In case you were wondering, you are not currently reading the dullest blog in the world.

Hee.

Here’s a fun one: the Zombie Infection Simulator. The pink dots are humans. The gray dots are zombies. The bright pink dots moving fast are panicking humans. Press g to turn the zombies green, it’s funnier that way.

Watch the invasion here.

(Thanks Chuck)

Blork just reminded me of an incredibly important issue I have yet to resolve, and I ask you for suggestions: What should I read on the trip?

Much like the tapes you listen to, the books you read on the road can significantly influence the mood and enjoyment of a trip, be it by making 7-hour train trips fly by or providing an alternate perspective from which to experience the journey.

When I’m travelling, I constantly hear my inner voice trying to put the various experiences into words, trying to intellectualize it all, to make it fit into my world view, to extract easily-formulated lessons. Reading, by providing another voice, helps me to quiet down the inner logorrhea and let go. For that reason, on the road I try to read books that take me out of my own world.

Java was a particularly good book trip for me, as I took in Dune (an excellent example of an “other world” book), Sense and Sensibility and The World According to Garp. I was lucky for those were the books I was able to acquire through trading with other backpackers.

I’ve been meaning to read The Art of Travel, but I think doing so on the road might lead to “meta-travelling”, self-analysis instead of living in the moment. Another one on my book pile is Life of Pi, which seems like a good choice.

Any wonderful ideas?

Only six days left before the trip to Morocco. I’m very anxious for it. So anxious in fact, that I keep reading everything I possibly can on the various destinations, planning in my head what we’re going to do and when. This weekend I bought 54$ worth of Imodium, water purification tablets, alcohol swabs, bug repellent, etc. We also rented The Sheltering Sky (Un Thé au Sahara), and spent yesterday evening poring over maps and train timetables. This morning I booked hotels in Rabat, Meknès and Fez.

I do this because I’m so looking forward to it. The nagging problem in the back of my mind is, the more of the trip I prepare, the less of an unplanned adventure the journey will end up being. On the other hand, I’m bouncing off the walls and I can’t help but find out exactly at what time our train from Fez to Marrakech is leaving, and how much I can expect to pay for an overnight camel rental in Ouarzazate.

I keep reminding myself that I survived months in Indonesia alone without a single reservation, before there really was an Internet to speak of, before I could really read ahead. That was the greatest adventure of my life. And when I lost my traveller’s cheques in the backcountry of Bali, and had to survive penniless for a week, well, that was living!

That’s it. No more booking ahead. It’s going to be such a looooong week…

(image from matchtours)

About a year ago the lightspeedfolks retired. I couldn’t have been happier for them, as it was finally their time to enjoy life, and they had the means and the energy to do so. I couldn’t wait to be there too.

A few weeks ago lightspeedmom confided that she was growing bored of retirement. She was looking for a simple little job and had applied at places like Ultramar and Zellers. Part of me understood that she could miss being around people, but I couldn’t get around the “I miss taking the bus in the morning” part. If you’re going to get a retirement job, shouldn’t it be something you’ll really enjoy, and where you’ll be in a nice environment, like a flower shop or something? Lightspeeddad has a retirement job as a golf marshall. My ex-father in law joined a ski patrol after retiring from his engineering job. But being on your feet all day at Zellers?

Well, I take it all back. Mom called today and happily announced she’s starting her new job on Monday. Selling lingerie.

You go girl!!!

But so are Patrick, Boris and Paul.

Martine and Bill, by the way, are men. As are Blork and Stephane.

The Gender Genie is a tool that uses an algorithm to guess the gender of a person, based on text written by them. As you can see it’s far from perfect, but with every guess it makes you can tell it whether it’s right or wrong. The idea is that over time, the Genie should get better at it.

Other females of the Montreal blogosphere: Kate, Dave, Stephanie, Michel, Louise and AJ.

Well. It’s nice to know I have more girlfriends than I thought.

(via Legal Alien)

“Marie-Jo, would you mind staying at the office later tonight? I’d ask Sophie, but she’s got four kids…”

Sensitive? Yes.

But equally discriminatory against the childless, perhaps. I mean, maybe I chose a sterile existence that ends in my death, so I could do something else with my evenings… like play ultimate frisbee, volunteer, or just plain watch TV while eating a bag (oh my God, the whole frikkin bag) of Doritos.

Of course I’m not that insensitive. I don’t think Mom should stay at work while her four kids need her. I’m just saying neither should I.

What do you guys think about this whole homo marriage debate?

I say let them. C’est quoi le gros big deal? What does it matter to us heteros if gay people can get married or not?

When they buried that poor gay kid who got beaten to death a few years back, some assholes showed up at the funeral brandishing signs with biblical passages on them, yelling at the grieving family that the kid was burning in hell. Yeah, homosexuality is a sin, but so are so many other things. What is it that is so threatening about homosexuality that it draws so much hatred? Why is the common thief not drawing such a hateful crowd at his funeral?

Whatever it is about homosexuality that has that effect, is also what I believe is behind the whole anti-gay-marriage lobby. What I hate the most is that those bigots are using God to justify themselves. Of course, some sins (like murder, rape and robbery) should be illegal, because they directly hurt others. But this? This should be up to the individual, because the consequences are between the individual and his/her God.

In fact, when I think about all the hateful things that are being said and done in the world these days, supposedly in the name of God, it makes want to cry. However, I have to say I don’t think the Catholic Church is helping matters much. They have a duty to say what they think is right (in their opinion), but I believe Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary went too far when he recently said that Jean Chretien could burn in hell for his stance on the issue. I mean, how’s that for providing bigot fodder?

I’m a Catholic by birth, but I don’t believe nor do I follow everything the Catholic Church preaches, because I don’t believe it fully represents God. It is a human, political institution, and therefore flawed, as are all other religions. Still, I choose to belong to a religion because I strongly believe that there is a benevolent God. I belong to this one because I was born into it, not because it’s more “right” than any other, in my opinion. If I’d been born in Tibet, I’d do whatever the Buddhists do to honor God, and I don’t think I’d be more or less likely to go to hell for that.

I wonder if I still qualify as a Catholic?

Someone put the names of the conference rooms up today, in quotation marks.

Am I the only one who’s really bothered with people using “quotation marks” for emphasis, or for no good reason? Why is that so annoying? Is it because I know it will eventually be correct to use them for emphasis, or for the purpose of… what, artistic expression?

I should probably chill, but this touched a nerve anyway…

(From Bob the Angry Flower, thanks Chuck)

Last week I was watching André Caillé, President of Hydro-Québec, trying to justify asking for a rate increase of 6% for electricity in Quebec. This, after Hydro-Québec made 1.3 billion dollars in profits last year.

He said that the huge profits were due to two things, which could have gone very differently. First, they made 300 million dollars extra because of the extremely cold winter we had. Then, they made another 300 million dollars extra because energy prices in the States, to whom they sell electricity, were high.

“That 1.3 billion dollar profit could easily have been only a 700 million dollar profit”, said the President on LCN.

Both Caillé and the interviewer seemed to realize how stupid that sounded as he was saying it.