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Transit: Activism Ill-Thought Out?
Sep. 10th, 2024 07:22 amI have just signed up to delegate to the Ottawa Transit Commission about the upcoming service changes. I have next to no script for this. I am almost certain to have to do this while I'm working on my day job, and it will be over Zoom.
I have somewhat less than two days to decide whether or not to settle for a written submission instead, and if so, what to write for it.
I have somewhat less than two days to decide whether or not to settle for a written submission instead, and if so, what to write for it.
Office Chair Decided
Jun. 9th, 2024 08:44 amI went with Serta Brinkley, if anyone's wondering. Feels comfortable enough for now.
Just got back in the house, finished supper, and this is on the radio:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/seduced-by-story-the-dangers-of-narrative-1.6770457
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/seduced-by-story-the-dangers-of-narrative-1.6770457
I have concerns(!) about the choice of phrasing in Treasury Board President Mona Fortier's arguments for a hybrid work model for those branches of the federal civil service that her branch of the federal cabinet has jurisdiction over.
Also, doubling down on "right of the employer" rhetoric is not helpful.
The civil service needs sufficiently safe workspaces to return to and, for those who do not or cannot drive, a sufficiently safe public transit system to use to get there. I'm not seeing that here. OC Transpo and STO must be allowed to return to "mask up!" rules for everyone who can medically manage it or this isn't going to do what the current government is hoping for. And the same requirement exists for public transit in any city that has such services and a federal civil service presence.
Without at least the mask rules back in place, we won't have safe federal workspaces. We'll have superspreader sites. Again.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/treasury-board-president-calls-return-to-office-plan-right-of-employer
(Yes, there's other arguments to be made for efficiencies, pollution/ecological considerations, savings on government expenditures, etc.. Other people are making those arguments.)
Also, doubling down on "right of the employer" rhetoric is not helpful.
The civil service needs sufficiently safe workspaces to return to and, for those who do not or cannot drive, a sufficiently safe public transit system to use to get there. I'm not seeing that here. OC Transpo and STO must be allowed to return to "mask up!" rules for everyone who can medically manage it or this isn't going to do what the current government is hoping for. And the same requirement exists for public transit in any city that has such services and a federal civil service presence.
Without at least the mask rules back in place, we won't have safe federal workspaces. We'll have superspreader sites. Again.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/treasury-board-president-calls-return-to-office-plan-right-of-employer
(Yes, there's other arguments to be made for efficiencies, pollution/ecological considerations, savings on government expenditures, etc.. Other people are making those arguments.)
Fascism: In Case It Needs Saying
Nov. 27th, 2022 05:02 pmFascists will be blocked here.
If any of you on my friendlist think that a particular person might be salvageable and that I might be able to help with that, message me. Otherwise...they're blocked.
Note to anyone needing to know: fascists includes TERFs.
If any of you on my friendlist think that a particular person might be salvageable and that I might be able to help with that, message me. Otherwise...they're blocked.
Note to anyone needing to know: fascists includes TERFs.
Advice on Employment
Jun. 9th, 2022 03:43 pmHere's mine:
Always expect to be dragged off-course from what you expected and trained to do for a living.
Inspired by a contest put together by the Algonquin College Alumni Association.
Always expect to be dragged off-course from what you expected and trained to do for a living.
Inspired by a contest put together by the Algonquin College Alumni Association.
Yard Sales and Books, Revisited
Jan. 16th, 2022 09:29 amSo there's this lady in Cornwall, Ontario who's looking to find new homes for a whole lot of books...and I'm thinking that I have something in common with her. I'm operating on a much smaller scale - for now, at least - in terms of my virtual yard sale via Facebook Marketplace.
That may have to change. I may need to start officially operating a second-hand bookstore.
One trouble is that I'm dealing with what I suspect is ADHD in my own skull, with trying to work out my housing future, and trying to get and hold onto steadier work. Also a tonne of other crap to deal with on an ongoing basis.
Another is that there's already two such stores within walking distance of my current home. One's operating in connection with the Ottawa Public Library. The other is one of the remnants of the Book Market chain that used to dominate the city. Both are swamped with product of their own, as Myriam Gaudet's Red Cart Books is in Cornwall. Add in the Chapters/Indigo first-hand bookstores at Place d'Orléans and on Innes Road and the situation is more complicated.
Third: I don't think I've got enough product to really get going.
Fourth: financial paperwork that might ensue? I don't even want to think about it because panic attacks.
Fifth: Pandemic.
So I'm likely to just add a relative handful of titles to my Facebook yard sale for now, and put off that bigger question to April. At the earliest.
That may have to change. I may need to start officially operating a second-hand bookstore.
One trouble is that I'm dealing with what I suspect is ADHD in my own skull, with trying to work out my housing future, and trying to get and hold onto steadier work. Also a tonne of other crap to deal with on an ongoing basis.
