This Week’s iPhone Pics (18/52)
November 1st, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This week’s combo, Jimmy on Pistil.
- Urban decay. In the midst of a parking crisis in the CEGEP area, I am welling to bet that a fair share of students would be willing to pay to park in the 50+ slot parking where I took this picture. Also, urban decay makes me think of this. Cop it, it’s good stuff.
- It’s always awesome when you take a person’s computer in telling them a restore won’t be a problem, then you discover that you don’t have the OEM discs and their licence sticker looks like this. In-store techs all across the nation feel my pain.
- On Tuesday, I got the news that I had a very big paper due for today. Many restless nights and 40 pages later, I managed to pull it off on time. Hard shit.
- New shipment of 35mm. Only 1 pack of Pro800Z is mine, the rest is for a friend. Ever since I sold my 645Nii, I have wanted to get my hands a 6×6 medium format cam. You know, something cheap and solid. A beaten as hell (yet functional) Hassy would be nice, but I’d be very content with a Mimaya and a wide lens.
This Week’s iPhone Pics (17/52)
October 24th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This week’s combo: Lucifer IV on Alfred Infrared.
- Work was insane this week. I’ve been grabbing my ass with both hands at work for the past week or two, and now shit is hitting the fan, the fan is spinning very quickly and the flow of shit is constant. The race to the holidays is on. In a Future Shop, holidays are serious business.
- The gates of hell. Did I mention work was insane?
- I keep finding this kind of things in my coat and not remembering where they came from. That Unibroue cap came from the Blonde de Chambly that almost broke my car key, pretty sure about that one though.
- A weird rust condition on an old car. Bright orange rust, no holes, all surface. Somebody’s making themselves an American winter beater modeled after Rusty?
Excision in Montreal… Almost
October 24th, 2010 § 1 Comment
Last Friday was a big day for dubstep fans in Montreal: they were to be butchered up by the sounds of the infamous Excision. I wasn’t aware of this until the Thursday before, when I got the post from Montreal Dubstep through my Google Reader. I was kind of shocked that such a big name was giving a set in Montreal, and kind of pissed that I was working until 8 the very night, and at 9AM the morning after, but regardless I managed to get a friend to ride up to Montreal to see the show.
The Cabaret juste pour rire was hosting the show… a very small place by anybody’s standards, and not very adapted to shows. It was a tight place to pack so much dirt-thirsty youth, but an ok fit none the less. We came in just when VNDL’s set ended, and from the sounds of it, the guy was laying down a pretty good set, if you forget a slight technical fault that cut the music at one point.
Gnave was up next, and he lit up the place real good… literally. The show was brutally interrupted, and people were asked to step out, as the fire alarm was sounding off. 
We eventually got back in, where Gnave resumed his murder of a set. Really, bangers end to end, perfectly laid down, people were nuts and the place wasn’t even full yet. The rest of the show went awesome… except for the part where we had to leave at just before 2AM, and in the making missed the actual main part of the show, Excision. Words to express how I felt don’t even exist.
I’m gonna be honest, I was expecting much more from this show… maybe the previous event I attended set the bar a bit too high. One major turn-off was the venue itself, which was drab at best. The two known annoyances were the fire alarm and a major misunderstanding relatively to letting underages in, but I personally found the place lacked panache. The stage disposition was minimal, with stuff (clothes, monitors, random gear) thrown left right and center, and the ambiance was totally neglected, with very minimal lighting effects and very little attention given to how the stage and DJ booth looked. It was pretty much plywood painted black and black fabric everywhere. But then again, none of the circumstances were set in favor of that night, so maybe I was just having a bad night… the lack of sleep, the fact that I was sober, my total inability to use a speedlight correctly, and more than anything else that I missed the main event, all of that stuff sucked but that’s just how stuff happened for me. Still, I got my skull thumped on by artists who know their shit, so it’s all good.
It’s especially good to see that big names of bass are converging to Montreal to give shows, a sure sign that the scene is going strong in Quebec’s Metropolis. One thing’s sure, this isn’t the last bass-related event I’m covering.
