High school guys who want to be “in”, often wear oversized clothes. High school girls who want to be “in”, often wear tight clothes, or very tight. That’s how it was during the time I was in high school. Not so much my school, because it was private, but I had friends on the outside. It seems that it’s still that way.

I saw this teenage couple that was sitting in the back of the bus today, although they looked more like two people going to meet other people to smoke whatever. When they stood up from their seats, the dude went ahead and the girl followed him. So did a trail of chewing gum stuck on the girl’s butt. The gum expanded long enough to reach the door. It also reached a few people who were like “what the ?”. Some didn’t even noticed.

How one person can spread gum…

Finding a dead bird is not unusual. Finding two dead birds side by side now that is unexpected, even more so when they are not of the same species. They were in a courtyard so maybe they plowed into the same window but I have been in the area for two years and I’ve never seen that happen.

Last June, the Departement de la sante publique had a phone line in which we could report large dead birds that might have been infected by West Nile Virus. We’ll see if they are still paying attention.

[update] They don’t care. I could get the sequence of the bird flu virus off the net, synthetize the required PCR primers and do a diagnostic myself but that would be pushing the paranoia a bit too hard.

Since the jackpot for tonight’s Lotto 6/49 is a cool $40 mil, we decided to buy a few. My wife, who is also a Lost fanatic, coudn’t resist putting in the 6 cursed numbers. Nothing good can come out of this, either we lose and we’re out two bucks, or the numbers are really cursed and we win. In that case not only are we fucked but we’ll have to share with 400 other Lost fans.

I study at Concordia University. Today I went to school at the downtown campus and I noticed something new. Outside Hall building and the JMSB building there are yellow lines painted on the ground near the entrances. The lines form a big square, at least 10 meters x 5 meters. At first it puzzled me… Why the yellow lines… Then I noticed the sign that could read “Clean the air. This is a smoke free perimeter.” I looked inside the perimeter and I saw at least 5 people smoking. I guess they were not yet aware of the new rule. I just searched the Concordia website and found this news article about the new measure. It says that this is due to Bill 112 which makes it illegal to smoke outside on school property within 9 meters of an entrance! Concordia security guards are supposed to enforce the new rule. They will have a lot of work to do as smoking outside the buildings’ entrances is very popular! But I am really happy about this new measure. As a non-smoker I find it so annoying when I arrive at school and have to go through a cloud of smoke to enter the building to go to class!

It’s my first post in Montreal metroblogging. Stealing some time off work to test out the human-machine interface and dreaming up what to post in the future.

The exhibit Sense of the City (Sensations Urbaine) start today at the Canadian Center for Architecture on West Rene-Levesque Boulevard. “Visitors can explore sensory perception in the urban environment and discover hidden qualities of the city.” All of the senses are covered (except the sense of taste as Zeke pointed out, I think). There is also a series of six lectures that accompany the exhibit. The second starts Thursday night. The lectures are given by: a great Canadian composer; a cultural historian; a theatre artist and performance scholar; a professor of urban and tourism studies; a performance art and interdisciplinary practices scholar; and a cultural anthropologist and former curator of the British Museum. Quite a diverse lineup. Curiously, no architects.

Also at the CCA until November 20th is the Super City exhibit by Douglas Copeland (Generation X). It “investigates the creative impact of the 1960s explosion of toy building kits, offering a reflection on the profound effect toys can have-not only on how children learn to perceive the world, but also in terms of the kinds of things they produce as adults.”

Enjoy.

Elections are coming up, there are a lot of ads of each party in the streets and also in the school of design at UQAM.

While clearing my cell phone, I noticed this (crappy) photo has been sitting in there for a long time (almost 2 months apparently). I think the reason why I shot this was because I thought the fabric isn’t great. It’s not leather and easily attracts dirt.

I don’t know what to say about the graphical aspect, but I’d like to know the reasoning behind it.

I just got back from Futureshop in downtown. Unless they repaired whatever is wrong, don’t go there today if you don’t intend to pay in cash. If there is a lot of customers, you will wait a long time to pay with any type of cards.

Reading Barry