April 22nd at 6:30 you can meet two Olympus professional photographers, Lou Manna and Judy Herrmann. I’m personally interested in seeing Lou Manna who is a food photographer, that’s something that I’d like to learn more of and get into one day. I plan on being there, contact me if you’d like to meetup beforehand.

The event is free and open to the public, plus there will be a raffle with prize of an Olympus E-510 Digital SLR camera. Nice.

Check out the posters below for the details.

So far today the college is very, very quiet. I haven’t been this bored at work since early Summer, just after classes and exams had finished. What this tells me is that teachers are taking it easy in their classes today (they had no or little printing and/or handouts to give out - I work in the print shop). Some teachers even canceled classes altogether or are cutting them short.

I’ve spoken to a few co-workers and teachers and they all seemed just fine, like it’s a normal day. I haven’t personally seen any press people yet, but they’re mostly being kept at bay by the police, who have most of the streets surrounding the building blocked off. I might try to nab a few pictures of them, just for kicks.

Here’s the itinerary for the day’s events. It was brought up that, if it “felt right”, I could take some pictures of these activities (I’m typically the college’s designated photographer for events), but it seems that it’s a sensitive issue so there will be no photographs taken by this shutterbug of anything happening from withing the college. There’s a strict ‘no camera’ policy in place for today.

I will hopefully be able to attend everything that’s been planned for the day (it’s tough to leave the office when we’re short staffed with one person on vacation and another that wasn’t comfortable with coming to work today), but I’ll attempt to write another post later on or tomorrow and give a report sorts of how the day went overall.

However, one feature that I think should have never been built into these devices is the capability to play music sans earphones. I understand that, essentially, all these kids are doing is playing a ringtone that happens to be a song (in some cases, it’s an MP3), but while traveling on a bus or the Metro, it’s really annoying having to listen to someone else’s music (usually rap) for the duration of your ride - it’s twice as annoying when they happen to get off at the same stop as you. They’ve become the boomboxes of the younger generation.

I often try to stare them down until they get the hint, but kids these days are quite defiant… but that’s another blog post entirely.

This is the first time that a Quebec Male Athlete has won this award and the first time a Dawson Athlete has been the recipient. This award is one of the most prestigious awards in Canada. The award recognizes Adrian’s athletic ability, success of his team, academic achievement, leadership and community involvement. Adrian was selected from over 3000 male athletes across the country.

Congratulations Adrian, you deserve it.

After the jump is a press release with full details.

(Cornwall, Ont. - May 2, 2007) Dawson College’s captain Adrian Hynes-Guery has been named this year’s Male Athlete of the Year Across All CCAA Sports by the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA).

Graduating this year, the third-year veteran will be leaving on a high note and will be truly missed. Adrian is synonymous with leadership, talent and dedication. Demonstrating a combination of physical talent, mental skill, fierce determination and a tireless drive to succeed, Adrian excels at his sport and separates himself from the competition.

Averaging 19.2 PPG, 2.6 SPG and 4.1 APG, Adrian ended the season ranked 3rd for scoring, steals and assists in the Quebec Student Sport Federation (QSSF). He also set a new record for most assists in one (1) QSSF regular season game with a total of 13 assists. At this year’s CCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship, Adrian was ranked 2nd in both scoring and steals with 21.67 PPG and 3.67 SPG. His exceptional play helped the Blues finish the season with a 16-3 record and secure 1st place in the QSSF, and ultimately, 1st place on the national stage.

Adrian’s outstanding skills and achievements have earned him numerous athletic awards and acclamations for 2006-07 season, including Dawson College Male Athlete of the Year, CCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship Tour ament MVP, CCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship All-Tournament Team, FQSE Men’s National Basketball Championship First Team All Star and Hagen Tournament All Star.

His leadership, commitment and hard work demonstrate itself both on and off the court. While he is not studying, Adrian has been actively involved in the life of Dawson College, working in the Athletic Department on sports promotion, coordinating Dawson Blues team fundraisers initiatives and helping plan the fundraising all-star game for the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. Outside of the Blues, Adrian is heavily involved in the promotion, growth and development of basketball by volunteering at the Brookwood City Basketball Association and the Marianopolis Youth Basketball House League. He also coaches at the Trevor Williams Basketball Academy Summer Camp.

