Babbling...

New address

2006-04-17T13:29:00.000-04:00

From now on, you'll find my blog here. Blogger is nice but I needed a few more features; hopefully you'll like the new site... Let me know if you have trouble getting there.

Bay windows in Barcelona

2006-04-16T14:37:00.000-04:00

When I was looking for a new photographic project to undertake in Barcelona, my dad suggested balconies and while it is true this city has some very neat balconies, I became fascinated by the sunrooms or bay windows on some of the buildings. Here are some I caught on the way from the beach while walking along Passeig Sant Joan...

Relaxing Easter Weekend

2006-04-16T14:15:00.000-04:00

On Easter weekend (Pasqua) most Barcelonins leave town and the city is invaded by tourists. This was particularly evident today when we made our way to the beach.

Alan's plan was to take the bus to Plaza Catalunya and walk down the Ramblas to the waterfront and along there to the Olympic Port. Between our apartment and Pl. Catalunya (5-10 min ride) we saw hardly anybody on the streets but the square itself was full of tour buses of every kind and the Ramblas was PACKED with people. The Ramblas are touted as one of the worst tourist traps around and I wasn't really looking forward to it but I have to admit it surprised me a bit. Some of the buildings along the boulevard are worth seeing and the human statues are incredible. REALLY well done.

After a walk along the boardwalk we found a table in the sun at the Baja Beach restaurant and settled for some sangria and light lunch. Around 3 pm we started making our way home. We discovered a bus (45) that goes from the beach to the bus stop at the corner of our street. Could not be more convenient. And a great ride to take visitors since it goes along the waterfront, through the old town and some nice streets of the eixample.

Palm Sunday at the Monastery of Pedralbes

2006-04-09T16:54:00.000-04:00

Peace and light. Lightness brought not only by the sun but also by the delicate weightlessness of the columns. That's the impression that remained with me from our visit to the monastery of Pedralbes this morning. I've posted some of the images here.

After our visit to the monastery we walked around the square in front of the church, where families were enjoying the nice day after/before Palm sunday procession. These twin girls caught my attention while they were running around...

Pictures of bus tour

2006-04-08T12:34:00.000-04:00

For those of you who asked for more pictures - here are the pictures we took today during a tour we took on an open deck bus: click here. I wasn't able to add comments to all the pictures but will post a review later...

Clases de español begin monday!

2006-04-07T09:02:00.000-04:00

After much walking up, down and around the Diagonal looking for a cable company ,through which to get internet, a bank, grocery store, and all the other necessities of life, we finally made it to the Spanish school. I tried their online test and they had placed me in a high intermediate class but when we got to the school to register last wednesday, it turns out they don't have a high intermediate class beginning next week. I asked if I could go one level lower, but they thought best to place me one level higher. i.e. in the advanced class! eeeeeeek, spanish class may actually turn out to be hard! Alan thinks that it will probably be best for me if I have to struggle a little bit; he's probably right, I'll probably work harder and learn more that way. I'm still a bit uneasy though... on the plus side, there are only 2 other students in my class!

Un con leche, un cortado y una pasta por favor

2006-04-06T16:53:00.000-04:00

2.25 euros. That's how much the bill for two cafes con leche (espresso with frothed milk) cost at a local cafe near our apartment in Barcelona. After 4 days paying about 7 euros for the same in Paris, the difference was nothing short of staggering. 'I can live here' I thought. Next came the revelation that I had to look VERY hard to find a bottle of wine that cost more than 5 euros. Casa Torres Sangre de Toro was a mere 3.45 euros at the local grocery store. Hmmm... this keeps getting better and better.

Muitos dos produtos encontrados nos supermercados aqui me lembram muito o que encontramos nos supermercados no Brasil: queijo frescal, iogurte liquido batido (danup), uma variedade grande de congelados, bebidas alcoolicas vendidas no supermercado (não é permitido na maior parte do canada), leite de caixinha, etc. Meus pais se sentirão em casa.

Relaxing in Pointe-Claire Village

2006-03-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

We are staying with our friend Jenn in Pointe-Claire village and on thursday morning we went for a leisurely walk along the village and down to the point, by the lake (which is not really a lake but the St Lawrence river but which everybody calls "the lake"). The weather smiled upon us on our first official day of holiday and we spend an hour sitting in the sun watching a pair of paragliders zooming on the ice in a small bay by the village, one on a snowboard and another on skis.

