My wife Joelle and I just got a new compost bin.

It cost us around $50 at canadian tire. Joelle plans to use the compost on her home garden next year!
From the urban eatin Every backyard should have a good composting bin (aka composter) to help divert household organic waste and to help enable the recycling of nutrients back into your yard!

Joelle and I going to see Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco today. This show is advertising some pretty incredible stuff, including people flying 30 feet in the air to land on their feet. The show came highly recommended by my brother Dominic. The show looks to be a metaphor for modern ubran life. The Cirque offers the opportunity to preview some of the show's music. -----

I started studying Spanish when I started learning back in December 2006, back when I got married in Cuba. I found myself fascinated with this language that was so close to French, yet wasn't French at all. French is my first language which was a real gift from my parents and my minority French speaking community. Growing up in Winnipeg, English is learnt more easily growing up here as it is the most spoken language. Learning is very different as I am learning as an adult. The adult mind is harder to train with languages as is the mind of a child.

I wanted to share the ressources and strategies that I have found useful in learning Spanish. The bulk of the ressources what I have used is media that interested me. This media includes books, movies with Spanish audio and subtitles, online radio, online news clips, online dictionnaries and other. Immersion is my primary strategy, though I did take a couple of weeks of classes in Guatemala to give me a bit of a formal base. Individual classes were ideal as I already had a base in the langugage and my teachers were able to adapt to my needs. I also used recordings where words are given to you in a language that you understand and repeated in the lanugage that you are learning, these I was able to find in Airports and able to borrow at the Winnipeg Public Library. The best practise of course is to speak it with a native speaker.

I try and expose myself to the language as much as possible. Some of the strategies that have worked for me have included listening to Spanish recordings in the car and listening to Spanish recordings when I have a spare moment on my portable audio player while walking the dogs or while doing household chores. I have also found that reading out loud is good to practise pronunciation.

There are many ressources that I have used online to learn Spanish, including:

News: bbcmundo.com, http://ca.news.yahoo.com/, http://www.cnn.com/video/#/spanish, http://news.google.es/
Potcasts: spanishpodcast.org
Dictionnary: wordreference.com -----

Found a good picture of our first family dog. Her name when she came from the breeders was Crystal. She was then name Réglisse by the family but her name eventually changed to Arf as we thought that was a more interesting name. I realise that I've almost always had a dog at home. Please click for a bigger picture. Arf was a Cocker Spaniel Poodle Cross.

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I was going through some old pictures. Please click on picture for bigger image.


On the left is my great grand father Theobald Hebert and on the right my late grand father Georges Hebert. My great grand father was Alderman for the City of St. Boniface and my grandfather eventually became head of the then Research Department of the City of Winnipeg. George started his career as a secretary for City Transit in Winnipeg and working his way up. -----

Just found out today... Due date looks to be some time in January. Joelle and I are very excited! Joelle's horoscope today read:
Aquarius: Good news, at last! It's been nothing but bad news lately, but that tide is about to turn..
We have to wait 10 weeks before we can see if it's a boy or a girl. -----

I wrote the National Film Board today asking if they could point me to the Log Driver's Waltz

an enchanting clip which is part of the Canada Vignette series. I was able to find it on youtube  but I see no reason why it should not be available on the NFB website. There is even functionality on the website to preview to buy the movie, but does not allow you to view the movie in full. I will keep you posted on the response.

******** Original Message ********

Subject:	Log Driver's Waltz
Date:	Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:48:40 -0500
From:	Mathieu Allard <mathieu@mathieuallard.ca>
To:	info@nfb.ca

To Whom It May Concern,

I was browsing the NFB website recently looking for a childhood memory, 
from the Canada Vignettes series the Log Driver's Waltz.

The link can be accessed here:
http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=13202

I looked on the site but I did not find a button to view the movie, only 
a button to watch a preview of the movie and a button to purchase.

I'm wondering someone from your office would please point me to a URL 
that could allow me to watch the Log Driver's Watch on my computer.

Sincerely,

Mathieu Allard

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Isaac Newton , one of the greatest thinkers the world has seen, once wrote "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." to explain how he had come to make so many significant scientific breakthroughs and how he could not have done so without the contributions of great people in history. For me, this is a good quote to explain how important the public domain is to all of us, it is our collective history, free for anyone to use, learn and repakage into other works. I wanted to highlight the good work of a couple of organisations that are bringing the public domain to all of us. These include: http://librivox.org, whose mandate is :"To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet." It looks like they re-release their books immediately in the public domain.
There is also the long standing Project Guttenburg that aims to put public domain books on the Internet. -----

Joelle and I received an Acknowledgment letter from Rosann Wowchuk reguarding provincial controls to protect animals.

******** Original Message ********

Subject:	RE: Animal Cruelty
Date:	Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:17:22 -0500
From:	Mahoney, Kaila <Kaila.Mahoney@leg.gov.mb.ca>
To:	'Mathieu Allard' <mathieu@mathieuallard.ca>
References:	<4862C811.4030105@mathieuallard.ca>

June 27, 2008

Mr. and Mrs. Mathieu and Joelle Saltel-Allard
mathieu@mathieuallard.ca

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Allard:

On behalf of the Honourable Rosann Wowchuk, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your email dated June 25, 2008.

Please be assured that your correspondence has been brought to Minister Wowchuk's attention and a reply will be forthcoming.

Sincerely,

Kaila Mahoney
Special Assistant
to the Minister


******** Original Message ********
From: Mathieu Allard [mailto:mathieu@mathieuallard.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:35 PM
To: Agriculture, Minister
Cc: Joelle Saltel
Subject: Animal Cruelty

Honorable Rosann Wowchuk
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives;

Animal cruelty has been an issue in the Press lately following the rescue of nearly 100 puppies and dogs in Warren, Manitoba.

My wife and I are writing to inquire what measures are currently in place to protect helpless animals that have been neglected by their owners.

I believe it's important for the Province of Manitoba to take appropriate measures to prevent animal cruelty and get tough on those who disregard the well-being of their animals.

I look forward to your response on this very pressing and important issue.

Sincerely,

Mathieu Allard and Joelle Saltel-Allard

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