When Tanya McGinnity first told me about her idea, I was thrilled. Who wouldn’t be? The premise is simple: find a girl geek to speak about an exciting project, hunt down a restaurant that will host a group dinner, and let people mix.
Now simple as that sounds, it isn’t easy to organize. So after the first Montreal Girl Geek Dinner ended in a resounding success, Tanya’s been working hard to host one a month.
There have been talks ranging from starting your own business to hacking on open source software to innovative computer games. Because Montreal is fast becoming an exciting place for technology, there’s no surprise that it’s full of talented geeky women.
Recently, I found a chance to interrupt her busy schedule to ask her a few questions.
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a transplanted Maritimer who, due to cod-overfishing, needed to find a new job. So I landed a gig with Matrox Graphics way back in the pre-bubble days.
After the bubble burst, I got into digital marketing and project management with some cool web firms here in Montreal. Now I am currently freelancing with ihaveanidea.org as their Director of Social Medification and webology.
How did Girl Geek Dinners get started?
Montreal Girl Geek Dinners are an offshoot of the London Girl Geek Dinners, started by the awesome Sarah Blow who also runs the Girly Geekdom blog which I contribute to (albeit sporadically!)
What inspired you to start Girl Geek Dinners in Montreal?
Montreal is an incredible city and there are so many interesting and innovative things going on in all sectors—the music scene, startups, film, arts and so on. As a tech geek by trade, I would attend tech events and see that there weren’t too many girls in the crowd. I came across a video clip from one of the Barcamp events where Martine Pagé asked the crowd “Where are the Women?” and I felt like maybe there was something to be explored in creating some smaller scale mixers where girls could hone their presentation skills and meet other people who are as jazzed about being geeky.
Who shows up?
Mainly girls, but we do get quite a few guy geeks too. Most people who attend are invited by someone who has attended a previous event and many others are new Montrealers who are looking to meet new people. There have only been four dinners, so we are a new group but we’re looking to grow and evolve.
What happens at each event?
We eat. We talk. We network. We exchange business cards. A featured speaker gives a presentation on a topic. Then dessert and the cheque. So far, we’ve had dinners featuring Heather Kelley, Angela Byron, Aleece Germano, Kim Vallee and Bronwen Zande.
What topics are you looking for?
Absolutely anything, as long as you are geeky about it. There are plans to do sessions on time-management, comics, nutrition, rock-bands, developing negotiating skills, crafts, as well as some “surprises” in the works.
How can people get involved?
Visit the blog or our Facebook group for more information.
I’m looking for speakers, restaurant suggestions, translators, event planners, help with promotion and anything else that could help this group evolve and meet everyone’s needs. It takes a village to grow a nation of geeks.
Girl Geeks
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.
Special article for Montreal Tech Watch by Simon Law.
Photographs by Janina Szkut and Simon Law,
used under Creative Commons licenses.
The Ubuntu crew in Montréal can sure throw a party. We packed a room at Bar St-Sulpice with geeks, nerds, and other awesome characters who shared their love of beer and free software.
I caught up with Etienne and Fabian who were leading the celebrations. Good job, guys!
At Akoha, we have been very, very, very busy. So busy, in fact, that Éric and I have no time to take care of the growing number of computers that we are using. We must, it appears, get some help.
Now, we're looking for someone bright, energetic, and loving in their care of Ubuntu systems. We use a wide range of interesting technologies and you certainly will not be just a system administrator.
You'll be a Unix Pipefitter!
(en français)
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about our local unconferences, but a neat one coming up is DemoCamp CUSEC 2. It’s attached to the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference, which is being held in Montréal again.
Last year, I did a demonstration on how to cook an omelette, with it being a metaphor for software engineering. This year, I’m going to do something more prosaic and run a round of Powerpoint karaoke, under the guise of getting people to practise their presentation skills.
Or it will be a convincing argument against its use.
Show up if you can! Present something you’ve been working on! (There are still some slots left.) It’ll be exciting.
DemoCamp CUSEC 2
Thursday, 17 January 2008
19:00 – 21:00
Centre Mont-Royal
2200 rue Mansfield
Free admission
( Sign up | Google Maps )
Heather Kelley, of Kokoromi fame, was the speaker at the inaugural Montreal Girl Geek Dinner.
I showed up to La petite marche last week, armed with my trusty camera. I sat down, had a very decent meal, and then we heard Heather talk about her recent projects.
