When I went to Indonesia in 1996, I remember seeing an ornate “window” in a hostel, which was essentially a nicely-shaped hole right in the concrete wall, with no glass or screen. I saw this and had the thought, “but what do they do in wint-? oh… right”. It’s those little things that make you realize that a lot of what we take for granted are really special features of Canada.

I was in Scotland over the holidays and I made a lot of fun of the country for being paralyzed by so little snow. Snow that grass poked through created enough havoc to cancel some of the family’s holiday festivities, including a dinner. But although it was a wuss of a winter (-8C at worst I saw there), it was definitely harder to live with than here. I remember feeling and hearing drafts in every pub and house I entered, and in most places the heating couldn’t cope well enough to warm the interior completely. Ever since I’ve been back, I’ve been appreciating the simple fact of being able to actually be toasty when inside, or walk confidently on the sidewalk (on which abrasives are used). If Britain is so unused to what little winter I saw there, I’m not shocked that the prolonged frost they’ve been getting is screwing them up completely, and I feel for them.

My friend Charles, on a sabbatical in New Zealand, has noticed that the doors there are often left wide open, leading to birds often being seen in cafés. He adds, “nobody seems to consider this a public health hazard”. That fear that beasties, including domestic ones, are unsanitary, seems typically North American. Everywhere I’ve gone (including Europe), I’ve seen owners bring well-behaved dogs to restaurants, and on trains. There were at least 5 dogs (leashed, not caged) in our one crowded compartment on the train to Glasgow. In Indonesia I dined in a restaurant where I could see a rat walking on the awning of the bar. My hotel in Venezuela, the same one where the UN Secretary General had recently stayed, had cockroaches. Sure, I wouldn’t like to eat next to rats and dead birds, but I think we’re a little overcareful when it comes to dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, geckos, and the like. People aren’t that afraid everywhere. They really are especially afraid here.

I was recently talking to my friend Thierry, who moved to L.A. last year, about the American healthcare reform. He felt that a key difference between American and Canadian attitudes with respect to this was that in America, it’s accepted as common sense that a public figure or richer person should get better and faster treatment than the rest of the population, in all things. Conversely in Canada, according to my friend, we expect all to be equal, for better or worse. This is definitely supported by the indignation we saw when Claude Dubois jumped the H1N1 vaccination line this fall, and last week when Halle Berry skipped the queue at Trudeau airport. One commenter said that the outrage over this is strictly Canadian, as in most places people expect stars to get VIP treatment everywhere, including at security checks.

This is how travelling makes you know your own country better. Some things others may soon have to learn from us, while for some other things… I wish we’d learn from them.

I was motivated to write something about Halle Berry skipping the airport line in Montreal, but it seemed inappropriate for the first post of the year.

A lot of links and articles are going around these days about how to keep one’s resolutions, with most advising to make your objectives specific, and share them. As with any resolution, New Year’s or otherwise, I’m always reluctant to share because it seems to give the ol’ entourage licence to nag, but I guess that’s kind of the point.

Well, licence or no, here are mine:

1 - Hit a BMI of 22 (that’s about 10 pounds away)
2 - Take piano lessons and practice (my least likely to be observed)
3 - Do something social once at week at least (must observe, as I think it’ll be hard to do this in 2011 when the new game is due)
4 - Read at least one book a month
5 - Find real ways of worrying less, other than waiting for the wisdom of old age to set in
6 - Make that cool website idea of mine a reality (another long shot)

Yours?

Can’t we get us one of these guys in Canada? (en français)

Note: This is a post highly similar to this one, but since our audience is completely different and I’d rather post it here than have people not follow the link, I hope Darius will forgive me. So…

Darius over at TinySubversions has a much more entertaining and detailed account of this little gaming fracas (go read it!), but in short: Gamasutra, a leading game website, publishes an article about Spelunky, an indie game garnering much critical praise.

Adam Coate, himself an indie developer, leaves a comment complaining that his game deserves more attention than Spelunky, and isn’t getting any.

Debate ensues, with commenters suggesting Adam should improve his attitude to improve his coverage.

Notably, a writer from indiegames.com tells Adam that he received Adam’s original e-mail about his game. However, the e-mail contained no helpful information (like links) to help him find, play and eventually cover the game. The writer came up with nothing even after searching exhaustively for it. He helpfully counsels Adam to learn a few things about marketing (and even eventually proceeds to write a guide to indie game marketing).

Adam keeps whining, eventually submitting the gem: “Miyamoto never had to work for press like this”.

(This is Shigeru Miyamoto, of Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Zelda fame).

Commenters in Darius’ account of this have a field day, and someone brilliantly comes up with an idea for a t-shirt.

I know I’m going to see this at gaming conventions and laugh my ass off.

So yesterday I was quite pissed off at Fido for charging me 599-799$ for an iPhone because I already have a service contract with them. If I was a new customer, the same phone would cost me 99$. I consider that a penalty for loyalty. (Screw the 65 Fido dollars I’ve accrued).

I was slightly disappointed to get out of work late tonight, for I planned on going to my local Fido boutique to (nicely and constructively) complain, but I knew it would be closed by the time I got there.

However, when I arrived past it, I saw that someone had driven their car right into the store (this is the one on Christophe-Colomb and Mont-Royal). The bumper was still in the shop window! Guess someone registered my complaint for me.

Dear Universe, if you really work like this, can I have a full team by February?

As in most RPGs, in Dragon Age (which is shit), you can decide what your character and his followers wear. This leads most gamers to see what their characters look like naked (ie. in underwear) at least once per game, and sometimes walk around in their medieval briefs.

Thus, a scene from Jonathan’s epic adventure. I particularly like the lad looking guiltily at the camera from the bushes.

Hi again,

After trying my hand at freelancing, I found that while it was a successful endeavor, it wasn’t really an enjoyable one. Although I saw people every day, they were never the same ones and I missed being part of a team and creating the bonds one does through repeated exposure. So after getting the freelancing curiosity out of my system, I became an employee of Ubisoft this year, and after helping complete and ship James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, I’m now producing my own project again.

I’d like to become more blog-active (ie. writing, but also reading and commenting) in the next year. My reasons for neglecting by blog all this time had mainly to do with the fact that readers increasingly call you on every half-baked opinion, requiring in-depth support for seemingly everything you say, and there’s always the possibility that some client or upper manager will find your half-baked opinions online. All this can be quite castrating. But what the hell. This space is mine, and after all, it’s opt-in for everyone else.

Here’s hoping you find it worth opting in.

- I’m making a Donatello costume.
- The Renaissance painter?
- No, the Ninja Turtle.
- That’s right, we’ve never talked about this… you have kids?
- No, it’s for my boyfriend.
- Ah, your boyfriend’s kid?
- No, my boyfriend.
- How old is he again?

The French word for these hottest days of summer, canicule, refers to the word dog. This is because the Dog constellation is visible throughout this period, and the dog’s eye, Sirius, is the sky’s brightest star at this time. Sirius is also the reason for the expression dog days. I haven’t seen it of late, but you can’t miss Jupiter which is very bright and high in the sky these days.

Someone wants to talk to you! I have a friend who’s working on a documentary on people in their 20s or 30s who haven’t left their parents’ home yet.

If that’s you and you’d like to share your story, please comment here or e-mail juliekgirard@gmail.com.