Monday, December 19, 2005

politics

?I was trying to think of any accomplishments of the Conservative party in the last 12 years, and the only one I could think of was that they changed their name three times.?
? NDP Leader Jack Layton

Saturday, December 10, 2005

The podcasts are here! The podcasts are here!

Unless you have been living in a bubble, you are well aware that PODCASTING is the lastest new thing. Of all the things of all time, I really like the idea of podcasting. So, since I need somethign new to put onto my blog, I decided that I too was going to take a shot at podcasting. So, without further ado, I would like present my very first podcast, right HERE.

So like everything else in my life, the plan is to go forth and try to upload a new podcast every so often. I will aim for once a week, but I know damn well that will never happen. Not unless I will a million dollars and that will never happen.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Thought of the day!

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
- Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

You know you are from Montreal when...

(via email from a co-worker)

You pronounce it "Muntreal", not "Mahntreal".

You have ever said anything like "I have to stop at the guichet before we go to the dep."

Your only concern about jaywalking is getting a ticket.

You understand and frequently use terms like 'unilingual,' 'anglophone,' 'francophone,' and 'allophone.'

You agree that Montreal drivers are crazy, but you're secretly proud of their nerves of steel.

The most exciting thing about the South Shore is that you can turn right on a red.

You know that the West Island is not a separate geographical formation.

In moments of paranoia, you think that there's no red line on the Metro because red is a federalist colour.

You have to bring smoked meat from Schwartz's and bagels from St-Viateur if you're visiting anyone west of Cornwall.

You refer to Tremblant as "up North."

You know how to pronounce Pie IX.

You have an ancient auntie who still says "Saint Dennis."

You believe to the depth of your very being that Toronto has no soul - but your high school reunion is held in Toronto because most of your classmates live there now.

You greet everyone, from lifelong bosom friends to some one you met once a few years ago, with a two-cheek kiss.

You know at least one person who works for the CBC, and at least one other person who used to work for Nortel.

You're not impressed with hardwood floors.

You've been hearing Celine Dion jokes longer than anyone else.

You can watch soft-core porn on broadcast TV, and this has been true for at least 25 years.

You cringe when Bob Cole pronounces French hockey player names.

You get Bowser & Blue.

You were drinking cafe-au-lait before it was latte.

You order fries 'with sauce', not 'with gravy'.

Shopper's Drug Mart is Pharmaprix and Staples is Bureau en Gros, and PFK is finger lickin' good.

You really believe Just For Laughs is an international festival.

For two weeks a year, you are a jazz afficianado.

You need to be reminded by prominent signage that you should wait for the green light.

Everyone on the street - drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists - think they're immortal, and that you'll move first.

You're proud that Montreal is the home of Pierre Trudeau, Mordechai Richler, William Shatner, Leonard Cohen and the Great Antonio...and, you consider Donald Sutherland (and by default, Keifer), Guy Lafleur, Charlie Biddle, and Roch Carrier Montrealers, too. You know that Rocket Richard had nothing to do with astrophysics.

You know the apocryphal story of the fat lady at Eaton's.

You miss apostrophes.

You've seen Brother Andre's heart.

No matter how bilingual you are, you still don't understand "ile aux tourtes."

You know the difference between the SQ, the SAQ, and the SAAQ.

You measure temperature and distance in metric, but weight and height in Imperial measure.

You show up at a party at 11 p.m. and no one else is there yet.

April Wine once played your high school (alternatively, Sass Jordon or Gowan).

You know that Montreal is responsible for introducing the following to North America: bagels, souvlaki, smoked meat as well as Supertramp, Chris de Burgh, Styx and Melissa Etheridge.

You don't drink pop or soda, you drink soft drinks.

You don't like your pizza "with all the toppings", you like your pizza all-dressed

You have graduated from high school and have a degree, but you've never been in grade 12.

The margarine in your fridge is the same colour as lard.

Every once in a while, you wonder whatever happened to Luba.

You never thought that Corey Hart was cool, but you know someone whose cousin or something dated him.

