frandroid

What is something that's bothering you right now?

My exploding relationship. My massive ADHD.

What was the last sporting event you attended?

I think it was a Marlies game (the Leafs' AHL farm team) at Ricoh Coliseum, before the pandemic. I used to go on my own, get smashed on a couple pitcher-sized beers and enjoy the cheap hockey and the family-friendly atmosphere. If you went to a weeknight game and they won, they gave free tickets for a later game, and sometimes I was able to snag more than 1.

Do you enjoy staying at hotels?

Sure? I liked stayed in rooms in people's AirBnB homes. You got to meet a local who could tell you a bit about the place, or something. But then we got into a few rooms where the whole house was AirBnB'd, and F started wanting more privacy. She always needed a lot of privacy.

What was in the last package you got?

Zines. I'm low on zines and I've been rushing to re-stock on some stuff for the fall tabling season.

Who is/was your favorite animated character?

I can't think of clear favourite one. I remember liking Albator, known in English as Captain Harlock, but I think I liked the show's æsthetic more than anything else. They came out with a film a few years ago that I didn't watch. Maybe I'll get to watch that now.

If you could move out of your home country permanently, would you?

Moving to English Canada has always felt like moving to a different country. So I feel like I have. I could see myself move to a West European country for a lover, or to the United States for a job. I know a number of developer friends who took jobs in the Valley. But it's not something I'm seeking out. If anything, I might move back to Québec one day. The likelihood of that is going up.

Do you play the lottery?

F was dreaming of winnign a jackpot so we started buying tickets. I would sometimes bring her tickets home as a small gift. Myself, I'm in the "it's for people bad at math" category. But then again, some relatives won a big jackpot recently, so who the fuck knows. These relatives won their share of a jackpot in a purchasing group, which seems like a much smarter way of buying tickets. It doesn't seem to be a thing here, whereas in Québec tons of convenience stores manage purchasing groups.

Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth?

Of course.

What was the last good news you received?

Getting hired for this current job was pretty cool. I might also make a big move in my life soon, it feels imminent.

Are there any projects or goals you've recently abandoned?

Repairing a relationship.

What are your top five books?

I used to read voraciously but the internet ate my brain. I don't really have favourites at this point, just some books I've enjoyed more. I used to mention Dune here but I've re-read it last year it left me wanting. Actually God-Emperor was my favourite book of the series, and that one I've only read once, though it's pretty seared in my mind. Maybe I should finish reading the series a second time. I'm curious to know whether I would enjoy Dune: Messiah more because it was really meant to be Dune's part II, and was also more philosophical, like God-Emperor.

Would you ever sky dive?

My mom did it at age 55. It was a life-long dream of hers so we bought a tandem-jump for her birthday. I'm afraid of heights but it's a balance thing, so once off the ground I guess I'd be fine.

If you could "install" three complete languages in your brain what would you choose?

Spanish or Italian. I feel lots of closeness to these languages for obvious reasons; one of these two would suffice. Turkish or Kurmanji, though these days I'm feeling like walking away from the Kurdish freedom movement, or at least the Toronto component of it. (Turkish because that's the true language of the PKK, or Kurmanji if I felt more like working on the cultural side of things.) I would have said Gujarati in the past (maybe even Hindi!) but my interest in that is now gone. Arabic.

What holiday is your birthday closest to?

Christmas. Between those two, F's birthday.

Do you use a wall calendar?

I looked at the calendar on my office wall last week, an art calendar provided by an indigenous education organization I donate to, and noticed that it was from September 2022. I took it down. I like the idea of wall calendars but that age is over.

First foreign vacation?

I don't know if the USA counts as foreign too much, and my first couple trips to the U.S. were more like gatherings with BBS folks. Ah! I went to France in October 2001, right after September 11. That was really weird.

Actually, now I remember that we went to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, when I was 6 or something. Back then we didn't speak English so that felt foreign enough, though the beach was like, half Québecois.

Do you watch any anime?

There's some hentai I find amusing but I don't seek it out. Akira remains a classic for me, Ghost in the Shell, Murakami... I think that's it. Well, when we were kids there were a number of French-Japanese animation co-produced TV series, I watched a number of these back then. There was a Three Musketeers one where the characters were all dogs, and my first contact with Treasure Island was with a French/Japanese coproduction as well. I watched the hell out of that one. The Cities of Gold, that was also a huge mainstay. (I cringe, wondering how racist/colonial that might have been? Even with a main Maya character...)

