Sunshine Recorder

I finally got my computer back from the Apple Store. The first repair they made over the weekend didn’t fix anything so I had to go back again today. Anyway, I shall resume posting soon.

On a side note, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a fantastic book and you should all read it if you like crime stories and criminal investigations. I pretty much read the whole thing over the weekend. I also just started Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown and it’s just as interesting but a lot more shocking.

This blog will be one year old tomorrow and I just wanted to thank all my followers for following me and being awesome. I’ve met some wonderful people through this blog which is something I never expected. I also never expected to have the motivation to post regularly. The biggest motivator, apart from the act of sharing, is probably receiving your feedbacks which often are very informative and also starts great conversations. Anyway, thank you all for following me and giving me something to look forward to everyday!

A few stats: 2,839 posts, 869 followers, 275 followed blogs

I’m back from France! It was great, even though I didn’t have enough time to do everything I wanted to do. I mainly stayed in the Basque Country which is where I lived for 20+ years. I’ve uploaded a few more photos here.

Just wanted to let you guys know that I will be in France for the next 10 days so I may or may not post as much stuff as usual. It’s been a long time since I’ve come back home so it will be nice to see everyone again, eat delicious French food and drink a lot of great cheap wine. Anyway, I will be back in Montreal on the 31st of August. :)

I just changed my theme. It’s based on an existing theme (Ultralite) but I made quite a few changes to it. I’m not done yet so some links might not work yet but it should be fixed soon. Please let me know if you have any problems or find some bugs.

What do you think about long term relationships? Do you have any personal experiences with them?
Anonymous

I think long term relationships are the best thing that can happen to someone. I’m more of a romantic kind of guy so I’ve never been into casual dating. I’ve always needed some deep emotional connection with someone and casual relationships never fulfilled me. This was somewhat problematic because it is not what most gay/bi guys want so this led to a lot of disappointments, but once you find the right person, it is wonderful. I do have experience as I’m currently in a relationship. I’ve been with my boyfriend for about three years now and we’re both very happy. We met in the US when I lived in Seattle and then moved to Montreal together. 

What're some good summer courses to take at Concordia?
Anonymous

I dunno, I took all my electives in the US so I haven’t taken anything at Concordia except classes in my areas of study and those are restricted to students in the department. I know that a few interesting courses are open to everyone in the Geography, Environment and Planning department, but they don’t seem to offer those courses during the summer.

Hi there! I'm new to Concordia and I will be beginning my studies in the fall... I was just wondering, what libraries at Concordia do you recommend/like to study at?
Anonymous

Hello!

I don’t usually like studying at school libraries. I always end up seeing people I don’t want to see or getting distracted by other things like people walking around. I’d rather study at home or in a cafe/park near my apartment (and there are tons of them in Montreal) so I’m not the best person to answer that. But to answer your question, both Concordia libraries are good I suppose. The downtown one is the biggest one, and is located in the middle of the Sir George Williams campus. I’ve been there a few times and it wasn’t too busy. It’s also connected to the underground so you don’t have to step out in the cold during winter if you want to go to class or take the metro. However, I prefer the one at the Loyala campus. It’s smaller and out of the downtown area, but it’s quieter and with more green spaces around it. I guess it depends what you prefer and where your classes are. If you ever need to travel between both campuses, there is a free shuttle bus between both campus and the trip takes about 20 minutes. Unless you need books or anything from the library, you should try to find spot in the new business or engineering buildings. If you go on the upper floors, it’ll usually be pretty quiet and you’ll have a nice view of the city. That’s usually where I go when I have time to kill before or after class.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your time at Concordia. Let me know if you need more info. :)

Are you going back to France for the summer?
Anonymous

I’m taking a few classes this summer and the session ends mid-August so I can’t really spend my summer there but I’ll be in France from the 22nd to the 31rd of August.

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Some of my favorite blogs

Tumblr is an amazing blogging platform but it is somewhat difficult to find blogs with interesting content. I’ve rarely been satisfied with the find blogs feature because most of my favorite blogs are often not very famous/visible. It also seems that a lot of blogs on Tumblr are just photoblogs. I like pretty pictures, but it’s good to follow other things too. Someone asked me a while ago what blogs I like the most and which ones I recommend. I follow over 300 blogs, and I like them all for different reasons, so it was difficult to answer that question but I believe I came up with a pretty good list of my favorites. Anyway, I’ve just updated it. I posted a link on my blog and I’ll try to update it regularly with my new findings. I hope this helps you find some great blogs and please don’t hesitate to recommend me some other ones if you think I would like them. I’m always looking for more.

