November 2004 Archives

Tinkering...tinkering...if someone can tell me why the pictures aren't showing up in the top left corner and the top, please let me know.

UPDATE: Never mind, I figured that out. Now if I can figure how to make sure that this layout works in both Firefox and IE at smaller resolutions...

UPDATE 2: Well, it "works" in both browsers, just not the same way at all. Looks good in Firefox with a large resolution, but not as good in IE. The fonts are way too big, although that could simply be my particular browser. If you are having problems with the text, try changing the size of it. In IE 6, you need the "change text size button", which you get by right-clicking the toolbar, selecting "Customize", then selecting the button from the right to add to the left. In Firefox, Ctrl + '+" increases text size, Ctrl + '-' decreases it, and Ctrl + "0" resets it to the page defaults. If anyone knows how to create pages that are in harmony between browsers, let me know.

This layout is called Stella 2.0. I will keep this for a little while after I finish changing some colours and fixing lines. Hopefully I will have some skins available for you.

I apologize for the lack of updates lately. If I had a job I would update much more, oddly enough.

Rose (after speaking to a British man she had never met before): "What do you say to a British man who isn't feeling well?"
JP: No idea.
Rose: You k?

Yeah, you had to be there, but it was a big hit, even with the British guy. More on yesterday's Grey Cup party and the beast that was created through alchemy, then slain for our consumption. As soon as I get the pictures.

I have a Creative Webcam Model No PC 1030. I lost the software. It's not like me to lose software, but I did. Does anyone have the software? Anyone? I would really like to use this cam the way it was meant to be used. I am also interested in the cam community at large. So any help would be appreciated.

Now, onto the real entry. From gloveboxsandwiches:

Ever notice a lot of one type of person that you wouldn't normally see? Black people that have nothing to do with each other in a white neighbourhood. Mentally or physically handicapped people not in a group. One-armed bandits. Yesterday, I noticed no less than 15 very pregnant women. Being pregnant isn't unusual in and of itself, but noticing so many in one day is, at least for me.

I highly recommend "The Incredibles" if you haven't seen it yet. Excellent movie. Jason Lee as Syndrome and Holly Hunter as Helen Parr/Elastigirl were a nice bonus. One thing I just realized this second: the bitch-type who redeems herself towards the end (Mirage) looks just like a certain Montreal blogger that I know through Diaryland. It's spooky. If you stretch your mind a little, though not that much, you would find that her story resembles this blogger's as well. Weird.

--- CRUDE ENTRY WARNING --- --- CRUDE ENTRY WARNING --- --- CRUDE ENTRY WARNING ---

Rose and I just had a quickie (shut up, it's my blog). She got up to get dressed to go to work. I sat right here watching her, wearing nothing but my Black Label T-shirt (it says, "DANS LE NOIR JE DEVIENS BLACK"). She asked me why I looked so serious. I said, "How serious could I look? I'm only wearing a T-shirt, your stuff is all over my dick and it's shrinking."

How could you take anyone seriously looking like that?

First, Rose may finally go full-time into her chosen field as of today. As mentioned previously, she just got a part-time position in her field last week. They have already upgraded her to full-time and she will start that schedule next week. She makes as much in a shift at the bookstore as she does in two hours massaging.

I told her months ago that she was going up while I was going down, back when she was broke and I was making decent money. It seems to be true. My severance runs out tomorrow. Rose has a few ideas for me, but mostly she is going to be creating an empire. And she aspires for nothing less than a mini-empire. International conferences, books, retreats, the whole deal. You heard it here first.

Last week on my birthday (Happy 30th today, by the way, Mr. Jones), the hairdresser I found spoke to me about expanding her business as well as the black natural hair business in the city. She thinks that I may be the person to do it, too, through the web. I am going to try to set up a meeting with her to see what her vision is, and use her connections as best I can.

In other news, we (Rose and I) have decided to move in together. She will move in here in a couple of weeks, then we will find a larger place in the spring. Hopefully it will be much larger with floors that are not crooked, although that may be difficult in Montreal. This is a first for me. I had a couple of chances to cohabit with a girlfriend (is that the right word? the right usage?) but this time it is going to happen. More on that as it develops.

