dewline | Entries tagged with dreams

My tax paperwork is now in the mail, en route to Sudbury for processing. We'll see soon enough if my calculations are good enough. There's always something I've misunderstood, sometimes corrected to my benefit, sometimes not so much, every year. If I end up repaying something again - it's happened on occasion - I find it harder than many to complain about that, especially after these last two years of Pandemic-era supports.

I do want and will the social safety net to evolve to the better for us all, of course. UBI, at a reasonable monthly level, indexed to inflation...that would be good, I'm convinced.

Housing supports for all, housing for all, that would be good also.

Finally rolling pharma, eye care, dental care, mental health care into the overall medicare system, ditto.

We have to argue for it. Until we win.

More on other topics anon.

Current Mood: grateful

CBC Radio's Ideas has a go at answering this question tonight.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/environmentalists-what-are-we-fighting-for-an-environmentalist-argues-it-s-not-clear-1.4917208

Current Mood: hopeful

I watched the city's transit commission have their monthly meeting via YouTube this morning. It was busy, it was informative, and I've got some notes to work through in case there's something that might actually be helpful to someone to post my more detailed impressions.

My left shoulder is stiff and achey after last night's sleep. So's the elbow on that side.

I think I actually got seven hours' sleep last night, and I did have dreams. Not clear on the details of the dream this time, beyond "no domesticated crustaceans acting like puppies this time". I think that was a one-off incident. There are experts I can consult about that imagery tomorrow if I feel the need.

Job search continues.

More as I think of it.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: Spark on CBC Radio

Why am I still recalling the image of lobsters jumping up and down like excited-and-pleased-to-see-you puppies at the window next to one house's front door? And expecting to hear barking?

Current Mood: weird
Current Music: Quirks and Quarks from CBC Radio

I'm listening to this installment of Ideas on CBC Radio One as I type this:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/in-a-covid-divided-world-how-to-avoid-drift-into-a-new-normal-1.5823611

Some of you are already working on your ideas of building a better "normal" than we had before the Pandemic in Progress, I know...

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Ideas on CBC Radio

Been having them this past week.

One where my neighbourhood learns what it was like in Baghdad, Iraq the hardest way. Aerial bombardments, flames, that sort of thing.

Another where all my library collections are whisked forever out of my reach by someone I've trusted. (Not anyone in my friendlist, rest assured there.)

Feels like I'm on an edge of some sort.

Current Music: "I Will Remember You" - Sarah McLachlan

I dreamt that I was in some alternative version of Ottawa trying to navigate its version of the Transitway. And where Sandy Hill and the University of Ottawa are located in reality, this version had what seemed like an airport terminal next door to the station (which was reachable from Centretown across the Rideau Canal - or River? - by pedestrian bridge). And Hurdman and the U of O had blurred together somehow with a giant cinema multiplex.

Current Mood: Puzzled

...I wound up dreaming about Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Work has colonized my dream life. What there is of it.

Apparently, we have a 70th Anniversary for a Very Important Document coming up. A Document whose content and intent are still getting more disrespect than they ought to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights

Current Mood: hopeful

I live in a neighbourhood full of different kinds of people.

I like it that way. I don't want that aspect of my neighbourhood to end. Ever. Not even after I die.

I was just reading up on an interview with Little Mosque on the Prairie creator Zarqa Nawaz in today's Toronto Star.

And for some reason as yet unclear to me, I find myself wondering if she's ever been a Star Trek fan to any degree at all.

Because I'd like to see her try her hand at writing a novel set in those worlds.

Looking forward to reading her memoirs ASAP, because I've been reading good things about that particular book in several quarters...

Current Mood: curious

So Joe Fiorito wrote an opinion piece for the Toronto Star a few days ago. He was moved by the state of politics as he currently sees it, and I cannot fault him in his perceptions. It may be that the lack of participation by larger numbers of Canadians in our own nation's politics has a role in bringing about what he abhors. There are likely other factors involved as well.

