BEDA 12: Egg day at the Sugar shack and a visit with the giants

hello everyone

On day twelve of BEDA I went to the sugar shack as it has been tradition in my family for years. You know religion is losing its touch when all churches are empty on easter and you see people reserving a year in advance to go to the sugar shack.

The sugar shack is basically a restaurant in a shack in a country setting. The food is typical Quebec (french canadian) meal, we usually go for brunch or rather bruncher (breakfast-lunch-dinner), i invented a new word, since it is so easy to over eat that you don't get that hungry for dinner after.

The meal start with traditional french canadian pea soup, some sugar shack now have vegetable soup. I suppose for the ones who do not like pea soup. than people dressed in old time clothing bring eggs (omelette), ham, mini sausages (it depends on the sugar shack some may not have that), potatoes (some sugar shack the potatoes are cooked with onions making it even yummier). beans. And it is all you can eat, usually it is an occasion for families to get together and therefore people reserve for big groups, since it is all you can eat you can always ask for more of one of the things they bring.

Some sugar shack also make their own home made ketchup, this is made of awesome, not all of them do it though. And you put maple syrup on everything. For dessert, my favourite is the crepes, the sugar shack i go to and most quebec sugar shack, the crepes are fried and crispy, I prefer that to the traditional american pancakes. Simply delicious.

At the sugar shack we went to this year, they also had another traditional french canadian thing, galette sarrazin, this is made with a different kind of flour and is flat. We usually put butter and molasse on it. And they also had maple syrup pie.

I ate one galette sarrazin and of course pancakes, this is one of the main reason I love going to the sugar shack, that and the taffy.

Taffy is amazing. They usually boil the sap to make maple syrup and boil it some more and you have taffy, they pour the mixture on snow, and yes there were still some snow where my parents live, though they manage to find some snow in the summer somehow because some sugar shacks are open in the summer, people from france actually came to experience this in the summer.

If you want the true experience of sugar shack I would suggest the province of Quebec, I went to one in Ontario and no offense but it WAS NOT the same, perhaps because I am used to the ones in Quebec and am picky.



I took a picture of myself replacing my face with the Paper Towns book. I received an email from Hank Green that he was asking everyone to take Paper Towns everywhere we go and take a picture with the book, in a way to celebrate the release of paper towns and send it to him. It said he would write a song and use the pictures that people sent him. I received this because i once signed on to the mailing list to receive news concerning the project for awesome.

Here my picture of sad margo at the sugar shack in Mont-Carmel.



After the sugar shack, I went to visit some giants. Not really giants just cousins but they are so tall that they look like giants compared to me, 5'1", I shook their hands and was afraid mine would be crushed. It was great to see them, I hadn't seen them in forever, the last time I believe I was perhaps 16. I didn't recognized them at all.

Well, since egg day is over, tomorrow I take a four hour trip back to Ottawa. As much as I love visiting my family, I can't wait to go back because I love Ottawa. It also means back to work but that is ok.

Day 12 of BEDA done, see you tomorrow.

BEDA 7: Actionscripting, Snow in April (RAWR) and rush hour protesti

Hello everyone

BEDA day seven. I am quite proud of myself for committing to this activity started by Maureen Johnson.

I want to talk about three things again today:

1- Actionscripting
2- Snow in April Yuk
3- Rush hour protest

Actionscripting: Recently I set myself a new goal or challenge, which consist in teaching myself actionscript. Flash programming language. It is going well, slowly but surely. I was extremely proud of myself last friday during lunch at work when I was able to figure out how to create a dropdown menu using actionscript 2.0. So proud that I almost was jumping up and down, well I was quietly still sitting on my chair but desperately felt like standing up and celebrate my new accomplishment. Unfortunately I did not, not wanting to disrupt my coworkers.

I am starting with version 2.0 before I move on to the 3.0 version as it is quite different and I figure I need to know the basics first.

I know for a lot of you, if you are a programmer, this may not be the biggest accomplishment but it is a big breakthrough for me. You see I am an artist and therefore have the artist mind primarily, although I also have a big part of the logical mind useful when programming, sometimes both minds collide generates a fight in my brain. Thus resulting in a blank expression on my face as if I am somewhere totally different. I believe the reason my expression gets like this especially after having looked at code for too long, is my artist mind saying: "enough, need creativity NOW!". I just basically end up looking like this programming thing is over my head as you can see in the picture below.

Blank face = mind going blank after looking at code for too long

I do understand programming and know I can overcome the difficulties and understand everything about actionscript, I just need to give it time and practice a little every day. I am a stong-minded strong-willed girl, not to say stubborn here as it sounds a little negative, and I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I am confident I will for this as well.

The second thing I want to talk about is this snow we have been getting in April. RAWR. It is technically spring and this morning I woke up and mother nature is up to her silly tricks again, a fresh blanket of snow. Grrrr. Okay it was not a lot of snow but still, in April I don't want snow. Don't get me wrong I love snow and (March, April) I have had enough and want warm weather, especially if we get such a beautiful sunny and warm day as last Thursday.

I know, I know I live in Canada, and Ottawa to be exact. I should be used to winter and know that it is normal to get snow in April, but I cannot help being sick of it and wishing for warmer weather and being all excited about spring and summer.

Rush hour protests: When I walked home from the bus stop I noticed traffic jams caused by protesters calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. It appears to be a worldwide effect as the same thing apparently happened in Britain.

Protesters were sitting down in front of buses blocking Wellington street Tuesday evening and today was at the corner of Elgin and Albert streets. It was a good thing I was just walking home from dowtown rather than have to drive, traffic was stopped and extremely slow. The protest seem to have been peaceful according to the news.

