Post-Remembrance

Still looking for a day-job in office/clerical work, graphic design/DTP, writing, what have you. I've got skills and experience to varying degrees relevant to all those fields, so flexibility in work environment shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?

Other stuff in progress:

Comics and Animation Canada, the Google Group linked to publicbroadcasting.ca that I've been doing occasional volunteer duty with, has just added its 20th participant. I cannot say this enough: if you've got an interest in comic books done in Canada or by Canadians, this is a place for you. If you have a question, a book to promote, what have you...sign up and start talking. Please.

Computer skills? I'm about to add Mac 10.5 to my resume under that heading. I've been a Mac user since 10.3.not sure which version, and this week I became a Leopard Version user.

Working on getting ready for the fall edition of the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair this Saturday, as previously discussed. If you're in Ottawa that day, I'll be but one of the people glad to see you!

Bracing for the freezing rain coming today...

Extrasolar Planets: A "Hot DAMN!" Moment!

Got this from james_nicoll:

They got pictures in infrared via telescopes in Hawai'i of three planets orbiting HR 8799!

Actual pictures!

(And yes, there's a Canadian connection. Go. Read. Party!)

DCU America and Rail Transport Corridors

You should've known I'd find a way to tie the two subjects together yet again.

*evil laughter follows for a few seconds...*

Okay, now that the perfunctory mad-science cackling's done...you know of my interest in and support for VIA Rail and its US counterpart Amtrak. I like to keep up with news about both services and the issues affecting them.

To tie in the DC Universe fictional geography...well, I've been wondering on occasion how - and in some cases, if - given DCU-specific cities and towns would be served by the latter(or its fictionalized equivalent, likely renamed to avoid lawsuits over intellectual property usage, whether ill or well-intended).

So I find this map on Wikipedia marking up the high-speed rail corridors as defined by the US Department of Transportation back in 2001. Go ahead and look. I'd recommend opening up a tab on your browser window to make referring back a little quicker for you.

I think we can safely assume that no matter which states you believe Metropolis and Gotham to be located in for the writers' and editors' purposes, they're both in the Northeast Corridor. That won't be an issue of argument for this posting.

There's at least one other question I do want to ask, comics nerd and railfan that I am right now: Keystone and Central Cities, the home towns of the Flashes. Should they be considered the far end of the Chicago Hub Network, given their proximity to Kansas City?

Or.

Or should they be at the hub of a network of their own? If the latter, which cities, real and DCU-specific alike, ought to be at the far end of the spokes?

I've some thoughts of my own, and will likely share them in time. For now, however, I'd like your opinions.

(Two extra links of some interest:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/passengerrail/onepagers/midwest.html#mwmap - the Minnesota DoT map of the Midwestern Rail Corridor Network.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009028.html - Worldchanging.com's coverage of the high-speed network being pushed in California right now.)