There has to be at least 30 cm of snow on the ground in less than 24 hours for you to consider it too snowy to drive.

You remember where you were during the Ice Storm.

You used to be an Expos fan, but now all you really miss is Youppi.

You're a Habs fan; always was, always will be...

You know that your city's reputation for beautiful women is based on centuries-old couplings between French soldiers and royally-commissioned whores (aka Les Filles du Roi).

You don't understand anyone from Lac-St-Jean, but you can fake the accent.

You've been to the Tam Tams, and know they have nothing to do with wee Scottish hats.

You discuss potholes like most people discuss weather.

You encounter bilingual homeless people.

While watching an American made-for-TV movie, you realize that "Vienna" is actually Old Montreal, that "New York" is actually downtown and that the "The Futuristic City" is actually Habitat '67.

You find it amusing when people from outside Quebec compliment you on how good your English is.

You have yet to understand a single announcement made on the Metro PA system, no matter what the language.

You think of Old Montreal as nothing but a bunch of over-priced restaurants, old buildings and badly paved streets.

You understand that La Fete Nationale is not a celebration of "Quebec's birthday".

You don't find American comedians speaking "gibberish" French even remotely funny.

You don't find it weird that there's a strip club on every corner downtown.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Coming out... and coming out... and coming out.

I am so sick and tired of having to tell people I am gay. No, scratch that. I`m exhausted. I don't think that I am the most obviously gay person around, but I think when people meet me, they probably wonder about a thing or two.

I openly talk about my boyfriend at work. James this, James that. I don't actually say he's my boyfriend, but I just think that sounds dumb. There are still people around me who have not figured it out. I'm so exhausted by the whole thing.

So, if anyone from work is reading this, please feel free to start a rumour that I`m a big fag. It would be really great. Thanks.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

How Did the Catholic Church Shoot Itself in the foot?

Ok. Does anybody not understand that most Catholic Priests are gay? Is this really a news flash for the Vatican?

I saw a study that said that 50% of priests interviewed admitted being gay.

That beeing said, check out how the Vatican is shooting itself in the foot. Sit back, relax, and watch the "Church" slowly commit suicide... which is a sin in Catholic dogma. I guess that's ironic. HA HA!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

SU DOKU

Thanks to my Mother`s Recent B-Day gift, I have discovered the Japanese number puzzle Su Doku. And you should too!

Monday, August 15, 2005

Rabble Rabble Rabble!

Ugh. This heat. This humidity. Oh my god is it ever going to end?

Canada and Denmark are currently fighting over a little tiny 1.3 km piece of land in the arctic. Actually, its not land, its ice on top of a rock. This is turning into quite the diplomatic affaire, Canada and Denmark both sending teams over there to further state their claims. Why on earth would we even care about a piece of land. Well, believe it or not this is all related to global warming, in the worst possible of ways. No, they don't need to go there for scientific research, they want the money! Isn't it always about money?

So, the ice caps are melting, the oceans are warming up and what are the Danish and Canadian governments fighting about? Land. Future land. Land that will evetually be a rich source of natural resources and minerals. Ah ha! Money! This makes me so mad, I want to scream. SCREAM LOUDLY SO ALL THE STUPID POLITICIANS ON THE PLANET CAN HEAR ME.

What the hell is wrong with these people. Why are they even fighting about this? Shouldn't we all be uniting in an effort to try and prevent global warming? Shouldn't we all be banding together as 1 united planet to save what little we have left? Oh no, no no no no. Lets fight over money and resources and hog all that we can to ensure our survival another couple of years while we self-destruct.

Humans are the biggest parasite on the planet. We are going to get it. If you are not recycling every piece of paper, plastic, wood, metal or foam in your garbage, you belong in jail. If you throw anything, ANYTHING outside your car while driving, you should be jailed for crimes against humanity. What about you idiots with big SUV's driving around like the world has an endless supply of gas and air? We through people in jail for unpaid parking tickets, but we would never send anyone in there for destroying the planet or polluting or wasting resources? Shame on us for not doing anything about it.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are desperate times. And mark my words, if you/we/me/us don't do something about this changing climate very soon, we are done for it. Oh, but I guess its more important to "fight terrorism" in Iraq right? Well keep it up boys and girls, because the planet just might take care of all that for us!

