Pierre Phaneuf's Diary

I really should write more, be it here, or elsewhere, no matter. I should be saying more about myself, not really because people need to know (well, ok, some people do!), I used to be so public and saying everything to the four winds, and now I feel a bit closed and inaccessible. I'm not sure why it turned out that way, but I have some good ideas, and they're all bad ones.

Maybe it shouldn't be as much as it used to be, that there's a happy middle to be reached. But this nothing, it's just another extreme. It's also not so much for my "readership" as for myself, more of a personal diary than a regular kind of blog, it's only public because of some strange personal convictions of mine, not because I'm trying to draft an audience. Would there be nobody reading this, it still would accomplish its goals.

For that reason, I'm thinking of separating this journal into a bunch of distinct ones (well, two, at the very least). I have some technical postings that I would actually like to disseminate more widely, and for which a readership of zero is a bit of a failure, and for those, the personal posts are just so much drivel to skip over. I also suspect the converse is true of those few who actually follow my personal posts, too!

That also gets me thinking about the people who are deleting their accounts on LiveJournal. I'm not sure I understand. Why don't they just not write (see, I was doing an excellent demonstration of that!)? This way, you can still read restricted posts, comment (and get notifications), etc... I can understand making all their posts private, or maybe even deleting them (although the archivist in me finds the information attrition saddening), turning off all the email notifications, but deleting the account? What's the harm in having the account at all?

In the meantime... I dreamt I was cheating on azrhey, just a simple kiss (not even a sloppy snog!), but something I knew full well I wasn't supposed to do, which I told her in the dream (waking up right after that), but I just felt tremendously uncomfortable, even when I woke up, I was feeling it, being all confused... Eurgh.

A few weeks back, I found myself having dinner with tygrbabe, where I discussed with her the fact that I rather enjoy her company. She is one of my favourite persons, after all! She seems to be enjoying my company as well, which I find to be a relief. After all, this was fairly high on my list of things that I didn't think would be happening any time soon, after the events I mentioned in my previous post. But here I was, at the movies, holding hands and giggling. Life is weird, sometimes, but it could be much worse than this, I think!

The movie, by the way, was Charlie Wilson's War, and to make a quick summary, it included much more boobies than I would have expected. It's actually rather good, with some excellent work on the part of Philip Seymour Hoffman, an often underestimated actor, in my opinion. He seems to be often put in quirky roles, does well in them, and I like quirky.

Upon leaving the movie, I glanced at one of the buildings downtown, wondering what is happening at Google with my application there... Oh, yes, I was keeping a lid on it (well, mostly, as I'm hardly the most secretive person around!) until things were becoming a bit more solid, but I have been interviewing with Google recently, after some ex-Nitiot who's now there pointed them my way. tygrbabe pointed out that they wouldn't exactly hang a giant sign out on the side of the building, so we proceeded to go on a walkabout, where she threatened to push me in a number of snow banks.

After that, as I entered a metro station, I pulled out my mobile phone to send an SMS to the lady azrhey to let her know that I was coming back, as we had agreed. Doing so, I noticed that I had left it on silent mode, from the movie, and that I had a voice mail message. I check it out, and it turns out that it's an offer from Google! Heh, while I was wondering what was going on, they had contacted me. Which makes me wonder if they have some kind of mind reading device...

A few days after that, I decided to accept the offer. Turns out that this leads to a two weeks orientation that is to be done at their Mountain View campus, the fabled Googleplex. Checking schedules, this lined up to be starting the week after azrhey and I moved into our new place. As in, we're doing the actual moving on the Saturday, and I have to be there at 8:00 on the Monday. It certainly seems that I'm not content with my life being a roller-coaster, it also has to be doused in kerosene and set ablaze. Otherwise, it's just too boring, right? Thanks to the cpirate for the extra help!

