn thing. But, some brilliant minds at Concordia came up with a wacky idea, thankfully still in the conceptual stages only.

Possibly due to increased pressure by environmentalists and other special interest groups, the people in charge seem to be interested by Concordia University urban studies professor Pierre Gauthier and architect Pierre Brisset's idea of building a smaller interchange will somehow cause people to take public transit, reduce pollution and generally be better for everyone.

Here's why I find their idea utter bullshit, on a certain level.

Let's start off with the purpose of a highway. Why do we build hundred-feet-wide paved expressways? Because there are so many cars on the road, ordinary two lane roads are no longer sufficient to efficiently funnel traffic from A to B. The number of cars on the road are still increasing, and yet, they want to make a new expressway that's smaller than the one before? I agree the environment is important too, but let's focus on the essence of things and take things one step at a time. Let's start with this one:

If you're going to spend millions of  taxpayers' dollars on something, can you please make sure that that something does what the fuck it is supposed to do? How is spending that much money on a smaller expressway going to accomplish the task of moving traffic more efficiently from A to B?

Their answer is that, by reducing the expressway's size, and thus making it more of a pain to get around, people will ditch their cars and go with public transit, and this reduction in traffic will in turn make it more efficient to go from A to B, as well as saving the environment.

My God, if you want to save the environment, good for you. I admire you for your noble belief. But, fuck man, don't do it by wasting money to build something inadequate for what is required of it. Illogical is the only word I have for it. And, believe it or not, their entire plan depends on public transit options like the tramways, shuttle buses, new metro lines etc,  that are as of now, not even close to coming to the drawing board, let alone reality. With this many variables still undecided, and knowing how city hall works (or how it doesn't) it's just another disaster waiting to happen.

At best, we're going to have astronomical cost overruns. At worst, we're going to have astronomical overruns, and a clusterfuck of a transportation problem in this city.

DDO gets the fail award.

http://www.thepassinglane.ca/2010/03/say-it-aint-so-man-fined-for-playing-street-hockey.html

Father and kids play street hockey in a quiet residential street.

Neighbor complains to the police.

Police shows up, following the city's bylaw, issues 75$ tickets to the players.

Epic fail.

Here's when you notice some people lack fucking general knowledge and personal integrity.

For one, the neighbor should not have complained to the police. The kids are outside, with adult supervision, instead of at some park getting wasted, or inside glued to the tube, getting fat. That's already enough to earn the parent and the kids a medal in this day and age. They're on public property, and can't possibly be making some enough noise for you to cry about, especially since I know for a fact that AIRPLANES buzz DDO all the fucking time! How the fuck did he see the need to bother the po-lease with that, taking them away from more important tasks, such as cracking down on actual crime?

For two, the cop, once there, should not have done what he did. Yes, he should be enforcing all laws in place, but issuing a ticket was not his only option. Maybe he was an immigrant or something. (See, the propaganda is getting to me.) I find it unlikely that somebody from Canada doesn't know that street hockey is like, I don't know, essential to a kid's mental and physical (not to mention social) development. Street hockey is played fucking everywhere! The cop could have given them a warning, kindly asking them to relocate, on the count of some loud-mouth neighbor complaining. This way, he does his job, doesn't get into trouble with his supervisor, and the kids are not penalized more than they need to be. But no, he had to make a scene. (And what a scene it is. It's on the news, there's protests, petitions, and they've organized a 200 player hockey game on the streets. Nice move, idiot.)

For third, the seal of fail goes to the dumbshit at city hall who drafted/passed the stupid bylaw. You think you need a law to keep street hockey players off major roads? Who's the idiot that's going to play hockey on the highway? It's not highway hockey. It's street hockey. Or do you think street hockey can impede traffic on a road which has none?  A quiet residential street serving a few houses ain't going to be of much use most of the time anyways. It's just sitting there. Let the kids have fun on it. Sure beats the hell outta the kids growing into the couch, doncha think?


