Y2K motorcycle

The sound of this thing is nuts. You must feel like a freeking astronaut on that bike.

"Powered by a Rolls Royce Allison gas turbine engine, the SUPERBIKE has demonstrated over 300 hp and 425 ft/lbs of torque on the Dyno Jet 200", may I get one for Xmas?

Man with vision ...

Many individuals have been very powerful in leading the technological advancements of the past decades but no one got close to have the vision and to innovate like Steve Jobs.Fortune as ranked him at the top spot of the 25 most powerful people in business.
When you think that the man lead the way to the PC, the graphical user interface, founded Apple, Next, Pixar and is now the biggest shareholder of Disney, you could just be happy to realise a minimal percentage of all his business accomplishment and call it a career. Bow down to M. Jobs!

Emeutes dans le 95 en banlieu de Paris

C'est chaud ces jours-ci en banlieu après le décès de 2 ados mort dans un accident de moto avec une voiture de police. Voir article Le Monde. Je devais jouer au squash dans le 95 ce Jeudi avec mon équipe de squash, faut croire que j'aurais une soirée de congé pour aller au pot Québécois.

Une centaine de jeunes cagoulés
envoyé par davidgolani

Crest Of Honor

I often think of my Guguy familly in Quebec and today I felt like listening at some hardcore music, so I decided to listen to my Cousin "Guts" band on MySpace

Keep it up brother, hope I get to see you when I get back!

Dilbert for geeks

Val d'Or

L'autre jour en regardant pour les directives pour aller a mon match de ligue de Squash, j'ai découvert que le nom de ma ville natale était utilisé en France. La rue voisine du club de squash de Saint-Cloud a 2 minutes de Paris. C'est ti pas beautiful ca?

Surreal

Checking NHL stats this morning ...

Getting Better and Better, shutout and 1st star

I know I said I would stop posting about hsi wins but last night diserves a post.
Sabou's first NHL careeer shutout and the 1st star in a 5 - zip game against the NJ Devils . Looks like the mistake on the Jersey number this year didn't bring bad luck, are we sticking with 30? Giddy up big boy.
Dan, I'd like a Pen's cap for Xmas, you wouldn't want me to keep wearing my canucks hats right :) ?

Khoiba

Sweet Czech band discovered in a skateboard shop in Slovakia!

Statistics

How sweet to see your buddy being 15th on the Save % Leader Board of the NHL. Another Win against the Wild last night, damn Im anxious to be in North America @ Xmas to catch a live game.

Too bad I'll be in Bratislava ...

If you can, try it out, should be a few models in the house.

Squash Sannois

On the last week-end of September, I participated in my first squash tournament in France with Ben and Max. The tourney was great, with a few of the top 10 guys in France, the club invited anyone from the top 50 I think, so Max got free trip to Paris for the occasion. Here is an Aricle sur sitesquash.com describing the week-end.

Saby Shootout win against the Canes

I guess I won't be able to keep up and have a post for every win from the big guy but I just loved this picture, looks like syd was quite happy to get the winning goal. Nice glove save my man, wish I had the chance to watch this live but guess I'll have to make without this year and watch the recaps.

The PostSecret Project

"There are 2 kinds of secrets: those we keep from others, and the ones we hide from ourselves."



Thoughtfull video / Project about secrets and lives. The song soundtrack "Breathe Me" from Sia is simply amazing.

"Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
and needy
Warm me up
And breathe me"

Found out about the video on supergab's blog.

Sayem

Dj Francais, good stuff, j'écoute son album sayem phonogénique en loop ces jours-ci.

Facebook

Oktoberfest München 2007

Last week-end, I went to visit my buddy from McGill Benoit, commonly called, "El Poète", in Munich/München where he's been living for the past 5 years.

We were a delagation of 12 from Paris to land on Germany's soil on friday morning and to be drunk in the Paulaner tent by noon. Let's just say it was a very long day absorbing enormous quantities of beer. We ended the night in a club.On Saturday Benoit took me, ben and JR to the Alpes at the borders with Austria to a little place called Garmisch, location of 1936 Winter Olympic games, where we had a walk along a canyon in the mountains. With stops to pubs along the way. At night we tried to catch the France vs All Black rugby match but we weren't able to enter the pub so we decided to hit Oktoberfest again and finished the night @ Loft with nice house and electronic music.