Do you prefer to keep a clean workspace or are you somewhat messy?

It's a horrible mess. Yesterday a plumber was here to fix my leaking toilet, he realized that the toilet's water valve was leaking a bit too, so I had to shut down the apartment's east-wide valve, which is in my office. Not only was it behind my bookshelf, but I had a file cabinet in front of the bookshelf, and a whole ton of crap in front of it. I think it took me 25 minutes to make space. And it was dusty, so dusty.

I might have to take all of this away soon.

What portion of your day is typically spent outdoors?

Almost none. Now that it's raining more and gardening is over, possibly less. But I'm turning into a zeppelin so I need to go out more. I need to buy a bike. I miss riding my bike.

Did you get an allowance as a child?

I *sometimes* got $5 for mowing the lawn, but rarely. I sometimes got paid for splitting and cording wood for my dad in spring, though I actually enjoyed the workout and was willing to do it for free. My parents preferred to watch me search through garbage bins at the gas station across the street to fish out cans and bottles with a return deposit. (In Québec, aluminium and glass pop containers have a return deposit so there's a lot more of them than just the alcohol containers). It was a busy gas station so during the heavy summer vacation days I could make $20, $30 bucks for an hour of work once or twice a day, which is worth about twice that much now. I think it was very cheap of them not to give me a basic allowance instead; I think with just $5 a week I would not have bothered with the garbage. My father was making good money working under the table at night on top of his daytime union job. I remember asking my parents if we were poor, because my father was so tight with money. We were not poor.

The first five people to request it in the comments will receive 5 questions from me. (These questions came via ioklopon)


1. Who is your favorite pirate (real or fictional) of all time?

I think Blackbeard's depiction in Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides is my favourite.


2. What's your favorite recipe to make?

Ohh, interesting question. There's a vegan belgian carbonnade that I make which is quite tasty, made with seitan and brown belgian beer. It's a bit of work so I don't make it too often. A more regular occurrence is this dish, Aloo Tama Bodi, which we discovered at a Nepalese restaurant ages ago. It's a creamy curry with potatoes, bamboo shoots and black eyed peas. Also recently I've started making my own seitan/okara sausages, and I'm trying different flavourings every time. It's a fun recipe to work on.


3. If you could have one dish ready-made that you could eat whenever you want with zero effort and zero expense, what would it be?

There used to be this falafel place in Vancouver named Desert Falafel. I think it was run by Israelis. Anyway, white people and definitely not Arabs, which is rare. This is where I had my first falafel and it remained the best falafel I ever had for years. At some point they moved to Commercial drive and became Oasis Falafel. They also made a latke pita, and if you wanted to be extra special, you could get the falatke pita, which had 2 falafel balls and half a latke patty. It was amazing. I miss it. The best falafel I've had in recent years is from Falafel Yoni in Montréal, also run by Israelis. But really, I'm a sucker for falafel (with a side of crispy fries and a can of cola) and could eat it very often. I actually did eat it all the time when I first moved to Toronto, as I was living close to Sara's Falafel on Bloor, and there a dirt cheap place that made a lemony falafel close to work, and there was Akram's (Syrian) with his tiny and uniquely flavoured falafels in Kensington Market. I ate so much falafel that year that I had to take a months-long falafel break at some point, because I was getting sick of it.

There are at least 5 falafel shops within walking distance of my place but none are top notch, so I don't indulge too much. Maybe I will next summer. I'm realizing that I should be having way more falafel than I'm currently having. Falafel shops that don't sell French fries are stupid, even if they sell awesome garlic potatoes.


4. If you had a 10-minute segment on national TV to cover any topic you wanted, what would it be?

It would be on the Kurdish liberation struggle. I find that most mainstream reporting on the issue is superficial. I know 10 minutes isn't that long to get into it, but that would be my thing. Or I would get into it with radical lefties who oppose arming Ukraine...


