I was walking on Maisonneuve from the East towards Saint-Laurent station and I saw a tree that already had buds in its branches. It feels like there are going to be leaves on every tree by the end of the month.

Usability is a hot topic with respect to websites. When a visitor gets to your website, you don’t want them clicking away in frustration. So you think carefully about the layout and the content. You may even do user tests to see how well the web pages perform.

Would that the redesigners of the Montreal Gazette thought usability as well. Again it’s the Sunday edition that irritates. You can see some of the details in another blog item on Usability and the Montreal Gazette. Just because it’s a physical item, that doesn’t mean the job is easier.

While they’re looking into the details, they might also check their style guide. In a reference to a beetle (not Sir Paul McCartney although he was in the news this week), they hyphenated the word as bee-tle. Ah well, what’s a superfluous hyphen between friends versus the usability issues.

The question put before this months collection of YULblog attendants last night was:

What is your favorite movie filmed or based in Montreal?

Maggie: The Bone Collector
Jean-Pierre: Gas Bar Blues or CRAZY
Mare: Jésus de Montréal
Eric: Les Invasions Barbares
AJ: Hold the Ketchup
Marie-Jo: The Score
Zeke: Battlefield Earth
Jonas: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Ed: Sweet Movie or The Moderns
Stephan: Les Boys
Ariane: Québec/Montréal
Stephan: Lance et Compte
Marc: Snake Eyes
Eric B: Un Zoo la Nuit
Julien: The Jackel
Eric D: Taking Lives
Martine: Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle
Jason: Jésus de Montréal
Antoine: Léolo
Patrick: The Red Violin
Ge: Maelstrom
Ella: 2 Secondes
Francois: In Praise of Older Women
Alex: Deux Femmes en Or
Martin: CRAZY
and yours truly: The Red Violin

Here is a list of others I found via Google. If I missed anyone, please let me know.

I saw this little old woman in the metro today during rush hour. Ususally, I see them and they look weak like they would collapse at any moment, but this one was different. She was holding her newspaper using both her hands and standing in perfect balance while the subway wagon did it’s usual crazy moves. It was great. I always knew that age never has anything to do with anything.

With provincial premiers virtually begging the new Conservative government to restore education funding to pre-1995 levels, this event is certainly well-timed. For a larger version of the poster, click on the thumbnail below.