Our new place is pretty awesome, if a bit dark (there isn't much lighting included, we have to get our own). The bathtub is big and deep, the shower is spacious and has a neat pane of glass instead of a shower curtain. There's a secret passageway to the bedroom. The toilets are fancy dual-flush models (about time we get them here!), albeit with non-standard fitting sizes (argh, the joys of being an owner, I guess). The shower and bathtub faucets have fully separate temperature and flow controls, like I maintain is the proper way (and is the normal way in sane countries like Denmark, and very common in the rest of Europe). We're missing a few items before we can actually have people over properly, like proper lighting so that we don't just sit in the dark.

Now, I'm writing this on the plane from Chicago to San Jose, which is going pretty well up to now, as opposed to my last trip to New York City (which the quick-witted among you will have associated with my Google employment, on top of visiting the fine people I know over there). On top of the Google orientation and overall excitement of being a "Noogler", I hope to visit morethanreal, see the Computer History Museum (which I've dreamed of for almost twenty years now!), and generally visit San Francisco. Maybe a bit much to pack in my free time, I'll see.

P.S.: You're reading this, therefore I didn't end up in a flaming plane wreck.

So, a new year again, eh?

There was (in alphabetical order) Apples to Apples, Doctor Who, drinking, flashing (getting to be a NYE tradition!), kissing, making out, and so on. This can't possibly be all that bad, now, can it?

I went to the party of maery, Patrick and iangurudata with azrhey, liberation_now, obskura, scjody and tygrbabe, which was pretty cool. There was this thing with a clove orange going around, which was kind of fun, but provided me with ample occasion to face my shyness. I tried to do good, but I mostly fumbled and ended up feeling rather dorky, it seems. I reflected on the delta of going from partying in Barcelona to partying in Verdun for NYE, but while the venue might be a bit sketchier, being in good company more than makes up for it!

azrhey and I went back to liberation_now and tygrbabe's place after the stroke of midnight, for a nice evening of hanging out and playing games (Apples to Apples!). There, it was eventually discovered that Bailey's and wine are actively evil when mixed together. Very evil. As in, we all ended up sick, to various degrees. Eurgh. Still, a pretty awesome night.

We were going to go to my dad's for dinner the next day, but as it turned out, the snowstorm (combined with a nasty hangover) put a stop to that.

Je suis allé aux feux d'artifice du Canada hier, à l'International des Feux. À part une ratée qui a interrompu les feux, c'était pas mal! Après un moment sans feux, j'ai démonté mon trépied, mais j'aurais dû écouter la Grande Roue (qui éteint ses lumières pendant les feux, mais ne s'était pas ré-illuminée). Oh well.


Vue d'un quai du Vieux-Port
Mais ce billet n'est pas à propos des feux.

Je n'avais jamais réalisée combien la ligne d'horizon de Montréal m'était familière et précieuse. J'aime bien marcher sous le Pont Jacques-Cartier et être recouvert d'un "ciel" d'acier et de béton. C'est gros, c'est certain, mais ce n'est pas trop gros, c'est juste assez. Je suis allé à Chicago, l'échelle impossible de la Sears Tower par exemple, auquel la plus haute tour dans la photo ci-dessus ferait figure de naine. À Toulouse, il n'y avait que St-Sernin, quelques autres clochers et ces grues de construction, qui n'ont rien du 1000 De La Gauchetière ou du 1250 René-Lévesque.

C'est clair, j'y ai habité longtemps, mais il n'y a pas que ça. Je me rappelle de la première fois que je suis allé sur la rue St-Denis (pour aller au Valet d'Coeur, ça doit bien faire quinze ans!), et que je m'y était senti chez moi immédiatement.

C'est la deuxième ville francophone au monde après Paris, mais la plupart des gens que j'ai connus qui ont habité à Paris sont contents de ne plus y habiter. C'est sûr, il y en a quelques uns qui aiment, mais ouf, certain de mes anciens collègues changeaient de couleur juste à évoquer le sujet! Dans le cas de Montréal, ceux qui n'y sont plus regrettent de ne plus y être, et beaucoup de mes anciens collègues de travail qui y sont venus parce pour y faire un stage en sont tombé en amour. Il fallait qu'ils habitent à Montréal, c'était comme ça, c'est tout!

