July 7, 2006 Archives
Went w/ Stephanie to the Flora outdoor arrangements competition thing at the Parc des Écluses, in the westmost part of the Old Port. It ends in mid-October, but it was so boring that I wouldn't recommend going unless you're in pleasant company, or actually have backyard fantasies. Not my forte, at least.
It was still nice (to get a good tan), but maybe I was expecting flowers to be at the front stage of the expo (for that, I'm better off going to the Botanical Garden). There are some striking "cubicules", like one made of poles spiking up at 10cm intervals, painted in dual colors, such that you saw red or blue depending of your positionning, or the trees transplanted on supports rocking to the rhythm of a pneumatic device.
I've never exactly followed free agents signings in the NHL during past seasons. I'm not sure why. But it seems impossible for our Canadiens to land anyone. Sure-to-be-with-Montreal Jason Arnott (big centre we need) was not signed, and we did not pull a huge transaction to get some Quebecois player making dough in the States (Gagne w/ Philly, or St-Louis/Lecavalier w/ TB - seriously, we don't have anything to give for them).
To remind myself that next time I reboot my comp in Linux (on nights I'm lazy, I sell myself to the Devil), I need to try installing EasyUbuntu. It makes promises of solving my multimedia woes on AMD64. "Only stupid people install their Ubuntu in AMD64". It's a shame, but really, half the drivers on WinXP 64-bit work. Still too geeky to be early supporter, I guess?
I've been complaining a lot about the state of Chinese food and not doing anything about it. Or rather, not trying very hard to disprove my thesis (as human beings, we do try to be positive, better people, sometimes).
So tonight, I actually tried, and before catching Seven Swords, went to some random Chinese eatery I encountered one previous evening erring in the neighborhood. This one was at the ground floor of a residential tower on St-Marc, between De Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke, and I don't even know the name. It's adjacent to a Viet/Asian fast food joint, east side of the street.
We were very hungry, or the portions are deceivingly small. Whichever, it doesn't matter, because it gave us the chance to sample about 1/4 of the menu already. XD Wee took a soup noodles and roasted chicken leg combo, and I took a variation on the theme of cold noodles with chicken and cucumber noodles and that famous peanuts/chili sauce (which was indeed really spicy: I was, like, here, can I have the spicy, and the guy looked at me, and said, alright boy, how about I make it mild spicy for you? XD), and didn't have enough and got a beef dumplings soup (can't not be homemade, but five/six pieces for $4: comes at a premium), and we previously shared a wonton soup (pork-only, an alternate way to make wonton which I haven't seen much in other restaurants... maybe b/c it's cheaper that way, haha, but I like, nonetheless). It was a pleasant surprise...
I like that limited-time summer show Pour la suite des choses a lot. After interviewing Miss Chinese, Patrick Masbourian hosts a round table on the theme of visible minorities on Quebec TV, who are under-represented and hold stereotyped roles when they do happen to be shown. I don't know about that; I hardly watch any TV shows made in Quebec (last show I followed was probably during high school), and the only thing I do watch in French are the news, the food show on R-C, and RDS Canadiens hockey.
What is troubling is that from ads for these shows, there is indeed a disproportion of cultural communities in TV. Virginie, a long-running daily soap is 95% white French-Canadian (what school in Montreal is actually like this nowadays?). All the actors on TV are French. Etc, etc. I take note that there's Mao Bougon, played by an adopted Chinese girl (I think?), and a Vietnamese dude playing a gangster (I think who could've been from any background) in currently-running underworld series Casino, who take somewhat un-stereotyped roles (in appearance, cuz I haven't seen the shows).