This included mention of gamma 256, which is best described as a giant party to showcase independently developed games. There will be electronica bands on stage, video games to play, and plenty of cool people to talk to. It's happening this Wednesday, at the SAT, from 21:00.
Many thanks to Tanya McGinnity for organizing the dinner!
Kokoromi collective
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Before I knew it, summer had hit full swing. June's when stuff really starts happening in Montréal. That streets fill with tourists, people who show up to poke and gawk at how strange and beautiful everything is here. Native Montrealers try to ignore them—you can tell the tourists apart because they aren't half as stylish as the locals.
The beginning of June also marks the beginning of the Fringe Festival. Which is where we start off our little photo journey.
Packed bags
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Rachelle performed during the Fringe and I happily volunteered to take some photos of her, and her teddy, for an upcoming play.
We met at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cpirate's apartment, where we did a few shots. Then we hijacked an old suitcase and this is what we got.
Bike musician
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
A few days later, I was walking down the street and ran into a crowd of people riding down Rachel for Clean Air Day. At one intersection, I saw a man with a harp, a panflute, and a bike riding around in circles.
“How novel,” I thought as I pulled out the camera.
Make a wish
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
The Fringe isn't all about independent theatre, though. You've got people who spin around fire at dusk. That's always particularly exciting. I caught the S. Vestas as they were wrapping up a performance in Parc des Ameriques.
Cameras really love fire poi.
The happy couple
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
One of the zanier acts is Hanakengo. For the past two years, Hana has had quite the crush on Zack Winters, going to the “prom” with him and then marrying him. Don't they look so cute?
Demolished building
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
After all this excitement, I needed a brief respite. What better way than to hang out with my fellow Debian developers in Edinburgh? Scotland is a lovely, rainy place that loves their deep-fried cuisine, real ale, and peaty whiskies.
And what do you know? I did too. Well, except for all that fried food. I felt pretty horrible after a week of that.
I returned to Canada only to head off to another geek conference. At OLS, held in Ottawa, I finally got to interact with a real working OLPC.
It's really, really small. And really, really cute. Unfortunately, this one was pretty broken as it was being hacked on.
Viennoiseries
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
One of the finer points of the geek conferences that I attend is that I manage to attract geeks who are also into fun. This year, a group of us took a break from the various talks on virtualizing machines to enjoy a spot of tea.
I highly recommend it. The Château Laurier is simply gorgeous.
DemoCamp Montréal 3 is happening tomorrow. We're going to be at the SAT from 18:30 to 20:30, holding demonstrations on a whole range of different topics.
Why DemoCamp? Well, Montrealers are some of the most creative people I know and they've got plenty of things to show and tell. DemoCamp is like a big gathering of creative minds who get to watch fifteen-minute presentations on anything. And since all you can do is demo: no slides, no gimmicks, then you actually get to see real stuff doing real things.
I'm going to be there to show you how to make a counterclock. You know, the opposite of a clock that goes clockwise. Along the way, I'll do a little explaining of electricity, timekeeping, and motors. I just have to remember to buy a clock today. :P
Come on, it'll be fun!
DmoCamp Montréal 3
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission
( Sign up | Facebook | Upcoming | Google Maps )
BarCamp Montréal 2 is coming up soon. Yup, our second big full-day unconference is happening next Saturday at the SAT. We're bigger and better this time, and we'd love to have you show up.
What is BarCamp Montréal? It's an unconference. It's a gathering of active, interesting people who want to get together and share our experiences. It's for individuals and groups, artists and technologists, young and old. Nominally, there's an Internet-technology feel because that's what BarCamps around the world have traditionally done. But because Montréal has such a vibrant arts scene, we've also got talks that are about anything and everything.
So how do you participate? Well, you can't just be a spectator. Nope, unabashed consumption is not our way. Show up on Saturday and give a presentation on a project that you've been working on. Or show up a little early and help us set up. Or stay late and clean while chatting with the exciting people you've met. We want you to be part of our community.
We've got fifteen-minute presentations ranging on exciting topics like:
- Taking good photographs
- Building “Web 2.0” applications
- Online multi-player games
- Lasers
- East-asian culture
- Starting a company
Have you got something to say? Or something to show? I hope so.
Now that I have you convinced, you're going to want to know how you (and your interesting friends) can attend…
BarCamp Montréal 2
Saturday, 28 April 2007
9:30 – 18:00
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission
( Sign up | Upcoming | Google Maps )
See you there!
