Earlier today I was organizing our collection of CDs and cassettes (yes, we have those too) and I realized, with great sadness, that there are four U2 albums missing because the cassettes “died” when Patrice had the accident last year. They were in the glove compartment of the car and they got all smashed. Now, imagine how hard the accident was, the car was hit on the back and the cassettes IN FRONT got destroyed… I’m so glad my husband is ok. As for the music, I will recover from this “big loss” (ha! for those who don’t know it, U2 is my favorite group of all times) or I will just buy them again, in CD or at PureTracks.

Re-Envigorate is a website stats service I learned about yesterday. Seems cool, it gives you everything, including referrers, so you can see what’s going on on your site with the visitors. There are no images to display (the codes gives a transparent one) and there is nothing to install on your server side. Maybe you want to try it.

I got tired of whining about not having a good job or the credentials to get a good job. I got worried when I got to that phase when I started regretting big time not having finished my career. Then I got pro-active and made an appointment with the Counselor at one of the local Universities here in Montreal and I met him last Thursday; I took my grades certificate from Colombia and asked him to help me figure out what to do because I really want to go back to school and get a diploma. My father didn’t spend all those years making efforts to give me a good education to see me wasting my time, and I didn’t spend all those years in school, getting good grades and making an effort to be a good student, to waste my time.

After a +1 hour talk with the guy (who by the way is REALLY nice, but this is girly talk, of course) I decided to go back and finish my “Baccalauréat en sciences biologiques” and from there start looking for a good option in Graduate Studies. He took a look at my notes, I told him one of my options was to work in a Child Care Center and he told me I was a little bit “Overqualified”, that I could go and pursue a bigger career, and that I shouldn’t be afraid of doing it. Of course he wasn’t diminishing the Child Care option, just telling me that I have a more scientific mind and that in the long run I will end wanting something more.

The deadline for admission applications is on Monday, so I came back Thursday evening, sit in front of the computer and sent an application online, still feeling very numb because of the sudden events. This was something I had to do, I don’t know if I will get accepted, but I’m hoping so! With my grades certificate I can finish my Bac. in 1-2 years and I’m really willing to do it. I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to send all the papers in time, but the lady at the “Registrariat” told me I have two weeks to have all my papers in order.

Now the other side of the story is the fact that I’m afraid after 5 years of no intellectual work (ha!) my brain has kind of frozen, but the counselor told me it is normal to feel that way and once you’re in school things start coming back to the way they were before and the brain, that is like a hard drive, starts processing the information. There’s that and also the whole school lifestyle, but I guess being married makes things different. For now I’m just crossing my fingers and praying that if this is what I have to do, then God will help me to get in.

I’m working at the Happy Place again, but that’s a story that needs to be told another time. What I want to post about is what happened this morning when one of our customers, who is Jewish, came to drop breakfast for the guys: He told us he went to see “The Passion of the Christ” last night and was really impressed. He said it is an excellent production, extremely well done, although very graphic. He insisted in saying that there isn’t any scene that can make people see the movie as anti-semitic and “those who say the movie is anti-semitic should move to Siberia“. He said the movie is just the portrait of the killing of human kind by human kind, which happens today, which has happened forever and that it should be a reason for reflection before the end of our civilization comes. Interesting!

But I think I’m still NOT going to see it, especially after hearing some people calling it the most bloody and violent movie they’ve ever seen in ther life. I just can’t take it, like this woman couldn’t. There’s also this interesting article about the questions the movie inspires and you might want to read it: “The Passion of the Christ” is hard to watch, but it is also impossible to tear your eyes from the screen. It will deepen the faithful’s faith and inspire questions from those who never understood why this man called Jesus willingly gave up his life on the cross. Oh God… It’s like the forbidden fruit!

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Everyone seems to be talking about “The Passion of the Christ“. My mother in law told us she wants to go and see it this weekend, and Patrice also said he wants to go. Me? I don’t know… When I was in school (I studied with nuns) they made us watch Jesus movies the whole week before the Holy Week and I always had this horrible feeling at the end when Jesus was crucified and he died… I went home crying. Call me stupid or a sissy, but I don’t think I have the stomach this time, and it seems Mel Gibson’s movie is quite graphic, just like “Braveheart” where I turned my head every time there was a battle coming.

“The Passion” has generated quite some controversy, it has been called a blood libel among many other things. I don’t really care for the morals or what people think and I think the whole issue is quite stupid because you just can’t deny history whether people like or not. What I care about is the how I would feel if I saw all those scenes because it would remind me that it REALLY happened like that and I can’t stand seeing human suffering… just the flogging part lasts 12 minutes, or so I heard!. A long time ago I made a promise to myself never to watch, read or listen to anything that would bring my spirit down. BUT, on the other hand Jesus’ life and death are quite an inspiring and the movie reminds us Christians of the things we believe in and gives us hope.

Inside my heart I really want to see the movie not only because of the story but because of the quality of the production. I think I’m just afraid of feeling guilty because of my religious background… guilty when I see what Jesus went through for those of us who believe in Him and how humanity pays for it.

I’ve seen it everywhere and I want to play too

Step 1: Be a total copycat
Step 2: Open your mp3 player.
Step 3: Put all of your music on random.
Step 4: List the first ten songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.

1. Another Night - Proyecto 1
2. Si Volvieras a Mí - Josh Gobran
3. 25 Horas - Proyecto 1
4. In My Place - Coldplay
5. No Podrás - Christian Castro
6. Mon Ange - Eric Lapointe
7. I Know - Save Ferris
8. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
9. Hey Ya! - OutKast
10. She’s So High - Everclear

I added another 10 just for kicks.

11. Calvaire - La Chicane
12. Fallen - Sarah McLachlan
13. Meet Virginia - Train
14. La Otra España - Mocedades
15. Never Let Go - Josh Gobran
16. Angel - Lionel Richie
17. Charango - Mocedades
18. Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives
19. Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse
20. Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down

Mr. White (fictious name) is the guy who is helping us with the renovations. Mr. White is a very nervous guy who is always complaining about the quality of the walls, the materials, etc… and who, when asked to do something, answers “that can’t be done”, goes all fussy about it and ends up doing it anyway because, voilà! it was possible to do it. It’s getting on my nerves, really!

He’s installing a mantle piece for the foyer and he calls me every 5 minutes to help him. I have no problem with that, except that I saw he was going to install something the wrong way and didn’t want to accept it… so stubborn! Turns out I was right and I saved the day, not without his breaking the little wood piece that holds the top part of the mantle (he claims is bad quality, probably he’s right… don’t know).

This apartment is a mess, there’s dust and wood everywhere, it smells funny because he cut the wood inside, he managed to stain my wallpaper border with “plâtre” (what’s the English word for that?), yet he says he will be done today… Let’s hope so! He went out to do God knows what and he’s coming back to finish the walls. Meanwhile I’ll go play with the color tool at Benjamin Moore. After all, this is for the better.

Update: He did manage to tear the wallpaper border a little, but other than that things went smoothly. It smells awful in here because he changed the bathroom calking, but… everything looks good!