A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
You can’t help but revel in the fact that Canada has beaten the US and after 28 long years we’re finally champions again!
As a side note, I think it’s rather sad that even though lacrosse is Canada’s official sport I never even knew this competition was taking place. Well, at least we won.
Last week I went on a tour of Le Soleil newspaper headquarters here in Québec city. At the end of the tour, our guide asked us to write a little bit about what we are doing in Québec and to send a photo for their online version of the paper. I sent the following (I hope people can understand it because some of it I had help with and some I did not!):
Je m’appelle Jeff Milner. Je viens de Lethbridge, Alberta. Je viens juste de terminer mon bac à l’Université de Lethbridge en Nouvelle Media en avril.
Je suis venu ici pour apprendre le français, parce que je trouve la culture et histoire québecoise intéressante. J’ai reçu une bourse du gouvernement du Canada. Je suis en le cours Français “Elémentaire A”.
J’aime Québec beaucoup. Mes lieux preferés à Québec sont Vieux-Québec et les Plaines d’Abraham.
J’ai hate de revenir.
The photo was taken at the Plains of Abraham after a demonstration of historic battle formations and musket firing.
Update: Les photos publiées!! (Click on the smaller photos to the right to see our individual photos and paragraphs).
Specifically it’s snails that need to watch out because that’s what was on the menu for supper on Friday night.
I’ve never had escargo before, but it wasn’t as bad as I imagined (nor was it as good as many people like to pretend). I think the biggest problem is the “ewww” factor. Even though they taste alright, there is no getting around the idea that you are, in fact, eating snails. It was worth it though, if only to expand my horizons a little.
I was reading about Dooce’s recent diagnosis of skin cancer, the other day, and today I came across a little health tip gem that might prevent you from getting your own dose of Basal Cell Carcinoma: Rubbing in suncream ‘cuts effect’! Sunscreen is most effective when left as a white film to dry on the skin.
Researchers said rubbing in sunscreen could even put people at higher risk because while it did not protect against UVA rays it did offer resistance to UVB which causes the skin to redden.
They said that could encourage people to stay in the sun for longer.
Please excuse me while I head off to apply some sunscreen before the soccer game at 2:00 (with communication in French of course—there is a reason you learn the swear words first and that reason is “sport”).
Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, the new book by Julian Dibbell is now available.
Julian’s goal was to earn more money selling imaginary goods (ie. online gaming goods) than from his “real job” as a professional writer. He came up short of his goal by only a few hundred dollars and, though I haven’t read it yet, I understand the book documents the entire endevour from day 1.
In addition to bookstores selling his book, Play Money will also be available in the virtual world of Second Life (in the currency of that world—Linden dollars).
From the press release:
In-game versions of Play Money designed by Second Life coder/publisher Falk Bergman are available for L$750. These copies can be signed by Dibbell at his in-Second Life interview with journalist Wagner James Au on July 27th. For the Second Life resident who needs something a bit more tactile, L$6250 buys a real-life copy of Play Money, shipped with care to the buyer’s real life address, in addition to the standard in-game version.
(At the time of this press release, Linden dollars are trading at approximately L$300.00 to the US$1.00. Adjusted to US dollars, an online copy costs US$2.50, and the price of a real-life copy bought in-game is around US$20.85.)
I’ve previously written about Julian’s professional game-playing.
Last Friday I saw “Live” at the Festival d’été de Québec and tonight I’m going out to see Hot Hot Heat (official site|myspace). I’ve never heard of Hot Hot Heat, but listening to their music on the net, it appears I’m in for a great show tonight.
So another little family update: currently I’m still loving life in Québec. My parents have survived some of the most intense tension in Israel recent years and are now headed home. My brother and his wife will be arriving back in Canada later today after spending a year in Australia and my sister is still taking beautiful photos of her (mischievious) kids. I can’t wait to chat with them all about each of our adventures.
In 1971 Stanford University conducted a study of the psychology of imprisonment. While extremely unethical by today’s standards, this 50 minute video takes a fascinating look back at the incredible psychological experiment. See also the Prison Experiment slide show with written history.
(The German movie Das Experiment is based on this event.)
Fans of my backmasking page will probably want to check this out.
A few years ago my friend Megan dropped by the house sporting a copy of The Wizard of Oz in one hand, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in the other, and a giant grin on her face. We played them both simultaneously and watched/listened as the two synchronized. I am not completely sure it’s intentional, but there are some interesting coincidences.
I recall reading that when asked about this, Pink Floyd has neither admitted or denied intentionally creating their album to go along with The Wizard of Oz.
To set this up at home, you needed to start the album just as the MGM lion roared for the third time, but thanks to Google Video you can see the combined video and audio: Dark Side of the Rainbow.
It’s a little easier to make connections if you know the name of each track:
So what do you think, intentional syncronization or just our minds making connections where none exist?
My brother and his wife climbed Mt. Fuji – (photo). My parents left a city in northern Israel that was bombed later that day by militants in Lebanon — more info from my mom:
We were shocked to hear that there were bombs from Lebanon in Safed or Safet :( however you spell it… I’m not sure if that was today or yesterday, but we were there yesterday afternoon about 1 or 2 p.m. and it is only 20 miles from the Lebanon border. Our Tour Guide was talking to all the soldiers and shopkeepers, but we had no idea what he was saying since we only speak English. He spoke to us about how bad the situation was since 7 soldiers had died, but I really didn’t have any idea of the implications.
As for me, I’m loving Quebec. I played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday. Tonight I will see the band, “Live”!
Québec is like a foreign country where they still take your Canadian change.
I have been having the most wonderful time over the past week. My comprehension of French has been growing at an amazing rate and I’m meeting a ton of wonderful new people.
On Tuesday we watched a French film called, L’auberge espagnole. Fantastic story about a guy from France who decides to live in Spain for a while in an effort to improve his Spanish so he can advance in his career. He leaves his girlfriend behind but makes some new friends along the way and has some very interesting problems to overcome. It’s a cute movie and though I didn’t always follow the dialogue completely, I really enjoyed the story. I recommend it.
Wednesday evening, we hit up the Beach volleyball and partook in hotdogs and coleslaw. Though I’m not usually much of a fan of hotdogs, these ones were smothered in fried onions, ketchup, relish and mayonaise — wow! They were extremely good.
The highlight so far, however, has to have been the trip to La cabane à sucre : la cabane à Pierre. La cabane à sucre translates to The Sugar Shack. Sugar Shacks are where they make the maple syrup for which Canada is world renowned. It’s made mostly in the winter months, so our tour of la cabane à sucre didn’t include watching them actually creating maple syrup, but we did see where they did it (and some of those that knew french better than I found out how). I think it’s basically they boil it in big vats until it’s ready (The Wikipedia entry on maple syrup is a lot more clear)
You’ll notice from the photo the odd shape of the building, that’s because the whole roof is actually a kind of chimney for all the gases evoporating from the boiling maple sap.
The dinner provided at la cabane à Pierre was absolutely fantastic (can you guess what cabane à Pierre is?) I ate like a French king and loved every minute of it. Potatoes, ham, beans, bread, meat pie, pancakes, and more all drenched in the world’s best syrup (yes Maple!). Pierre himself even showed up and we danced the night away.
For dessert they gave us (I forget the actual name) it’s maple syrup poured over ice and wrapped around a stick like a popsicle. So much fun and so tasty.
I know I just got here, but I already know I’m not going to want to leave in only four more weeks.