Another is that there's already two such stores within walking distance of my current home. One's operating in connection with the Ottawa Public Library. The other is one of the remnants of the Book Market chain that used to dominate the city. Both are swamped with product of their own, as Myriam Gaudet's Red Cart Books is in Cornwall. Add in the Chapters/Indigo first-hand bookstores at Place d'Orléans and on Innes Road and the situation is more complicated.
Third: I don't think I've got enough product to really get going.
Fourth: financial paperwork that might ensue? I don't even want to think about it because panic attacks.
Fifth: Pandemic.
So I'm likely to just add a relative handful of titles to my Facebook yard sale for now, and put off that bigger question to April. At the earliest.
2022: No Resolutions
Dec. 12th, 2021 10:42 amI'm not going to make any resolutions for 2022. It's going to be too easy to break any or all of them in a second.
I've decided that I am done with cruise ships as a thing we should be allowing as a species.
I'm never going to be able to afford a voyage on one anyways...and I have done myself too much harm in trying to become able to afford it.
I'm never going to be able to afford a voyage on one anyways...and I have done myself too much harm in trying to become able to afford it.
Continuing the job search this afternoon.
Also: revisiting the history of the Declaration of the Independence of the Mind via Ideas. If you're interested in the text of that original declaration from 1919, here's a link.
(I wonder if Leslie Charteris might have read that Declaration. Some of the stuff in those Saint stories of his gets me thinking now about the possibility. Certainly, if he had, he'd have put it aside for the needs of World War 2 and the battle against fascism as it presented itself to our world back then.)
On a related note: Ideas, the CBC Radio series, is devoting some time over this past broadcast season of 2020-'21 to the theme of The Common Good. Other instalments of that series of broadcasts may be accessed here.
More on other topics as today goes by...
Also: revisiting the history of the Declaration of the Independence of the Mind via Ideas. If you're interested in the text of that original declaration from 1919, here's a link.
(I wonder if Leslie Charteris might have read that Declaration. Some of the stuff in those Saint stories of his gets me thinking now about the possibility. Certainly, if he had, he'd have put it aside for the needs of World War 2 and the battle against fascism as it presented itself to our world back then.)
On a related note: Ideas, the CBC Radio series, is devoting some time over this past broadcast season of 2020-'21 to the theme of The Common Good. Other instalments of that series of broadcasts may be accessed here.
More on other topics as today goes by...
An Irrelevance About Zoom
Feb. 25th, 2021 11:10 pmI have decided to continue to live without green-screening my Zoom sessions.
It's a luxury item to me for the foreseeable future.
It's a luxury item to me for the foreseeable future.
Pastimes and Pandemic
Jul. 18th, 2020 08:07 pmOkay, I'm worried about - and for - our indy cinemas.
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/five-places-to-cool-off-this-weekend-in-ottawa-and-gatineau-1.5028628
I think the feds made the right choice re: the Blue Jays.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-to-reveal-blue-jays-decision-1.5654846
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/five-places-to-cool-off-this-weekend-in-ottawa-and-gatineau-1.5028628
I think the feds made the right choice re: the Blue Jays.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-to-reveal-blue-jays-decision-1.5654846
How about "Go Places" by the New Pornographers?
Can I find a video with the original performers? I believe so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBo2qEzyHzE
Once you pay attention to the lyrics, can you see why the tune might be a good fit as part of this incarnation?
Can I find a video with the original performers? I believe so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBo2qEzyHzE
Once you pay attention to the lyrics, can you see why the tune might be a good fit as part of this incarnation?
I still remember where I was on that horrible day: I was in my parents' living room, listening to the radio when the news broke about the first plane. So, I turned on the TV. The rest of the day was bouncing between watching the news as it kept breaking, and checking in with my online friends via the Internet. We - the human race - are still coping with consequences and complications from that day, even as we're coping with choices made decades and centuries earlier that led to that day.
Today, the writ is expected to drop, officially launching a Canadian federal election that's already been underway unofficially since the previous one in 2015. If any of several wrong sides wins this one, a lot of work in repairing damage done over the decade prior to 2015 is going to start being thrown out with worse to follow. That much, I'm absolutely certain of and terrified about. So, no Conservatives or "People's Party" or "Nationalists" or "National Citizens' Alliance" for me.
There are people here in Canada, and across the world depending upon us making informed decisions and making them rightly. We are not a Great Power, but what we do as a country still has consequences outside our settler-nation's borders. The same applies for our Indigenous relations, who've not given up their claims to their own nationhood. Their peoples have the right to share in our decisions and their consequences now.
And I cannot help but think there is a linkage between the events of this date in 2001 and of today.
Noting also...another horrific "9/11" event that happened before I ever knew of it, in Chile.
https://www.sbs.com.au/theother911/
Today, the writ is expected to drop, officially launching a Canadian federal election that's already been underway unofficially since the previous one in 2015. If any of several wrong sides wins this one, a lot of work in repairing damage done over the decade prior to 2015 is going to start being thrown out with worse to follow. That much, I'm absolutely certain of and terrified about. So, no Conservatives or "People's Party" or "Nationalists" or "National Citizens' Alliance" for me.