Toulouse a ses attraits, définitivement, mais Montréal m'émerveille toujours, après tout ce temps, comment une si grande ville arrive à faire sentir à ses habitants une telle appartenance, qui fait penser aux habitants d'une petite commune. C'est plus comme un grand village, avec des gratte-ciels...

I've been lagging behind in a lot of things (sorry if you've sent me mail and are still waiting for a reply!), but I think it's been good for me.

The day after we arrived, I managed to catch serendipity_wpg's last show on the Fringe, where I met wlach, cpirate and scjody, without anything being scheduled. After a choriço poutine at Mondo Fritz, I even crossed pzion on the way home. This was pretty cool, for a first day out, having such nice random encounters even in a city of three million people!

After getting all my money turned into Canadian currency, I tried to pick myself a nice Linksys WRTSL54GS, to hook ourselves up with some wireless Internet (with some hackability in mind!), to no avail. I ran into the WRT350N the next day, which seems to be the replacement model (had some issues with it at first, but it works perfectly for me once I restricted it to "b" and "g" wireless).

I also went for a drink with azrhey, cpirate, liberation_now and tygrbabe, which had me somewhat fiddly, but (of course!) proved to be quite enjoyable.

There was a visit by sps, swestrup and taxlady, where Settlers of Catan was played and I was soundly beaten to a pulp. I had cheese curds to console myself, which I was missing terribly!

I saw some of my old gang from cégep, where Mare Nostrum was played and I almost won, but Brain won finally. The usual...

I got myself some new shoes, which I find pretty nifty, but I then had the very silly idea of going for a walk before going to lab-synthèse-01. Going for a walk with new shoes, gah. I had soft ice cream to console myself. I had to leave before lautreamax got on, due to logistical constraints (also known as "living way the hell over there"), but I did catch (and enjoy!) his co-conspirator's set. More electronic music, more!

And today, we went downtown where I chatted with people for a bit while sipping coffee, walked around lazily and managed to randomly catch a 60% off deal on memory for my laptop at Compusmart's closing sale. Now writing this sitting on the lawn of the Place-des-Arts, from a spot in the shade, taking it easy with the Jazz Fest in the background... Nice!

Plane tickets have been bought. We'll be on our way to Montreal (via Casablanca, that'll be three continents in one day!) on June 16. Movers are picking up our things the day before.

It's a little better than coming here in the sense that I'm not headed into complete unknown (although there's still the question of a job, but not worrying), but on the other hand, this is a "rush job" that wasn't budgeted for in advance, and there's plenty of tricky bits.

After a smooth flight, azrhey and I arrived in Copenhagen Wednesday evening, greeted by skjalm, who's kindly keeping us safe from the elements, even kicking himself out of his own bed! Not to mention use and abuse of his Internet, booze, food, and what-not! He made us a very nice dinner of home-made lasagna, accompanied with some of the tasty mead that he's made himself. And a solid eggs and bacon breakfast the next morning.

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Photos from that trip can be found here.

Monday morning, I went to the Préfecture with azrhey (thank goodness!).

Lots of waiting, but that I expected. I didn't expect the person to be so stuck to the letter of the word as to not get the part where my visa says that "I don't have to have a work permit" doesn't meant that I can't have a work permit! azrhey ended up composing a letter to the Préfet saying that his esteemed colleagues at the Consulat de France à Montréal were a bunch of morons or something to that effect, and please let me have a work permit. Which I then had to transcribe nicely.

I managed to screw up signing my own name, too, so really, I'm quite thankful to azrhey for leaving as little as possible to me to do (screw up?).

What an adventure...

That happens to me all the time! (the arc leading to this started here)