Sunday was pretty chill, walking around the city, visiting some of the platz, plan was to hit the Sona but we didn't have time. I should be back there this winter, a friend of Cordula invited us to squat her appartment in Austria to go Snowboard.

Here are my picture or Max's pictures.

Munchen Octoberfest 2007

Sabou's first NHL victory in Montreal

While I was in Montreal last week, my man Saby was in town to get his first Win against the habs, earning the 3rd star and puting up his first NHL victory in Canada. How sweet was it to be sitting @ Bell Center to witness that special evening. Thanks for the seats big boy.

Click on this url for a sweet article printed in la presse: Sabourin revient dans l'igloo

Un vrai romantique

Ezekiel by Jules Winnfield

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides
By the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will,
Shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness,
For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger
Those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.
bang bang

DEEZER music on demand

Here a simple utility website to play any music, wherever, whenerver you want. You can even get some plugins to retrieve the music that has been downloaded on your local drive. 5Stars for the guys that put together that database, bandwith and neat interface. http://www.deezer.com/

Safari

Haven't you ever dreamed of a Safari lost in the midle of Africa? I'm sure this is the kind that would meet all your expectations!!

FELIX the Beast, time to fly

Look at the poor central american countries, how small they look like compared to the eye of this guy! McCrory, again a close one dude. check out the wiki

Video hommage pour les 40 ans de Gisou

Voici un video, fait par notre ptit groupe de Québécois a Paris, pour un de nos doyens, notre super Pot Ghyslain.

Fun Fall Schedule

September 1st w-e: Nice cote d'Azure @ Max's
Long September 8th w-e: Kite-Surf en Bretagne
September 12: Match de Foot, France/Ecosse au stade de France
September 15 - 22: week back home in Montreal
-- September 15th: Quebec City?
-- September 17-18: 2 pre-season habs vs pens, centre Bell, Sabou between pipes
-- September 21-22 Vald'Or, duck hunting?
Long week-end September 28th: Copenhagen, Denmark @ Mike's
Long w-e October 6th: Octoberfest Munich, Germany @ Ben's
October *12th -- *17th: Kiev, Ukraine, party trip with and payed by my boss, oh yeah
November * -- Egypt

(* Dates to confirm)

Temps de chiotte sur Paname

Je sais pas ce qui nous plait tant a Paris ca doit etre l'espoir... c'est surement pas la température.

Paris en avril : "Pfff ! Il fait pas beau encore ce week-end. Mais on arrive au mois de Mai. En Mai fait ce qui te plait !"

Paris en mai : "Pfff ! Il fait pas beau encore ce week-end. J'espère qu'au mois de juin, il fera beau !"

Paris en juin : "Pfff ! Il fait pas beau encore ce week-end. Bon, juillet c'est l'été, il devrait faire beau !"

Paris en juillet : "Pfff ! Il fait pas beau encore ce week-end. De toutes facons le mois de juillet, il fait souvent moche. Heureusement ya août !"

Paris en août : Le 25 août : "De toutes facons c'est foutu cet été. Cette année, c'est pourri. L'été prochain, il devra donc faire beau !"

Paris l'été prochain : .... (revenir à description de juin...)

jehaisparis.over-blog

Balade moto aux portes de la Normandie

hustle, bustle and so much muscle awww
cells about to separate
and i find it hard to concentrate and

temporary this cash and carry
i'm stepping up to indicate
the time has come to deviate and

all i want is for you to be happy and
take this moment to make you my family and
finally you have found something perfect and
finally you have found

death defying this mess i'm buying
it's raining down with love and hate
and i find it hard to motivate and

estuary is blessed but scary your
heart's about to palpitate
and i'm not about to hesitate and

one to treasure the rest of your days here and
give you pleasure in so many ways dear and
finally you have found something perfect and
finally you have found......here we go

do you want me to show up for duty and
serve this woman and honor her beauty and
finally you have found something perfect and
finally you have found......yourself

with me....will you...agree...to take
this man...into your world
and now...we are as one

my lone ranger the heat exchanger
is living in this figure eight
and i'll do my best to recreate and

sweet precision and soft collision awww
hearts about to palpitate
and i find it hard to seperate and

all i want is for you to be happy and
take this woman and make you my family and
finally you have found someone perfect and
finally you have found...

