Goat Skin Tickler...

I just discovered I have a Blog [not really... lame, I know!]

For the past several weeks I've been extremely busy. The one time I wasn't really busy (Monday), I was taking care of the flu.

For four weeks now, I've been "tickling the goat skin" - I started taking Bodhrán classes. I've been curious about the Bodhrán for some time, and I'm glad I decided to try it. It's been a long time since I had so much fun playing over music.

Then came last weekend. A weekend pretty much dedicated to "La voix des jeunes", my dad's youth choir. The choir has been invited to the second edition of the "Récolte" (Harvest) show of the Moisson d'Art festival in my hometown. The show was on for two nights.



On top of that, we finally launched our album "Tout simplement" (Simply). The album that we literally give away. Yes, we're giving it away. We don't want to make money out of it. The goal of the album for the youth in the group to live the experience of recording an album and to leave the group later with a physical souvenir.

At the time of writing this, 85% of our first batch has already been giving away. We're very proud of this accomplishment. Then the hectic weekend took its toll with the flu I mentionned earlier.


Photo credits: Brigitte Cladère and CanadaMunicipal.ca

Once things start to get back to normal, I will start posting more regularly again.

Laptop Surgery - Recovery

Success! Not only I didn't break my laptop, but my keyboard no longer has any sticky keys!

Re-assembly was far easier than opening it up. Even the ribbon-cable (*see image) for the keyboard was easy to reconnect.


This is the nightmare connector. Image from AhWee.com

Laptop Surgery - Keyboard Cleaning (Part 1)

There was a freeze-pop accident this summer. Some keys got sticky to the point where it was annoying to type. It took weeks for me to gather up the courage to open my dear laptop up... tonight was the night.

It was not an easy task. At one point my heart just stopped. I thought I snapped (broke) the ribbon-cable that connects the keyboard to the laptop. It ended up just being a snap-lock connector. I'm not looking forward to putting that cable back in place. It's going to take some patience and a few extra sets of hands.

Tomorrow I was put it back together and hopefully everything will be fine.

*Disclaimer: My laptop's warranty expired two months ago.

Edit CSS in Google Docs

Since I changed my email to Google Mail (GMail), I slowly started using the other Google applications. In time, they have become essential to the way I work and I organize my time. Syncing my Google Calendar to my iPod Touch is just awesome.

One of the things I've been using a lot if Google Documents. I love to be able to create a document at the office, perhaps just a brainstorm idea or a draft from something and without managing any files being able to continue from home. I also love the collab. features.

My favorite feature of Google Documents was the ability to edit the style of the document with CSS (Edit CSS).

When Google launched New Google Docs in April, their was an immediate uproar - they removed Edit CSS and Edit HTML. My favorite feature gone.

Recently, I was randomly searching to see if Google was turning back or if they explained why the removed it. Instead, I found a way to revert to the old Google Documents editor which includes the Edit CSS. Here's how to do it

• In Google Documents, in the top-right corner of the screen click on Settings then Documeent Settings.
• Click on the "Editing" tab
• Uncheck "Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor"
• Save

There you have it. I posted this because it's not widespread knowledge. Some people are still complaining about the fact they can't edit their styles in an efficient way because of the lack of Edit CSS in New Google Docs editor.

PSP RPG-gasm!

Who says the PSP has no great games?... These all came out within a month.