Some sites and pictures of the village (I haven't been able to upload my pictures yet so these will do for now...)
Le Moulin de Pointe-Claire
I would love to live in a place like this
Official site
Euro-Plus Cafe (where we go for coffee every morning)
Dubuc Opticiens (where I buy my glasses - I'm having sunglasses made this time; they are so cool!!!)

Finding a "piso"

2006-03-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

Looking for an apartment over the internet in a city where I had never been before proved to be both fun and nerve-wrecking. I spent countless hours studying the map of Barcelona, talking with friends who had lived there about different neighbourhoods, and finally decided I wanted a place on the right side of the Eixample for under 900 euros/month. A friend gave me the contact of the rental agency she worked with (Barcelona Allotjament) and although Olga - the woman with whom I corresponded - was very helpful they didn’t have an apartment available in the area I wanted. I combed the ads at Loquo and browsed the web for other agencies. I finally came across ShBarcelona, which had a wide selection of apartments in and around the Eixample and great pictures. We reserved an apartment in a great area (Bruc/Rosello) and paid our deposit and first month. We’ll be at walking distance from the Sagrada Familia, Passeig the Gracia, Passeig San Joan, shopping along the Diagonal, the Gracia barrio and a great covered market. Can’t wait!!!!!

And the torture is over!!!!!

2006-03-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

I PASSED MY COMPS!!!!!!!!! I had my oral exam yesterday morning and I've never felt that nervous before in my life. Just before going in my supervisor told me I had no reason to feel nervous, both him and my second reader thought my written exam was one of the best they've seen (I thought it was absolute crap!) and that the orals would just be a conversation about it. That calmed me down a tad - enough to allow me to at least look relaxed and as the questions flowed I became more animated and before I knew it, it was over. I passed, they all shook my hand and my nightmare was over. The past few months have been the hardest of my life - I couldn't eat properly, I was so stressed I would feel sick to my stomach half the time. I almost quit. I started looking for alternative career plans. Now I'm glad all of that is over and I can move on!
People in my department say that the comps are very anti-climatic, that you don't get to use all the knowledge you acquired, that most people go into depression once it's over. Whatever. I don't care if it wasn't that difficult. I passed. Depression?? Give me a break - I'm going to Spain for research! and most importantly - I now get to read what I want for a change...

Next post will be about our preparations for our Great European Adventure!!

MacJournal - mixed results

2005-12-31T16:45:00.000-05:00

The software itself seems to be good - the interface is clean and what you would expect from a journal writing software - but I downloaded a developmental version of the software and had trouble posting to this blog from within MacJournal. I downloaded a final release version (3.2) and that one seemed to connect to blogger ok. I have 15 days to decide whether I want to buy this software... let’s keep testing...

Happy New Year everybody!!! (that is, the 2-3 people who come to this blog)

Testing MacJournal v. 4

2005-12-31T16:37:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I'll be leaving for Barcelona sometime in March to do research for my thesis. One of the common advices I've got from supervisors and senior grad students alike is to keep a journal while I'm at the archives. It helps keeping track of ideas while reading the documents as well as general information about the archives and the people who work there. I am all convinced of the usefulness of this approach but being the technology freak that I am, I had to see if I could find a special software for journaling. I’ve downloaded MacJournal for testing and since it is supposed to have a blogging support tool, I decided to write an entry and see if it would publish ok... Ok, let’s test it...