Saturday, August 06, 2005

My first Tattoo!!


My First Tattoo! It means Tiger in Chinese. I am a Tiger in the chinese astrology chart.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

CANADA LOVES FAGS!

Yahoooooooooooo!

It's official! Canada Loves Fags! We can all get married now! Thank goodness will live in such a modern society!

Monday, June 27, 2005

IT'S ABOUT TIME

According to Radio-Canada, it is virtually assured that Bill C-38 will pass and therefore guaranty the right to marry to couple of the same sex! Thank goodness we live in Canada!

Finally, equality!

Vive les fifs! We're here, we're queer, we're going to the chapel!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Thickhead Thursday #4

This week, I propose many many many thickheads. Just pick a thread out of FARK and let the Farking begin.

Monday, June 06, 2005

GAY MARRIAGE - EMAIL YOUR MP TODAY

Folks,

Please email your member of parliament and tell him/her how important it is for you that they support the gay-marriage bill in Ottawa. Every voice counts.

CLICK HERE to email your Member of Parliament. At the bottom, here is a letter I wrote to Gilles Duceppe, my MP.







From: Robichaud, Gabriel (Montreal)
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 3:53 PM
To: 'Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca'
Subject: projet de loi marriage entre conjoints de même sexe


Le lundi 6 juin 2005,
<Address deleted>
Montréal, Québec

M. Duceppe,

Je suis un citoyen de la circonscription fédérale de Laurier-Ste-Marie et je vous écris pour vous faire part de mon appui, face au projet de loi pour les droits au marriage des conjoints de même sexe.

Je crois que la société Québecoise se doit de continuer à faire des longs pas d'avance en matière de justice sociale, droits et libertées. Il faut mettre une terme à la marginalisation des minorités, y compris nos concitoyens(nes) homosexuels(les). Nous avons la chance de montrer notre charactère de société évolué en votant massivement pour le marriage des gens homosexuels. Je vous pris de supporter le projet de loi présentement en chambre à Ottawa. Il serait dommage qu'un agenda polique, autre que le bien de la société québecoise, fasse que le Bloc votre contre ce projet de loi. Quelle position attendez-vous adopter à l'égard de ce projet de loi libéral?

En espérant que vous voterez pour ce projet, veuillez accepter, Monsieur Duceppe, mes salutations les plus distinquées.

Gabriel Robichaud

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Thickhead Thursdays

I dont know if you have ever heard of GEOCACHING, but if you have, this will be amazuing: A human Travel Bug. And thats our THICKHEAD of the week. Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

10 TOP REASONS TO GO TO WORK NAKED

10. No one ever steals your chair.
9. Gives "bad hair day" a whole new meaning.
8. Diverts attention from the fact that you also came to work drunk.
7. People stop stealing your pens after they've seen where you keep them.
6. You want to see if it's like the dream.
5. To stop those creepy programmer guys from looking down your blouse.
4. "I'd love to chip in...but I left my wallet in my pants."
3. Inventive way to finally meet that 'special' person in Human Resources.
2. Can take advantage of your computer monitor radiation to work on your tan.
1.Your boss will never say, "I wanna see your ass in here by 8:00!" ever again.


ps - Thank You Marilu for sending me this.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Thickhead Thursdays

Hey everyone. I'm starting something new: "Thickhead Thursdays". Every Thursday I will post a new website developped by a thickhead. So there is the first one : http://americawestandasone.com/video.html

VOILA

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Ademus Papam!

An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people waited around on the plaza at St-Peter`s Basilica, for the announcement of their new King, I mean, spiritual leader. And, almost as fast as the white-smoke dissipated, the moment was over, and everybody left. I was left wondering.

