Montreal is full of many wonderful things. (Although I didn't eat the good poutine this time. Only the vat-grown food-court poutine. But that has its own charm, as fast food always does for the first twenty minutes.) I also finally got enough of the spruce soda, which the Montrealers introduced me to in 2005.
(I apologize in advance for the fact that these were all taken with a crappy iPhone camera. It's better than the crappy digital camera I used to use.)
The National Film Board of Canada! It's a real place! (You can watch bunches of their films online, by the way.)
Montreal has a terrible problem with thrastles in the sewers. At night they stampede back and forth through the Underground, their breath steaming up through the streets.
Also in the Underground: a steel chair. Or maybe it's aluminum -- I didn't try to pick it up. Yes, the whole thing is metal, including the "cushion".
Quite the psychedelic arena.
Portrayed by Escher, after Three Worlds.
At night, the Zambonis come out.
(Note that the Zamboni is on the floor but, for some reason, the ice-skating arena is on the ceiling.)
Better photographers than I have done the gardens, but I had to post this picture. It's a display case full of vanilla beans, in the tropical greenhouse. Why is that cool? Look close (click for a larger version of the photo). You can barely see them, due to the crappiness of the iPhone camera, but the inner surface of the case is frosted with tiny, needle-like crystals.
I'm pretty sure those are crystals of pure vanillin, baked out of the beans.
"Rolling a great big woo-katamari up the hill." (Margaret Ronald.) I won't spoil it by explaining.
"SF teaches us that you can be a hero or a villain -- and both career paths are available." (Didn't write down who that was; possibly James Morrow.) (Update: it was Richard Crownover; thanks Kate Nepveu.)
Yes, that's what the camera sees. It's because the optical sensor is read off in rows, from right to left, not all at once.
Another image, after takeoff. If you want to replicate this trick, you'll have to do it in daytime. When the light levels are low, the exposure time is longer and you just get a blur.
Same as the previous image, but I rotated the camera, so it's reading from bottom to top now.
(I could have come up with a lovely tiddle-bong-bong explanation involving warp contours passing through the Alcubierre manifold, but aren't these good enough on their own?)
...Aliens enter the body through the vagina, where they are at home. Aliens enter the body through the bend in the elbow, which you shouldn't have let her bite. Aliens enter the body through the weakness in the shoulder and the ache in the back. Please god, let it be aliens and not age. Aliens enter the body through the nape of the neck. Oh wait. That's sin, or vampires, I forget which. Aliens enter the body through the thighs, where they deposit cellulite, and the scalp, where they harvest hair. Aliens enter the body through the hokey pokey, and they shake it all about....
Thoughts of Days ( <-- Previous and Next --> Thought)