Christian, Jews, Muslims, and Heretics: Identity and Religious Difference

2005-12-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

One of my supervisors asked me yesterday what it was, at a personal level, that drove me to my research. What pricked my curiosity and what questions I sought to answer. I've never really thought too hard about this - I knew I liked history, I enjoy the historical method, I'm patient enough to deal with boring archival work, and as for the subject I chose to study (Christian-Jewish relations in the middle ages), circumstances led me to it. I started my undergradute degree with a desire to work on the British monarchy, but eventually found myself enmeshed in the study of genocide, Holocaust, and medieval heresy. I also found myself enjoying discussions with my undergrad supervisor on issues of popular religion and reminiscing about the forms of popular piety and religious identity I encountered growing up in Brazil. Looking back at all the work I've done, it seems that a common thread relates to issues of religious/cultural identity and instances in which these generate conflict. Having grown up in Brazil, where religious differences are never perceived as threats and where most catholics take a very syncretic approach to their own religion, religious and cultural conflicts seem alien to me. I simply cannot understand how can otherwise normal people turn against their neighbours. Numerous scholars have of course come up with all kinds of socialogical, psychological, economic, and theological reasons for inter-faith conflict. But I still don't understand and maybe that's what I'm trying to find out when I set out to Barcelona next spring...

Reading for Comps: Can it be enjoyable?

2005-12-08T16:44:00.000-05:00

I've been in an emotional roller-coaster during the past six months, especially the past month or so. When I first started reading for my comprehensive exams, I thought I knew what to do: just read, take good notes, and after you are done review, prepare answers for the questions I would get in advance and get through. But the more I read, the more uncertain I became of what I needed to know and how to synthesize such a vast field. I lost myself writing too much, trying to keep track of too many details, while getting more and more anxious. I finally had an epiphany - I found out I got a better sense of the larger picture if I forced myself not to write while I read. I've always been afraid of doing this because I always felt I couldn't remember much from simply reading a book. I've now discovered that this is not necessarily the case - I can often write a paragraph or two on a chapter and actually remember it later if I do it after reading instead of simply lifting chunks of text while I read. The other benefit of this is that I get to read sitting on a favourite chair, at coffee shops, or anywhere I feel comfortable rather than limiting myself to sitting at a desk and typing on a computer.

I've also had to remind myself what is it about history that I enjoy and try to keep that in mind when I read. I'm refering to my interest in knowing what was life like in the past. Instead of getting hung up on details and statistics when reading my urban history section, for example, I've enjoyed it more by simply trying to keep in mind that this is my chance to get a sense of urban life in the middle ages so I can pass this on to my students and also for my own edification. Once I reminded myself that my real commitment as a historian is to the people I study rather than to the present or to other historians, the experience improved overall. I'm still not sure whether I'm on the right track, but at least I'm not dreading each book anymore. Hopefully, I've turned a corner.

7 things list

2005-09-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

I was tagged by my friend Roberta from Yalla to answer this list. It was hard, but here it is:

7 THINGS I HATE DOING OR SCARE ME:
- phoning people
- driving too fast
- skinning, cleaning raw chicken (yuk)
- snakes
- discrimination (nothing bothers me more)
- dance clubs
- play ball games

7 THINGS I LIKE:
- hubby
- food (nothing like a gourmet meal to cheer me up)
- red wines & dark ales
- travel
- cheese (the smelliest the better)
- chatting with friends in a bar
- learning languages

7 IMPORTANT THINGS IN MY ROOM:
- hubby
- books
- radio alarm clock
- bed
- nice sheets
- air conditioning
- hmmm.... don't really need anything else in my room

7 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME:
- my feet are the only part of my body that really sweat
- I'm very patient with others but impatient with myself
- I have perfectionist tendencies
- I'm too messy to be a total perfectionist
- I've hated cigarretes ever since I tried smoking a lit cigarrete but when I was 5 yrs old
- I cannot develop habits or routines that last more than 2 months ( believe me, I've tried!)
- I don't understand people who hate their jobs, their lifestyles, etc and don't do anything about it

7 THINGS I PLAN TO DO BEFORE I DIE:
- get my PhD
- live in Europe
- write a book
- learn Hebrew, Arabic, German & Italian
- walk the Camino de Compostella (from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella)
- hike in New Zealand
- win a dragon boat race

7 THINGS I CAN DO:
- speak french, english, portuguese and spanish
- read all of the above plus Catalan and Latin
- say no to a boss/supervisor
- cook
- paddle a racing kayak
- set the stroke rate for a dragon boat team
- fix a computer

7 THINGS I CAN'T OR WILL NOT DO:
- Live in the US (have to agree with Roberta on that one)
- eat peanut butter (yuk)
- drive a car
- swim butterfly
- do whitewater kayaking
- do something I don't believe in just because everybody else does it
- get ahead by keeping other people behind