all i want is for you to be happy and
take this woman and make you my family and
finally you have found someone perfect and
finally you have found...yourself

Max, Brez, Natasha and the girls in Paris

The week-end after my bday I had a few visitors in Paris. Lucky enough a friend of mine Clemence, was away in Italy for a week and I had to feed her fish, hence had her appartment too. 6 at my place wouldof been a little packed. So I did my first tourist activities since I moved here 3 months ago, I climbed the effel tour ouhou :)

Marc/Max/Barb/Mag/Helene Paris Aout 2007

Dures Dures les baguettes

Parlez-en a Marc Brezina qui y a laissé un morceau de palette lors de sa visite chez nous a Paris!

Let's start it again for the 27th time

July 31st was the day were I started to live by my own means, or almost. We had to celebrate that a little ... The evening started @ restaurant Les galopins close to Place de la Bastille in Paris and ended in a club on rue de Lappe close by.


You can check out the pictures on Alex's Flickr account and on JF's website photo Gallery. on JF's gallery, follow links Menu Principal > Photo 2007 > Anniversaire de jp - resto les gallopins.

La Fiesta en Barcelona photos

As I said in my first post La Fiesta en Barcelona I was awaiting pictures from Max to post them. Here there are.

Sorry I haven't quite been up to date on my blog, Facebook as been eating the only internet time I get. I still don't have internet @ home so it makes it a little hard, although I'm never home so I guess it wouldn't make much a difference :)

Barcelona 007

3 Day Week-End in Languedoc : Montpelier & Nimes

Last week-end me, max, natasha and alex went for a little "escapade" in South of France. We stayed @ Mélanie & Julien for 2 nights and their reception was simply wonderful, making us feeling like we were home. The theme of the week-end was beach & music. We attended 3 shows in 3 nights, were the highlights were Carl Cox @ Electromind Festival , Arcade Fire & Arctic Monkeys @ Arenes de Nimes. We slept in a nice little hotel on Sunday night in Nimes, which is a quiet little city were we were able to just sit on the terasse and relax before returning to high pace living Paris.
I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so I'll point you to Max and Alex's Blog/Pictures/Videos.
Petit week-end dans le Languedoc : Montpelier et N...
Electromind a Montpellier 2007

L'Edifice ou je travaille fait les manchettes ...

liens vers article

"Les syndicalistes d’IBM appellent ça «des salariés en mode panique». Réduction des effectifs, surcharge de travail, rationalisation excessive du management, quasi-disparition des contacts entre collègues. La pression augmente parmi certains salariés français de la multinationale. Libération s’est ­procuré des rapports que les médecins du travail d’IBM ont présentés aux instances représentatives de l’entreprise. Ils concernent les 3 500 salariés de l’immeuble Descartes, à La Défense, le plus grand site français du groupe (11 000 salariés en tout en France). Une photographie glaçante du mal-être au travail. Pour la seule année 2006, 29 dépressions, 9 «burn out» (ou épuisement mental) liés au travail, et 185 urgences médicales «pour lesquelles les facteurs professionnels ont le plus souvent un rôle déclenchant»."

No worries, Im chill'in

First week of July in Québec

When I delt my contract to leave for France, I managed to get time off and a plain ticket to come back during the first week of July since I had plans 4 that week. There was my high school reunion, fishing with JF, Sabou and Tip Tom, had to prepare my Montreal appartment so It would be ready to sublet in the middle of July... So it was a busy week, spent between Montreal, Val d'Or and my cottage @ Lac Sabourin. Real good times, to catch up with good mates ans old mates from high school. I'll be back quite soon for a week @ the end of August for my Visa. See ya soon Québec!

Aprilia RS

My new love, she's called Aprilia, isn't she hot?

Sabou back in Pittsburgh

Today, Sabby was a free agent and he signed a 2 year deal with Pittsburgh Penguins. The Canucks had previously offered a one year deal which wasn't what they were looking for. He already played 2 years for the Penguins organisation and he was very sucessfull dressing up with the little penguins in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
He'll be joining a great team a few good friends like Fleury and Talbot. Good stuff and good times to come.