-30-

The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for college sport in Canada, providing high-level competition through intercollegiate sport that recognizes excellence in academics and athletics.

For more information, please contact:

Stéphanie Legault
CCAA Coordinator of Marketing and Media Relations
Tel: 613.933.6080 ext. 2211 / Email: stephanie@ccaa.ca

The news headlines and reports are familiar territory for me having experienced a shooting first-hand last September. With over 20 people confirmed dead, the Virgina Tech shooting is likely to be deadliest school shooting in History (at least US History)

Please head on over to Metroblogging Washington for all of the latest news and updates, as well as to share any words and/or thoughts.

I know our thoughts here in Montreal are with them.

The worlds most popular circus has finally come home to Montreal with their new show “Kooza”.

I was out for a walk around Old Montreal and saw the tent setup, it’s very impressive. I could also hear them rehearsing inside, I’d have done anything to be able to sneak a peek.

They’ll be performing from April 18 to June 24 at the Old Port of Montreal. You can get more info on their official site right here.

I attended the second half of the parade, having missed the first chunk due to a breakfast I helped prepare for upwards of 30 plus people, which was a lot of fun in itself. The crowd at the parade was pleasant and cheerful, everyone seemed to be having a grand ‘ol time.

If anyone is interested, I have a Flickr photoset of a bunch of pictures I took. Granted, most are of my friends and such, but it’ll give a good indication of the spirit of the day and what St. Patrick’s celebrations are like in Montreal.

Anyone else have photos or a story they’d like to share about the day? Say it in the comments.

Wow, 2 entries in one day for me, it’s a record!

I had heard some talk just before the lunch hour about a fire downtown, the latest rumour was that it was part of Concordia University that was up in flames. Turns out it was a couple of blocks West of there between St. Marc and St. Mathew on Ste. Catherine, I don’t really know much more than that at the moment, but I did manage to snap this with my cameraphone (Sadly, I left my main camera at the office during lunch). Here’s the snippet from CTV News:

A major fire burned out of control Tuesday morning in Downtown Montreal. Flames broke out around 10:00 a.m. and spread quickly through the century-old building at 1811 Ste-Catherine West between St-Marc and St-Mathieu. The three-storey commercial-residential building housed a restaurant and depanneur on the ground floor and apartments in the upper floors. Surrounding streets were closed and drivers are being warned to avoid the area.

I feel that people are starting to panic, in a sense, about the possibility of 20 some odd centimeters of snow. At my job, I see and speak to anywhere near 200+ individual people on a daily basis and I have actual conversations with these people, however short said conversations might be. But the general consensus these days is that people seem worried or bothered that there will be a snow storm and what it will bring (school closures, dangerous driving, etc…).

I somehow feel the obligation to remind everyone that this is Montréal, we’re supposed to be used to snow storms and ice on the roads! Does that make driving any safer? No, but it shouldn’t instill that much anxiety in the general population either. We’ve had an extremely easy winter so far, albeit a pretty cold one. We’ve been spoiled by the lack of any true snow accumulation and it’s starting to show that people are getting used to it. Do people not realize that this was bound to happen?

We’re slowly turning into (and I’m really sorry to say this)… Toronto!

But to be fair, there’s the other bunch of folks that are totally looking forward to the snow, though from I can tell, they seem to be the minority; the skiers and snowboarders (and possibly city workers?). I’m somewhere in the middle, personally. I’d hibernate if I truly had the choice.

Approximately once a year, Dawson College employs the training expertise of Santinel, a CSST certified provider of industrial first aid training since 1984. The course is free for staff and faculty and quite informative and thorough. It made me realize that the first aid kit in the print shop is in great need of some replenishment since the shooting back on September 13, 06.

Anyway, this got me thinking and wondering if other businesses and companies offer any such courses for their employees? Apparently, by law, for every 50 people/employees, there should be a minimum of one person who is first aid certified. Also, are first aid kits readily available (accessible, as in, not locked away) and current (notice the expiry date on the antiseptic pads)? I heard that there’s a certain office building downtown that has 5 floors, has 2 first aid kits… both on the second floor. But according to laws, they’re “OK” because they meet the minimum requirements for the employee/first aid kit ratio. Doesn’t make much sense to me as to why they’re both on the second floor, though.

Do you know where the first aid kit is? Do you know who knows how to use it? How does your workplace or school stack up?