Blog-a-readin' and what to watch

Watching stuff in French as "homework" is fun. It feels like slacking off. But the dishwasher's running and my TV's old and not very loud, so I'm taking an internet break. Going to read blogs. If you're a fellow blogger and you notice I only show up on your blog once a week, it's cause I tend to catch up on everything about once a week--sort of like reading the Sunday paper. I have a feed reader, and I dive in and immerse myself for a few hours.

I just watched the Jamie Kennedy movie where he wakes up in a coma and reforms his old breakdance crew with his oldy friends. It's one of those movies that no one will watch with you, not even on TV. My moment had finally come--husband off playing D&D, movie on TV in French, perfect excuse for me to finally see it. I can understand translated movies, and commercials, the easiest. People don't speak as rapidly as in more natural French-Canadian movies, I guess.

And then there's the French-French movies where everyone's speaking fast, using words I don't know, and speaking like they have marbles in their mouths. A friend recommended a series called Les Rois maudits for me, which they had at the library. But the dvd didn't have French sub-titles, and my TV didn't have French sub-titling for it either, so it was hopeless, I just couldn't follow. I'll try again another time. (My friend who recommended it is not only francophone, but she's Belgian--she laughs in the face of European accents! She can smoke them under the table!)


Speaking of Jamie Kennedy, I had never recognized him in Romeo and Juliet, did you??

Today I switched some of my cable channels and picked out one that plays movies in French. I also found some free programs I can watch, on video-on-demand:

Fortier - I've seen most of it in subtitled English, but I can either rewatch it all, or find the parts I missed. Fantastic ensemble series about a psychologist who helps a Montreal police crew with their investigations. She's awkward, doesn't drive, takes her dog everywhere, and has loads of baggage. And naturally there's a great ensemble crew--the two grizzled street cops, the computer nerd, the cheerful forensic geek, the too-sauvé lawyer, and their boss who has a crush on our Fortier. It's full of top Quebec actors, mostly serious well-written psychological drama, but with enough humor to keep it human; and the show actually finished after I think 5 seasons, so it has closure. Super recommended.

Toute la vérité - A law show my friend Swiss Girl recommended. She started watching it because she knew where they were filming. If you knew her... you'd know that says everything about her. But anyway.

Lance & compte - Translates as "He shoots he scores." This was a huge hockey drama series in the '80s and I'm sure I'm the only Quebec inhabitant who never watched it. They have all the seasons!

Nos étés - The last time I wanted to brush up on my French I started this series and I love it. It's about various women of a Quebec family as they visit their summer house, through the generations. They only had two seasons posted years ago. Earlier this year I started season 3 but I don't remember where I was up to. Will go back and pick it up again!

The types of intelligence: IQ & Berzerker

Minion is definitely the smartest cat I've owned been ruled by* in awhile, at least in terms of memory. If I spill a niblet under the dishwasher, she'll sit there for awhile trying to fish it out; and she'll be there a day or two later to retrieve it when I move the dishwasher.

Today she was crouched at the edge of the dishwasher in desperation, and when I moved it to hook it up to the sink she was still crouched by it. I moved it around some more and finally one of her toys popped out. I don't know when it got under there, but it wasn't in the last few hours.

A couple days ago I was pulling all the stray items out from under the couch that had gotten stuck there, and as soon as she saw me doing that she rushed to my side and crouched down, almost vibrating as she watched something under the couch. I realized she had her eye on one of her favorite toys and was waiting for me to fish it out for her. Who knows how long it's been there. Every time I hit one of the toys out she'd excitedly check which one it was, realize it wasn't the little gold sparkle ball, and go back to her intense watching.

When I finally retrieved the gold sparkle ball (which is very light) she was so excited she immediately batted it right back under the couch.

lol

I had to find a broom and get it out again.

Mind you, Haley has her own kind of intelligence--she has the intelligence of a survivor. She has the instincts of a lone wolf, a fighter, a killer, taking-care-of-#-1. She has Wolverine Intelligence. Ready to go into a Berzerker Rage whenever necessary. (I've mentioned before that she refuses to let me cut her toenails. She let me do it once, when we first met, to fool me into thinking she was a docile, sweet cat. But once she got into our home and realized what she was up against, that was it.) Snickety snick!

If Minion and Haley were on a super hero team together, they'd bicker endlessly, but be great together in a fight.

* Thanks to Nancy for reminding me that "owned" was the inappropriate mot de choix here. :-) I usually try to be more careful. After all, my kitties don't mean the same to me as the couch I'm sitting on, or this computer I'm writing on. My mother likes to instead say Being Their People.


I take the reminder seriously, because it's the ownership attitude towards animals that leads to treating them cruelly. Which is a great poopiness.


As the magnet on our fridge says: "Our cats aren't our whole lives, but they make our lives whole."

Organization and Kittization and Illustration at Casa di Mabel

Productive day today. Did some paperworky things, library run, and organizing the livingroom. We don't just watch TV in here--we do paperwork, and work on our hobbies, so it's always filled with all kinds of Life. Teeming with life!! Now is the time to get to all that organizing type stuff.