By the way, does anyone need a piano? I have one that is for sale soon.

Okay, maybe Mikey can help me out with this, although I don't know why he would, necessarily. When I was young, I, like most other kids, loved Saturday morning cartoons. Everything seemed super interesting. Even the commercials were interesting (except for those ads hawking Strawberry Shortcake™ and My Little Pony®). McDonald's ads were at every cartoon break. I was used to McDonald's ads; they were just part of the scene whether it was Thursday night or Sunday afternoon. But there was always something different about Saturday morning McDonald's ads on ABC. It was years before I figured it out, though.

Everyone in these ads was black.

I swear, they were the same ads, with the same dialogue and music, but every single person was black. Initially I made child-like sense of it and made some kind of conclusion about my place in the world, being black myself; I wish I remember what it was. I think it was something about how I belong, but only ion Saturday mornings. But one day I realized how strange it was, and it floored me. It was like a Bizarro McDonald's or something.

Does anyone else remember these ads? Do they still do this? I imagine that they do ads in Spanish in Florida the way we have French ads in Quebec.

All right folks. I need it and I need it bad.

I'm talking about a job, you pervs. If you are in the Montreal area, I will consider just about anything ecept programming or manual labour. Or clerical. Or retail, fast food or the like. And I would prefer to avoid sales again, but I will definitely consider it if it is good. Okay? Easy.

UPDATE: Maybe I will go the clerical route, but I don't answer phones, and only if there is a strong possibility to get elsewhere in the organization really fast. And sorry if I notified you twice.

My nose is running so much that I have put a head kerchief on bandido-style, and I look like a bandit. I'm just letting it run; I'm tired of blowing my nose, and wiping and all that crap. Been sneezing like a motherfucker. Quite annoying. I really need some medicine and fast. I don't want to leave the house like this, and I have a class tonight.

Rose got a job! She started as a massage therapist in her neighbourhood! So far she has one day and two nights, but I see this expanding quickly within a few months to the point where she can quit her other job. That reminds me: I got my hair done on my birthday (I finally found a hairdresser!) and she is interested in Rose as a massage therapist. This woman has connections like crazy, and she even started me on a couple of projects as well, including her website. Could a freelance life be beckoning me? Nah, I'm probably too lazy.

My oven does not work. I checked the fuses up top, but they appear to be fine. I would rather not have to take my elements out and test them. I heard that there are other fuse-type things you can check. Does anyone know about these? i am sure that this is easily fixable.

Today, I can finally say that I haven't done something in 30 years. Namely, be in a womb.

This year, the powerful feeling I get around my birthday didn't come. It's too bad; you only turn thirty once. Tough times, I guess. I am not in a position to be as kingly and as confident as I usually am when the moon turns Scorpio (or whatever you call it). I suppose not having a job on your birthday helps. At least this year I was able to go away for my birthday like I tradionally used to do. In the last ten years I missed this opportunity only twice: last year I was broke, and five years ago, I very nearly broke my leg, and was homebound for a week and a half.

This year Rose and I went to Ste-Adèle, up north, to a bed-and-breakfast called "La Belle Idée". It was run by a small, attractive woman in her early 50s who only took over the place six months ago. That afternoon, we went to Rose's favourite restaurant (because I am no longer as picky about restaurants as I once was). I received my presents there: The World of Robert Jordan's 'The Wheel of Time' known among us in the know as simply "The Guide", and Savoureuses Expressions Québécoises, which will help me fully integrate the « joual québécois » into my spoken (but hopefully not written) French. Excellent gifts for one such as I. I was impressed on different levels. Later that evening, we saw the film "Ray" with Jamie Foxx. I definitely recommend it. We returned the next day, but since I was late returning the car, I still have it as of this writing.

It just occurred the me that I am now in the 30-something club. I'm in da club. And it's my birthday. Heh.

***

Yesterday, Rose and I were at her place and got up to some action. I was ontop of her, looking into her eyes, but my hair was getting in the way. She reached over to her nighttable and put a Richie Tenenbaum-type bandanna on my head. I made a tennis reference, and she said: Penis Williams.