--------------
Oh, on a separate note, walking home, I crossed two girls walking side by side... not talking to each other! And yet they seemed to be friends. You know what they were doing? They were texting. And not just for a moment. Saw them way down the street. Never raising their heads, they shuffled and dragged their feet over the ground, texting furiously, barely watching where they were going. Jeebus, I can't believe I'm saying this, but TALK, GODDAMNIT. You are fucking sad. 

---------------

On a lighter note, beavers are mostly from Canada. This one is no exception.

Argh, the french reading test made me want to barf. It just became predictably, progressively, inexorably a piss-off of the worst kind.

Putting aside the fact that it was a sorry excuse of a test, for it was taken out of a exercise book by the looks of the small print saying copyright Graficor, it was once again crammed with subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages promoting french, separatism, and similar topics that are so tedious and expected of in every test we get in french class nowadays.

For us, the government's childish attempts at—for lack of a better term—conversion,  isn't so bad. It's just some crap that needs to be endured through, and since exams are generally not pleasant, it's not bad enough to cut ourselves over. However, think of the poor bastards in Chicoutimi or Rimouski, who're 100% french, and getting brainwashed by never-ceasing propaganda. It's sad. What will happen later in their lives? What if they become narrow-minded a**holes who hate the rest of the world? Clearly, the Quebec government doesn't mind this, as long as we're all a nation of a**holes, all speaking french.

Back on track, after the first two or three questions that were moderately exciting (a.k.a. difficult) it promptly became repetitive and boring, until, reaching the end, it was, in keeping with past exam formats, downright crap. The last three questions are great examples:

Question: Do you believe that the French language will disappear from Quebec in the distant or not too distant future.

Possible answers:

Yes. We're all going to die someday, from a great extinction brought upon by some deadly virus or from the impact of a huge mass of frozen shit and rock hurtling from space among numerous other possibilities. By extension, as any child would know, the French language will also disappear from Quebec.
OR
No, the Quebec government has shown time and time again their outrageous ability to create more and more laws that protect the French language by violating the fundamental rights of others. This tendency does not seem to be abating. Therefore, the French language can be reasonably expected to still hang around Quebec for many years to come. (I answered this.)

Question: Do you think it would be a shame if the French language were to disappear from Quebec?

Answer: Yes, of course it would be a shame, especially considering that the French spoken in Quebec is very particular ( in the sense that swears need to be employed in every sentence). The loss of a language  is the loss of world heritage. It would be a shame to lose a part of our world's cultural, linguistic and historical heritage. (I meant it, surprisingly) On the other hand, it would also be a shame to hear the English language butchered by francophones.  (I also meant this just as much as the previous part.)

Question: Do you think a higher standard of spoken French in Quebec is necessary to Quebec's survival?

Answer: No. Geographically speaking, the land currently called Quebec will still exist, regardless if the residents speak French, English, Arabic or Whale. Linguistically speaking, (haha, a pun! sort of...)  the quality of the French spoken will change the existence of the Quebec as we know it. Depending on whether French is spoken properly or not, Quebec can be known to the rest of the world as France—with poutine instead of snails, or Quebec can be known as the Texas of France, and Quebeckers known as the rednecks of the French world. 

--------
And fucking A, what a coincidence. My friend just sent me this link. Texan conservatives managed to get the curriculum changed and imposed a questionable version of their social studies textbooks to their students, much like the QC government has done. HAHAHA! My Quebeckers-being-rednecks link is now even more substantiated!
--------


So as you can see, I was fuming towards the end of it all, and believe it or not, I did write the above answers (more or less) on the exam. I figure it's my opinion, so they can't possibly give me a bad grade for it, but you never know with those people...although if it happens, you can bet I'm going to start a freaking war.

D-Day

This is what D-Day looks like. Look at all those people lining up to be freed. Pity, they don't know that they're heading towards their deaths.