My list is complete!

Ladies and gentlemen, my 48-book list has finally been approved. And here it is:

1. Homère – L'Odyssée (fragments) (fin VIIIè av. JC)
2. Platon – La République (fragments) (-576)
3. Sophocle – Œdipe Roi (-430)
4. Rutebeuf – Poèmes de l’infortune (XIIIè s.)
5. Dante Alighieri – La Divine Comédie (only L'enfer) (1472)
6. Niccólo Machiavelli – Le Prince (1513)
7. William Shakespeare – Hamlet (1603)
8. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais – Le mariage de Figaro (1784)
9. Denis Diderot – Jacques le fataliste et son maître (1796)
10. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Faust (1808)
11. Alphonse Lamartine – Méditations poétiques (1820)
12. Stendhal – Le rouge et le noir (1830)
13. Edgar Allan Poe – Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1839)
14. Charles Baudelaire – Les Paradis Artificiels (1860)
15. Paul Verlaine – Poèmes saturniens (1866)
16. Comte de Lautréamont – Les Chants de Malodor (1868)
17. Alphonse Daudet –Les lettres de mon moulin (1869)
18. Arthur Rimbaud – Une Saison en Enfer (1873)
19. Victor Hugo – Quatrevingt-treize (1874)
20. Gustave Flaubert – Trois Contes (1877)
21. Robert Louis Stevenson – L'étrange cas du Dr. Jekyll et Mr. Hyde (1886)
22. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray(1890)
23. Edmond Rostand – Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)
24. James Joyce – Ulysses (fragments) (1922)
25. André Breton – Manifestes du Surréalisme (1924)
26. André Gide – Les faux-monnayeurs (1925)
27. Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932)
28. Jean Cocteau – La machine infernale (1934)
29. Hector de St-Denys Garneau – Regards et jeux dans l'espace (1937)
30. Jean-Paul Sartre – La Nausée (1938)
31. Albert Camus – L'étranger (1942)
32. Albert Camus – Caligula (1944)
33. Jean-Paul Sartre – L'existentialisme est un humanisme (1945)
34. Boris Vian – L'écume des jours (1947)
35. Paul-Émile Borduas – Refus Global (1948)
36. Gratien Gélinas – Tit-coq (1948)
37. Raymond Queneau – Petite cosmogonie portative (1950)
38. Samuel Beckett – En Attendant Godot (1952)
39. Jack Kerouac – On The Road (in English) (1957)
40. Raymond Queneau – Zazie dans le Métro (1959)
41. Eugène Ionesco – Rhinocéros (1960)
42. Réjean Ducharme – Ines Pérée et Inat Tendu (1968)
43. Georges Perec – La Disparition (1969)
44. Pierre Vallières – Nègres Blancs d'Amérique (1969)
45. Alfred Jarry – Ubu Roi (1978)
46. Philippe Sollers – Portrait du joueur (1984)
47. Jean Tardieu – La comédie du langage (1987)
48. Christian Mistral – Vamp (1988) (ou Vautour (1990))

So, whaddya think?

If you're wondering what my full reading list looks like, you can check out the other 32 right here.

The Official God FAQ

The Official God FAQ

I saw one of my teachers today.

I met with one of my teachers today. I was taking his class last semester, and it was about experimental novels, a concept I had no idea about before taking that class.

It was also a fourth-semester course. Which means people who take it usually have gone through the 80 books already, and have passed a slew of other classes.

Not my case. I was a second-semester student, not even in the French Lit program. In fact, I had just spent almost eight years out of school, completely.

And I was sure the teacher knew that. But he didn't. I told him today, in passing, and his eyes got big. "You mean you're not a third-year student now?" Hell, no. "Well, I guess you'll have no problems going through the first year! I always thought you were at the same stage as the rest of the class, a second-year student..."

Makes me feel pretty kick-ass. Especially since I got an A- in that class.

Would've gotten more, but I didn't give punch or wine glasses to the students... (inside joke - don't worry about it)

Doctors prepared to do face transplant

Doctors prepared to do face transplant

ACK!

EDIT - Another one of those fallen-through-the-cracks posts. Still freaks me the fuck out, too.

Photographing the photographers at the Athens Olympics

Like he says - when you've got that many $20 000 cameras, you have no excuse for not getting the shot.