http://imperialscythia.tumblr.com/
http://its-london-calling.tumblr.com/
http://thesonalsorises.tumblr.com/
http://bschwartz.tumblr.com/
http://dgdgnl.tumblr.com/
http://hypocrite-lecteur.tumblr.com/
http://thisriver.tumblr.com/
http://grandejouissance.tumblr.com/
http://toniiu.tumblr.com/
http://pieceinthepuzzlehumanity.tumblr.com/
http://urbanscepticism.tumblr.com/
http://whosecityisthis.tumblr.com/
http://perfectnonfreedom.tumblr.com/
http://zhaozhou.tumblr.com/
http://antisartre.tumblr.com/
http://darylelockhart.tumblr.com/
http://nocountryforslaughter.tumblr.com/
http://ewigewiederkehr.tumblr.com/
http://cartonrouge.cc/
http://equivoque.tumblr.com/
http://nerdscloset.tumblr.com/
http://instellation.tumblr.com
http://swimming-under-water.tumblr.com
http://reagancharlescook.tumblr.com/
http://watchingcbeams.tumblr.com/
http://andrewstuntpilot.tumblr.com/
http://absurdlakefront.tumblr.com/
http://stickyembraces.tumblr.com/
http://doubtlr.tumblr.com/
http://graceandnature.tumblr.com/
http://live-exist-die.tumblr.com

Long Reads/Science/Environment
http://good.tumblr.com/
http://utnereader.tumblr.com/
http://thenewinquiry.tumblr.com/
http://tetw.tumblr.com/
http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/
http://14-billion-years-later.tumblr.com/
http://climateadaptation.tumblr.com/
http://scinerds.tumblr.com/
http://ikenbot.tumblr.com/
http://14-billion-years-later.tumblr.com/
http://curiositycounts.com/
http://www.stoweboyd.com/

Photography/Art
http://staceythinx.tumblr.com/
http://stateofkind.tumblr.com/
http://palethrough.tumblr.com/
http://jasongreen.tumblr.com/
http://melisaki.tumblr.com/
http://golden-fleece.tumblr.com/
http://fiore-rosso.tumblr.com/
http://fuckyeahiceland.tumblr.com/
http://montrealcom.tumblr.com/
http://welovepaintings.tumblr.com

History
http://frenchhistory.tumblr.com/
http://lostsplendor.tumblr.com/
http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/
http://unknownrussia.tumblr.com/
http://the-seed-of-europe.tumblr.com/
http://lostsplendor.tumblr.com/
http://ppsh-41.tumblr.com/
http://themodernhistory.tumblr.com/
http://historyofeurope.tumblr.com/
http://oldrussia.tumblr.com/
http://djgagnon.tumblr.com/
http://fyeaheasterneurope.tumblr.com/
http://thecultofgenius.tumblr.com/

I haven’t checked all the links so if your blog appears on it and you have changed your address, let me know and I’ll update it.

Last update: June 17th, 2012

I just went to the grocery store to pick up some fruits and ended up in an Hasidic jew street party (on St Viateur & Hutchinson) with loud Jewish music and with about 100+ people dressed identically. What an experience.

I got myself some new books to celebrate the end of the first summer session and the fantastic paper that I wrote today for my Organizational Behavior Theory final exam. =P
Ubik by Philip K. DickThe Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienBloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timoty SnyderThe Walking Dead #16 (91-96) View high resolution

I got myself some new books to celebrate the end of the first summer session and the fantastic paper that I wrote today for my Organizational Behavior Theory final exam. =P

Ubik by Philip K. Dick
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timoty Snyder
The Walking Dead #16 (91-96)

People are often surprised to learn that I go to a business school and they frequently ask why I chose that major. I get a lot of questions about that here on Tumblr. It’s true that I’m not the typical business student. I’m left-leaning, I love liberal arts, science, technology and environmental/social issues are two things that really interest me. It was very hard for me to pick a major, therefore I chose something that is very versatile and that would allow me to work in a variety of industries, from green technologies to the publishing industry, but also in non-profit organizations. Every organization, regardless of industry, relies on business principles to prosper. I’m also really interested in entrepreneurship, and more specifically social entrepreneurship (using entrepreneurial principles to solve social problems within a community) so getting a business degree made sense to me. Of course, a business education isn’t the most intellectually stimulating thing in the world, but I try to educate myself on other topics during my free time as much as possible. The hardest thing about going to a business school is probably to be surrounded by brainwashed conservatives who don’t care about anything except making money. We can’t really blame them for that, but I wish there were more students who value the community’s well-being and the environment as much as profitability. Successful businesses have the power to make a difference and this is why I study business.

In your opinion, who are the five authors that have the most influence on your beliefs and values?

That’s an interesting question. I don’t think I ever thought about it before. I would describe myself as an atheist, existentialist and moral nihilist/skeptic and the authors who influenced me the most are more or less related to existentialism. It’s hard to pick five but Albert Camus (The Stranger, The Fall, The Myth of Sisyphus), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground) and Jean-Paul Sartre (Nausea, Existentialism is a Humanism) are probably the most influential authors to me. Friedrich Nietzche and Søren Kierkegaard could also be in the list too but I need to read more of their works, I have only read passages or chapters from them. As a business student, Paul Hawken (The Ecology of Commerce, etc) and, McDonough and Braungart (Cradle to Cradle) have also been highly influential when it comes to changing business practices and focusing a lot more on sustainability. That’s it I suppose.