Meanwhile, some closing thoughts of his on Canada's pending 2015 federal election struck a chord with me. Six things that he considers desirable in a political party, in candidates for public office, that I will quote for your consideration:

"I will vote for any party that supports stable and generous funding for the national public broadcaster.

I will vote for any party that will commit to developing public policy based on evidence rather than ideology.

I will vote for any party in support of fully funded, forward-thinking health care.

I will vote for any party with a plan for national public daycare, a national housing strategy, a national harm reduction strategy, a guaranteed annual income, enhanced safety in the workplace, and status of the artist legislation.

I will also vote for any party that puts green energy research ahead of oil-and-gas research.

And...I will vote for any party that restores door-to-door mail delivery."

One major caveat: I'm not sure about "Status of the artist" legislation despite my continuing ambitions to be a full-time writer and illustrator. It would be good to have a much better sense of what that will entail.

As to the rest of it, I hope that I can find such a party to support. I suspect that I have, but a certain degree of skepticism is useful at times.

Current Music: The Nature of Things on CBC TV

There's this group on Facebook that I signed up with. It's one of hundreds that have caught my eye to varying degrees since I was talked into joining Facebook. It's devoted to promoting and supporting the arts and culture of my home country.

Recently, this one fellow's been popping up this past week or two and making noises about how we've expanded our horizons as a nation too far for their liking. Anglophilic, Monarchist, doesn't think we know how good our ancestors - of the proper ethnic extractions, of course! - had it back in the 19th Century and that we threw away too much.

I don't agree with that.

So I wrote the following by way of reply:

I was born in the age of the Maple Leaf, the Pearson Pennant.

Multiculturalism, diversity...these are part of my birthright as a Canadian: the opportunity to learn from the histories, the languages, the traditions of the First Nations of this land, and those of the nations beyond the borders of this land as well.

The chance to try to take the best of all of those and learn to build something upon them for those who come after me. Even if they never learn my own name and story.

I am not a subject of any empire. I am a Canadian citizen. By birth and by choice.

And that is one of the reasons why I am here in this group.

So...did I go too far there?

Hoping I did the Latin quote correctly. If I didn't, I want to hear of it. No joking.

Anyway, I saw something at the bottom of the fold of the Toronto Star today that gave my spirits a serious boost. Some of you may have seen it via CBC News in Nova Scotia or perhaps The Globe and Mail online.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia's about to become a Spaceport.

The players include the provincial government of Nova Scotia, the guys behind the Canadian Arrow project(who've apparently decided to redirect some of their energies in the wake of being frustrated in the X Prize competition, and an Illinois outfit called PlanetSpace(who have yet to get their website up and running, it seems).

Possible consequences, if it all comes off as hoped and planned(and hopefully better than planned)?

Lots of infrastructure money pouring into Cape Breton in particular and Nova Scotia in general. Everything from road repairs and expansion to pipes for everything from data to sewage.

Money and people pouring into expanded or newly opened space-related science programs at the local universities: Acadia, Memorial U of Newfoundland, UNB, U of PEI, and others I'm likely misremembering at the moment.

An improved chance of Maritimers and Newfoundlanders -- especially the latter, I've noticed -- being able to focus their searches for work that suits them closer to home. If there's one thing that burns their butts, it's seeing their kids have to hightail it to Alberta to make a decent living and taking their grandkids with'em. This will be another step in fixing that particular headache as permanently as possible.

At the Canadian Space Agency? Hopefully, Crown-owned spacecraft available for use as needed for whatever research and exploration projects come to their minds in the years ahead. Both in concert with other nations, and independent of those same nations.

Again, all of this is -- for now at least -- pie in the sky dreaming.

But I want to see it happen.

Soon, please?

Current Mood: "Please let it come true!"
Current Music: "Starfleet March" AKA the Next Generation theme music