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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

DemoCampMontreal1 and Midnight Poutine
2007-02-28 19:46:02
So I wrote my DemoCamp Montreal 1 post for Midnight Pout ine, I uploaded some photos to Flickr, and I added a couple of videos to my YouTube account. The event was interesting, nicely setup, and pretty well organized. Criticisms: the presentations by Evonium and Evolution felt more like a sales pitch than a "sharing" (but that's not really a big deal), and the bar was closed (I really wanted a beer). I'll definitely be going to the DemoCampMontreal2. -->
More About: Night , Real

1976 Montreal Metro Ad
2007-02-27 19:46:01
Ok, I saw this mentioned in a post by Chip at Midnight Poutine, and I have to post the video: -->
More About: Montreal , Metro , Real , Mont

Snowshoeing / LUMIÈRE / NEON
2007-02-27 19:46:01
Last Sat I went snowshoeing at the Park national du Mont-Orford, and it was a blast. It was the perfect day, with the perfect company, in a beautiful place. Well... perfect... with the exception of the $185 speeding ticket I got on my way out there. At any rate, snowshoeing is a lot easier than I remembered it being as a kid, but a good workout nonetheless. My guess is that it's a bit easier because the technology of it seems to have made leaps and bounds. When I was a kid I used snowshoes that were hand made for me by my great grandfather (tanned the hides and everything). At some point I'd like to try doing a fairly long run in snowshoes, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get to it this winter. Sat was a super fun but very long day. After getting back to Montreal we decided to check out the Festival MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE. It was worth checking out, but the DJ bubble got a little too boring a little too fast. After that, in an act of insanity, we decided to dance the night...
More About: Snow , Neon , Shoe , Lumi

DemoCampMontreal1
2007-02-27 19:46:01
Just a reminder that Demo Camp Mont real 1 is tomorrow night (Tues Feb 27 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm) at the SAT. If you wish to register as an attendee you can do so here. FYI I just been approved as a contributor to Midnight Poutine and this Democamp will be the subject of my first MP post. Democampmontreal1 Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) Tues Feb 27, 6:30pm to 8:30pm 1195 Boul. St. Laurent -->
More About: Real

The Winter Trails of Mt Royal
2007-02-24 07:43:09
This afternoon I went trail running on snow covered trails of Mt Royal . I was impressed by level of difficulty winter adds: stairs are no longer stairs, the terrain becomes uneven and unstable, and you have to make sure you don't drift to far to the edge when your running the crest at the top. In other words Mt. Royal becomes a bit more of a technical run (as opposed to just fun). If this appeals to you, then the only thing I'd caution is that you be careful not to trample the x-country ski trails... I like to ski as well.
More About: Winter , Inter , Rails , Rail

Quiet Busy
2007-02-24 07:43:09
Haven't blogged much (or trained much) this week... I've been focusing heavily on rebuilding my Gentoo (a Linux distro) Mythtv box (a home brew PVR), rebuilding and streamlining Gentoo for my Transmeta chipped ultra portable (sweet but weak), and setting up Drupal 5.2 (and a series of modules) to be the backbone of my Mile-End portal. I've been overdue for a serious geek out session. Once I get focused on something 4 or 5 hours can pass in the blink of an eye. I've actually forgotten to eat once this week, and I haven't done that in a while... it's hard to forget to eat when you're always hungry from pushing your physical limits. And BTW the new Gentoo graphical installer is crap, or at least it's currently in the state of being so buggy that it's crap. The old school Gentoo install method is almost preferable at this point... I love Gentoo once I have it up and running, but the process of getting it there is somewhat time consuming... I'm just a little disappointed...
More About: Quiet , Busy

Check in
2007-02-19 07:38:02
Went to the Junction SM show for about 15 minutes or so; I left because I could tell that it wasn't really going to get going for at least another hour, and I felt sleep would be a better option than waiting around. Though it did look like it would get fun, and I'll definitely check out another Diskfunction production. Skating on the Canal in Ottawa with my friends was fun. I'd like to go again before the winter ends. -->
More About: Check