7 things I say the most:
- I'm hungry
- I told you so!
- No, you don't want that... (substitute that for any junk food my hubby might be interested in eating; he says that when I'm feeling generous I say "Are you sure you want that?" instead – I attribute it to strong maternal instincts)
- Don't do that! (natural propensity to nag or maternal instinct, you name it)
- I'm hungry
- I'm NEVER going to finish this paper on time!! I'm going to FAIL!!! (and when my hubby or my best friend tell me I said the same thing last time I say "But this time is DIFFERENT!!")
- Did I say "I'm hungry"?

7 celeb crushes:
- Colin Firth ( I LOVE Mr. Darcy!!!)
- Antonio Banderas
- Johnny Depp
- Zack Wilde
- Kenneth Brannagh
- Hugh Grant
- Christian Slater

7 people that have to do this now:
- landismom
- Christian
- Alan
- Gen
- Janine
- Irina
- Debora

Historian of the Future

2005-09-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

Who said historians are only concerned with the past? Alex Pang, originally an historian of Victorian science, is a researcher for the Institute for the Future in Sillicon Valley. Check out his blog Relevant History. Very interesting if you are into new technology like I am. Btw, I saw the new iPod nano today - AMAZING. The future of the ipod, no doubt. I want to get rid of my ipod mini now. Check it out: ipodnano

Third Law

2005-09-12T21:06:00.000-04:00

Second Law

2005-09-12T21:03:00.000-04:00

Laws of graduation

2005-09-09T21:03:00.000-04:00

Guitars, Violas, & Rabecas...

2005-08-22T15:32:00.000-04:00

My husband has been fascinated with stringed instruments - especially of the plucking and strumming kinds - ever since he started learning how to play classical guitar. He looks for stringed instruments wherever we go and has now a cavaquinho and a mandolin besides his beloved Spanish guitar. We are now in Brazil and discovered what Brazilians and Portuguese call a "viola" - a 10-string guitar with a narrower top and that seems to be the instrument of choice in rural Brazil and Portugal. I've been searching the internet to find out what it is called in English (since a viola is more like a violin in that language) and so far, have only found texts on its portuguese provenance, its rural nature, and its dissemination throughout Brazil.

One quote is worth recording:
"a viola tinha pais portugueses, o violão tinha pais espanhóis, ambos eram netos de mouros e bisnetos de hebreus" by Gustavo Pinheiro Machado, a virtuoso of the viola. It reads: "the viola had portuguese parents, the guitar had spanish parents, both were grandchildren of moors and greatgrandchildren of Jews". I wonder what Sanchez-Albornoz would say about that...

Some sites I found:

Historia da Viola Caipira
Viola Braguesa
Roberto Correa

reading

2005-08-14T18:07:00.000-04:00

I came across this tip on reading for comps: "The best method is: read the book, mark important sections in the margins; close the book; write one or two paragraphs on what the argument was; then fill in important detail as you think needed, referring back to what you marked in the margins"
Hmmm... this sounds sensible...

Another one says: "I took detailed notes as I read, then for each book wrote a one to two page book review summarizing the argument and my response to it. I then annotated my bibliography with a paragraph description for each book. My final review during the last week consisted of rereading my reviews and my annotations, as well as writing out practice essays."

This sounds like my previous experience. I was writing as detailed notes as I could in Notebook files, which I then wrote a short abstract for in my Bookends database. The idea is that I would have an annotated bibliography towards the end, like I did for my directed reading with M. I may combine the two methods...

and the reading drags on...

2005-08-13T22:33:00.000-04:00

Why is it that the work one has to do seems to drag on at turtle pace while the time one has to do it in goes by at lightspeed?? That's definitely how I feel about this summer. When I finished my last paper on April 30th, the comps seemed a world away and the summer seemed more than enough time to finish my main field, get started on one of my minor fields and even take some time off with my family. Well, it's now August, there are only 3 weeks left of summer and I leave for Brazil in 4 days having read, maybe, 40% of my major field. I'll bring some reading down but I don't expect to reach the first week of september with more than 50% of my major field done. Where has the time gone???? Oh well, I just keep telling myself it's not worth getting stressed out about... if I end up needing an extra month of preparation, the world is not going to end. Besides, I'll probably read much faster once the date looms closer and pressure builds. I'll make sure to regularly meet my supervisors to keep the pressure going.