La fiesta en Barcelona

2 week-ends ago I went for a little week-end in Barcelona. Damn I love that city.
I hadn't carefully picked up my plane ticket and I landed in Girona on firday night, 1h15 minute bus ride away from the city. I guess for a 100 Euros plane ticket you dont land in Barcelona Airport. Over there, I was meeting Max and his Sherby crew and we had rented an appartment close to Placa Catalunya, the endpoint of La Rambla. Getting there, I had so many souvenirs from my last trip, it's like I had lived there. Seeing the sun rise every morning before going to bed after a big night is simply beautiful.
I was also meeting Alexandra a friend from Montreal that use to work @ Maa. She was in town for her sister's Mathilde Med School Graduation. The 2 sisters were great company all week-end, Mathilde got us in @ Pacha VIP on Saturday and she always knew all the hot spots and people. Saturday we walked around the old gothic Barcelona and stoped by here and there for Tapas and Sangria before going to Pacha for the night. Then, came Sunday and that was bad news, first I had slept a total of 5 hours in the week-end, second I really didn't want to leave, I tried very hard to miss my flight back home in Paris to stay over there, but I got to the airport 30 minutes before departure! Im still waiting for the good pictures, so I'll post them when I get them ....

Premier Ministre De la Republique est un Pochetron

Trop de Vodka au G8

Prime Time of your Life

A great disappointment since I was in Paris, was that the Daft Punk concert was sold out when I got here. But thanks to Leger going to Brazil, I was lucky enough to be able to get a hand on his ticket.
It was a hell of a show. These guys are just unbelievable. From the way they dress up, to the quality of the sound they throw at us, to the breathtaking lighting, to the incredible vibe in Bercy, it was just sublime! They played all the hits, remixed together, aerodynamics with a touch of around the world.... WOW WOW WOW

Daft Punk Bercy

Les Nuits Sonores 2007 Lyon

Voici les photos de mon week-end a

Lyon 007

Ever heard of Defence wins Championships

Sorry Sen's fans, I would myself have loved to see a Canadian team win the cup this year, but it's a hard task against 2 of the best D's in the NHL. There's not much you will do against a squad led by noneother than Chris Pronger and Scotty Niedermayer. Look at what Pronger was able to do with the Edmonton Oilers last year. Chip in a good Goalie and a few goal scorers and there you go. Wish I could of watched a few games, I miss good old hockey ....

On the picture you have Scotty with Russ Rankin singner of Santa the Cruz Hardcore band Good Riddance and the good old cup I was holding myself in November.

The Nun Syndrome

A friend of my buddy Mani has a Commics website, and I stumbled on it again this week and tought I could share it even if the stories can be shocking for some ...

Roland Garros

Yesterday morning, I did a little stop by Roland Garros before going to work to watch Freddy win his first qualifying match. He had a extra vip pass for the week so I gotta a hand on it. With a little luck, maybe I can see Mr. Federer hit a few balls this week-end, or even better, maybe Freddy makes it to the main draw. Here is the article on the Rds Website

He's playing his second match today if weather allows.

Lyon

Bon ce week-end nous sommes allé rendre vistité notre pot Guillaume dans le centre sud de la France a Lyon pour un gros festival musical Les Nuits Sonores. Le programme du week-end fut , départ de Paris Vendredi à 20:00 en courant pour attraper le train après avoir trinqué 2 pintes. Le vendredi soir on a vu Violent Femme, Damien Lazarus et pour complèter le tout, la fabuleuse Miss Kitten. Que de plaisir pour les oreilles. Samedi, petite visite de Lyon, surtout du vieux Lyon portant encore les marques de l'occupation romaine. Et ce, pour se rendre au Palais de la Bière, et oui, sur la Côte du Rhone ou le vin est roi, un palais de la bière ou les gars vont à chaque fois qu'ils sont sur Lyon et ou on nous a réservé un acceuil très chaleureux. Ensuite nous avons terminé avec une bonne bouffe dans la montagne, 2 rue des fantasque, restaurant Au Temps Perdu, suggestion des Dobracoracols avec qui nous avons mangé après le show de Patick Watson mardi. Kelou fut un chef et embassadeur hors pair avec qui nous avons terminé la soirée dans un petit club de Lyon. Défénitivement un resto à ne pas manquer. Dimanche, journée tranquille, Barbecue sur la terasse, chillin time. Je vais ajouter des photos qd Max va me les envoyer.

Patrick Watson à la boule noire

Mardi soir je suis allé voir Patrick avec Alex à la boule noire, c'était un excellent show.