5. What's your favorite hockey moment?

It's funny because my parents weren't into hockey at all, but in 1984, 1985 or 1986 they put me in front of the TV at the start of the playoffs and I was hooked. There was this intense Nordiques/Habs rivalry and it was the most ridiculous thing ever. Back then we had divisional playoffs and both the Habs and the Nordiques were in the Adams division, as well as the perpetually bad Hartford Whalers, the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres. I think that first year the Nordiques beat the Whalers, and again a year later, but they didn't go further. But I recall watching these series intently. Then I recall watching the Stanley Cup finals in 1986, Habs versus Calgary Flames, and even though I "hated" the Habs I could only admire this team that included many French Canadians, including le casseau.

After that follow a long drought at the bottom of the standings for the Nordiques, resulting in first picks Joe Sakic, Owen Nolan, Mats Sundin and Eric Lindros, so I had to fall back on watching Mario Lemieux carry the Penguins on his shoulders and win two cups in 1991 and 1992.

Then in 1993, with their young star players (though maybe Sundin had been traded to Toronto for Wendel Clark already at that point? I don't think so but can't be bothered to check) and the returns from the blockbuster deal that sent Eric Lindros to Philly, the Nordiques were competitive again, and qualified for the playoffs. Their first round opponent was the Habs.

The first two games were won by the Nordiques, good victories, so everything seemed to go well. Then the third game came, started, and the Nordiques were on fire, completely obliterating the Habs. They were everywhere on the ice. Then at some point Owen Nolan fired one of his famous slapshots but missed the net, and his shot smashed the glass pane behind the net, and everything fell apart. It took something like 10 minutes for the ice to be cleared of broken glass and a new pane to be installed. That break took all the wind out of the wings of the Nordiques. When play resumed, the Habs finally got their act together and eventually swept the rest of the series, 4 wins in a row. They then got a lucky break when Mario Lemieux's hand was broken by a Rangers player, so the Rangers could beat the Penguins. Then the Islanders beat the Rangers, but the Islanders were also the only team that hadn't won its regular season series against the Habs that year, and they once again couldn't beat them in the playoffs, so the Habs ended up playing Wayne Gretzky and his LA Kings in the final. They won the cup by playing the trap, ensuring that hockey would be boring for the next 15 years to come.

Two years later, the Nordiques were sold to Colorado and then promptly won the cup (after acquiring Patrick Roy from the Habs, something that would have been amazing had that happened in Québec City, since Roy was from there), making me boycott hockey for the next 15 years.

Chris Kreider broke Carey Price's wrist in the 2014 playoffs and I'm getting somewhat sick of Rangers players winning series that way...


Bonus questions, also from ioklopon, from an earlier post!


6. Quel est ton livre préféré (qui est écrit en français)?

Oh wow. Way to call me out, I don't think I have anything good to report. :P J'ai pas mal arrêté de lire en français à l'âge adulte parce que les livres sur l'anarchisme que j'étais capable de trouver étaient en anglais, en ensuite j'ai déménagé à Vancouver et ça a continué comme ça. Quand j'étais adolescent j'ai lu Ça de Stephen King en français, d'une traite, je pense que ça m'a pris 22 heures, et c'était une drôle d'expérience de lecture, être complètement immergé dans l'histoire comme ça. Comme la fois à l'automne 2000 où j'ai lu l’hexalogie de Dune d'un coup. Mais ça c'était en anglais. Mais les deux fois, j'avais l'impression d'être gelé (high) tellement j'étais dans l'histoire. Un peu plus jeune, j'aimais la série Les Inactifs de Denis Côté, de la science fiction dystopique pour adolescents avec un personnage principal qui était pas mal un calque de Mario Lemieux. :) Mon auteur Québécois favori est Mordechai Richler mais il écrivait évidemment en anglais. (Les souverainistes haïraient cette idée que cet anglo pourrait être l'auteur Québécois favori d'un francophone.... :P )


7. What is one thing I should do the next time I'm in Quebec?

If you mean the province, I would say attend the yearly Montréal Anarchist Bookfair, it's an amazing event, the booksellers are awesome, many of the visitors are hot as hell in a punk way, and it's queer/trans as fuck. There are also awesome workshops on various topics relating to anarchism, and a dance party of some sort. It's usually held in May but was held in August this year, probably due to the pandemic. I'm going to bet that it'll come back to its May slot. Don't wait 10 years to visit--the original organizers have moved on and the new crew has less energy than before, though they're still putting on an amazing fair. Cindy Milstein helps organize from all the way over in SF, which gives you an idea of the change. (She's an amazing person to be getting help from though.)

