Ben Dugas... a blog.

Bookcamp Toronto 2011: a rundown(!)

2011-08-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending and participating in Bookcamp Toronto (#BCTO111) this weekend. Good times were had. Here's how it went down. 12:15 to 1:00 I popped into the Self Publishing session with @AshleighGardner and @ami_with_an_i who I think I recognized from work. Wine was handed out. I thought it was a bit too early but, at the same time, not too early. I probably would have learned a

Unicorns, Basketball, Comedic Serial Killers and Running

2011-05-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I've started a basketball team with some dudes at work. After much debate we decided to call ourselves the Kobo Unicorns. Actually I made that decision. There were a few promising candidates but as team captain I had to make a decision. My thinking was that 1) unicorns are very popular with the kids and the internet right now 2) generic team names are lame and 3) it would be cool if combined a

On Birthing, Slapshots, Jeff Bridges and The Edge(s)

2011-01-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

So here's what I've been reading... I just polished off The Birth House. I normally try to avoid books about birthing or rural Canadian life in the early twentieth century so I certainly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one... and I didn’t but it was a much better read than I was expecting. I found the midwifing what-have-you interesting but it sort of lost me with Doctor Thomas. Now I’m sure

This Week in Ben: Canada Reads, Elf, DNTO, RadioLab, CBC Rewind and the BS Report

2011-01-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

Things I've been reading... I decided to read all of the Canada Reads nominees this year. Generally I get into things because they’re connected to other things I’m into. I’ll start watching a show I like and then a performer I like is on a podcast so I start listening to that podcast which gets me into another podcast and the next thing I know I’m reading a 700 page book on basketball, a sport I

My Cito Gaston/Candy Cane Story

2010-10-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

I don't follow baseball particularly closely but I heard that Cito Gaston managed his last game a few weeks ago. To commemorate the occasion I thought I'd share my Cito story. I'm not entirely sure of the year but I'd guess that it was 1994. I was at Christmas Eve mass at St. James in Colgan, Ontario. Colgan was and is an extremely small town consisting of a church, a school (which was my

This Dream I had about a Chipmunk...

2010-09-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

So I had this dream the other night. I was walking through this park and it was sunny out and there were all kinds of animals running around. I came upon a dead chipmunk. It wasn't really registering as a dead animal for me. In the world of this dream it was a matter of fact that chipmunks were full of peanuts so if you found one that wasn't alive it was more like a pack of peanuts than a

Whole Lotta Tim: An Interview with Tim Bruton of The D'Urbervilles, The Magic, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns and some other bands I can't remember...

2010-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

A handful of months ago (four to be exact), I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Bruton at the Kazoo Zine fest in Guelph. Being the professional interviewer that I am I forgot to bring a camera or recording device of any kind. Fortunately a nice lady named Sarah Mangle, of These Things that People Make, was kind enough to record the audio. A few months later I ran into Tim at a Jays game and

Diary of a Habs Fan: Round 3 - Montreal vs Philadelphia

2010-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00