Take Off Your Clothes is a clothing swap held twice every summer at the Piknic Électronik.

You bring used items of clothing and get to swap them with other fashionable clothes and accessories, one for one. Designers also donate clothes to the project, so there’s always something interesting in the racks.

Join the Facebook group to get invited to the next one.

Nicole
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Parasol
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Erik
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Trousers
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Fiona and Aleece
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

This is the first actual day of my vacation.

So far, I have managed to ignore most of my work e-mail. And I’ve only read one patchset. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll do better.

I miss them already.

Akoha
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Steak
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Dessert
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Say, we’re hiring!

If you know someone who’d like to do one of these jobs, send them our way!

Community Gardener
Professional Vandal / Vandale Professionnel

P.S. I’m still starving.

So very, very, very famished!

Hot hamburger
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

It wasn’t very authentic, but it was quite tasty.

I’m so hungry right now. Aren’t you?

Ramen
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

Fiona
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

May’s Girl Geek Dinner was held at Station C, the lovely co-working place in Mile-End.

We ordered pizza and sat down to hear Stephanie Troeth give her talk on “Better Living Through Computing Algorithms”.

Station C
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Allison
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Janina
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Aleece
Uploaded by sfllaw.

Fritatta
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Fruit salad
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Neelan Rach and Aleece Germano
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Ultimate spring rolls
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

Get them at Ben Thanh Viet Thai in Cambridge, Ontario.

It is altogether too hot, today

Ice water
Originally uploaded by Simon Law.

I shall ponder this refreshing photo and hope it cools down.

Now that it’s spring time, Timin likes to go out on the balcony and enjoy the cool night air.

Last night, I found him under the barbecue. Now the barbecue has this little tarp that shelters it from the rain, which makes it very comfortable. So comfortable, that some pigeons had built a nest. Not long after he'd crawled in there, I heard some cooing and a fluttering of wings.

I lifted the tarp to see Timin looking at a lone pigeon egg in the nest. I asked him, “are you going to eat it?”

In response, he rolled the egg off the edge of the balcony. Then he peered over the edge to watch it splatter below. Finally, he looked up at me expectantly and meowed.

I couldn’t stop laughing.

Last evening, at around 17h, three apartments in my building got broken into.

Mine was one of them.

In fact, they were so good that I didn’t realize that something was amiss until I tried to pick up my computer and came up with thin air.

At first, I thought I was being absent minded, so I spent a while looking for my stuff. Then I thought that maybe I brought it to the office, or left it somewhere. But no, I bumped into the landlord as he went to fix someone's window.

As far as we can tell, this is what happened:

The thief got buzzed into our apartment building by someone. Since we have no intercom out front, this happens with alarming regularity. The thief unlocked the fire escape door, climbed up the fire escape and broke into #1, #8, and #9.

For the other two apartments, the thief had to smash in the window to get at the latch. For mine, the latch was broken anyway, so it was a simple matter of sliding it open.

When the thief got to my apartment, he or she emptied out my knapsack and stuffed my laptop inside. Then grabbed my camera bag and went back out the window. The other two apartments had laptops stolen too.

After getting the loot, the thief went down the fire escape and waltzed out the front door. Somewhere along the way, there must have been a scuffle with my cat, because Timin is now sporting a black eye.

I lost:

• Thinkpad T60p laptop, model 200793U, serial L3KW212
• Canon EOS 5D camera with a Canon EF 24-105L IS lens, model 0296B114[AA], serials (21)2621200591 and (21)00860552
• Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash, unknown serial number

The police have the serial numbers and will be checking the pawn shops. If you guys want to help, please do a quick search on any online trading sites you use, like Craigslist, eBay, Kijiji, and LesPAC.

Thanks!

Crossposted to montreal and montrealforsale.

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.

Tanya McGinnity
Originally uploaded by Simon Law. 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.

Momos
Originally uploaded by Simon Law. 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.
Heather
by Simon
Angie
by Simon
Aleece
by Janina
Kim
by Simon
Bronwen
by Simon 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!

Geeks
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Nerds
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Users
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The second edition of Montréal Python was held at the Standout Jobs office, upstairs from where I work.

It’s the first chance I’ve had to attend, but I’m glad I did. It’s awesome to see so many people interested in the Python programming language.

When Arach first talked to us about holding a regular gathering of people interested in the language, we were really enthusiatic. At the office, we were bemoaning the fact that it was quite difficult to get in touch with people in the city who really knew the technology we were using. So of course we wanted to help out.

I counted at least fifty people showing up. And I think we’re going to get many more.

Arach Tchoupani
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Cyril Robert
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Yannick Gingras
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Presenting
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Niagara Falls
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Turbine
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Seagull on the falls
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Every year, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal holds a dance party to raise some funds.

This year, it was a masquerade. I couldn’t help but snap a few photos before we left for the party.

Pianist
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
By the piano
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Adoration
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Two people, one heart
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Bagel with cream cheese and lox
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Oysters
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
鍋貼
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Pizza filetti
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
ส้มตำ (som tum)
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Mailboxes
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
天下為公
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Boston Five Cents Savings
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Shark boat
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Orange line
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Pigeons above skyscrapers
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
City Hall Station
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Life Underground
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Sweeping up
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Night in New York
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.