Sarco is in, Jipp is moving again

The last 2 weeks were pretty much influenced by politics, France voted in Sarkosy, a President from the right, a little hobbit with capitalist ideas(Maybe some remember him with his brutal interventions during the riots in Paris suburbs 2 years ago). The youth of France wasn't pleased by the results of the election and there's been a few fun riots.

For my part, allot has happen but not much worth mentioning; work work, many restaurants, much partying. I finally started playing squash, realised I have to quit smoking. After squash with Ben, a buddy of Max and co-worker @ IBM, I went for dinner with him and met his friend Clemence who found me an amazing appartment dans le 4ieme arrondissement, 5 minute walk from where I live now. I'm so anxious to move in July.

Travelling wise, my trip in London where we had a great condo in Nothing Hill waiting for us got cancelled after the EuroTunnel was hit by a lightning, so we had to postpone that one. I got my flight booked to go back in Quebec for the first week of July, I'll be in Vald'or for my high school reunion, and a few days fishing. Booked a week-end with Max and the boys from Sherby in Barcelona in June. Here are a few pictures from Paris, I broke my digital camera and Alex lost his so I guess there will be a few good shots missing for a little while ;)

Paris 2007

Rue Quincampoix dans le 3iemes a Paris

This week, I moved-in my 23 m2 sur la rue Quincampoix(picture above), name you can remember from the movie, le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulin. If you take a Paris map and point straight in the center, Im right there. 5 minute walk from le Louvre and Notre-Dame. The apartment itself is a bit rustic. I feel like I was back in the 1800's when I have to climb all the way to the 6th floor or touching the ceiling when I shower and a few other inconvenients... No complaints though, it's cheap, got a bunch of friends living in a 5 minute radius and I am 20 minutes away from work and about anywhere in Paris.

Last week-end was spent going out, moving Ghyslain with 15 other Quebecois while drinking lots of beer. The bunch of expatriates from Quebec here are pretty tight, its quite cool.

On the negative side, I had to deal with the freaking French complexity to do about anything. You can't freaking take a dump here without your official visa, bank card and passport. Other than that stupid bureaucracy bullshit, Paris is a great city. I'm leaving tomorrow for a little party week-end in London.

€€€

First Week in Paris

On the picture, the white monument @ the end of l'Avenue de la Grande Armée is la Grande Arche de la Fraternité. This shot is taken from l'Arc de Triomphe. La Grande Arche is located in the business district of La Defence west of Paris. I work in one of the towers beside the Arche. A cool thing about my workplace is that it has 2 squash courts :)

So here goes my first 2 weeks in Paris. There was allot of work and going through my task list. I had to open a bank account, shop for my cell phone, shop for Internet, find an apartment which will be in the 3rd district until I find something better, in between Le Centre Pompidou and Le Louvre ...

Currently my hotel is in Neuilly, a rich neighbourhood of Paris really close to where I work. I guess I wouldn't mind staying @ the hotel more than the 2 weeks planned. Since I've been here, We've been working hard, the project we our working on was kind of doomed and we are trying to save it, but let's say french politics are quite different and we've been having a hard time to have a good chain of commands. Plus we are outsourcing part of the programming to Vietnam which has not proven a successful partnership up to now.

After all the hard work we go out for diner or for a drink with a bunch of Alex's(Alex is the guy that brought me here) friends, he knows so many people. Last Saturday, after I learned that I couldn't go to the Vitalic concert because it was sold out, I went for a chill night by myself to a cool little restaurant playing house music beside my hotel. It's called Epices Riz - Tapas y Pasta and it's a mixture of Italian/Spanish food. I ended up meeting a bunch of people staying @ the restaurant with the staff and friends and drinking their private collection of wine and champagne. A couple of "Someliers" Mathieu and Charlotte invited me to stop by the store to taste a few more wines when I'll have time. Since then, Ive been eating to that restaurant every night I can, Alex loved it also.

On the week-end I went running twice in les Bois de Boulogne located right beside the Hotel.
I also went for a walk/shop @ l'Arc de Triomphe and Les champs Élysées.