Diskfunction Junction (what's your function) SM
2007-02-17 13:36:04
I want to go but I'm not sure I've got the waking power. I saw them at Mutek last summer and danced my ass off, however, I do have to leave for Ottawa tomorrow morning at 10:30am for some Winterlude skating... At any rate, I just picked up my rental car, and I'm currently sitting at Laika trying to decide what to do. Nobody confirmed attendance so I'm pretty much free to do as I wish. Here's the promo (the doors are open now, and the DJs come on at midnight): Junction SM :: (Dandy Jack + Sonja Moonear, Perlon, Kalk Pets, Chili, Suisse) @ Disk function February 16th 2007. Friday the 16th of February, Diskfunction presents in collaboration with MUTEK, the duo JUNCTION SM (Switzerland..Chile) at club L?Academy (4445 St.Laurent Boulevard). It is a good idea to show up early, since the rich groovy rhythms of MightyKat will warm up the night from 10 PM, and Junction SM will perform beetween midnight and 2 AM (and maybe later if the vibe is good). Junction SMis a live/dj duo ...
More About: Fun , What , Hat , Your

Imagine
2007-02-16 19:34:05
There's the thick sweet odour of dense tropical flora in the air as the over grown trails become difficult... You feel the moister being stripped from your body by the wind as it fills your tracks in the desert dunes... The fields of wheat gently sway in the breeze under miles of sky on a horizonless road... The chill hits bone as you push ahead across the ice... You fall into the rythm of the waves as they pound the shore... And as you run you are fully aware of your stride length, cadence, speed, distance covered, heart rate, elevation, etc... All a because you're wearing a Polar RS800sd that you purchased from a local seller on EBay for a third off the price it would cost you at Boutique Courir (though I love Boutique Courir). And since you only won the bid last night you cross your fingers and hope it arrives as advertised (new, unopened, with warranty intact). I'll post a review once it's arrived and I've given it a good run for the money. FYI I already own a Ga...
More About: Imagine

Almands: the super food
2007-02-16 19:34:05
Almonds are widely considered to be one of the super-foods (along with flax seed, kale, butternut squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes...). They are very good source of protein, Vitamin E (an antioxidant), phosphorus, calcium, and fiber. They also contain potassium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and trace amounts of the B vitamins thiamine and riboflavin and. Anyway, I've been eating a lot of almonds lately, and just now I was sitting in my office munching away when a co-worker informed me that almonds help slow drunkenness and prevent hangovers. A quick search for "almonds hang over" turned up this site which states: Almonds: American Indians contend that eating six raw almonds before imbibing helps prevent intoxication. Plus, they taste good! Not exactly proof, but here's a cheers to almonds.
More About: Food , Super , Alma , The Super

Run 28 Days in Feb
2007-02-16 19:34:05
The Slowtwitch frequency challenge: 28 runs platinum, 24 gold, 20 silver, 16 bronze You get credit for double/triple/quad runs in a day but they must be spaced 4 hours apart...for example, a good way to get doubles might be to "run commute" part way to work and part way back. You get no credit for intensity You get no credit for running longer than 30 min minimum 30' per run Because you can double up, you can actually take rest days and hit platinum! So far so good, I'm at 16 runs in 15 days. Most of my runs thus far have been 30min average runs, but I have had one 3 hour long run and one 10k race so...
More About: Days

RSS Toe
2007-02-16 19:34:05
Hmmm, the RSS feed icon on my toe is greyed out. Does that mean it's offline? -->

6:30
2007-02-16 19:34:05
I?m trying, I?m tired, I?m tired, I?m trying? and getting out of bed by or before 6:30am is hellish at best? and getting myself to move from bed to anywhere other than the couch is an obstacle of Herculean proportions? OK I may have adapted to a 9 to 5 lifestyle (been living it for years), but I have yet to become a morning person; I?m groggy, gritty, and grumpy when I first wake up? AND here I am trying to get my ass out of bed by 6:30 so I can get to the gym for a 30 to 60 min run before work. This morning I succeeded and hated every minute... BUT I?m trying, I?m tired, and I?m going to keep trying?