I'm proud to announce the next DemoCamp that we're holding in Montréal. DemoCamp Montreal 2 (Français) is a gathering of people, both in high-tech and not, to see demonstrations given by people doing cool stuff. Anyone is welcome to show up and we've got some interesting talks lined up.
I'll be there to take photographs again and to chat with people about the projects they've been tending. It should be an exciting and interesting evening.
How do you attend?
DemoCamp Montréal 2
Thursday, 29 March 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission
( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )
I hope to see you there!
DemoCamp Montréal 1
Tuesday 27 February 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission
( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )
Just a reminder that Montréal's first DemoCamp is happening this evening!
We've got five excellent demonstrations lined up, so do sign up and join the fun. You can just come and watch people talk, but it's also a great opportunity to meet people who are interesting and do exciting things.
For more information, please see my original post.
There's less than a week before Montréal's next little technology un-conference. DemoCamp Montreal 1 (Français) follows in the footsteps of Toronto's DemoCamp, bringing neat demonstrations to the spotlight.
What is DemoCamp? It's a mini-conference where you show up and get to see people present the cool things that they're doing. Be it some software they wrote, a robot they built, or even a live tutorial, there's always something interesting happening. And you need to know. All you have to do is show up.
We'll be at the Societé des arts technologiques which has been cool enough to donate their space for us. Just show up on Tuesday 27 February 2007 at 18:30, after putting your name down on the registration list. Don't be shy, it's free!
Demonstrations are short, sweet, and PowerPoint slides are forbidden. You get to actually see something happen, which is a much more exciting than your usual conference lecture. In addition, we'll hang out afterwards to shoot the breeze and discuss what we saw.
I'll be there with my camera, helping my friends gorbash_dragon and peaceful_dragon run the show. Jonathan Kopanas, who went to Concordia, is coming up to introduce the presenters and Austin Hill is drumming up publicity.
DemoCamp Montréal 1
Tuesday 27 February 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission
( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )
I'll see you there!
What's interesting about Montréal, as a hub city, is that it doesn't have a lot of geeks in it. Yes, we do have people working in tech, and yes there are people with geeky interests. But compared to other large cities that are full of universities, there really aren't that many. And worse, there aren't many jobs for these people, so geeks aren't even encouraged to stay.
Since I'm not one to complain about things, I'd like to point out that interesting things are afoot.
This evening, the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference will be hosting DemoCamp CUSEC 1. A bunch of techie friends of mine will attend and I hope you do too.
What's a DemoCamp? It's an evening of presentations where you're encouraged to show projects that you're working on and discuss the things you're shown. Everybody has a great time since it's all about participating in a community of peers who are active.
To sweeten the deal, I'll even be presenting a talk. It's entitled:
The stupidity of crowds
— or —
You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette
Don't worry if you don't know anything about software engineering. After all, I'm not even an undergraduate so why should I follow convention? Rest assured, though, I'm going to be pretty geeky.
The relevant details
| Date: | Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
| Time: | 18:30pm to 20:30pm (Upcoming.org) |
| Location: | Third floor of Centre Mont-Royal, 2200, rue Mansfield. |
| Expected Attendance: | All are welcome! |
I really like lightning talks. When I give a talk, I'm happiest to give a fifteen-minute one.
At the many conferences I attend, I no longer find that I have the patience to sit through an hour long presentation. Even thirty minutes is pushing it. Why? Because most of the time, conference presenters are not good public speakers.
Professional public speakers are valued, because they can give an interesting, thought-provoking hour-long talk. That's great! But that's also why they're professionals. They spend days in advance planning it out and preparing for it. They'll memorize key points, practise their delivery, and smoothing out the presentation. The rest of us don't have that luxury. Which is fine, it's not our job.
So I advocate technical conferences that hold short talks, have long discussions, flexible schedules, and are held in one room.
With a short talk, no longer than half an hour, you don't have time to bore your audience. You go up, present your salient points, and get off the stage. You're forced to trim your presentation until only the most interesting bits are left. Besides, your audience doesn't have time for a crash course in quantum metaphysis, you merely need to get them interested in learning more. And if you are a poor speaker: you read off your illegible slides, you speak in a dull monotone, and you're chronically disorganized, then we only have to endure it for a short while. Your only worry is talking too quickly.