Logitech G500: The Rebirth of a Classic
October 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
If you know gaming peripherals, chances are that you have owned a G5 by Logitech. This mouse, one of the best selling “gaming” mice out there, has become a true classic on internet forums and gaming groups because of it’s relatively low price, excellent handling and comfort, and awesome set of features and kick-butt software. After two generations (3?) and many special editions of this venerable peripheral, Logitech has decided to retire the veteran G5 and introduce it’s updated offspring the G500. I say offspring because it looks and feels like a cross between the more “business” MX series and the G series. Check it out.
D-Link DIR-655: The Power-User’s Router
October 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Back in the days it seemed like D-Link made inferior products; in the time where the WRT54 was the king of the castle, D-Link was cheaper made, had a less extensive list of options available from the web interface, and generally was less appealing. Times have changed, thanks to products like the DIR-655.
This Week’s iPhone Pics (16/52)
October 17th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This week’s combo is Kaimal Mk2 on Blanko.
- RIP Jetta. You were a gigantic money pit, you looked like shit, but you taught me lots. Now that I’m widowed, I think I’ll move on to some
thingbody a bit younger, more energetic, with a bigger booty… Jetta Wagon MK4 1.8t? - I went on a spending spree to forget my loss. I now own both colors of the “Farm” New Era by Animal. Yes, I’m that passionated about flat brimmed hats. Total hat count now sits at 9, and desperately need to build myself a rack for all those caps.
- THE PROTEINATOR: Two eggs, processed cheese and shittons of creton on buttered rye bread. If you can stand the vomit-esque texture that creton has when it’s stuck between two hot things (toast and eggs), you have yourself a super meaty snack that’s good between any two meals.
- Original gangstas, straight outta St. Jean.
This Week’s iPhone Pics (15/52)
October 12th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This week’s lens/film combo is Bettie XL with BlacKeys SuperGrain.
- This wasn’t taken in LA, but here in my hometown, Trois-Rivieres. Not sure who’s rich enough around here to get around in an Escalade the size of a bus.
- Place Laurier’s food court. Natural light is awesome.
- I was kind of being a whore for Say Mayday in that one. The everyman’s emergency trunk stash: extra threads and condoms.
- Shot some pool for the first time in a while this week, at the Crystal Billard Lounge. The waitresses are nice, the beer is inexpensive, the place is generally empty except for a couple hockey poolers and pool sharks, the tables are excessively fast, and best of all, they carry Guinness. A couple of pints and you’ll be playing like Paul fucking Newman.
- Who in there right minds would want a truck on chromed out 24″ fake splits? Fake splits can fuck off.
- I rediscovered Tim Hortons as a tasty, lower cost alternative to Subway for those times when I don’t feel like packing a lunch. Salty, but delicious.
Stream your iTunes Library with pulpTunes!
October 8th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
To say that I enjoy working with music would be an understatement. I ADORE working with music, and I like to believe that most of the time, music is what I need to be really productive. Us folks from the internet-induced OCD generation usually have a very short attention span and without music at the workplace I often find myself needing to take a break and think about the last ten actions I’ve done in order to put myself back on track. Putting my iPhone on the speakers seems to solve the problem… but then this too has it’s own share of problems: after a couple of shifts, it seems that you always get the same songs over and over again, even on a 16 gig device, and syncing at home isn’t always an option.
Enter PulpTunes: a tool that streams your entire iTunes library to wherever the heck you can get an internet connection. I had found similar tools in the past, of course I sadly I cannot remember the name, but from what I remember they were either commercial pieces of software with a price tag, or available only for Mac OSX. Pulptunes has none of these restrictions: it’s donation-ware, and it is supported by Windows, OSX, and even Linux and variants.
The concept behind Pulptunes is simple. It’s a standalone app that peaks into your iTunes library’s XML file, and hosts a neat little web player from your computer that makes all you music and playlists available; all you needs is a browser, or one of the support mobile devices (iPhone, iPad and Android as of now). Because it isn’t merely a plugin that integrates a web server to iTunes, you can run it from any OS, regardless of if iTunes is running or even installed at all. This makes Pulptunes the perfect addition to your existing fileserver setup: you can stream your stuff from a dedicated Linux box without any other computer being online!