I watched the whole thing live; I was at home and sick that day. As a non-believer, raised catholic (by an ex-nun, no less), the frenzy surrounding the new pope has me baffled. Media analysts and critics spent hours analyzing an event with the same fervor and determination as they did the USA election of 2004. I mean come-on. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? This is supposed to be a spiritual event, guided by god and a bunch of old men sitting inside a gold trimmed church, burning voting ballots in a tradition that is almost as old as... Well, its old. Very, very old.

Some crazies might say that god (yes with a small g) himself struck me with the stomach flu that day so that I would not have to go to work and be a witness to his choosing of the new head of the catholic church (yes, lowercase letters again). That is all Bullcrap (capital letter). I think he was probably busy trying to inspire the 115 old fogies at the conclave: *twilight zone music* god is everywhere!!!!

So, where are we headed now? Oh they say Herr Ratzinger is a conservative cardinal. I even heard some Radio-Canada journalist on the French-Canada national news channel up in arms about how horrible it was the conclave ended with such a conservative man as the head of the church (get used to it, I am not capitalizing those words).

Well, stop the presses. "Ademus papam" or we have a conservative pope. Oh my god! (Pardon the pun!) Is it really something worth writing about? Open any newspaper and note how much time has been devoted to precisely that topic. How unbelievable it is, that a conservative organization has elected another conservative leader. I even heard a priest on TV, whose name I wish I could remember saying: "I don't think of the church as conservative, I think of it as catholic." Well, that says it all.

I guess 1.6 billion catholics can't be wrong. Or can they? I will save my religious hate mongering for another post. I just might burn in hell. I hear that's where most of my friends are headed anyway.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Civil Rights!

ENGLISH ­ SEE BELOW

CANADIENS ET CANADIENNES POUR LE DROIT ÉGAL AU MARIAGEÊ: APPEL À L'ACTION

Le premier vote lié au projet de loi C-38 sur le droit égal au mariage se tiendra le mardi 12 avril. Les membres du Parlement devront alors se prononcer sur une motion de Stephen Harper destinée à faire avorter le projet de loi. NOUS DEVONS REMPORTER CE VOTE, SINON LE PROJET DE LOI MOURRA AU FEUILLETON!

Nous possédons une légère avance à l'heure actuelle au décompte des votes, mais il y des dangers. Est-ce que tous les membres du Parlement qui appuient le projet de loi se présenteront le jour du vote? Les quatre députés conservateurs qui appuient le projet de loi oseront-ils s'opposer à la motion de leur chef?

Canadiens et Canadiennes pour le droit égal au mariage vous invite à contacter votre députée ou député dès aujourd'hui! Allez à www.mariageegal.ca , puis à l'étape 1. Envoyez un courriel à tous les membres du Parlement. À l'étape 1, vous trouverez leurs numéros de téléphone et de télécopieur respectifs. Il suffit de leur indiquer que vous appuyez le droit égal au mariage de même que le projet de loi C-38.

Les opposants à l'égalité des personnes LGBT ne reculeront devant rien avant le vote final. Aujourd'hui même, le samedi 9 avril, ils ont organisé une marche pour le mariage et la liberté sur la colline du Parlement. Stephen Harper en personne s'est adressé à la foule!

Des messages d'opposition inonderont les bureaux des députées et des députés d'ici mardi, et il importe que ceux-ci entendent également nos voix!

Nous avons l'occasion de régler la question une fois pour toutes ­ mais nous ne gagnerons pas le combat sans votre aide. Veuillez contacter votre députée ou député dès aujourd'hui, ou envoyer un courriel à tous les membres du Parlement en vous rendant à http://www.mariageegal.ca/contactezcand_f.php Cela ne vous prendra que quelques secondes.

SI LE PARLEMENT FAIT AVORTER LE PROJET DE LOI SUR LE DROIT ÉGAL AU MARIAGE, NOS OPPOSANTS NE S'ARRÊTERONT PAS LÀ. ILS TENTERONT EN EFFET D'APPORTER DES MODIFICATIONS CONSTITUTIONNELLES À L'AMÉRICAINE, CE QUI REPRÉSENTERA UN RECUL CERTAIN.