If you mean Québec City, obviously visiting the old town is a must. You visit the old town, check out the shops, and then when you've had enough, you walk down l'escalier casse-cou to la rue Champlain and the Old Port. There you can visit the Musée de la Civilization (!!!), a decent popular museum. Some of their exhibits are great, some are shit, but it's a cool building. They have one or two good permanent exhibits about Québec culture. Otherwise you can visit the antiques shops or visit the maritime museum; I haven't been to the latter in 25 years but I recall it was nice. Then when the sun comes down, you get on the ferry to Lévis just so you can catch views of the old city from the St-Lawrence. You don't get off at Lévis; you just get back on the same ticket you boarded on. Another thing you can do from the old port is walk along the linear park along the St-Charles river, which used to be a concrete canal that has been renaturalized. It's impressive.

Then you go back uptown to rue Saint-Jean or rue Saint-Louis, inside or outside the old city, to one of the amazing bars like Le Drague or Le Temps Partiel. I can't recall if you're veg or not but it has a great meat-oriented restaurant scene and it really sucks for vegans, though it's getting a bit better on that side.

On the other side of Old Québec, uptown, at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, one can see Jean-Paul Riopelle's L'Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg. It's a 40-foot long spray-painted, goose-stenciled triptych. I'm biased because he's my favourite painter, but it's awesome. (Apparently there's construction on a new Riopelle pavilion so I'd check availability first before attempting to visit.)


8. How did you get into zines?

I think I had heard of and maybe even seen a couple zines before, but when I moved to Vancouver in late 1998, one of my favourite haunts was the Spartacus Bookstore, a volunteer-run anarchist bookstore. They had a small zine section, of which I bought a few. Above that was the magazine section, which was sporting the final issue of Factsheet 5, the zine-reviewing bible of the 1990s golden age of zine publishing. They were getting so many zines to review that they limited themselves to only review great zines since they could spare neither ink nor paper for the bad ones. So in this issue there was probably a few hundred glowing zine reviews from around the world (though mostly the U.S.). I ordered a bunch of zines and I was like "wow, this is so awesome". I had been part of electronic/online underground scenes since the early 1990s, was a subscriber to the first ISP in Québec City within its first few months of operations, was part of the very first wave of people getting on the web, had moved to Vancouver due to my contact with some of these scenes, but this paper-based scene was still extremely attractive to me. I wanted everyone to read the zines I was getting but I obviously couldn't just buy tons of zines and just give them away willy-nilly. Then I discovered that people were running zine distros, i.e. sold zines at fairs and sometimes had online zine stores, so I decided I would do that, and the rest is history.


9. What your favorite thing thing you made/did with code/computer skills?

Back in the early 1990s I ran two BBSes, one after the other. I really enjoyed that time. There was very little coding involved but a fair bit of modding, which would be the textmode equivalent of web design/systems administration today. I was an ANSI artist so that was kind of my thing. More recently I just thoroughly enjoyed working for thestar.com because it's the biggest paper in the country and among its largest liberal/progressive media organizations, but I don't have particularly salient accomplishments there.

One of my early low-skill programming projects was Stationary Groove... An acquaintance had manually surveyed passengers at every subway station in the city to see what music they were playing, and wanted to produce an interactive map showing that. I ripped off the transit company's own code from its site, and also built a barebones Rails app to handle all of the song tracking to put them in a DB, and then used all of this to generate this map. There was very little skill involved but my acquaintance was a good PR person, and got a front-page story on the Star (before I worked there) out of it.

I also used to hand code all of my HTML (and there was no CSS back then). My two biggest publications were Operation Rescue, an ANSI art reviewing site that published reviews of monthly art packs for a number of years (I took the name from the Bad Religion song of the same name, not knowing it was the name of a pro-life group they were critiquing!!), and later on I also hand-coded my zine distro's site. If I had properly learned backend programming back then I would probably be somewhat wealthy now, it was a great time to get into that stuff.

So huh, that's a lot of me here!

Leafs eliminated despite crushing Sens

HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH!

See how crushing defeat is like!! Feel how it was to be a Nordiques fan!!

Now, grudgingly, I'm putting my hopes in with the Habs. But I'm still weirded out by that.