Le défi hivernale de l'île-Bizard: 46 is me
2007-02-16 19:34:05
Le défi hivernale was definitely fun. I wasn't quite as fast as I would have like... 3 min faster and I would have met my goal... Here are my stats. There were 238 people and I came in 46th; I was 6th out of 29 men in my age group (35-40). I've also attached a PDF of my race results. BTW the pic to the left is the start of this years 2k. Now I want to try to shave 8 min off my 10k time by my next race on the 25th of March.
More About: Hive

Wish me luck: 10k tomorrow
2007-02-16 19:34:05
Tommorrow I race my first race of the year, Le défi hivernale de l'île-Bizard (10k distance). I stole the picture to the left from their photo archive of last year's race. Weather wise it's going to be sunny and -12C. I'm going to need all the luck anyone has to offer. I'm physically prepared, but I almost knocked myself out of the race by twisting my ankle on an easy run earlier today. I feel fairly certain that it will be fine for tomorrow morning: I ran most of it off, and it's sitting on ice as I type. But it does bring into question my state of luck... I've never ran a road race shorter than a half marathon, so I think it will be interesting to push myself harder in a racing context. I think it's going to be fun! I love the feeling of pre-race jitters, starting line adrenaline... and sprinting through the finish is always a rush.
More About: Wish , Tomorrow , Luck , Morrow , Tomo

YULBlog Big
2007-02-09 07:32:01
I went, I saw, and I conquered? Well... I talked to the two people I went with (and only one of them a blogger). Not what I intended, but it was my first and there will be others. Anyway, the YULBlog get together last night was huge. I expected to awkwardly introduce myself to a table or two of people, but the bar was full. Andre at Metroblog counted more than 70 in attendance. -->
More About: Fakta , Doof , The Lover , Auction 73

Uncyclopedia Montreal
2007-02-09 07:32:01
The Unencyclopedia entry for Mont real is hilarious. It's good to know I live in Supervillain territory. I only found Uncyclopedia because Jeremy at Midnight Poutine writes about the amount of procrastination time it must take to create something like it. I don't understand why someone would write a blog post trivializing such a great educational tool as no more than an act of procrastination. I mean Riverdance aside, without Unencyclopedia I'd never have learned to truth about Linux... or that running is the act of a racist. -->
More About: Pedi , Real

YULBlog Get Together
2007-02-07 19:30:02
I've decided to go to the YULBlog get together tonight... Should be interesting seeing the faces of some of the people who's blogs I've been reading a lot lately... Blogging and me: While I've been "online" and on the web forever (went online in 93 and built my first my web page in 95) I've only recently started blogging. In the past I've not been much of a content provider; I would continuously build shells of sites that never... But for some mysterious reason I'm now blabbing away like a blathering idiot when my original intention was to play with Drupal and put together training log / race schedule. -->
More About: Together , Fakta , Doof , The Lover

Scavenging Lambic or Green
2007-02-07 19:30:02
At some point I'm going to try Be Lamb ic or Green 's scavenger hunt thing... but not this time... -->
More About: Cave

Avenue du Parc Prevails
2007-02-07 13:29:02
CBC has reported that Mayor Trembly has backed down and chosen not to rename Park Avenue . So in short "WE WON THE DAY!!!". A little late, and perhaps prompted more by Bourassa's family than the "Save Parc Avenue" advocates, but good on him for coming to his senses. Yay! -->

Pacman
2007-02-07 13:29:02
Sent to me my a friend... not sure what the original source was. -->
More About: Pacman

Seven Deadly Sins
2007-02-07 13:29:02
Also sent by a friend... not sure what the original source was -->
More About: Sins , Dead , Seven , Deadly

New Canada Food Guide
2007-02-07 01:28:01
Just a quick note to say that a new version of the Cana da Food Guide has been released. It's available for free for download or delivery. I've also attached a PDF version of it to this post. -->
More About: Nada