Speaking of pressure, I learned a lot about my performance under pressure then. I've always know I needed a bit of it to perform but had no idea I needed such vast quantities. I'll explain. I only needed to take two seminars in the Fall semester to fulfill my course requirements. To those two courses, I rapidly added paleography (essential for my work as a medievalist), medieval Catalan and intensive Latin. One of the history courses was a year-long directed reading course with my supervisor, to which was added Diplomatic Editing in the Spring term, as well as continuting with medieval Catalan & Latin. Since the normal load at my department is of 2 courses per term I was very worried about how well I would cope. To my utter surprise I did better and was much less stressed this year than I was last year when I had half the course load! I found out that the more time I have to do things the more it gets filled by inconsequential crap like mindlessly browsing the internet & worrying about the future. I'm definitely at that state right now - wasting valuable reading time worrying about a move to Barcelona that won't happen before I write my comps.

After a bad reading week, I had a good hour of reading tonight. I used a new strategy. Instead of taking notes on my computer as I read, I decided to just read the entire chapter. While I was reading, I restrained myself to minimal notes around the margins (don't worry - I don't write on books, I use post-its). After I finished, I spent about 10 mins typing the post-it notes on my computer. That way, I was able to go through 40 pages more thoroughly than I had before in about 1 hour while generating less notes. I'll try this again tomorrow and see if I can finish this particular book in the morning.

I've given myself the deadline of November 30 to finish reading. That would give me December to review and I could write the exam at the very beg. of January. That means I only have 109 days to finish 160 books... eeek!

Goddess of Wisdom

2005-08-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

Voce eh Thot, o deus da sabedoria

Que deus egipcio voce eh?
brought to you by Quizilla

100 things

2005-08-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

landismom from the Bublebee and Sweet Potato blog was tagged to do this list. I thought it was great fun and here's my own. Let me know if you do one and I promise I'll read it!