But what if you're an engaging speaker? Then your audience will have plenty of questions. You can take up as much discussion time as you want answering them, showing off eye candy you didn't have time to present, and sparking debate in your audience. That's really what it's about—spreading ideas and thoughts to your listeners; it isn't about spoon-feeding them.
A flexible schedule is important to this process. You don't want people to feel like they're missing something if they stick around to talk. And if something really interesting comes up, you want to be able to hold a birds of a feather session to sit down and hash out issues. It's like the water cooler at the office, where people congregate and chat.
So why the single room? It's so that you don't have things going on in parallel, which puts time pressure on the speakers and the attendees. If a discussion goes long, you don't want people leaving to go to another session. If people don't know your subject, you don't want them skipping your talk to go to a more familiar one. Ideas don't get disseminated if you're always preaching to the choir.
If you've ever attended a big multi-track conference, you know what I mean. At those, nobody important attends the talks unless it's someone famous. Instead, they'll congregate in the hallways, around the coffee pots, and even in their hotel rooms. Because that's the environment where you can really meet people and learn from their experiences. Which defeats the point of having presentations in the first place. My kind of conference is one where the talks lead to hallway chatter, not where they drive people to it.
At the end of September, my laptop decided to stop working. I spent a frustrating few days trying to resuscitate it, but that effort failed miserably. After six years of faithful service, my A20m was dead.
So I ordered a new laptop. I had been looking at getting a new ThinkPad over the past two years, but had never gotten around to it. After all, my previous laptop was portable, connected to the Internet, and let me do my thing. I was prepared to go through a terrible experience. I looked at various websites, decided that I still like ThinkPads and tried to order a laptop from Lenovo through their website.
This failed miserably, so I sent them an e-mail and forgot about them. The next day, Shanley e-mailed me from her office at Lenovo Canada. Apparently, she wanted to sell me a ThinkPad T60p with the specifications I wanted. And it was cheaper than I could have possibly ordered online. In fact, Shanley was so nice at taking my money in exchange for a new computer, that I'd recommend her for any of you wanting to buy a ThinkPad. It was surprisingly painless. Just ask me for her e-mail address.
I received the machine after a weekend of waiting. It just showed up at the office is a big cardboard box. I pulled it out, assembled it, and looked at it. This is one of Lenovo's first ThinkPads and it seems like they haven't ruined it. The TrackPoint is still there, the keyboard is just as nice, and the machine is solidly built. Satisfied with my inspection, I looked around for an installation CD. That's when I realized that I had an Ubuntu beta CD I was hoping to try out. Why not?
Grabbing the CD-RW I had recently burnt, I popped it into the laptop and found that everything showed up fine. I had a brief struggle with the proprietary hardware inside my computer, but that was something that installing the linux-restricted-modules-generic package solved handily. I did, however, manage to find quite a few bugs in the whole process. And as the QA person, I certainly reported them.
I'm still getting over how fast this machine goes. With two processors, gobs of RAM, and a plentiful hard disk, this machine is going to last me for a good long while.
Today is the day against DRM.
Thousands of people around the world are spreading the word about Digital Restriction Management technologies. The interesting thing about the people building DRM systems is that they're doing evil. They may not think they're doing evil, after all they're generally good people, doing their jobs, feeding their families, and protecting their interests. It's not a big evil, but it is a subtle one. And that's why you shouldn't support them.
For decades, the music industry has been making money by selling records and tapes. This was a good business, because it was difficult to produce records, and it was difficult to get tapes into the hands of consumers. They made quite a tidy sum over production and distribution of art, which is a pretty decent living. But then came the Internet. And the Internet got big. Big enough that you're reading what I'm writing, even though we come from completely different backgrounds and are probably miles apart. The interesting thing about the Internet is that copying a song and sending it to someone else costs almost nothing. Zip, zero, zilch.
Now traditional media distribution houses are upset. The service they performed was valuable and the goods they sold were scarce. Nowadays, neither of those are true. People can record music in their garages, edit it on their computers, and publish it online. The digital medium has turned art from a scarce resource into an abundance.
So what do these companies do? They feel that they have to protect their existing business models so they try to push through laws that would make it illegal to provide abundance. That's like arresting farmers for planting seeds they've harvested from their own wheat. But this is wrong. People are now using the Internet to make and distribute art like we've never seen before. The proliferation of new songs, new pictures, new videos is just enormous. The creative community has exploded through sharing, some of it illegal, and we can all see what a vibe this has caused.
