Long swim day... felt pretty normal. I was going to run a bit after but didn't have the energy.

Total Time: 2:00

12:00 pm - YMCA Swim
- swim: 0:30 1250 (mixed, 500 free, sets of 500 and 250)

5:30 pm - YMCA Swim
- swim: 1:30 3500 (mixed, 2500 free, sets of 500 and 250)

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 follows:

DemoCampMontreal1 - Tues/Mar Feb 27, 2007
DemoCampMontreal2 - Thurs/Jeu Mar 29, 2007
BarCampMontreal2 - Sat/Sam Apr 28, 2007
RoCoCoCamp - May/Mai 18-20, 2007

Rode on the trainer, the ran on a treadmill... it's been a hamster like day.

Total Time: 2:00

12:00 pm - Bike on trainer
- bike: 1:30 watching cartoons (easy)

5:30 pm - YMCA treadmill
- Run: 0:30 treadmill (easy)

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.

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.

Hopefully it will prevent some of the ugly chicken scratch vandalism (I hate that crap), but unfortunately it will probably also prevent some of the good graffiti as well -- as my photo section shows... I love graffiti.

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 Skinni 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'm still hesitant to go into Pine Pizza after 11 years, because a girlfriend of mine once worked there, and the owner at the time made her cry. So if Skinni wants to lose a customer, they've come to the right place...

Triple training set... I've got to do more of these. I think I may start riding in the evening more often.

Total Time: 2:30

12:00 pm - YMCA Swim
- Swim: 0:30 1250 meters (mixed, 750 free, sets of 500)

5:30 pm - YMCA Swim
- Swim: 1:30 3000 meters (mixed, 2000 free, sets of 500)

9:00 pm - Bike on trainer
- Bike: 0:30 trainer watching "The Protector" (which sucked)

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): July 29: Triathlon du Lac Memphrémagog
• Aug 13: Triathlon de Verdun
• Aug 19: Thousand Islands Triathlon, Duathlon & Relays
      or
  Aug 19: Parlee Beach Triathlon
• Sept 8: A.R.K. (5 Peaks Trail Running -- near Ottawa)
• Sept 15: Triathlon Esprit de Montreal
• Oct 6: Fall Colours Duathlon

NOTE: I may not participate in all of these races, and if it's in Montreal and I don't participate I might consider volunteering.

I felt a bit burnt out from training for 2 hours yesterday and then dancing (hard) for 2+ hours last night. So I decided to take today as a rest day. It's also been my first hard week of training since being sick so...

This begs the question: should I consider dancing to be cross training?

The dancing I'm talking about is rave style, very energetic, and although I've never worn my heart rate monitor out dancing, I'm sure my heart rate would be up in the aerobic zone. I'm also in a clean phase so I'm pretty much chemical and booze free. Also since the smoking ban, the air in the clubs is much cleaner (although last night it was Igloo Fest and it occurred outside in -14C weather with snow on the ground).