Tag Archives: Yulblog

| Blogosphere, Montreal

Adams family

Alston Adams at a Yulblog meeting in 2008

Alston Adams was a character.

I didn’t know him very well, but he was a hard guy to forget, and not only because he’d usually be the only black guy at a meeting of Montreal bloggers.

Adams had been fighting cancer for years, and blogging about it. Even though it was a serious medical condition with a depressing prognosis and no cure, he still kept going, showing up at the monthly YULblog meetings with his razor-sharp wit in tow. It could catch you off-guard, but it was endearing. With the energy and arrogance he showed, you’d think cancer wouldn’t stand a chance.

It took a long time, but cancer won the battle. Adams died yesterday, according to his friends, who have been flooding his Facebook wall. He was 35.

Since they knew him better than I did, I’ll point to the eulogies from his fellow bloggers:

A while ago, Adams participated in a documentary called Wrong Way to Hope, about young adults with cancer. The trailer (released almost a year ago) doesn’t do justice to his personality, which was far more animated (this bit from the deleted scenes is much more representative).

There’s some ironic timing here: His death comes just as the film is coming out. The premiere was two weeks ago, and the Canadian premiere is next week.

The monthly YULblog meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 6, 8pm at La Quincaillerie, 980 Rachel East. Expect Adams to be on the tips of tongues of those present.

UPDATE: Here’s daily mugshots of Adams until Sept. 13, three weeks before he died.

| Blogosphere, Montreal

YULblog relaunches tonight

yulblog

Local bloggers (and their groupies) might recognize YULblog … yulblog … Yulblog … however you capitalize it … as a monthly meeting of local bloggers (and their groupies) for drinks, discussions and oggling iPhones.

But once upon a time it was also a website that republished Montreal-centric blog posts from its members. That part fell by the wayside because the people behind it (essentially Patrick Tanguay) didn’t have enough time to maintain it (see Patrick’s comment below).

Now, organization of Yulblog‘s monthly meetings is being handed over to the new, less busy hands of Michael Boyle, and the website is being relaunched tonight to coincide with this month’s Yulblog meeting (8 p.m. at La Quincaillerie, 980 Rachel St. E., near Parc Lafontaine). It’s worth braving early January weather to go see.

I hope.

| Blogosphere, Humour, Montreal

Things to see at YULblog tonight

Tonight is yet another edition of YULblog, the monthly get-together and drink-together (and then poutine-together) of Montreal’s blogging community.

I hope to make it after work, though I’m in the middle of eight consecutive shifts right now (sweet, sweet overtime money, how I will enjoy spending you) and might be semi-conscious.

For those of you who haven’t been to a YULblog before, here’s an idea of some of the sights you might encounter at La Quincaillerie:

Continue reading →

| Blogosphere, Montreal, Navel-gazing, Video

I like to blog during the summer

Laurent has put up video from the August Yulblog where he went around asking people what their favourite summer activity was. (He’s been making the questions easier each month since people have had trouble answering — he threatened to make next month’s question “what’s your favourite colour” if people were still having trouble)

Of course, what you’re looking for is at 1:49: Me.

Me at Yulblog

I got at least one comment that I wasn’t recognizable from the nose up in that tiny photo at the top of my blog, so here you go. That’s what I look like.

Ladies, the line starts here.

| Blogosphere, Fun, Navel-gazing

I stand by my choice

Montreal bloggers have some odd choices for fantasy vacations. (Marge Simpson? Really?)

Gimme some of this and some of that. Or maybe merge them somehow?

Speaking of YULblog, it seems Happy hates me. Why? Everyone loves me, especially dogs. Now you might argue (as Christelle did) that Happy has never met me before, and that it was in a bar packed with people and loud noises late at night. But I think it’s because Happy is a stupid, mean dog. She doesn’t even read this blog!