Last night we went to a Pierre Lapointe concert @ La Cigale with a bunch of Quebecois, it was a good show and we had a great time goofing around @ the concert and @ the bar after that. Going in to work this morning was a different thing though. Every Thursday night there is le Pot Québecois, a gathering of Québekers going for drinks somewhere in Paris. We should be looking that out tonight.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Great movie online on the recent history of the software industry big players Pirates of Silicon Valley (1 hour & 1/2).
Steve Jobs is tha man, apple is tha shit!!

Friday The 13th was a scary night. it was my Goodbye diner in Montreal, I had a few drinks with a bunch of friends @ Maa and later we had diner @ Taro were a few dj's had us grooving for a great night out. The evening was simply amazing, I couldn't imagine a better way to miss this beautiful city. Thanks to everyone that showed up.

I got in Paris on Monday morning, went to work in the afternoon and slept for 13 hours straight after that. The arrival is great, almost everything feels just right. Went to visit my miniature apartment last night, randomly met my buddy Alex going to catch my train and I later met a dude Faycal that was working @ Oracle a while back in the subway. Small world. I am now writing these lines in a nice little cafe. Keep it real ya'll.

My last concert in Montreal, Placebo @ Metropolis

Last night, Dave invited me to the Placebo soldout concert. So I joined the 4 Delierre brohers for the evening. We pre-drank @ Mars & Venus watching the habs fighting the leafs for a playoff spot. People were nuts in that place, when the habs scored 4 goals in 10 minutes, we just felt like we were right there @ Bell Center.

We left in the middle of the third to catch Placebo playing their first song. Great concert, great crowd, great times. Placebo is a British alternative band with a great voice. The song from the video is one of their best ones and it really rocked last night. Thanks Dave for the invite.

Paris, France

Aight, here it goes. Last Monday, my buddy Alex wrote me on msn, that IBM was looking for java developers in Paris for next Monday, joking I said "I'm in". The next day, I had a phone call from Phil, a guy working for Acti, a company that specializes in sending expatriates from Montreal to France and England. That means I get to work in France while not paying taxes in Canada nor in France.

I had one day to make the move. On one side I had to leave a great job at Oracle, with the best group of people you can find to work with, great conditions and a great project. I had to decide to leave far away from my family and friends, from Marie-Claude, from the best sport club in the world, from a great apartment. But there was no way I was going to let that stop me from the adventure of moving to another continent, to face new personal and professional challenges. From the time I got the official phone call from Phil, I had 36 hours to give my final decision. That was a hell of a 36 hours. But here I am now, moving to Paris in 12 days .... for a 12 month renewable contract. Hope you can come to the old continent to visit!

For you Parisians reading this I'll be looking for an apartment in Paris, preferably furnished.
For people in Montreal, I haven't officially subleased my apartment, fully furnished, so you might still have a shot.

My goodbye party should be on Friday April 13th so keep this free in your agenda.

Andrea Lindsay and Erik Mongrain

Tonight I had a call from Kyla, an old friend from Kitco, asking me to assist to the show of an artist I adore, Andrea Lindsay also a former Kitco employee. She is anglophone and she sings in french, it's quite something, find it for yourself looking @ her latest clip, "Le dernier cosmonautes".

The show was taking place @ Patro VYS a cosy crowded little bar on Mont-Royal and was as intimate as it can get.

Opening the evening was another impressive underground artist, Erik Mongrain. Look up his guitar skills in this clip called "Air Tap"

Google apps: Picassa

Google just keep on releasing state of the art applications. What's more, all these applications are linked together. Google is taking over Web 2.0.

The latest candy I tried was the Picassa photo sharing application. What is so impressive about it, is not necessarily the quick web slide shows, nor the lagging time almost nonexistent, nor the 1Gb free memory space, but the pluggins they make for thick native clients. I just installed the pluggin for iPhoto, my photo viewer application on Mac, and it just works beautifully. I go on my computer, look in my albums for my latest trip, select a bunch of photos and tell iPhoto to send all these photos in a new picassa album on the web that I can share with my friends.

I haven't checked if other big players like yahoo and Microsoft have done the same but they better do it fast because Google will eat em up, Google seams to do everything right, I am starting to think even highly critisized youTube 3Billion$ acquisition might lead to greatness!
Picassa
Download picassa pluggin and uploader for Mac

Vancouver visit with stops @ Whistler/Blackomb

Link to album Vancouver visit @ the Sabourins 007

So I left the warm and sunny Mexico for the rainy and chilly Vancouver with a 3 hour stop in Phoenix Arizona. Dany picked me up @ the airport and we went for a snack!

