Monthly Archive for December, 2006

Free Hugs!

Published
by
Ben Balbo
on December 20, 2006
in Fun and Random
. 2 Comments

There I was, happily working away earlier last week, when I hit the keyboard combination that Stumbles. Stumbling, for those who haven’t heard of it, is clicking on the Stumble! button (or hitting the keyboard combination, that I don’t actually know, but just accidentally hit every now and then) which gets the Stumble plug-in to stumble across a site you’ve (hopefully) not seen before.

Diversion: stumble-upon shows you a web site, you rate it (simple “I like it” or “No more like this”) and it learns what you like, compares with others who like what you like (and dislike what you dislike) to improve your stumbling experience. It’s great when you’re at a loose end and just want to find something new and interesting.

So, back to last week. I accidentally stumbled upon this site about a guy who arrived in an airport in a city where he knew nobody. He saw everyone else being greeted by friends and family with great big hugs, and wanted someone out there to hug him too.

So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words “Free Hugs” on both sides.

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

What an awesome idea, I thought. I have to do that when I get back to Melbourne.

So imagine my surprise when I walked down rue St-Catherine this morning and saw about eight people with “Free Hugs” signs, one of whom was being interviewed on camera by a reporter. Of course I gave them all a big hug, and found out they’re planning to get 1000 people together for a free hug afternoon.

If you’re in Montreal, head over to rue St-Catherine for noon:

We are organising a huge FREE HUGS walk in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on December 23rd, 2006, from noon to 3:00pm. Our goal is to have over 10,000 people showing a FREE HUGS poster walking along Sainte-Catherine Street, one of the most occupied street in the Province of Quebec, especially in the holyday shopping season. We want to make a memorable impact, just before Christmas, so that people talk about it everywhere in the world, and so that families are inspired to share the free hugs in their community.

http://freehugscampaign.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1164181375/4#4

PHP Beer

Published
by
Ben Balbo
on December 20, 2006
in Beer, Fun, Open Source, Overseas and Travel
. 0 Comments

So, I was told about this thing called PHP Beer some time ago, and met up with about 12 people, most of whose names I’ve forgotten. At the risk of insulting those whose names I cannot remember (I’d like to blame the alcohol for that), I’d like to thank Yann, Marc, Louis Philippe, Nelson and everyone else for making me feel welcomed. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, met a few new people and exchanged a few ideas that grew into good ones!

Leave me a comment if you were there to remind me of your name :-)

Solitary confinement

Published
by
Ben Balbo
on December 14, 2006
in Fun, Holiday, Overseas, Travel and Work Life
. 3 Comments

Wow - it’s almost two weeks since my last post. While that’s not too unusual for me, I was hoping to be a bit more active while in Canada. A lot has happened…

We went to Saint-Donat, a small village north of Montreal, the weekend before last and stayed with friends who own a chalet up there. This was the weekend of the big ice storms in Montreal. I had my first poutine on the Saturday night, and it was delicious!

The week days since my last post have been spent in near solitary confinement, and I have to admit it’s starting to affect me a little. We’re staying in one of UQAM’s residential apartments in the centre of Montreal, and I’m working 9 to 5.30 (or thereabouts) every day. I wake up here, I have breakfast, I get to work, I have lunch (occasionally going out), get back to work, S gets home and we have dinner. Evenings are a little easier - we’ll meet with friends/colleagues, go to a pub, we even went to see the Elvis Story at the theatre last Saturday. But in general, I think I’m going slightly nuts. More nuts that usual. I can’t wait to work from the office again (after some proper holiday, of course!).

But back to happier subjects, we’ve been trying the suggested eateries and l’Etranger was great. It looked like a road-side diner, but the menu was awesome. Took about 10 minutes to read the thing! We both went for the soup of the day (broccoli), I had a Yo Lurvely!

My French is improving mildly too. I went to visit a friend’s office last Friday and on the way back to the Metro, started talking to a born-in-Montrealian who’s never left the country, but aspires to some day. While the conversations were simple and basic, we managed to converse in excellent Frenglish (franglais en français!).

My confinement will be temporarily lifted tomorrow, as S and I will be going to Ottawa for two days. I will probably take the laptop and work on the bus (2.5 hours each way) to keep on track, and will probably end up working a few of my official holiday dates to make sure I’ve actually done three weeks of work during my stay here. The end is now in sight - the 19th is my first day of holiday, and I’ll probably work that day to catch up and then I’m free until the end of January :-) (Note to boss - not that I don’t enjoy my job!)

Well, S should be here any minute for lunch, so (there’s the knock at the door!) so I’ll sign off for now and try to be more active before leaving for Guatemala.