Il se peut qu'il y ait une élection prochainement. Auparavant toutefois, il y aura le vote de mardi. Il se peut que ce soit la dernière fois que le Parlement tienne un vote sur le droit égal au mariage. Faisons en sorte que ce vote soit un événement positif et que les membres du Parlement sachent que nombre de leurs électrices et électeurs appuient le droit égal au mariage.

Veuillez nous aider aujourd'hui. Ne tardez pas. Veuillez aussi transmettre le présent message à vos connaissances et amis.

Le temps presse. Veuillez agir dès maintenant.

Laurie Arron
Coordonnateur politique
Canadiens et Canadiennes pour le droit égal au mariage



CANADIANS FOR EQUAL MARRIAGE: ACTION ALERT

The first vote on the government's Equal Marriage Bill (Bill C-38) has been set for Tuesday, April 12. It's a vote on Stephen Harper's motion to kill the bill. WE MUST WIN THIS VOTE OR THE MARRIAGE BILL WILL DIE!

We have a small lead in the vote count, but there are dangers. Will all supportive MPs show up to vote? Will the four supportive Conservative MPs dare to vote against their leader's motion?

Canadians for Equal Marriage urges you to contact your MP today! Go to http://www.equal-marriage.ca Go to Step 1 and E-mail all MPs. At Step 1 you can also find your MP and get their phone and fax numbers. Simply tell them you support equal marriage, you support Bill C-38.

Opponents of equality for lesbian, gay, bi and trans people are pulling out all the stops before the final vote. Today, Saturday, April 9, tens of thousands of opponents held their "March for Marriage and Freedom" on Parliament Hill. Stephen Harper himself addressed the crowd! He told people "if just a few more Liberals can be persuaded to change their vote, we can kill Bill C-38 in its tracks."

We're bracing for a storm of opposition messages flooding MPs' offices between now and Tuesday. It's important that MPs hear from our side too!!

We have the opportunity to settle this issue once and for all. But we can only win this fight with your help. Please contact your MP today. You can e-mail all MPs at
http://www.equal-marriage.ca/contactcampaign.php . It only takes a few seconds.

IF PARLIAMENT KILLS THE EQUAL MARRIAGE LEGISLATION, OUR OPPONENTS WILL CONTINUE WITH FURTHER ATTEMPTS -- EVEN U.S.-STYLE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS -- TO ROLL BACK THE CLOCK.

Today, on Parliament Hill, Stephen Harper once again pledged to bring in legislation to define marriage as a man and a woman.

We all know an election may be called soon. But before any election call will be Tuesday's vote. It may be the last time Parliament votes on equal marriage. Let's make it a positive one!! Let's ensure MPs know that many of their constituents support equal marriage.

Please help today. Don't delay. Please also pass this message on to your friends and your networks.

This is a crucial time. Please take action now.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

When it rains...

Some of you might not know this, but I was diagnosed with Asthma when I was a teenager. I never really worried about it, and I never had any serious attacks that I was not able to manage with simple Ventalin or Bricanyl inhalers. Well, all that changed last week.

Since the middle of February, I have been having various degrees of problems with my Asthma, but I was able to carry on with my daily life. But it got progressively worse. And Friday at 3am I found myself admitted at the Royal Victoria Hospital for what they diagnosed as an "Asthma Crisis". At 5am I was transfered from the Emergency Room to the Emergency Acute Care. I was on oxygene and getting Ventalin treatments through a mask. I had so many that at one point I felt high as a kite. Then they pumped me full of pills, gave me a chest x-ray and kept on monitoring me. Finally, my lungs were clear around Noon and I was discharged after seeing a lung specialist. I am now on Cortizone, and have a few puffers. I feel much better than I did before but my lungs are really week and I can't tolerate any irritants right now without scrambling to puff on my Bricanyl.

And I have one thing to say about the Royal Victoria Hospital: EWWW GROSS.!!