My preliminary testing at work has been going awesome, it seems like a great piece of software. This isn’t a web-app carbon-copy of iTunes, in that is does lack some key features, but overall it’s a very nice little app, and for free, you can’t really justify not getting it if you really want your music on the go. One thing that I really don’t like all that much is how the UI displays the songs in your library: you have to scroll through pages, there is no fancy AJAX infi-load scroll bar that lets you navigate through your tunes smoothly. For those of you who are like me and have a pretty important amount of music, this get’s frustrating pretty quickly. Oh, and it’s in Flash. Yeah, I know, that kind of sucks, but hey, it get’s the job done.
This Week’s iPhone Pics (14/52)
October 3rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
A very full week, once again. I’ve grown tired of shuffling the settings on Hipstamatic, so here you go, everything this week was taken with the Helga Viking / Pistil combo.
- Batinsse qui mouille ca va neyer l’ble d’inde.
- Toujours est-il que ca l’a ete un averse comme qu’on aurait jamais pu en voir de plus grosses. Y moullait, eh qui mouillait! Cala pas d’allure, ca tombait en simonake!
- Fall is coming. I aught to load up some of that Kodak ProColor and shoot some stuff in a National Park or something.
- I suffered from a very serious relapse of geeky stuff. The computer recycling place I go to gave me exclusive rights to all the mechanical keyboards that they get in exchange for all the stuff I bring in. I was happy with my Compaq G80 with Cherry Browns, but I am now the proud owner of a classic Dell Model M (buckling springs) and a Dell AT101 ( black Alps). Non-geeks, don’t hate… it’s not just a very loud keyboard, it a whole different computing experience.
- Playing with fire…
- … putting it out like a man.
- Sextuple-world-champ Frank at the beer-pong table. This guy is a menace.
- Vintage auto spottings are pretty rare in Quebec due to the shitty winters, salt, and even shittier roads. This Jag E-Type was mint, probably fresh out of the paint shop or just after a compound by the looks of it. I love the wire wheels.
MacLean’s Allegations of Corruption: Is It Really a Debate?
October 3rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
MacLean’s dropped a bomb lately: an article boldly entitled Quebec: The Most Corrupt Province. The blast was strong, and swept many Quebecois journalists and the population off it’s feet promptly. Opinions are varied, but what we hear most often on the open lines and editorials is the following ridiculous reponse: “How dare those Anglos call us corrupt?”
As a Quebecois myself (french mothertounge, none the less), I am surprised by this reaction. How is it that we, the survivors of constant English opression (more on this in another article), have such a thin hide? The truth is that Quebec is very succeptible, specially when it comes to recieving criticism from the outside. Sitting is front of TVA news, it’s very easy for a Quebec to bitch and moan about everything; the current state of widespread cynisme regarding politics is proof that Quebecois are either 1) aware of corruption and just don’t care, or 2) living in blissful ignorance, content with the status quo. We can call our own system out, but god forbid that some other group criticize us… that would be Quebec bashing, trampling the french-speaking minority, oppression from the conglomerate of Anglo Federalist provinces. Oh please, give me a break.
People have been going as far as canceling their cell phone subscriptions with Rogers and Fido (Rogers is the owner of both, and also owner of MacLean’s), and our prime minister the Honorable James John Charest has gone as fars as to publish an open letter to the publisher rambling about Quebec’s accomplishments and demanding that the author excuse himself. The letter is meaningless, because as we all known, Jean Charest included, success and accomplishment can coexist with corruption. Furthermore, the open letter is a very bold move for somebody who is currently appearing in a parlimentary comission on corruption in the nomination of provincial court judges (visibly tailored to fit Mr. Charest) and who has repeatedly refused an investigation about more brown-envelope passing in the construction industry. What I’m seeing here is a PM that desperately wants to get support from the public who are ready to kick him out of power with a swift kick to the ass. I won’t even mention the legal threats on the alleged copyright infringement on the intellectual property that is the Bonhomme Carnaval. This whole thing is becoming ridiculous and out of hand.
Besides even if the article were exagerated, journalism and public relations are gentlemen’s sports: you play by the rules, and if you get hit under the belt, you reply with a harder hit that fits within the rules; whining isn’t an option. Sensationalist journalism throws shit in the fan… but you only get dirty if you’re in the room where it happens. You want to make a strong point? Let’s disprove the allegations, sweep it off with the back of our hands… it should be easy, Quebec isn’t corrupt at all, right?