Edit - I had posted this around August 25th, but oddly enough it had never gone through. Here it is, again. I thought the picture was worth it.

Yarr?

I feel bad - I missed this year's Talk Like A Pirate Day. It was on September 19th, and it completely fell unnoticed.

It fills me with shame. So, I decided to find out what my pirate name would be. Oddly enough, it's "Black Tom Vane". Here's what the fine folks at fidius.org think I'm like:

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

I love Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart talks about talking points, and how they drive a point home in the current American election campaign.

Then, he brings in a Republican to demonstrate.

Very, very effective.

Wicked Access

Wicked Access is the best cover band on Earth. Period.

Every God damned show I see, they blow me the fuck away.

Every time. If it isn't because they cover Britney Spears tracks, it's because the awesome singer manage to hit the notes in I Believe In A Thing Called Love or because they play a 10-minute-plus medley of Metallica songs - and nail the solos like it's nothing.

Oh, and Mike, the drummer? Best ever. He plays the drums like there's no tomorrow. You know, that Queens of the Stone Age song? Well, they play it - and Mike plays the drum part exactedly like Dave Grohl, except he uses only one hand.

Ridiculously good band, a jam-packed Baloo's, makes for a fun Saturday evening. They're coming back November 27th, and I'll be there. Show starts at 11PM, ends around 3AM. Yeah.

Reise Reise

Hoo-ha. The best (presumably, only) representatives of operatic teuton heavy rock are back.

Reise reise is their latest release. And it's not bad, not bad at all.

I sometimes wonder why there are so little foreign-language bands who get airplay in America. In fact, Rammstein seem to be the only ones - aside from some marginal hispanic bands/singers who catch on in New Mexico and Florida, that is.

In fact, if it hadn't been for Lost Highway and its amazing soundtrack, we probably would've never heard of them. Makes me wonder. What else are we missing out on?

This is great

Memo to Customer Service

I almost forgot - this is amazing. Great writing.

Misc.

I was asked today if I wrote, at all, and I spontaneously answered 'no'. I quickly modulated my answer by saying that I did, indeed, have a blog, but no-one reads it; so it doesn't really matter, does it?

Does this count as writing? Does anything count as writing, when no-one reads? I feel like the proverbial tree-falling-in-the-forest: if no one hears me, do I still whine?

I'm still listening to Green Day non-stop. Fo' shizzle. It's still kicking my arse.

I'm not entirely sure I can keep up doing 12,5 hour days like that. 2 classes, plus work till 9. I get home completely beat.

... and if I hear more talk about attributes, complements and pronouns anytime soon, I swear I'll go mad.

---

Funnily enough, I never mentioned my famous Guide to Customer Service as "writing". Although acclaimed by everyone who read it, it was never actually made public, and I'm not sure it can actually interest, much less entertain anyone else.

Basically, while employed at Compucentre, I spent much time doing jack shit, so to pass the time I decided to write a spoof of the whoppingly ineffective Customer Service Manual the head-office supplied. A few pages turned into about twenty, each more sarcastic, dry-witted and irreverent than the next. My boss even wrote an appendix, mostly about how to deal with less-than-perfect employees.

Email me if you want in - I'll send you the PDF. There's no way for me to host it, unfortunately, so it's going to have to be email only. For now.

Green Day Propaganda

... oh and Green Day also have a player that might interest you. It's got music, and stuff.

I just bought the best album of the year.

... and maybe of the last two or three years.

For real. Green Day's American Idiot kicks my ass from here to California, and back.

First, it's a mother fucking punk rock opera. How long's it been since the last rock opera? I don't know, decades?

And, most important of all, it's actually very, very, fucking good.

Good, as in I'm broke, I had downloaded it, and I still went and bought the Limited Edition. Good, as in I haven't listened to anything else since I got it. Good, as in go buy it, now.

And I didn't even use to like Green Day.

Victory!

Well, Elsie won! That's great!

Here's to you!

Dude - did you see that guy's name?

Unfortunately, I have absolutely nothing to back me up on this one, so you'll have to trust me.

We got this customer, today, who came to pick up a roll of film. His name was:

Tieu Luong Kuoc.