So, there was blood on the floor in the examining room I was in. Not too mention there was a tube filled with blood lying around next to my examining table. The floor was dirty. The Bio-waste bin also had blood on it. There was 1 nurse and 1 Doctor on duty when I got in. As I came in 3 ambulances pulled in. So. Talk to me about the ailing medical system in Québec. Its really pathetic.

Another great thing. When I arrived at the ER I was in such serious respitory distress I could barely speak a single word without taking a breath. I was weezing heavily and coughing constantly. So, I am directed to triage Nurse. Well, the triage nurse was outside smoking! So he (yes a male nurse) comes in to "triage" me, and he WREAKS of cigarettes. Do I need to explain that cigarette smoke is one of the BIGGEST irratants for asthmatics? I really don't understand how they can put a smoker in charge of meeting triage patients. I was not the only asthmatic who was rushed in that night, so I'm assuming this happens often enough. So here I am trying to communicate to my nurse what the problem is, but being in the same room as he, is making my breathing worse. *GRUMBLE*

Anyway. I`m fine now. Well, I'm better. I won`t be running any triathlons this week, but hopefully all will fall into place very soon.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The Wait Is OVER!!!!!!!!!

If I was religious, I would be praising the Lord. But I`m not. So I won't. But oh man oh man, am I ever happy that the wait is over. But what was I waiting for? What has me so excited that I was jumping up and down and screaming at the top of my lungs all by myself earlier today? What could possibly be so exciting that I started bashing in all the buttons on my telephone to call everyone I knew. (And of course, nobody answered their bloody phone)

Well. Its simple. I, Gabriel Robichaud, starting this coming Monday, will no longer be a welfare case. That's right. I will be dropping my Unemployment Checks for an actual PAY CHECK, because, I have been offered a job. OH JOY OH BLISS OH YEAH!

I do not have the details of the job just yet, because I will be meeting with Human Resources very soon, but I will be working with Oracle Database for a Pharmaceutical Company! Permanent Position. Full Time. Lots and Lots of benefits. YEEE HA!

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Auf Deutsch, Bitte!

Heute schreibe ich eine kleines Blog auf Deutsch. Warum nicht? Nachsten Monat, ich beginne eine Deutschekurse an die Goethe Institute in Montreal. Ich kann nicht mehr warten! Sprachen machen viel spass für mich.

Ich denke dass es Zeit jetz fur meine erste Reise nach Deutschland ist. Ich möchte nach München in September gehen. Dort kann ich eine intensive Deutschkurse machen. Und, kann ich in einem Studentenwohnheim wohnen. Fur 2 wochen, das kostet nur 1200 Euros.

Also, genug für Heute. Bis später!

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Wi-fi, wi-fi, where for art thou wi-fi?

Where in Montreal Can you get Free Wi-fi? Good Question. I will attempt to answer that question in the coming months. So, you may stay tuned to figure out this important question.

So far, I have discovered 3 wi-fi hot-spots that are free. I refuse to pay for wi-fi access in a coffee shop. I figure I'm already paying for food and drinks, so why should I pay for internet access when I already have it at home? So, I am going to add a new section to the blog. As I discover more wi-fi hot spots in Montreal, I will make that list available on http://wifimtl.gabrielrobichaud.com. Feel free to email me if you feel you know of a cool hotspot that should be on the list.

Friday, March 04, 2005

<insert title here>

Don't you hate it when you can't find an appropriate title for your blog articles? Oh well. If you don't like, tough.

It feels so good to be back to blogging. I am happy to entertain you people sitting at work pretending to work. (he he he) You know how you are. Certain people in Ottawa. Certain civil servants. Wasting my hard earned tax dollars. I smell a scandal!!

So. Today's blog is brought to you from the Second Cup on the corner of Milton and Parc in Montreal. Yes yes. The combination of free wi-fi and 1.55$ for a blueberry tisane is all you need to sit here for hours and waste bandwidth.