1. I was born in Resende, a town of about 100,000 about 170 km from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. My parents were there for a wedding, scheduled for Saturday, May 31st at 8 pm. I was born May 31st at 6:40 pm
3. My parents never made it to the wedding
4. I now live in Toronto, Canada.
5. I lived in Montreal for 4 years before moving to Toronto
6. Until I moved to Canada in 1999 I had never lived in one city for more than 2 years
7. My dad was in the military
8. I'm a computer geek
9. I love travelling.
10. I love meeting new people
11. I have two brothers, one older and one younger
12. We are very close
13. I have two nephews and a niece
14. My oldest nephew (he's 8) is the most emotionally mature child I've ever met; he's also the most creative.
15. My niece just turned 18 months and talks non stop. all day long. every day. it's been a few months now.
16. I don't know how long my brother and sister-in-law will be able to keep their sanity
17. my other nephew is two and has redefined "terrible twos"
18. I'm a very proud aunt. You obviously couldnt tell.
19. I love kids
20. I'm the second oldest of 16 grandchildren on my mother's side
21. I'm one in about 12 on my dad's side
22. I've taken care of most of my cousins
23. Yet, I'm not sure I want to have kids of my own.
24. Maybe I overdid it.
25. the thing I enjoyed most about childhood were the summers, when we would roam free and play all day long. No schedules. It really bothers me that kids in North American can no longer do that.
26. My husband and I have been together for 9 years
27. We've been married for almost 6.
28. We met on the Internet.
29. He's older than me
30. By 27 years
31. My parents were shocked when they first found out
32. But immediately relieved when they met him
33. He's definitely the kid in the relationship
34. I went to university at 16
35. I was in law school for 8 years (in Brazil it's not a second degree)
36. I hated law school
37. the degree normally takes 5 years but I had to almost restart every time we moved
38. I love history
39. three years before I graduated from law school I decided I would be a historian
40. but after 5 years of law school I decided I couldn't do it until I finished
41. I defended my thesis at law school on Nov 18 1999
42. I started my history degree on Jan 2001 and never looked back
43. I was never a very good student until I started my history degree
44. I'm now doing my PhD and loving every minute
45. I don't care if I don't get a job when I'm finished
46. After 8 years doing what was thought to be the "right thing" I now want to do what I enjoy
47. I have to read 200 books by december
48. It's August and I've now read about 35. eeek.
49. I've lived in Fort Lewis, WA for one year when I was 7
50. That's when we saw snow for the first time
51. I loved living in a foreign country and learning a new language
52. I couldn't wait to live in a foreign country again
53. My husband and I are moving to Spain for a year and a half in January
54. I need to do research for my thesis in Barcelona
55. And I'm paid to do that
56. I consider myself very fortunate for being able to do that
57. I averaged 20 books a month when I was 14
58. my older brother taught me to read when I was 3 and he was going to kindergarten
59. every day he taught me everything he had learned that day
60. I did not like reading books when I was 12
61. My brother taught me to enjoy reading
62. I'm a dog person, but I like cats too
63. I wanted a dog ever since I can remember
64. It took me 17 years to convince my mom
65. I have a Cocker Spaniel called Tequila
66. I once got drunk on tequila
67. could never drink tequila again
68. both my parents have an Italian great-grandfather who immigrated to Brazil
69. that makes me an Italian citizen. go figure
70. I used to work as a desktop publisher
71. I love languages
72. I speak Portuguese, English and French and I read Spanish, Catalan and Latin.
73. My husband and I are now learning to speak Spanish
74. He's also learning to play classical guitar
75. I want to learn Hebrew and Arabic one day
76. I have trouble concentrating
77. I found a discarded cigarette, still smoking, when I was 5
78. smoking it was the worst idea I ever had
79. but it cured me from ever even entertaining the possibility of trying again
80. I love gourmet food
81. I love to cook
82. I love going to restaurants
83. I like planning
84. but I don't have to stick to my plans
85. I'm a gemini
86. I'm very curious
87. which makes me a good historian
88. I love sharing knowledge
89. I'm pro choice
90. I'm pro gay marriage
91. few things bother me more than racism & discrimination
92. it's just not fair
93. I love office supplies & electronic gadgets. I once worked at an office supply store. Needless to say, I didn't make much money - most of my paycheck was written off for things I bought at the store.
94. I once owned 3 computers – all in working condition
95. I have two palm pilots & two cellphones that I hardly ever use; I'm not proud of that
96. I vowed not to buy another electronic gadget for another 2 years
97. I worry too much
98. I love kayaking & dragon boating – the only sports I was ever any good at
99. I love sitting in a bar, nibbling food, having drinks and chatting with my husband
100. When I finish my PhD my husband and I are walking 800 km from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella, Spain. Can't wait.

Done! It took me about an hour and a half...

Air France crash

2005-08-03T14:29:00.000-04:00

The crash of the Air France Airbus 340 at the end of a very slippery runway at Toronto's Pearson Airport had me glued to the tv from 5 pm (when I first heard of the crash) until 9:30 pm. It just reinforced my dislike for landings and take-offs.
Coverage of the incident illustrates the general tendency of the media of focusing on the negative. Since nobody knew how many (if any) people were saved, journalists across the country focused on "possibly hundreds dead" at horrible accident. This stress was so marked that the minister of transportation was told there were over 200 dead in Toronto. Once it was clear that everybody escaped, the media switched the focus of the story to the ensuing mayhem at airports across the country, which was typically negative on the airlines (esp. Air Canada). They kept repeating how the airport was closed and flights were cancelled. Luckily my friend Gen did not listen to the news and continued on her way to the airport. Her Zoom flight out of Pearson to Belfast left on time at 9:30 pm. Which is not to say there wasn't mayhem and misinformation at the airports, I just wish coverage was less prone in alarming the public rather than informing.

New profile pictures

2005-08-01T15:32:00.000-04:00

I like this picture...

BUMBLEBEE SWEET POTATO

2005-08-01T12:18:00.000-04:00

This site does much to dispell the notion of the "ugly American" so common these days outside of the US
BUMBLEBEE SWEET POTATO

Ahhh Paris...