I don't mind protests to get the protesters point across as long as they don't get so violent that it would threatened the safety of innocent people.

I hate wars why can't we all get along and help one another, we are all human regardless of race, skin colors, religious belief. We are supposed to be civilized and be able to communicate and yet at hte first sign of conflict what do we do? Bring out the guns and weapons of all kinds. Say what you want but sometimes I don't believe that humans have really evolved that much, especially when I see actions such as this in order to resolve conflicts.

And now I will leave you with my art tip of the day.

Art tip of the day:

DRAWING ACCURATE LINES
Having trouble drawing straight lines? Here is a great way to do just that. First, you will need some tape, a T-square, and a triangular square.

Place your paper on your table, then take your T-square to line up the bottom edge of your paper so that it's straight. Tape the four corners of your paper down to your art table. Now you can slide the T-square up and down to draw your horizontal lines. Placing the triangular square on top of the T-square will allow you to draw your vertical lines. If you follow this method, you will always have accurate, straight lines.
- John Cleary

See you tomorrow.

BEDA 5: The Orphanage and necessary errands

Hello everyone

Today started better then the previous two, weather-wise, even got to see the sun. I don't know why that is but I feel more tired and lazy when it gray and rainy outside and don't feel like doing much. I need the sun's energy to revitalize me.

Ran a couple much needed errands, I desperately needed to get a new brake for my rollerblade. I went for a ride last week and noticed that it was time to replace the break, I was a little afraid I wouldn't be able to stop at some point which would not be good.

I also got myself new wrist guards, again much needed, as my old ones were not looking too good, I have had them for at least 3 years now so it was time for a change.

Now I am all ready for rollerblading season if only the weather would cooperate and the rainy, windy, coldish days would end. RAWR.

I stopped by a game store, and I tried the rock band that was only display. To my dismay it was xBox. Ewww Microsoft product, had to wash my hands more than once to remove any microsoft germs and traces that I actually touched this system. lol RAWR. By this comment, I am sure you can guess that I am not a fan of anything microsoft. I mean it really showed it was microsoft too, it took forever to load just like Windows and I bet it is subject to viruses and those updates and re-updates and re-re-updates.

Despite the microsoft system, I found rock band kind of fun as in an awesome party game but I am not certain I would really want to own that game. I am not the greatest musically-speaking. Mind you I am trying to teach myself guitar but it is going at a snail-pace, still love guitar though.

I thought I was doing good until I realized that we are required to sing along. I did not want to do that especially since I was in a store and let's face it I cannot carry a tune to save my life which would have probably resulted in customers running out of the store. :) LOL

I made this Easy basil sesame noodles for dinner, found on an old blog, check out the recipe here:
http://recipe-binder.blogspot.com/2009/03/recipe-9-easy-basil-sesame-noodles.html
It was pretty good and quite healthy, I added some chicken, cauliflower, green onion and mushrooms. I rarely follow the recipe as it is written, always like to experiment and add something new to it. All in all it turned out pretty good aside from the fact that I miscalculated the chicken-veggies-noodles ratio and ended up with more noodles than chicken and veggies. It was still good.

I finally watches The orphanage by Guillermo Del toro.

I have been saying I wanted to see this film ever since I saw the first movie poster about it and never got around to it. I am uber glad I finally watched it.

For those of you who would not have heard of Guillermo Del Toro, he is a mexican film-maker who directed the fantastic fantasy movie: Pan's Labyrinthe or El labyrinto del fauno. A brillant movie with some references to Alice in wonderland.

Unfortunetaly for the ones who are not fast readers the movie is in spanish with english subtitles, meaning you need to pay attention and read a lot or may need to pause in order to make sure you do not miss any important details.

I cannot recommend this movie enough especially to anyone who likes Del Toro's style. The Orphanage, same as pan's labyrinthe, forces you to go back and reexamine the plot to wonder what is real and what isn't. There is also a reference to peter pan (peter and wendy) and the lost children. As in pan's labyrinthe he used Alice in wonderland references. Genius. It makes it quite interesting.

Del Toro keeps the viewer in suspense until the end of the movie, and leaves much of the true reality or unreality of the plot open to interpretation and creates an experience that lingers in your mind long after you have watched the film, making you think, wonder and talk about your own interpretations.

The film is considered horror but not the free blood, gore and violence that we normally see and I personally find it refreshing to see a true gem of a film, such as this one, keep you on the edge o f your seat wanting to know what will happen next.

I especially liked the fact that it dealt with some paranormal aspect and skeptic characters along with believers.

In retrospect, I absolutely loved the film and I would recommend this to anyone who loves or even has never heard of guillermo del toro. Simply brilliant and fantastic.

I was going to put more specific things about the movie, but I realize some people may not have watched it and I did not want to spoil it for anyone would would want to see it.

As I promised I would always add my art tip of the day here it is:

Art tip of the day:

PROPER WAY TO HOLD A PENCIL WHILE DRAWING
The pencil is the artist's main tool of expression, and by applying varying degrees of pressure, the artist can make a wide variety of lines. When you write, you hold the end of the pencil to make small marks of similar size. When you draw, however, you must be able to make small marks as well as long, free-flowing lines. Resting your hand on the paper and holding the pencil near the middle is a more conventional and correct way to do detailed drawing. If you want to make a broader range of marks, you should hold the pencil near the blunt end. Doing this will leave you free to draw from the elbow.

If you want to draw a more sweeping line, just grasp the pencil comfortably with your hand relaxed. The fingers should loosely support rather than grip the pencil. Try not to force the movement; let it occur naturally. Use the method that feels most natural and comfortable for you.
- John Cleary

BEDA day 5 down, see you tomorrow.