Vancouver is just such a beautiful city when its not raining. The Canucks had 3 home games during that week so I spent a fair amount of time @ the arena for practices and games. I was even asked for an autograph :) For games it was great, the spouses and friends of the players have a little lounge with free food, wine & beer where they go in between periods and some spend the whole game in there. Watching a game with Coco, Dany and Cindy's 1 yr old daughter can be very entertaining. So they lost against the Wild on Tuesday. After practice Wednesday I was in the dressing room with Sabou and Burrows and he had this funny interview on the canucks website where I tried to get him saying his teammates made fun of his pelican but it didn't work out. That day was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to walk in Stanley park before I left for Whistler at the end of the afternoon.

That next day @ Blackomb, I had the best snowboard run of my life. We got @ the mountain around 8:30 and that 1 run finished like 3 hours later. We went to the highest point of Blackomb ending that with a t-bar, it had been a while... and a 1hr hike in the back country. The scenery was magnificent, the sun was out, it is not often you have a good view like that on that mountain, we were very lucky. Getting up there was a challenge, when went up on Disease Ridge I was exhausted. We had to get around the ridge walking on snow that could just not hold, my hearth was pounding. I never thought getting my leg up in the air, letting go some safe anchor to go forward and find another one, could generate so much adrenaline.
Then we got to the end of the ridge Dede went first were he thought he could find a good line. The great thing about this is the little prick had never been there before, finally we found an amazing chute with incredible powder and more and more. Then we had like 5 smaller runs before we called it a day. I had to be back in Vancouver for the Game against St-Louis @ 7pm, very boring game that the Canucks won in overtime.

Then it was Vancouver tourism and hockey game against Detroit where the Canucks kicked ass. Sunday my last day was spent in Whistler where we caught a really normal day but Dede brought us in a good spot in the back country where we built a nice little kicker with his chica Amelie. Then I headed back to Vancou for my ride home to Montreal with westjet, they rock by the way.

Thanks to the Sabourin's hospitality and Dede's guidance through some fine snowboarding.

Link to album Whistler/Blackomb

Mexico 007

Link to Album Mexico 007

This journey's starting point was just a nightmare. Big storm was pounding on the North East, my flight left 4 hours late for Chicago and I missed my connection to LA. Freaking American Airlines where just a bitch. In Montreal they gave me a reservation for a new route through San Jose Los Cabos(international airport beside Baja California) in case I didn't make it to my LA connection but the suckers didn't take care of rerouting my luggage's and give me a new boarding pass when I got to Chicago. Result: slept for 1hour on an army bed in the secured zone @ the airport and wake up @ 4am to get out of the zone, reroute my luggage's and get a new boarding pass before clearing customs again. I finally got to Mazatlan Mexico 12 hours late. Screw AA, never fly with them.

Although it didn't start quite right, the rest of the trip deserves 5 stars. Simon picked me up @ the airport with Mc, we went to the house, the McCrory's have an amazing setup out there. Diane cooked us some very good wally that were caught in Cosala and we went for a beer at Joe's with Simon with an exclusive Mexican crowd. The following 2 days were spent, on the beach, surfing @ Bruja, visiting el Centro de Mazatlan and driving around town with the newly rented Wrangler Jeep.

On Tuesday, Mc's birthday, we left along highway 13 for a great open air drive south towards the coastal village of San Blas. There we got a beautiful hotel room on sea side and the only other traveller staying there was a guy from Ottawa that runs a Bar in Puerto Vallarta. We went for a ride on the beach and got stuck in the sand. The 4X4 wasn't working very well so we needed a few locals to push this heavy peace of shit out of the sand, it was quite allot fun. Mc tried offering a few pesos to the locals but they didn't want to take it :) The following morning we went to do the highlight of that little town which is to have a boat ride on La Tobara where you can see a few crocodiles, birds, lizards, turtles...

We left that same afternoon because there were too much sand flies and we were bitten like crazy. We drove another hour south on the coast on a beautiful road to get to Sayulita, a little surf town 15 minutes away from PV where we staid for 2 nights. There I rented a long board for a few hours and caught some small waves.