DRM is meant to put a stop to that. It's designed to have two components: one is the technology that monitors and restricts what you can do with the art that you've bought, the second is the legislation that makes it illegal to circumvent this technology. So only criminals will be able to give music to their friends. But criminals will do that anyway, laws won't prevent DVD duplication in Asia. They will, however, stop you from listening to music in ways some corporation doesn't want you to.
What can you do about it? Make it known that you're against DRM. Make it known that you're against proprietary systems that stifle the creative spirit. And only purchase open systems. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because they won't hold you hostage.
My laptop's hard disk died last week. It's been going on and off for a while, making these little clicking sounds and stalling on reading. That's always a bad sound, but I was always too busy to deal with it. But you can never leave these things for too long. I suppose those times I dropped the thing weren't very good for it.
One day, I was using the machine when it refused to work any longer. I suppose this was a fairly long-lived chunk of hardware, as it was built in May 2000. Six whole years. I tried pulling out my spare laptop disk and using that, but this was doomed to failure. Back when I got to second disk, they were still making 12mm-height drives. Which don't fit very well in a 9mm slot.
So today, I went to the computer store and got myself a brand new disk. They make really large hard drives these days! I put it in, installed a new version of Ubuntu, and I was off to the races. Hurray!
Now I have to get all my configuration files back on. Oh dear.
Update at 2006-09-27 18:29: The new disk died today. It didn't even last twenty-four hours. I brought it back to the shop where they reluctantly exchanged it for a new one. I hope that things turn out better.
Update at 2006-09-28 1:34: The newest disk seems to not like the laptop. I think it's overheating. Damn.
Update at 2006-09-28 2:10: Nnggh. Nope. It looks like I have a bad bit of ram at 73.3MB. Time to see if I can get the badram patch working tomorrow.
Update at 2006-09-30 12:02 Oh, I give up. This machine is not going to work again, for any reasonable approximation of working.
Recently, at parties, I've discovered that I'm one of the least geeky people there. Which is bizarre, because I've basically been geeky all of my life. To address that issue, I had a very nice weekend full of random dorkiness.
On Saturday, I went with angorian and Damian to marché Jean-Talon where we picked up a few things. Like pine nuts, parmesan, and a crate-full of basil. Due to a more innovative washing strategy, we finished making six litres of pesto in six hours. I brought my half back home and am slowly freezing it into ice cubes.
Actually, I still have some pesto left over from last year. Whoops! Better have some people over for dinner, I suppose.
Then on Sunday, I invited a group of friends over to play geeky games. angorian showed up with Damian, and was quickly followed by wlach, cloquewerk, and _watchtower_. We pulled out Munchkin and Chez Geek. I can hear you muttering "comfy" right now, elliptic_curve, and I don't care.
There was a break for dinner, where I pulled out some salsa, tabbouleh, and pizza. I made the pizza dough in advance, so I kept on leaving to check on it, but it seems to have been worth it. Especially after the pizza stone cracked in the oven. Ah well, I've always wanted a thicker one anyway.
You can always order out for pizza, but that doesn't seem to turn out as nicely as I like. By the time it gets to your door, it's been steamed in the cardboard box for a while, so the crust begins to taste like wood. And everything turns a tad soggy. And the toppings aren't exactly what you want. So you might as well make pizza at home. Now, you can buy frozen pizza dough, which is really quite good, but try making pizza from scratch. It's easier than you might think.
Pesto pizza
Ingredients
- 10mL active dry yeast
- 300mL warm water
- 400g Canadian all-purpose white flour
- 15mL salt
- 15mL sugar
- 30mL olive oil
- 15mL basil pesto
- Various toppings
Directions
- In a small bowl, mix the yeast and warm water together. Let it sit for about five minutes, until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is cloudy. It will start to smell a bit like bread or beer, which is exactly what you want. Don't add the yeast to hot water or you'll kill the little critters.
- In a large bowl, mix your flour, salt, and sugar with a balloon whisk.
- Make a deep hole in the centre of your dry ingredients and add the oil, pesto, and yeast mixture. Combine the wet ingredients with a fork and slowly incorporate the flour from the edges.
- You'll eventually end up a moist ball of dough which should pull itself together. If it's too dry to do that, add a few splashes of warm water. If it's too wet, dust it with some more flour. Eventually, you'll have something moist that you can knead.