Peel Metro Gibson
2007-02-05 07:26:02
The little underground mall in the south west exit of the Peel Metro stop (picture to the left) reminds me of something out of a William Gibson novel. It feels like it just happened, haphazard, a bunch of commuters giving it up to squat and sell. I hope nobody with a shop there stumbles upon my little cyber squat and find themselves offended... But really it's the oddest place, the oddest mix of shops, tucked away where only a tunnel should be; it's like walking into a world lost between the cracks. -->

Thundra Kicks Ass
2007-02-04 19:26:01
Crow Face, Thundra, the Hot Springs, and CPC Gangbangs played at the Sala last night and I'm glad that I didn't let my tired body home body keep me home -- cause it rocked! The highlight of my evening was seeing my friend Lisa Gamble play with Thundra. They have a very cool and interesting sound that I would describe as being original in it's derivation. Their sound was quite variant, and at different points reminded me of many different things, but at one point they reminded me of The Fall -- and I love The Fall. I've written about the Hot Springs before, and I'm forever impressed with Giselle's voice. Crow Face were good in that they sounded like a lot of stuff that I used to love in the early 90s, but.... CPC Gangbangs... well a friend of mine really likes them; I only stuck around for 2 songs. I don't know... they seem to be the embodiment of all the things I don't like about MC5 (although I do like MC5); they represent that other side of punk... like the Misfits ...
More About: Hund , Kicks , Kick

Spam doth flow
2007-02-03 07:24:01
I installed the Drupal trackbacks module a few days ago, and man there are a lot of spammers out there. Fortunately Drupal has a badbehavior module, a bayesian spam module, and the statistics module that makes it easy to ban IP addresses. -->
More About: Spam , Flow

Even More Murals and Graffiti
2007-02-02 07:23:01
So today I went on the first of what will probably be many "graffiti runs". Basically I went on a long run (somewhere between 25 and 30 km) and took lots of photos. The photos I took can be found under "Railroad Tracks" and "Mt. Royal" sections of my Mural s and Graffiti photos. -->
More About: More , Ural

Geek Community and BarCamp
2007-01-29 19:20:01
Julien at in over your head posted this blog entry Montreal? needs? brains??.. which sparked a flurry of comments about the state of geekery and the geek community in Montreal. His blog continues the discussion with the entry Montreal has brains?. Robin at IM2 | OQP adds to the discussion with Montreal, action !, and I myself... I haven't been paying enough attention to the tech community lately to truly be entitled to an opinion, but I do have geek friends, I do work geek jobs, I do know that there is a fairly large community here, and I'm feeling an interest in probing the edges of possibility... Enter BarCamp , and more specifically BarCamp Montreal; If you're unfamiliar with the concept of BarCamp you can checkout this entry in Wikipedia. I have never attended one of these things, and I don't have anything to demo, but I think that I will attend the Feb 27th event at the SAT to get a sense of what it's all about. The dates of the Montreal BarCamp activities are as fo...
More About: Community , Muni , Geek , Barcamp

Transitory in Nature
2007-01-29 13:19:01
time, time, it's so sublime well they say it's non-existent but it's playing with my mind [Climbing -- The Meat Puppets] I've uploaded another batch of photos, some of Montreal, but most of graffiti found along the Main. Outside of being interesting and sometimes beautiful, I think my fascination with graffiti is largely due to it's transitory nature. While all graffiti (and murals) will fade and disappear in time, some of it seems to get wiped out without anyone (the royal anyone) even noticing... In March 2004 I took the photo to the top left; it was located on the north wall of a parking lot found on the west side of St Laurent (across the street from a booze can that I'd been to once or twice in my mid 20s -- also taken by time). Apparently a building has now been built in it's place, and my favorite quirky piece of graffiti is visible no more (I took the photo to the right earlier today). This is probably a sign that I should look up more often... change ofte...
More About: Nature , Trans , Sito , Natur , Tory

Katie Moore
2007-01-29 13:19:01
There's an interview with my friend Katie Moore at Midnight Poutine. I missed her show last night (yet again), but that's because I didn't know about it... oh well... On another note, another aquaintence of mine, Lubo Alexandrov (Kaba Horo: Balkan gypsy groove), is playing on Sat night at Bobards. -->