I am a superstar

I am a superstar.
Yeah.

I received today the second message from a random stranger. The first time it was a guy I had met at a pub crawl in SF. He found me and wrote me a message.
I met the second guy at a restaurant Friday night, when I was out with two girlfriends. We spoke for three second, exchanged FIRST names, and there he was in my mailbox twelve hours later.

I got curious. How the hell did these two guys find me?

I googled myself, and found this link where you can find my email address, in 14th position or something, using only "Elise" and "Stanford".

http://ed.stanford.edu/suse/students/displayStudentRecord.php?username=eparadis

Isn't this simply crazy?

When you add "paradis", I "own" 6 out of the 10 first links.
Madness.

I am not too comfortable with that superstar status.
;)

Good times on Microsoft Word

Everyone knows about Microsoft Word.
Everyone also knows that Microsoft Word hates passive forms of verbs.

This sometimes leads to misunderstandings... that can be quite amusing!

Enjoy!



(And make sure to try an engineer.)

kick ass typos

Oh, typos! What do you do to our messages!
;)

A very funny one, for you, here:

In every nation, neglected Latin Americans voiced their disapproval of the visiting president. In São Paulo, Brazil, over 6,000 anti-bush protestors crowded the city streets.

Mouahahah! Anti-bush Latin Americans.
;)

And another one, classic and horrible:

... we have the pubic's interest to heart ...

Well.
Thanks Mark for setting the tone with a great histoire éléphantesque.
Tsssssssshhhhhhh.

This week is the last week of classes.
I am working like mad on my feminist pedagogy paper.
I am planning a trip to San Diego with Guillaume, Praj and other people. Should be fun!

I went to Muay Thai for the first time Monday. After NOT kicking any ass for several months, I am in a lot of pain from an hour of kicks, non-stop, with the coach.
Ouch.
My feet were bleeding from the ball-of-the-foot spinning.
So painful I had problems walking today, and had to skip practice.

The technique is very different from Goju. I will be un-learning PW's way.
Good stuff.

Ta-taaaaaaaaaaaas and kisses to all of you who were kind enough to write for my birthday. I had a great time turning 25 this year, so much so that I feel like doing it again and again and again.
;)

Oh, and special thanks to Grégoire, the Français pédant de mon coeur. A picture is worth a 1000 words:



(Believe it or not, I was NOT alone there: over 20 ppl watched him "strip". And he did this sober. Love you Grégoire!)

omg birthday party!

C'est mon anniversaire!

25 ans!
Madness!!!!!!!!

Last night was a blast!
Grégoire (ze pedantic French) put together a party and I decided it was MY birthday party...
(mouahahah!)
It was a superb time. Lots of people, lots of dancing... a half strip-tease (by the same Grégoire) on a table, in front of everybody, at midnight... Loved it!

I'll hopefully be able to post pictures soon. In the meantime, some will undoubtedly show on Facebook... Ouch.

Mark sent me the happy birthday song in four languages.
;)
Jonathan and a whole bunch of people from Toronto have written too.
Nyla called... Ain't I lucky!!!!

The weather is just awesome. So awesome that I'm going to take my computer out to write my paper. It would be a shame not to take advantage of the sun on my 25th birthday.

Hope you are all well!

Elise
;)

PR Disaster

Ok. Some people are PR challenged.
They don't understand team work.
And they upset me.

We got a "leek" out about the course, that was far from polished and will cause us some damage.
But all in all, I am certain things will be okay.
I guess I am getting hands-on experience about team work and its drawbacks...

Apparently, according to my insider sources (aka JFL), the Quebec City intellectual elite is talking about me.
Interestingly, I am talking about them too.

I was "interviewed" by a classmate (and friend!) about my blogging habits. And she thought it was neat that you guys interact with me and force me to keep "posted" and posting...
;)

I am turning 25 on Sunday.
Crazy madnesssssssssss!
I'll hopefully enjoy myself this weekend. Grégoire is throwing a party. Good timing. I'll have fun!

beyond what is reasonable

Shame on me, I haven't followed the elections in Quebec.
A little something worth reading, though, ici:

Par contre, ce document peut être modifié en tout temps par le gouvernement fédéral pour devenir soit une corne d'abondance, soit un cadeau empoisonné, selon que les électeurs semblent ou non s'orienter vers le choix d'un gouvernement indépendantiste.

Il n'y a pourtant rien de bien nouveau dans tout cela. Depuis les camions de la Brinks jusqu'au grand rallye «On vous aime» financé à même les taxes du Québec, les électeurs ont pris l'habitude de voir le fédéral s'impliquer vigoureusement dans leurs choix démocratiques.

I am working beyond what is reasonable, because of all the deadlines and the commitments. Luckily, there are only two weeks left to the quarter, and very little stuff left to do for my TAship.
I loved the opportunity to teach, though. It's helped me figure out some of my own teaching style, priorities, and grounded some of the literature on teaching.

The class for next quarter will be great.
Hopefully the enrollment will me too!

The weather is fantastic, such that I can go and read outside everyday. I am so glad I don't have to cope with the snow...

Love y'all!
;)