Like my jewelry. I had it squished onto one messy shelf, but I moved this unit to my livingroom. So I finally dug out the wall organizer my mother bought me a dog's age ago, but that I could never find when I needed it/and always found when I didn't.

 

Ahh menowz. That's better! My organizational heart glows every time I walk past.

Now I need to figure out what to do with my scarves when the winter ones move into the front hall cupboard.

KITTIES

Then there are forces in my apartment that are beyond my control, like kittatudes.

Fernando always complains that I don't sit next to him on the couch. Of course, everyone knows that sitting in the middle of the couch is poopy cause you don't have a side table for your drink! But I'm nothing if not resourceful.

I found a good sippy cup.

And I use the side of the couch as my side table.  [Note the blanket my husband gave me for Christmas. You see why he's worth sitting in the middle of the couch for.]

[File folder, clipboard, basket with gum and glasses etc, kleenex, headphones, magazines, stack of books, letters from grandmothers, folder for book ideas, camera, etc.]

My "side table" was made bigger one day because Fernando took the back cushion off for some reason, and Haley stole it. She almost never comes off it. It's the perfect size for a cat, and for some reason Minion lets her have it.

Strategically placed on sideboard dividing kitchen from livingroom. The Haley sees all the action. Excellent view of eating activities at the kitchen table.

 

An artistic rendering in one of the daily letters to Fernando. (Can't remember if I mentioned it here, but Fernando has challenged me to write him 365 letters this year.) I don't draw very well, but I like illustrating my letters, and he likes them.

More illustrations:

Feeding time.

Treebeard from Lord of the Rings.

Still in for a Videotron, still out for a Bell

Alright, Opération Franophonize La Mabel begins. I'm taping a French movie called L'Esquive. Hopefully my TV's subtitling will work, because it's Parisian French. It is! Phew, cause it's a bunch of fast-talking Arab-French banlieue youth! I would be totally lost.  "Ils nous prennent pour des baltringues." What is that? Hmm I see.

A customer who was learning French gave me a good tip once--to never look up words in French-English dictionaries, but in French dictionaries. He was right, if only because most of the words I need to look up don't tend be in pocket F-E dictionaries anyway.

My cable provider must have known I wanted to practice French and was on a budget, because they're building a library of Quebecois cinema, and the movies are only $1.99:

ÉLÉPHANT
LA MÉMOIRE DU CINÉMA QUÉBÉCOIS

Quebec's film heritage is now secured! As part of the "Éléphant: mémoire du cinéma québécois" project, Quebecor is investing half a million dollars per year to digitize 800 Quebec feature-length movies and make them accessible. To help you enjoy them, this treasure trove is available through Videotron's Video on demand service. 

Speaking of Videotron.  Today salesmen from Bell, the other major Canadian competitor for internet/phone/TV services came knocking at the door. I tried warning them right away, politely, that I have NO interest in switching to Bell. Now... here is what I hate about hard selling techniques, cause here are some of the things they tried.

• When I said I had bad experience with Bell and would not switch, they actually said I wouldn't be switching, and then launched into their spiel. At the end of which I said... Me: "But I would be with BELL."  Them: "Yes."  Me: "I have no interest in switching TO BELL."
• How they somehow justified that I wasn't "switching" was in saying that I'd keep the same phone number and package of services, I wouldn't even notice the switchover. Yes, but, that's still SWITCHING. You are LYING to me.
• They presented "keeping the same phone number" as though this was a service. Of course I would! That's the norm!
• They tried to pressure me by saying all my neighbors had switched over. Which of course there's no way I can know.
• They tried to get me to tell them what I spend on my bill. "Your bundle if it's like your neighbors must cost about $120 right?" ...silence... "You will receive the same service for only $60!"  I did NOT bother asking how this was possible, for how long, what's the small print, etc. If this is the real deal, then there's enough competition that Videotron will be forced to match them. In all likelihood there's a catch somewhere anyway. Because Bell is always full of catches catches catches which is why I refuse to do business with them.
• I kept telling them over and over that I would NOT do business with Bell, and they kept trying to tell me, yes in the past people had trouble with their service, but now we have these bla bla whatever cables with x x x whatever company so service is yada yada improved which is why we're here annoying you. I think what I didn't make clear to them is that I never had any service issues with Bell, cause I never had them for internet or cable TV. I just mean I cannot STAND their customer service, their billing practices, their practices once you cut ties with them, their general underhandedness and pressure tactics, such as I was presently experiencing.

But I didn't hold it against these guys. I've been in sales and I know that these are the kinds of people who make sales. I could see how their wee lies, their little ways of saying things just the right way, their stories about the neighbors, etc. were hitting all the right notes. I suspect they were pretty successful. They were pushy, they wouldn't take no for an answer, they never let me close the conversation (I had to close the door on them, so they put me in the position of having to be the rude one) etc. You can tell a staff member that you don't expect them to hard sell, but the reality is that a staff member who uses techniques like this will outperform their co-workers.



So I didn't take it personally, they were doing their job, and well. And but it made me dislike Bell all the more, cause they (the managers) are the ones who created whatever incentives that inspired this bit of tomfoolery.