Inspiration: How to find it, change it, and make it your own.

I made this. Hope you like it.

Nuit des Sans Abris-Valleyfield-de-Salaberry 2009 ($-Gratuit)

Le soir de Octobre le 16 (2009) La Nuit des Sans Abri se tiendra au parc Salaberry. Tout le monde et bienvenue de tous les âges.

Il y aura des feux pour tenir tout le monde au chaud. Il y aura aussi des chansons, des présentation et discussions. Des bénévoles distribuera des vêtements d’hiver pour ceux qui sont moins fortunés.

Le groupe de Jeunesse Canada Monde vont être présente et favorable. On va aidé avec plusieurs aspect diffèrent de la nuit.
Le point culminant étant un spectacle.

Si vous besoin plus d`information SVP appeler (450) 373-1333

Bonne Nuit!

Herbe à Poux-Ragweed

  I am currently volunteering at Crivert working on the Ragweed control program.  The long term goal is to reduce occurences of hay fever in the population in an attempt reduce sick days and lost productivity.  The experiment started in 2007 and will finish in 2010.

The hypothesis:  if the city of Valleyfield mows  its terraces (and more importantly it`s ragweed population) 3 times (rather than just twice) during the ragweed season, the airbound pollen count will decrease.

Method:  Myself and Aristide have already completed our inspections of hundreds of city terraces and taken notes on the spots that require the most treatment.  Hot-spots or red-spots (areas with a high ragweed count) will, ideally, be cut more efficiently the following year.

Materials: bicycles, notepads, pollen trappers

Problems: increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmoshpere have been shown to increase ragweed pollen count. Read: global warming will increase ragweed pollen count. 

Conclusion: If the project is to be scientificaly sound, then the researchers shoul be sure to cross reference the rising CO2 levels with the increase in weed cutting. 

Final thoughts: The bottom line in the story, like so many others, is money.  Millions of work hours lost is bad for the economy. Although I find it hard to believe that it`s that simple.

Porcus Wallabee’s Blog ( that’s me! O}-< )

Hi cyberstranger!

I thought it would be really cool if donators had a way to keep track of their investment and see what positive changes they have helped make. I will be updating this blog as often as possible through-out the Canada World Youth exchange to keep in contact with Ottawa and to console myself when I inevitably realize what a mad situation I have landed myself in.

I left out a lot of information in that intro video from porcuswallabee.com.

For instance:  I will be traveling to Valleyfield in Quebec which is just SouthWest of Montreal.  I haven’t been told what kind of volunteer work I’ll be doing yet.  That’s ok, I like surprises.

Also, I will be living in the city of Allada in Benin which wikipedia is telling me, was once the capital of a very powerfull king.

One of the main concepts behind Canada World Youth is the counterpart.  I will be paired up with a youth from Benin who will come and live with myeslf and my host family in Valleyfield.  The Beninese exchange program can be viewed here.

Feel free to roam around this blog and see what kind of trouble I’ve gotten up to.

If you liked that zombie video please subscribe to the youtube account as I’ll be putting out more foolish videos as long as my fingers work and I have have a brain.  I have the audio done for new song, I just have to mash the video together.

Please leave a comment!

Take Care

Thomas Love-Vani

and no, that is not my middle finger

Air-Brushing at St.John’s

St. John's Anglican Church

I tried taking advantage of Ottawa’s Marathon weekend by posting up on the corner of Elgin and Somerset (thanks to the people at St.John) with airbrush in hand (thanks to Weebees Tattoos) and took my first crack at fundraising.

The weather was beautiful and the pedestrian traffic was steady.  Sasha (a fellow CWYer) and my friend Emmy dropped by to help me out.  I think we did fairly well.  Met some interesting people and got a nice tan.

Taking a wild (and miscalculated?) stab at Fund-Raising

As a participant in the 6 month Canada World Youth program it is my job to raise a minimum of $2500.  I have a little over 2 months to accomplish this goal and here are some of my early brainstorming ideas and possibilities.

1. Organize a speed hating session at a restaurant that’s looking for a new customer market.  The idea being that I would invite as many people as I can to come buy some drinks at a restaurant and I would get some of the kickback from drinks or something.  Plus it would be a blast
2. I have accumulated 247 D’addario player’s points which can be exchanged for neat merchandise.  It would be ideal if I could get a local business to cover the shipping and handling costs for the items which I could then use as prizes in a raffle.  Or I might just try to get rid of them on Craig’s list for the highest bid.
3. Rose Runs: Selling flowers to couples downtown in the market in a shameless attempt to cash in on other people’s emotions.
4. Playing guitar in the market while displaying my website address, porcuswallabee.com.  Not sure what kind of return I will get on this project.  If I manage to raise $15 through the website I will have broken even.
5. Bite finger off for money.

If anyone has any experience concerning any of these ideas or you just have a better idea, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

For Post-erity

photo by: Aniruhd Koul

As the title suggests this is for anyone looking back on my posts to see what I was up to before this whole busking (possibly for CWY) fiasco started. So here I am, in the past writing about the past so that someone might read this in the future.
I was in Montreal last weekend where I attended Canada World Youth’s “Get Your Facts Straight” seminar. I thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace that was found staying with Melody “Couture” and meeting so many new faces in the CWY world. It’s good now and then to meet like-minded people to enforce the idea that, while you may be crazy, you are not alone.
As for my website…sigh, what a terribly hideous thing that is. I just hope it doesn’t create a black hole in the internet when Firefox comes out with a new version. On the bright side I am almost finished putting together the audio for that religious song which I hope doesn’t offend anyone too deeply: it is good to be offended now and then, keeps you on your toes.
I should be hearing from CWY in a week. The mission will start then.
oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy…

Crab Juice!

I give you…Crab Juice!

Remember that Simpsons epdisode where Homer gets a krokelosch and about 4 cans of Crab Juice?  This is the  real stuff.  Coca-Cola corp has recently bought a small Laotian soda business which has popularized Crab Juice.  Coming soon to a store near you!