Wow! Relax.
Actually I am French Canadian, and I don't wonder. I was merely stating the facts: Montreal requires you to speak French, so if you don't know it, or don't plan on learning it, don't count on working there, consider elsewhere in the country.
There's nothing wrong with Toronto, if all you're looking for is a big Canadian city. But Montreal is one of my favourite cities in the whole country,possibly even the world. Toronto just doesn't give me the same warm and fuzzy feelings that I get from Montreal. Something about that city is truly magical.
Go ahead, move to a Scandinavian country. Regarding cold, it's overrated as a problem. As the temperature drops, you can always put on another layer of clothing and stay warm. But in a hot clime, there's only so much you can take off before you're roasting under the sun. Besides, the dramatic change in seasons is nice. You get very used to a rhythmic year of variations. And living in England you're used to the four seasons, although it never gets too hot or too cold. But if you go someplace tropical, the lack of variation in the weather can slowly drive you mad.
It's funny how you can seriously miss things that sound bad, like cold weather.
I agree--living in Southeast Asia has me excited to return to Canada and sit next to a roaring fire. The feeling of warming up is blissful, the feeling of trying to cool down is frustrating.
I find Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) and Ottawa (Ontario) to be two of the most enjoyable cities in the world. They are small, clean and friendly. Ottawa has a lot of culture, which lends itself to being very tolerant of other nationalities (a nice multiculturalism) and can be easily navigated on foot. Unfortunately the [lack of] public transportation in Saskatoon leaves something to be desired, as does the 8 months of wintertime, but after living in Bangkok for the last 15 months, I truly cannot wait to return to somewhere that I blend in (instead of being the obvious foreigner) and can relax, find a quiet place to take a walk, breathe clean air and drink clean and delicious water straight out of the tap. I didn't know I missed any of these things until they became an utter impossibility.
I agree, Canada is a good place to set your sights, but Quebec might not be the best place for the most English of English speakers. There are a lot of restrictions on employment in Quebec, if you don't read, write and speak French fluently. Although Montreal is starting to move away from this French-purist attitude, employment is still challenging, to say the least.
It's the *way* they use it here. It's only one-wide and they don't bother to put up any safety railings or walking platforms or even to tie themselves off anywhere. It's more the standing on it with bare feet 20 m above that I see safety issues with.
The bamboo scaffolding here looks nothing like this flickr link. Nothing.
It's true, the government is the one behind maintaining and enforcing this law.
This is all on the heels of suggestions by Noam Chomsky and a subsequent international petition to have Thailand destroy this law. But the Thai people oh so love their king, and the current politicians are in hot enough water as is, so they're appealing to the masses by showing the people that they don't listen to the Westerners and allow free speech, they protect their king and his family.
I live in Thailand. Their culture needs some serious restructuring. I don't know what part of it is organized and civilized, but I will agree that there are parts of it that are deeply rooted in respect. But, the prevailing attitude is that if something isn't "fun" they shouldn't do it. You can imagine how often then students study and how fast garbage gets cleaned up.
I said earlier that the Thai people are more concerned with preserving their culture than stepping into this century and modernizing a little bit. It's too bad, because I think if they let down their guard a little, the best parts of their culture could stay and they could stop using bamboo scaffolding to build apartment complexes.
Advise as many folks as possible at the State Department of your next trip, post a bunch of blog entries about your plans, call your Senator to let him/her know you'll be taking lots of pictures and keeping detailed notes on your trip, and once everything is confirmed as "high visibility" go ahead and post your thoughts on the new site. Be sure to call a couple of CNN anchors to let them know about all the steps you've taken, and dare Thai officials to do a goddamned thing about your online activities once you get there.
Worst case scenario: you get detained for a couple of days, get international exposure from human rights groups and major media outlets, and sell a book deal on the whole charade. I'd do it myself, but frankly I'm too busy with other pursuits.
I currently live in Thailand and would advise against these actions strongly. The Thai government is not at all concerned with their public image abroad. If they were concerned, would they let their airport get overrun shut down by people without even a weapon? Would they so publicly censor and detain people for breaking this "law"? They're more concerned with preserving their culture than stepping into this century.
Oh noes! ha.
Yes, but these days specificity is too much to ask for, I guess. I'm sure I'll get it figured out. The limitations of my graphics won't worry me too much, as I mostly bought the computer for communication purposes when I move overseas in a couple of months.
My graphics card seems to be functioning perfectly well, sound not so much. I don't doubt their honesty, just their overall integrity. Doesn't seem fair to me.
Microsoft is concerned about preserving competition on the Internet, but when trying to remove Windows Vista from my recently acquired laptop, the HP website told me I should not attempt to run any other operating system or even a dual boot and if I do so, my sound, graphics, network card and many other computer components will not operate properly.
Funny--I thought I bought a computer with an operating system, not an operating system with a computer.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow! Relax. Actually I am French Canadian, and I don't wonder. I was merely stating the facts: Montreal requires you to speak French, so if you don't know it, or don't plan on learning it, don't count on working there, consider elsewhere in the country. There's nothing wrong with Toronto, if all you're looking for is a big Canadian city. But Montreal is one of my favourite cities in the whole country,possibly even the world. Toronto just doesn't give me the same warm and fuzzy feelings that I get from Montreal. Something about that city is truly magical.
Go ahead, move to a Scandinavian country. Regarding cold, it's overrated as a problem. As the temperature drops, you can always put on another layer of clothing and stay warm. But in a hot clime, there's only so much you can take off before you're roasting under the sun. Besides, the dramatic change in seasons is nice. You get very used to a rhythmic year of variations. And living in England you're used to the four seasons, although it never gets too hot or too cold. But if you go someplace tropical, the lack of variation in the weather can slowly drive you mad.
It's funny how you can seriously miss things that sound bad, like cold weather.
I agree--living in Southeast Asia has me excited to return to Canada and sit next to a roaring fire. The feeling of warming up is blissful, the feeling of trying to cool down is frustrating.
I find Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) and Ottawa (Ontario) to be two of the most enjoyable cities in the world. They are small, clean and friendly. Ottawa has a lot of culture, which lends itself to being very tolerant of other nationalities (a nice multiculturalism) and can be easily navigated on foot. Unfortunately the [lack of] public transportation in Saskatoon leaves something to be desired, as does the 8 months of wintertime, but after living in Bangkok for the last 15 months, I truly cannot wait to return to somewhere that I blend in (instead of being the obvious foreigner) and can relax, find a quiet place to take a walk, breathe clean air and drink clean and delicious water straight out of the tap. I didn't know I missed any of these things until they became an utter impossibility.
I agree, Canada is a good place to set your sights, but Quebec might not be the best place for the most English of English speakers. There are a lot of restrictions on employment in Quebec, if you don't read, write and speak French fluently. Although Montreal is starting to move away from this French-purist attitude, employment is still challenging, to say the least.
It's the *way* they use it here. It's only one-wide and they don't bother to put up any safety railings or walking platforms or even to tie themselves off anywhere. It's more the standing on it with bare feet 20 m above that I see safety issues with. The bamboo scaffolding here looks nothing like this flickr link. Nothing.
It's true, the government is the one behind maintaining and enforcing this law. This is all on the heels of suggestions by Noam Chomsky and a subsequent international petition to have Thailand destroy this law. But the Thai people oh so love their king, and the current politicians are in hot enough water as is, so they're appealing to the masses by showing the people that they don't listen to the Westerners and allow free speech, they protect their king and his family.
I live in Thailand. Their culture needs some serious restructuring. I don't know what part of it is organized and civilized, but I will agree that there are parts of it that are deeply rooted in respect. But, the prevailing attitude is that if something isn't "fun" they shouldn't do it. You can imagine how often then students study and how fast garbage gets cleaned up. I said earlier that the Thai people are more concerned with preserving their culture than stepping into this century and modernizing a little bit. It's too bad, because I think if they let down their guard a little, the best parts of their culture could stay and they could stop using bamboo scaffolding to build apartment complexes.
Advise as many folks as possible at the State Department of your next trip, post a bunch of blog entries about your plans, call your Senator to let him/her know you'll be taking lots of pictures and keeping detailed notes on your trip, and once everything is confirmed as "high visibility" go ahead and post your thoughts on the new site. Be sure to call a couple of CNN anchors to let them know about all the steps you've taken, and dare Thai officials to do a goddamned thing about your online activities once you get there. Worst case scenario: you get detained for a couple of days, get international exposure from human rights groups and major media outlets, and sell a book deal on the whole charade. I'd do it myself, but frankly I'm too busy with other pursuits.
I currently live in Thailand and would advise against these actions strongly. The Thai government is not at all concerned with their public image abroad. If they were concerned, would they let their airport get overrun shut down by people without even a weapon? Would they so publicly censor and detain people for breaking this "law"? They're more concerned with preserving their culture than stepping into this century.
Touche.
Oh noes! ha. Yes, but these days specificity is too much to ask for, I guess. I'm sure I'll get it figured out. The limitations of my graphics won't worry me too much, as I mostly bought the computer for communication purposes when I move overseas in a couple of months.
My graphics card seems to be functioning perfectly well, sound not so much. I don't doubt their honesty, just their overall integrity. Doesn't seem fair to me.
Microsoft is concerned about preserving competition on the Internet, but when trying to remove Windows Vista from my recently acquired laptop, the HP website told me I should not attempt to run any other operating system or even a dual boot and if I do so, my sound, graphics, network card and many other computer components will not operate properly. Funny--I thought I bought a computer with an operating system, not an operating system with a computer.
*waits for Apple to hit back with the iTree*