So what has been going on. Well to all of you who have been asking if I have found a job... The answer is.... A BIG... RESOUNDING.... (wait for it)..... Are you excited yet?....... NO NO NO NO NO.*sigh* Still no job. A few leads. But don't hold your breath.

So that takes care of that.

So, when I'm not scouring the web looking for the perfect employer, I try to keep myself busy. I just got back from a one week stint in Québec City. No, there are no jobs there either. There is my brother however. He is studying film at Université de Laval and he is having the time of his life... NOT! Oh my god. What a boring city. Its a lot like Ottawa, except its colder, has more snow and, unlike Ottawa where they roll up the sidewalks at 6pm, they roll up the sidewalks at 4:30pm in Québec. Oh, its very pretty there, so if you want to look at pretty buildings and soak up some history, you should really go to Québec City. But don't go for the night life or the cultural diversity because you will be in for the shock of you life! I did, however, star in my brother's latest film project. Some work in sound design for a class he did. Woo hooo, I'm a star.

Oh.. and for those who need to know the innermost details of my personal life, (why, I will never understand) James and I have taken the big plunge. Yup Yup. We are now domiciled at the same address. So, quit asking when we will be moving together, its been done. Its going well, I am very happy. Of course I am. Have you guys seen him? MMM MMMM good!

Do not expect an invitation to the housewarming because we are not going to have one but feel free to send presents, money or credit cards. We love presents ;)

So, that's it for today. I must go back to my Pimsleur German now.

Monday, February 28, 2005

New Sub-Domain, New Host, Hackers and Blogging.

Well folks, let me start by saying that not all web hosting services are created equal. Thankfully there are a lot more hosting services who provide Coldfusion funcionality than there was 18 months ago. You will see why in a second. I appologize for not writing more during the past couple of months, but I was no longer in a position to trust the server that my Blog was hosted on. So, I began the long hunt for the cheap webhosting provider, that will actually protect me against hack attacks. Yes my friends, my web hosting account was hacked! Someone even changed a lot of the pages on my website for some bogus crap. See, I can understand how these things happens, microsoft has some pretty serious vulnerabilities in their operating systems.

That hosting company (Webserve Canada Inc. http://www.webserve.ca) did not notify that they were under attack. They also failed to answer my questions on why I was not notified when they noticed the intrusion, and why they were not able to explain to me what measures they took to prevent future attacks. So. I moved my website to a much better provider in the USA. Yeah yeah, my money is going to some money grubbing USA corporation, but I don't care at this point. I just want something that works, that is secure and will give me some control over my my site. Oh we wont talk about the hell it was to cancel my account at Webserve, shaddy credit card billing practices, etc, etc. My new provider takes Paypal.

That, is nice. Paypal is the future my friends. If you don't know what Paypal is or what its for, click on over to Paypal.

Another change, as you can notice, the blog is now part of its own subdomain. You may now and forever, access the blog at the "blog" subdomain of gabrielrobihaud.com as follows: http://blog.gabrielrobichaud.com. This will permit me to leave www.gabrierobichaud.com for some other projects I have in mind. For next couple of months, there will be an automatic redirection to the blog when you access it via the old address. So update your bookmakrs.

I have disabled the mailing list feature for now. I will be creating another one soon however, I just need to change some things around before making it available again.

So stay tuned. I will be fine tuning the site in the next few days, and we will then resume our regularly scheduled blogging.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

RIP : Louis-J. Robichaud 1925-2005

Ave Maris Stella,
Dei Mater Alma,
Atque Semper Virgo
Felix Coeli Porta (bis)

The Acadian National athem was being sung as I watched the remains of the right honnerable Louis J. Robichaud being transported out of the Assumption Cathedral in Moncton NB. By the magic of television, I was able to attend the funeral service, and remember, with the rest of NB and Canada, the greatness of a legacy left by a simple acadian man, whose vision was simple: equality for all.

Thanks to "p'tit" Louis, as he was called, NB has a french university, a billingual education system and billingual services for all citizen of NB.

Louis, you'll be missed dearly.