There are people here in Canada, and across the world depending upon us making informed decisions and making them rightly. We are not a Great Power, but what we do as a country still has consequences outside our settler-nation's borders. The same applies for our Indigenous relations, who've not given up their claims to their own nationhood. Their peoples have the right to share in our decisions and their consequences now.
And I cannot help but think there is a linkage between the events of this date in 2001 and of today.
Noting also...another horrific "9/11" event that happened before I ever knew of it, in Chile.
https://www.sbs.com.au/theother911/
CINEMA: Decisions, decisions...
Feb. 20th, 2018 10:03 pmI'll be trying to see Black Panther either Friday night or Saturday night this weekend. I need to nail down which cinema. Landmark on Innes, what used to be the Silver City Gloucester...?
Good-bye, Globe and Mail
May. 26th, 2012 06:12 pmToday, I cancelled my subscription to that venerable newspaper.
To be honest, it's as much me as them. Neither of us are what we were when I started my subscription years ago. I can't even remember when I started, but it seems like at least a decade.
Time was, they had columnists like Naomi Klein and Spider Robinson back then. And they weren't owned by the phone company back then, either. So a certain amount of freedom from promoting corporate thought as gospel was there to be had. Hence Klein and Robinson.
No more.
Finances aside, the last straw was their Op-Ed stance on the new changes to the Unemployment Insurance rules planned via C-38. They're not as strident as columnists like Quebecor/Sun Media's Brian Lilley or the Citizen's Michael Taube. But they're marching in the same general direction. Problematic, that is.
So. We're done for the time being. I'm not ruling out resurrecting my subscription anymore than I am the idea of resuming full regular business with DC Comics. If I draw that line in the sand, and they cross it in any of several ways to my liking, that could be a different sort of problem.
We'll see. Finances permitting.
To be honest, it's as much me as them. Neither of us are what we were when I started my subscription years ago. I can't even remember when I started, but it seems like at least a decade.
Time was, they had columnists like Naomi Klein and Spider Robinson back then. And they weren't owned by the phone company back then, either. So a certain amount of freedom from promoting corporate thought as gospel was there to be had. Hence Klein and Robinson.
No more.
Finances aside, the last straw was their Op-Ed stance on the new changes to the Unemployment Insurance rules planned via C-38. They're not as strident as columnists like Quebecor/Sun Media's Brian Lilley or the Citizen's Michael Taube. But they're marching in the same general direction. Problematic, that is.
So. We're done for the time being. I'm not ruling out resurrecting my subscription anymore than I am the idea of resuming full regular business with DC Comics. If I draw that line in the sand, and they cross it in any of several ways to my liking, that could be a different sort of problem.
We'll see. Finances permitting.
A note on political donations
Dec. 22nd, 2011 08:59 amThis is an open letter to all the political parties of Canada.
If I make a donation to any of your organizations, that should not - under any circumstances - be taken as a statement of intent to become a member of your party. It is strictly a donation, nothing more.
If I decide to officially join any particular party, I will explicitly so inform them and pay the appropriate fees at that point.
If I ever find a receipt, either hardcopy or e-mailed, arriving in my hands presuming my intent to be other than that stated in the above paragraphs, I will consider that a hostile act against my freedom of political activity as a citizen of Canada. The political party or parties responsible will find themselves no longer receiving donations from me, regardless of their worth as an organization.
And that would indeed be a shame.
If I make a donation to any of your organizations, that should not - under any circumstances - be taken as a statement of intent to become a member of your party. It is strictly a donation, nothing more.
If I decide to officially join any particular party, I will explicitly so inform them and pay the appropriate fees at that point.
If I ever find a receipt, either hardcopy or e-mailed, arriving in my hands presuming my intent to be other than that stated in the above paragraphs, I will consider that a hostile act against my freedom of political activity as a citizen of Canada. The political party or parties responsible will find themselves no longer receiving donations from me, regardless of their worth as an organization.
And that would indeed be a shame.
Jumping off the DCU
Aug. 29th, 2011 08:29 pmAccording to the news just received from my local comics shop, Flashpoint # 5 - the last issue of the DC Universe version 3 as I understand it - will be arriving in stores this week.
With the exception of catching up on titles I've fallen behind on up to this point and reprint collections(those most likely republishing material from the 1985-2011 timeframe in particular), that will be the last DC Universe book I buy for the foreseeable future.
I won't rule out ever coming back as a regular weekly customer, but given the misgivings already discussed, DC's reported intent of sticking with their current plans for the next half-decade, and the caveats just mentioned, that's it for me for now.
To the freelancers working on DCU v.4 titles who happen to read this: I'm sorry.
With the exception of catching up on titles I've fallen behind on up to this point and reprint collections(those most likely republishing material from the 1985-2011 timeframe in particular), that will be the last DC Universe book I buy for the foreseeable future.
I won't rule out ever coming back as a regular weekly customer, but given the misgivings already discussed, DC's reported intent of sticking with their current plans for the next half-decade, and the caveats just mentioned, that's it for me for now.
To the freelancers working on DCU v.4 titles who happen to read this: I'm sorry.