- Scatter some flour evenly on your counter and scrape the dough on to it. Then knead and work the dough until it dries out a bit and becomes smooth and elastic. Don't be afraid of it, you can really get all your aggression out this way.
- Once the dough is springy, take your large bowl and coat the bottom and sides with olive oil. Transfer your dough to that bowl and roll it around a bit so that it's covered lightly in oil.
- Cover the bowl with cellophane and leave it in a warm place for it to rise. I typically leave it resting close to the pilot light on my stove. It takes about an hour or two for it to double in volume, so waste some time surfing the Internet.
- Once it gets big enough, punch the dough down. Cut it in half using a plastic dough scrapper, but you can use a knife if you don't have one. Roll each half into a ball and loosely cover each with cellophane to rise again. This should take about fifteen minutes.
- You should preheat your oven at about this time. Set it to the highest temperature it will go, as pizza is best when it's baked quickly. If you have a pizza stone, leave it in the oven so it will heat as the oven heats. Putting a cold stone in the oven will guarantee that it explodes from thermal stress. If you don't have a pizza stone, you can use baking sheets.
- On a floured work surface, stretch one of the dough balls until it's rather thin. But not so thin that it breaks. I find that using a rolling pin helps, but you can also do this by spinning it in the air. After you've got the crust in an approximately pizza shape, we're ready to top it.
- Get a cutting board that will fit the dough. Rip a piece of parchment paper and put it on top. Then put your dough on top of that. Add a small amount of pizza sauce and your favourite toppings. I like using huge blobs of low-fat mozzarella, because it melts gorgeously and also provides good structural integrity.
- Slide the whole pizza with the parchment on to your pizza stone. Bake for about fifteen minutes, pulling the parchment paper out from underneath in the last five or so. This should give you a gloriously crispy crust. Bring the pie to the table, cut into wedges, and dig in.
- Now bake the second pizza, because people will be clamouring for seconds. Optionally, you can freeze that second dough ball, and pull it out for an easy dinner later in the week.
Serves 6.
People who know me know that Perl is my favourite programming language ever.
Today, a co-op was complaining about how some variables in Perl consist only of punctuation. But that is not a reason to hate Perl, it is a reason to love it!
Here's a one-liner, to prove my point:
perl -le'*{$#_}=sub{world},s;"*;$,=$";e,*{$"}
It is easy to have a good time in Waterloo, if you try. Especially if you import people like pphaneuf, whom I don't get enough time to hang out with in Montréal. The humour is not lost on me, I assure you.
holdenk hung out with math_foo for a while, whom he hadn't seen in forever. Where forever was last Wednesday. I made friends with Timin, who seems to have forgiven me. But he has retained mricon's training and still bites the hand that feeds him. Playfully, of course.
We played some games at ayria's place, after I wrote a small random number generator to substitute for a lack of dice. But then I realised that I used too many characters:
perl -pe 's/.*/rand(6)%6+1/e'
I made dinner reservations, which are mostly unnecessary in Waterloo. And then eight of us showed up at Ellison's Bistro and had a wonderful time. I must admit that I had to resort to bribery to get some people to join us. But in the end it was worth it, even though both of them would have been procrastinating anyway.
There was a slideshow we watched of party photographs that azrhey had taken. Boy, does that girl have a two-track mind. It is interesting to note that Holden and Pierre are set up to be arch-enemies. One is pantsalicious while the other isn't. One day, one of them will grow up to be Evil and the other will have the moral obligation to thwart him.
After driving some people around, I went over to musicdieu's place where we trashtalked a bit, just like I did the last time I visited him. Then I passed out. Without the assistance of Zubrówka. When I awoke, it was 5:00 and I drove morethanreal home.
I found myself on one of her three couches at 9:30 and made a couple of kettles of hot water, because I was quite cold. I sat in the kitchen for a couple of hours, hoping she'd wake up so we could get some breakfast. But that didn't happen. So I drove back to Math's place and the three of us went on a quest to get brunch.
Nobody is open for lunch on Sundays in Waterloo. Nobody except Bánh mì Givral Deli which serves cheap and delicious submarine sandwiches. We filled up on these and headed back. Whereupon Holden tried to give me more relationship advice.
Holden and I drove back and along the way I took a five-minute nap that stretched into an hour. No worries though, I dropped him off at Sheppard station and headed downtown. I needn't have rushed since the train was very, very late.
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