I can’t resist the call of the garden…
There’s a spring rivality between the two activities. So the next novel will wait a little!
So this was my first ever marathon, completed in a whopping 5h45min! (See my finish video and some pictures here, the exact personal time is 5h42:52)
I haven’t decided yet if I want run another full one. As you can see I got stiff knees for a few days post-race. But I was fairly better at the Sudbury French bookfair!
However, half-marathons are perfect for me: I completed the first part of the race in a fairly good 2h20!
The training (with a half-marathon group as there was no full training instructor available last January) took long hours from my writing and comics creation. I’d love to run a full 42,2 k under a more favorable weather!
My next race is this Sunday, a 15-km at the Bread and Honey Festival, of Streetsville.
To be continued…
A marathon is like two half-marathons, one after the other, right?
Well, my legs did not agree with this optimist assessment!
Are you nervous signing with a heavy block hanging over your table? I am!
But the worst situation was witnessed here, at the 2008 Paris bookfair. (Yes, it’s me under the triangular sign!)
And to think the British brought their cannons up in pieces!
I ran up the Wolfe Trail, 1,5 km of slope, to train for my upcoming marathon, along with my cousin who is an experienced marathoner. It concluded a 16-km run…
We ran from Anse au Foulon, and went through lots of little signs that explain in detail the operation of passing by this trail to attack Quebec defended by Montcalm. Obviously the trail was not paved …
Nevertheless, I thought about the soldiers wearing those heavy loads and equipment, and about the defenders of Quebec who risked (and lost) their lives.
It’s always easy to say in retrospect, long after the lost battle: “Montcalm should have done this or that, he should wait for reinforcements to Bougainville and Levis instead of an exit …”
But without cell phone, while the besieged Quebec residents lacked everything (Wolfe had burned the fields and razed villages up to 100 km downstream of the city), the Marquis de Montcalm could not actually * know * if his allies and volunteers had not themselves been decimated, or whether the British allies Iroquois warriors would not come later join them to form an unassailable mass.
So he ordered a sortie against an enemy superior in number.
(The two leaders were killed in this battle, which was rather short as columnists reported it: about 15 minutes, for the French engagement.)
*
I am really feeling the exhaustion of the training for the upcoming marathon, hence this shortened comic!
It seems that my marathon training is getting in the way of drawing!
The event is in three weeks…
Reactions to the Brussels attacks on social media have devolved into an ugly blame game that solves nothing. And a fierce joy explodes when some assumptions reinforces our established prejudices!
Unfortunately, Facebook is an easy outlet. Compared to what one can express safely in the lounge with friends, the audience is the entire planet.
During my meeting in Oregon with pros writers, an important directive (given along with the earthquake and tsunami warnings) was “Do not talk about politics!” Many of my professional colleagues chose not to intervene on heated Internet debates (and in the USA, they are in elections!) as they have lost too many friends .
I could talk in length about the origins of the scourge, and the mental conditioning that is now called “radicalization”. Mental cages grow everywhere, sects or radicals recruit even the young educated or the rich (Patty Hearst, anyone?)
It only takes a small seed of frustration, fueled by the fertilizer of prejudice. Over time, the mental cage produces its evil flowers, sweet fruits of hatred providing a “hit” of pleasure, inflating the ego with the steroids of a “good” cause.
I could also talk about polluters of sources, spreading seeds of anger in the medias. Those professionnals emits a thinly veiled call to the lynching of a religious community or ethnic group, deemed guilty by association because some of the assassins may have been recruited among them.
I could talk about heavy weapons manufacturers who make fruitful business with the States that need to protect themselves, and covert business with shady groups.
I heard the worst insults this week; several of my Facebook friends have left their reserve to the locker room. Those issues that tear us down concern all authors.
We, the creators of comics, magicians of words, regardless of the size of our audience, have a responsibility not to inflame the debate with simplistic hate calls.
To write is to weave a dream, to offer a glimpse into a future different from a brand of capitalism focused on fear. As a science fiction writer, I want to feed the imagination to build, through education and respect, a more convivial world.
Posted in Art, Event, Science-fiction, Society
Tagged art, blame game, Comics, Facebook, Mental cage, radicalization, Science-fiction, terrorism, Writing
This apple tree was there long before the neighbourhood was built, a remnant of the farmstead that once occupied this strip of land.
It was a small wonder to have trees like this, belonging to no one, and giving away its fruits. It was a small, gnarled tree that had been ill for some years, and his fruits spotted, acid, imperfect. I knew the city would remove it eventually, but never forgot to offer my thanks.
The poem did rhyme in its French form, but I endeavoured to keep the rythm alive.
Posted in Art, BD, Comics, Event, Society
Tagged Apple, apple trees, art, Comics, Gratitude, Mississauga, poem, street apples, urban trees
Echoes of a Sunday artist 