that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Summer has definitely started…

    The ice cream van with the terribly distorted music has started touring the neighbourhood again! Who’s up for a Flake 99?

  • Fingerbootyology

    Get your minds out of the gutter! This is perfectly work-safe!

    Boooootay fingers

    It’s a silly camera trick     and it just gave me the giggles… Can’t help it!

    Found via Agent Provocateur.

  • Spammer gets 9 years in jail

    As long as there are gullible people, there will be spammers to take advantage of them.

    This man was making bucketloads of money from advertising through spam! I mean, for nearly £5million a year, I can see why their sense of email etiquette goes out the window!

  • Must-get music

    I need some recommendations of good upbeat music! Most of my collection is chillout stuff, which is great for curling up on the sofa and reading a good book, but doesn’t help much when I need energy to be productive!

    I’ve tried using “similar style” recommendations on iTunes, Amazon, etc… but nothing beats a music tip-off from a friend!

    So what’s on your favourite playlists?

  • Computers to grade University essays

    Anyone else disturbed by the idea that computer systems will grade University papers in some American universities?

  • New MSN 7 out

    I’ve been using MSN 7 Beta at home since what… Christmas? But last night, someone pointed out v.7 was officially out. I just got it and I must say I like the “What I’m listening to” option.

    MugginsInstead of my usual Vero [thatcanadiangirl] with the bracketed bit changing according to my mood, I can now have it as Vero – current track I’m listening to. Only hic about it is that it then links to MSN Music. I’m not so happy about that but for the time being, I’ll leave it as being used because it’s a funky feature.

    MSN 7 has a few fun little features like the winks and the nudges, as well as the dynamically changing “What I’m listening to” nickname. Must say the Muggins are cute as well: icons that change according to what you type (such as smileys and certain key words.

    Certainly the most popular messaging system these days, I guess having the most recent version and using patches to block out the obnoxiously aggressive functions seems to be the best compromise.

    What’s sketchy is that MSN now censors messages:

    Censorship in MSN Messenger: Microsoft is jamming your messages!
    dwergs says:
    Not only is Microsoft acting like a pure-bred Big Brother with regard to file transfers, but a new form of censorship has been brought to light, directly affecting your IM conversations! You see, messages that include .pif just never get through. Just pif without the dot works, as do all other blocked file extensions.

    The filtering of messages containing .pif, a resolution sprung from last week’s security testing, addresses the spreading of disguised MSN Messenger worms. One could wonder why other common worm extensions, like .scr and .exe, are left alone? Timothy gave me one acceptable answer, namely that .pif files are often mistaken for .gif files and therefor more imprudently clicked. But the point is Microsoft has moved into censoring Instant Messages and that’s awfully disturbing!

    So even though I’m not keen on this kind of odd censorship, I’m unlikely to stop using MSN really… For ways to block ads, tabs and other annoyingly Microsoft-like feature, take a peak at the patches on Mess.Be.

  • Happy Birthday blog!

    Today, April 7th 2005, is thatcanadiangirl.co.uk’s first birthday!

    I’ve had websites, live journals and other small and pointless online presences on and off since 1994, but on April 7th 2004, I decided I was here to stay and setup a little squatter’s corner on a friend’s website, using b2 (or was it b2evo? either way it was bloated and patched together).

    Cake!Once I settled down in England, I moved the blog to WordPress, and with a bit (a lot) of help from my dear other half, I settled with a first design. It was grey and blue, followed by a candy pink design, followed by the beautiful current design, for which Andrew gets all credit really!

    So over the course of a year, with a total of approximately 360 posts, I’ve achieved what I wanted: a daily diary about my life and the events of the past year, graduation, moving back to the UK, getting married, going on holidays, buying a house, also sprinkled with short articles about technology, blogging, tv, music, and other random thoughts. I haven’t been writing for as long as some of my favourite bloggers but at least, I can now proudly say it’s been a whole year! And what an exciting year it was!

    Without readers, blogs are hardly interesting at all, so thank you, dear readers, for turning this into an interactive and exciting adventure! It’s been a year, and it’s only just starting to get interesting!

    Long live blogging!

  • Rosaire le Hamster et un Retour sur les poissons d'avril

    Vas-y mon ti hamster!

    C’est l’histoire de Rosaire, le hamster de Montréal.

    Ok, bon, je m’attend pas à ce que grand monde comprenne les références que fait Fred ici, mais je dédie cette histoire à Caramel, le premier teddy bear hamster, un vrai survivor, Guimauve, la grosse affaire paresseuse blanche, l’autre dont je me rappelle pas le nom mais je suis sure qu’on a eu 5 hamsters au total, puis Lucky et Speedy, les mini hamsters qui mordaient dont un s’est suicidé (par pendaison) un beau matin d’hiver. Maudites affaires inutiles qui faisaient du bruit en plein milieu de la nuit à côté de ma chambre… mais bon on les aimait bien.

    Jo, Julie, Catou, c’était quoi le nom de l’autre hamster?

    —————
    Mon bô poisson

    Merci Alex pour la chanson qui m’est restée pognée dans tête toute la journée mais que je pouvais pas chanter à mes collègues anglos parce qu’y comprennent pas un mot de canadien français, et peut-être 3 mots et demi de français Parisien…

    Allez, tout le monde chante avec moi, sur l’air de ‘Mon beau sapin’! :

    ‘Mon bô poisson, roi des baleines, que j’aime ton oodeuuuur. Tu goute si bon, mais ta senteur, fait lever l’coeur, pasé six heure, Mon bô poisson, roi des odeures, que j’aime ta candeurrrre!’

    Merci! Merci!

    Tout le monde, on applaudit!!

    Je sais bien que je suis une couple de jours en retard (c’est tu nouveau ça? Non, pantoute. Shut up!) mais j’ai écouté le podcast du premier avril de MC aujourd’hui et j’en avais les larmes aux yeux! La version d’Éric est pure class!

    Pour ceux qui sont pas encore embarqués et qui ont jamais écouté de podcasts, prenez le temps d’écouter un de ceux de MC. Toujours intéressant et toujours des bonnes tounes pour aider la journée de travail à passer!!

  • Neat Photoshopping trick

    Very very cool little illusion!

    Found via Antoine. (Woops, that was Alex’s work!)

    I’d try it but I have so little patience…

  • Google to offer vlogging

    Google will be experimenting with vlogging, or video blogging, over the next few months. Can’t say I’d complain if I was offered free space, with no limit on bandwidth or space usage, but if their servers for vlogging is as temperamental as their Blogger.com current servers, that’ll be the ultimate turn-off.

    The downtime for Blogger.com’s admin area, which includes the posting section, is unbelievably high these days. I’m glad I’ve decided not to go down the Blogger route for more than a single post!