Jeux vidéo en bibliothèques

Certaines bibliothèques de la ville de Montréal offraient déjà des jeux vidéos à leurs usagers. Toutefois, vendredi dernier, un communiqué de presse du Cabinet du maire et du comité exécutif de la ville nous annoncait que les collections de jeux vidéo des bibliothèques municipales seraient presque quintuplé grâce, entre autres, aux dons généreux de trois entreprises montréalaises dans le domaine de la conception de jeux vidéo.

Avec cette bonification des collections, plus de la moitié des bilbiothèques du réseau offriront à leurs usagers plus de 5 000 jeux vidéo. Une attention toute particulière sera apportée aux productions locales. Pour la liste des bibliothèques participantes ainsi que les conditions de prêts et autres détails, veuillez consulter le site des bibliothèques de Montréal.

Bravo! Quelle belle façon de continuer à diversifier les collections des bibliothèques tout en initiant les jeunes à la culture, au loisir et à la technologie. Sans oublier que c'est une excellente manière de faire augmenter les statistiques de prêts.

Solde de livres des ABM

Comme toutes les années le solde de livres des Amis des Bibliothèques de Montréal se tient à l’Aréna Étienne-Desmarteau du 28 avril au 6 mai, entre 13 h et 19 h.

Vous y trouverez toutes sortes de livres qui ont été retiré de la collection des bibliothèques de la ville de Montréal (histoire de faire de la place pour les nouveauté). C'est plus de 90 000 livres et revues offert à très bon prix (50 ¢ pour les livres jeunesse, revues et magazines, cassettes audio et disques; 1 $ pour les livres pour adultes et 2 $ pour les bandes dessinées et dictionnaires).

C'est non seulement une aubaine pour vous mais en achetant vous contribuez à financer les activités d’animation dans les Bibliothèques de Montréal. Tout le monde est gagnant!

Shōwa Day

Today, April 29, is Shōwa Day (昭和の日 / Shōwa no hi) in Japan. This holiday celebrates the birthday of the Shōwa Emperor (Hirohito, father of the current emperor, Akihito, who “ruled” over Japan from 1926 to 1989). Because of the emperor's role in the war and the fear it would be seen as glorifying the emperor himself, the holiday was controversial and ceased to be celebrated for a while (1989–2006). It was finally reinstated with the idea that it would rather “encourages public reflection” on the turbulent reign of the emperor.

Shōwa Day also marks the beginning of the Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク), which is one of the three week-long holidays of the Japanese calendar. Besides Shōwa Day or the Emperor's Birthday (天皇誕生日 / Tennō tanjōbi), it also includes the Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日 / Kenpō kinenbi on May 3rd), the Greenery Day (みどりの日 / Midori no hi on May 4) and the Children's Day (こどもの日 / Kodomo no hi on May 5).

Biweekly Press Review (2012/04/24)

Not much important stuff in the news in the last couple of weeks. After a quick mind scan i can come up only with three things: Apple's eBook price-fixing suits, the first turn of the French presidential election and the local student strike (last two links in french, sorry). However, it doesn't means that nothing happened. I found lots of interesting news bits that I will share with you after the jump:

Dropbox drive

”Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others (...)“

I use it constantly. It is very useful to keep files safe and mobile. If you have not already signed up for this free service, you should!

Join Dropbox thru this link and get an extra 500 Mb of free storage (on top of the initial 2 Gb)!

[And this will also give ME an extra 500 Mb of storage. Thanks for helping! And a special thanks to those who have already signed up!]

Osaka-style sushi

While watching “journeys in japan” today on NHK World, I discovered a new style of sushi that is amazing: the Osaka-style Boxed sushi or Hakozushi!

It's characterized by its flavoured rice which is pressed into a box with topping of cooked or cured ingredients (either eel, red snapper, omelet, shrimp, or, the most famous, mackerel aka battera or “portugese sushi”). When it is pushed out of its wooden mould it gives a perfectly square block of rice (or rectangular in the case of the battera) which is then cut into smaller square pieces. It literally looks like Rice Krispies squares with toppings!

It seems easier to make than regular sushi (mostly rolls or vinegared rice pieces shaped into the palm) which usually required a long apprenticeship. Also, since it has no raw meat (sashimi) like the Edo-style sushi, it is safer to eat and requires no dip sauce.

I found two receipes: one on Food Network and one on Yummly. I even found a how-to video for battera on YouTube:


Unfortunately, after a quick search, I couldn't find a Japanese restaurant in Montreal that serves that type of sushi (if you find one, let me know!). I guess it only leaves us to try making it ourselves!

Biweekly Press Review (2012/04/08)

Notable news this last couples of weeks are the 2012 Canadian federal budget (The Gazette, Canada.com, Yahoo, National Post), Videotron's announcement of an illico TV new generation (press release, link), the one-hundred years anniversary of the Titanic (Ottawa Citizen) and the return to TV of the Game of Thrones and The Borgias series. For the rest you can simply check my collected links after the jump:

Note syndicale: feedback

Quelques personnes m'ont fait des commentaires par courriels en rapport avec mon billet “Note syndicale.” Les détails après le saut de page: