Five things about me…
Posted by Macheadcase | Filed under Blogs, Personal, The world, man...
So I was tagged in a meme by my friend Timmy. Let’s see now… :hmm:
- One of my uncles was completely mesmerized by the fact that I seemed to be able to read when I was a 9-month old child. It started when he handed me a book and he gave it to me upside down. So I turned it around like if I was going to read it. He thought this was a fluke so he gave it to me rightside up and I kept it that way. He gave it to me again upside down, I turned it around. He thought: “Ok. Maybe it’s because of the images.” So he tried the same thing with a book with only text and went through the same things and I would always turn the book around if it was presented to me upside down or keep it the same if it was rightside up. He would always bring a book home when he was visiting till I was about the age of three. He told me that’s when he started believing in reincarnation…
- When I was a teenager, I was probably the world’s first Goth, without the weird makeup.
- I started joining Mac forums out of frustration at DreamCatcher and the Adventure Company for pulling out of distribution of adventure point-and-click type of games for the Macintosh platform and I wanted to raise consciousness and make other members send emails of protest.
- I’ve never felt comfortable with my creative side.
- I used to hate with a vengeance the colours red and purple when I was young, blue was my favourite. Now I like all colours but my favourite is yellow.
Now who am I going to tag, hmm? Ok, I got it! Stretch, Stony, Adrian, Dr Max and uhm… Brad.
New galleries from vacation pix - the end
Posted by Macheadcase | Filed under Blogs, Internet, Personal, Photography, The world, man...
*Phew*
Yes, I’ve been a bad netizen… :embarrassed:
It was long, hard and almost painful but the vacation pix are finally all converted, uploaded in brand new SmugMug galleries. Here are the links in case you want to take a look at them:
In case you missed it in an older entry of mine, here is the link to the Gaspésie 2006 (Parc Forillon) gallery that I got up a few weeks back.
Hope you like them. And just to let you know: contrary to my blog (which is members-only - Death to Spam Commenting and Cyberstalking :rant:) you can leave a comment at SmugMug.
Now all I have to do is GEO-tag all these bijillion images, one by one… Oy! 
The day typing class killed me
Posted by Macheadcase | Filed under Blogs, Computers, Learning/Knowledge, Personal, The world, man...
I have always been proud of my bohemian two-finger typing. What the hell, it got things done and as for the speed, I could really get up there in the words per minute department.
So yesterday was my first day of school. The days start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 4:20 p.m. with a break for lunch of 50 minutes and two breaks of 10 minutes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Fridays start at the same time but they end at 11:30 with the afternoon to either stay to catch up if your performance is below what is expected (you cannot fail a class otherwise you’re out of the program) or you’re off for the weekend to recuperate.
Yesterday I had my first two classes, one of them being typing and as I expected, it drives me insane. It puts method to my artistic/bohemian typing method. The program the school uses is WinType and it runs in Classic. For that class, we use eMacs and what didn’t help is that I haven’t used a CRT screen in years and I find it strains my eyes a helluva lot. And I had to focus my attention so bloody much (at times I could imagine myself being a laser beam of concentration) I came out of school totally burnt out and went to bed at 9:00 p.m.
:faintstretch:
Almost one year ago… something big happened!
Posted by Macheadcase | Filed under Blogs, Cool, Internet, Learning/Knowledge, Personal, Photography, The world, man...
As some of my close friends know, I will be leaving Sunday morning in the most ungodly hour we can face… Uhm the earliest we can drag our butts outta bed I suppose and we’ll hit the road, off to a 3-week camping trip which will take us to Forillon Park in the Gaspésie region, the most eastern tip of my province. We had been there seven or eight years ago, always dreaming of the chance to go back there. It’s the most beautiful place I know, the place where I want to retire one day. I only hope my photos that I bring back will do it justice.
Then we’re off to the Parc National du Saguenay on the north shore of the Saint-Laurent estuary. This park is located on both shores of the Saguenay river. To give you an idea, look at this map .pdf file. There are places where you can spot belugas, different kinds of whales, seal, etc. so I can hardly wait! I’ve never been to this part of my world and will hopefully bring back a lot of nice photos.
So that is our itinerary.
As for the one year ago anniversary… My good friend Stretch offered me to move my blog from blogspot to his web host. I was touched deeply by this sign of trust and his willingness to help me. And for that, and much more, he is a true friend.
So I guess I’ll have a beer to mark this anniversary in Gaspésie in front of a campfire. And I’ll be thinking of you, my friend Stretch! And that beer will also be to toast your new school year that is starting next week. :wwaiter:
So here’s to you Phil! :girldrink:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart! If the world was made up of more people like you, we wouldn’t have so many problems and heartaches. :happy:
The Gates Foundation: only for needy and starving kids?…
Posted by Macheadcase | Filed under Opinion, Other OSes, Personal, The world, man...
I remember a few months ago there was this big hoopla on some websites about Steve Jobs being a billionaire and not publicly donating some of his cash while Bill Gates, Micro$oft’s co-founder, was in the news about his charity donations and setting up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for needy children around the world. Some of his donations in the past were all about giving away some computers and software to the needy, so I’m sure the starved kids got their tummies full with all those computer parts and software… Holy smokes, the software might go directly to their brains, come to think of it! :yikes:
It was said back then that Gates was the good charitable businessman while Jobs was a baddy keeping all of his cash for himself. Except me thought at the time, that this was all a show for the media and an attempt to win the public’s favour on the part of Gates. But what do I know, right? Besides, as a few people noted in comments, what if Jobs did donate but wanted it to be held secret and not make it a public display thing?
Anyway, the Drudge Report has an entry on the Gates’ Foundation maybe not being all that it is publicly known to be for, Bill Gates ‘Charity’ Foundation finances newspaper purchases.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declares its noble mission is to bring “innovations in health and learning to the global community.”
But the world’s largest philanthropic organization also is among the organizations that collectively loaned nearly $400 million to MediaNews Group INC. — for the acquisition of newspapers in California and Minnesota!
“I thought this foundation was all about starving kids, not starving newspapers,” mocked one Seattle insider.
MORE
The Gates Foundation loaned an unspecified amount to MediaNews, along with General Electric.
In April, MediaNews agreed to buy four newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, from McClatchy Co. for $1 billion. MediaNews also bought California’s Monterey County Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota. It also own the Denver Post. …
I’ve heard that newsprint paper has a lot of fibre in it… Maybe the ink is a source of extra protein?
So I wonder what the Pro-Gates/Jobs-bashers have to say about this charitable gesture from the Gates’ Foundation… I for one am very impressed, as it looks like Gates is trying to diversify his earnings as a true businessman.
