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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.
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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

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

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

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

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

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! -->

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. -->

watching me watching you
2007-01-29 13:19:01
This morning a coworker asked me if I had heard that they were putting cameras up on the Main. I replied that I hadn't, but I knew that they had done so on St. Denis a couple of years ago. Turns out that the Montreal Gazette is reporting on the story, and that the Montreal Mirror had reported on it last summer (they were supposed to go up then but were delayed). Anyway, it looks like they are going to go ahead with Robot Cam on St. Laurent. I guess the St. Denis experiment must have been considered a success in the minds of the authorities. It would be interesting to see if the types of crimes being discouraged on lower St. Denis have risen in any of the nearby areas. I would guess that the volume of crime probably hasn't lowered but rather changed in its distribution. Despite the fact that I know it's not really a big brother situation, I still don't like the idea that I'm being watched much less recorded. I think if I lived in the area I'd be very upset by this. H...
More About: Watch , Watching

Skinni... I forsake you
2007-01-29 13:19:01
I may have to buy one last cookie, that is if there's an address on the label... Because I really need to complain, and I can't find an email address to blow steam at. The recent price hike of Skin ni cookies, muffins, and brownies is an act of pure idiocy. A cookie is almost $4 at Java U now, and $3 at 4 Frères. This is a ridiculous price, and while I love their products, it's way way way too much to pay. I'm not sure why, but I find it personally insulting that they did this; I'm tempted to boycott the company even if they choose to lower their prices again... And let me tell you, I am king of the boycott, especially if the boycott is irrational. I once refused to wear jeans for about 4 years of my life, just because I felt it necessary to do so (even though I actually wanted to wear jeans)... I once boycotted bowling for 6 years just because there was too much bowing going on amongst my little punk rock (straight edge) and skater crowd in High School (in Moncton). I'...

Jean Talon Market
2007-01-29 13:19:01
The Jean Talon market is one of my favorite places in Montreal, and unfortunately it?s a place I don?t get to as often as I should. After reading an article in The Ethicurean (which I discovered through the Montreal City Weblog) I feel inspired to add one more resolution to my New Year?s pile: come spring I will make bi weekly trips to the Jean Talon market to both hang out and purchase produce (it?s a great place to have coffee in the summer). Years ago when I worked in the warehouse of Cargo Records (a couple of years before they went bankrupt) I used to eat lunch on weekly basis at an Italian bakery located near the south east corner of the market. I loved the food there. I went there once last summer; the food was still yummy, and they seem to have expanded. -->
More About: Market , Mark

2007 Race Schedule
2007-01-29 13:19:01
This is my tentative race schedule for 2007. I haven't entered the dates into my Events Calendar yet, but I will do so shortly. I will also post notice once I've paid the registration fee for a race. I would be happy to see anyone and everyone at the races, and I would be even happier if anyone wants to participate with me (trust me, it's actually fun). I also want to find a nearby end of season marathon (late Oct or early Nov) but have not yet done so. Feb 11: Le défi hivernale de l'île-Bizard March 25: La course populaire de LaSalle April 22: Montreal 21k May 19: Somersault Ottawa Early Bird KEY RACE (Marathon): May 27: ING Ottawa Marathon June 16: Triathon du Mont-Tremblant     or June 17: Triathlon de Lachine     or ??? June 18: 5 Peaks Trail Running at Mt St. Anne June 24: Smiths Falls Triathlon, Duathlon & Relays     or June 30: Triathlon de Trois-Rivieres July 8: Triathlon de Laval KEY RACE (Half Ironman...
More About: Schedule , Race , Snowflake , Hillbilly

Secret Show
2007-01-29 13:19:01
I wasn't there, in fact I only heard about it on CBC this morning (I'm just not in the know), but apparently the Arcade Fire played a secret show at the church on the corner of St. Viateur and St. Urbain on Sat. Word has it that word was spread by word of mouth as rumor. Word also has it that most of the songs they played were off their upcoming album. I still would have done the Piknic Electronique thing instead, but... -->
More About: Show , Secret

Keep your fingers crossed, tomorrow the Quebec Place Names C
2007-01-16 01:10:01
Keep your fingers crossed, tomorrow the Quebec Place Name s Commission may render a descision on whether or not to approve Tremblay's request to change the name of Avenue du Parc to Avenue Robert Brouassa. On a side note I checked in with the Save Park Avenue site, and IMHO they are now playing a game different from that of trying to save Avenue du Parc. While I support them in their efforts to save the street name, I absolutely do not support the publishing of letters bashing of Helen Fotopolous. I suspect that people are starting to play out their own agendas and hoping that Save Park Avenue supporters will fall behind them. I want it to be known that I don't support any political agenda other than that of saving the name.
More About: Cross , Your , Keep

The first time I ever walked down Bernard Street O., back
2007-01-16 01:10:01
The first time I ever walked down Bernard Street O., back in 1993, I had to stop, scratch my head, walk away, return, stare, scratch, and look closer? Riddell was possibly one of the most interesting and confusing places I?d ever had the fortune to stumble upon. The windows of Riddell contain a befuddling arrangement of objects, with a diversity encompassing 1950?s kitsch, African masks, taxidermied animals, and of course Riddell's raison d?etre fishing tackle and supplies. At the time I didn?t stop to read the clippings posted near the door, and I walked away thinking of the place as an object of neighborhood grandeur and mystery. Over the years I?ve included the storefront on many of my micro-tours of Mile-End, but I?ve always left its mysterious nature intact (by never reading the press clippings). Today I read the press clippings; the store is owned by George Riddell and has been open since 1950. Riddell himself is an avid fisherman who started fishing in 1937, and ...
More About: Time , Back , Down , Ever

Montreal City Weblog points to this very cool collection o
2007-01-14 07:07:01
Montreal City Weblog points to this very cool collection of old Park Avenue Photos posted to Flickr by Nikolaos Karabineris. The pic to the left is the YMCA at the corner of St. Viateur circa 1912, and the one below is the corner of Laurier and Avenue du Parc circa 1910. It's interesting to see the Montreal and Mile-End of the past.
More About: Cool , Blog , This

K sent me this, and I must say it's pretty cool:
2007-01-14 07:07:01
K sent me this, and I must say it's pretty cool:
More About: Cool , This , Pretty , Must