2005-08-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

My friend Gen is leaving for Ireland and Paris tomorrow. This made me think of my recent whirlwind trip to the city of lights in May. For the foodies on a budget out there, check out these places:

Le temps de Cerises
Lunch menu formule for 13,50 euros included entree, plat & dessert. The wine list was good and the bistrot was clearly a popular neighbourhood tradition - there were no tourists when we were there and the place was packed! Service was good and speedy, and the food was very tasty and plentiful.
Note: it is only open for lunch and I recommend going early (before 12:30) but it seems to turn into a popular wine bar at happy hour...

Mouff'tartes
Amazing sweet & savoury tarts at rue mouffetard. Menu formule for 8,40 euros included a tarte salée with small salad (choice of green or carrot), a tarte sucrée and a drink. I had a tarte Provençale (tomato, green pepper, olives, tuna & feta cheese) as my main course and asked for a recommendation for dessert. The Tarte Rose aux Pistaches recommened by the waiter was just exquisite!

Harry Potter

2005-07-17T10:32:00.000-04:00

Kudos for Canada Post! I received my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this Saturday at noon despite not signing up for special saturday delivery!

I pre-ordered the book a few months ago and chose the free delivery option. A few weeks ago Chapters contacted me to ask if I wanted to change my delivery option to ensure I would get the book on release date. Nah - I said - I'll probably be out and miss the delivery guy anyways. Turns out I was out and did miss the postman by a few minutes. I saw his truck down the street and ran over. Yonge street was closed because of some parade and I waited by the truck until the postman finally arrived. He said I was lucky to catch him there - he decided to take a break when he saw the street closed. Anyways, he handed in the book and I'm now almost half-way through. I tried working this morning but I've given up any pretense to work and have decided I might as well finish the book.

OS X Tiger - Installed

2005-07-17T10:13:00.000-04:00

Upgrading to Tiger was easier than I thought. Since I wanted to do a clean install (wipe out the hard disk) and needed to safely backup my files & applications I went out and bought an external hard disk (LaCie 160 GB Firewire disk). Installing the disk was painless enough - no drives, all I had to do was plug into the power let, plug to firewire port and turn it on. I then used Super Duper! to close my computer to the new drive before running Tiger's installation. Once intalled, I ran Tiger's Migration Utility and set it to import all files/user profiles/application from the external hard disk. Once that was done, all settings/files/app were like in the old system. I didn't have to install a single application and so far everything seems to work fine. The new search capabilities of Tiger (not only Spotlight but the new revamped Finder) were well worth the trouble of upgrading. As a researcher, information retrieval is crucial to what I do and I'm overall very pleased with the new system.

Another hot, smoggy day in TO

2005-07-14T08:27:00.000-04:00

It felt like 35 degrees (celsius) at 8 in the morning and with the humidity it will reach 42 by midday. It hasn't rained in weeks and Queen's Park is starting to look brown... I wonder if this will be the trend for the rest of the summer... It's starting to feel like summer in Brazil. Not a good sign.

flickr

2005-07-14T08:26:00.000-04:00

Xanda4
Originally uploaded by Alexandra Guerson de Oliveira.

Just got a Flickr account so I can post pictures to this blog. I might move the blog to my own webspace though...

Flickr

2005-07-14T08:23:00.000-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

OS X Tiger

2005-07-12T10:22:00.000-04:00

Apple does not cease to amaze me. Wednesday I went to the U of T computer shop and they had a waiting list for the new OS (Tiger). I decided to order online - like the guy said, whatever long it takes to get to me it's how long it would take to get to them since they order from the same source. I placed an order Wednesday night and had a choice of regular or expedited shipping. Since regular shipping was free and I wasn't in a hurry, I chose that. The site said it would be delivered btw 6-10 business days. Thursday I got an email saying my order was shipped. Friday morning a delivery guy from Purolator left a message (we weren't home) saying there was a package for me and he would leave it at an address on Bloor street. I spent all of Sunday wondering what could it possibly be. It couldn't be my Apple order since I had just ordered it! Well, it was! So, next time you need anything and can't get it at the computer shop, don't hesitate to use the online store.

I'll wait until the weekend to install Tiger. I want to do a clean install (the HD needs some cleaning up) and that will probably take half the day.