That's right. And it's (presumably, as thought by pretty much everyone I asked) pronounced exactly like you'd think: Too, Long, Cock.

Poor guy. <slur>And he's Asian, too, so it really can't be true...</slur> Just kidding.

But, really. I really hope that's not how he actually pronounces it.

The World's Best Browser Just Got Better

Firefox 1.0 Preview Release is available for your perusal.

Great things are afoot. Except, you'll have to make sure your extensions and themes can handle the 1.0 goodness.

Man Tries to Sue Wife for 5-Day Sex Denial

Yahoo! News - Man Tries to Sue Wife for 5-Day Sex Denial

Come on, everybody, laugh. It's funny.

I never saw it that way before

BoxJam's Doodle Comics

I never saw it that way before, but I'll be damned if this comic doesn't make more sense than the ads we see on TV.

Daily Show Bush Campaign Film

Daily Show Bush Campaign Film

Probably the funniest political online snippet since This Land.

Books I need to read.

Well, as you (might) know, I'm in French Lit at the University, and that means I've got 80 books to read between September and end of May.

I'm putting my list here, as a reminder as much as anything else. I'll be greying out what I've read as I go along. Follow my progress, cheer me on, whatever.

These are the 32 books that have been decided by my teacher. The other 48, I'll pick and choose later.

1. François Villon, Oeuvres poétiques (1456)
2. La Farce de Maistre Pathelin (1486)
   
3. François Rabelais, Pantagruel (1532)
4. Louise Labé, Oeuvres poétiques (1555)
5. Corneille, Le Cid (1636)
   
6. Jean de La Fontaine, Fables (1668)
7. Molière, Le Tartuffe (1669)
8. Racine, Phèdre (1677)
   
9. Mme de la Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves (1678)
10. Marivaux, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (1730)
    
11. Voltaire, Candide ou l'optimisme (1759)
12. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire (1782)
    
13. Marquis de Sade, La Philosophie dans le boudoir (1795)
14. Honoré de Balzac, Le Père Goriot (1834)
15. Alfred de Musset, Lorenzaccio (1834)
    
16. Gérard de Nerval, Aurélia (1855)
17. Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)
18. Stéphane Mallarmé, Poésies (1887)
19. Guy de Maupassant, Le Horla (1887)
20. Émile Nelligan, Poésies complètes (1896)
    
21. Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann (1913)
22. Guillaume Apollinaire, Calligrammes (1918)
23. Francis Ponge, Le Parti pris des choses (1942)
24. Jean Anouilh, Antigone (1944)
25. Jean-Paul Sartre, Huis Clos (1944)
    
26. Gabrielle Roy, Bonheur d'occasion (1945)
27. Anne Hébert, Poèmes (1960)
    
28. Hubert Aquin, Prochain épisode (1965)
29. Gaston Miron, L'Homme rapaillé (1970)
30. Michel Tremblay, Albertine, en cinq temps (1984)
    
31. Édouard Glissant, Introduction à une Poétique du Divers (1994)
32. Normand Chaurette, Le Passage de L'Indiana (1996)

And that's not including the books I have to read for my other class (in the order I have to read them):

1. Charles Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris - Petits poèmes en prose
2. Anthologie de la poésie française du XXè siècle - Tome 1
3. Alfred Jarry, Ubu roi
4. André Gide, Les faux-monnayeurs (1925)
5. Jean-Paul Sartre, La nausée (1938)
6. André Breton, Manifeste du surréalisme (1924)

Good, clean fun all around.

404 Not Found

Well, maybe you've noticed that there's no picture on the right, where it should be.

Thanks to someone (no names, this isn't about bitching or moaning) who deleted it, I have no more web space to host menial things like 5kb pictures and that sort of stuff. So until I find a host that allows image hotlinking and doesn't charge me an arm, a leg and a half, it'll stay that way.

EDIT: I found Flickr, and it was good. Expect to be subjected to various, entirely uninteresting pictures of me when I get my digital camera.

Meet my new friend, insomnia.

Ugh. Couldn't sleep until at least 5:30AM. That's the last time I saw on my alarm clock.

Some mornings I have to wake up 15 minutes past that. I hate feeling like that.

Well, off to work, now. On like 3 hours sleep.