Then we headed back to Mazatlan for a 6 hour drive in the sun which helped to catch a few sunburns. On Saturday I went surfing again but the wave was breaking flat @ bruja so I looked around for another spot and had a hell of a jeep ride in the Nuevo Mazatlan road. I found a spot but I saw a few fins at large which was a little creapy. Later Tom said they were probably just Sting Rays swimming sideways. On Sunday we went on a catamaran to visit the Island and have a walk on top of the mountain where we got beautiful sights of the city and the ocean.

So it was a great little escapade, great food, great beaches, good company and great hosting by the McCrory family. Then was time to head down to Vancouver to see the Sabourin's which will be covered in my following post.

2 weeks of Surf and Snowboard confirmed

Mexico
I bought my plane tickets this morning. Im leaving next friday march 2nd to meetup with Mc on a red-eye to Mazatlan Mexico where I'll base my Mexico stay @ my good mate McCrory's home. The sad part about this is that he'll be here in Quebec, very bad timing indeed but this just happened too fast, got my vacation approval only 2 days ago.

Vancouver
Then 11 days later, I'll be flying out of Mazatlan to Vancouver BC to visit Sabou & the little familly and catch 3 Canucks home game. If I'm real lucky he'll be between pipes for one of those. I'll be carying my Snowboard gear to get 2 days of powder in the Whistler area with my friend Dede. Helidrop plans are in the air :)

I should be back home in Montreal on the 18th if I don't decide to just live the life and travel the world. Cheers ya'll!

"Your work is to discover your world and then

with all of your heart give yourself to it."

- Buddha

W #1

February 19 was huge. Listening to the Canucks hockey game on my laptop in my living room while finishing stuff for work. 38 Saves on 40 shots against none other than the best team in the NHL at the moment, Sabby met expectations tonight with his first NHL win, fuck yeah Sabouuuuuuuuuuuuuu my man!!

"The popular guy they call Sabby waited 11 games for another crack and Tuesday night in Anaheim the Canucks players in front of him busted their humps to help the Roberto Luongo stand-in earn his first ever NHL victory with a 3-2 overtime win over the Ducks."

Célébration

Samedi le 27 Janvier fut une soiree belle petite soirée. On célèbrait le départ de notre ami Biggy pour ca nouvelle terre d'acceuil la Gaspésie en banlieu de Montréal, c'est pas loin Big c'est juste a côté, ainsi que le 25ieme anniversaire de naissance de mademoiselle Cathou!

Tout ce beau monde se donnait rendez-vous Resto Dans La Bouche ou nous attendions Cath avec un "SURPRISE". Specialités du resto sont les tapas, a ce que je puisse me rapeller les escargots sur champignons et le brie fondant a l'orange et bleuet étaient phenomenals. Le tout fut un souper bien amusant et bien arrosé, faut dire que le nectare des dieux est a moitié prix avant 9 hrs dans ce lieu bucal, alors 2 bouteilles de Liberty School plutot qu'une furent de mises.

Après un festival de photos et une aventure de taxi entremêlé de cris genre "Ma te skinner la raie sti" le tout c'est poursuivi sur la rue Laurier au Bar Baldwin. Ouch les "ptites bouteilles" comme on les apelles poursuivirent le travail ammorcé par el vino tinto. Après avoir renversé plusieurs verres, taché plusieurs pantalons et tombé par terre, nos joyeux aventuriers decidèrent d'aller de l'avant et terminer la soirée dans ma demeure.

Aille Yaille Yaille, les boutch d'en bas en ont eu a coeur joie. Merci a Marie-Andree et Kevin de s'être soucier du bonheur des dites voisines mais ma réponse ressemblait a "Faites plus de bruit, Charrues!". Alors tournoi de babyfoot et royal rumble justqu'a 6hrs du mat alors que la buveries c'est poursuivie(en fait je m'en rapelle plus trop mais sur les photos ...).


Pour conclure sur le départ d'Etienne, il quittait aujourd'hui pour la Gaspesie et hier nous sommes allés avec morin et gagnon voir la partie du canadien au centre bell contre M.Crosby. Le tout c'est poursuivi a la cage au sport pour écouter le SuperBowl et boire l'alcool gratuit gagné par le frère d'Etienne. Belle petite journée, on lui souhaite bonne chance a Gaspé. En passant, si vous trouvez une caméra digitale sur la rue, apellez Etienne il a égaré la sienne hier avec les 200 photos de la journée ;)