On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Leases not mentioned. That may not mean much at this point, though.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/hudsons-bay-to-sell-brands-to-canadian-tire-for-30-million/

Austerity is part of how fascism works to defeat us all.

I am going to do the right things as best I can whenever I can, in terms of ecological sustainability. I will fail at this from time to time, being human. I will still do the work to whatever degree I can.

I went to Perfect Books this morning, having pre-paid, to pick up Stumptown V.4 and ST:DSC Wonderlands. Both books were pretty much as I expected them to be, hence worth the money and time to get them.

The trip was mildly eventful because of the weather. The trip from home to downtown requires switching from bus to train at Blair Station these days, and the rain that was being given 40% odds of happening by Environment Canada fully happened during the train ride. The "wave" passed over my route when I was between Cyrville and Tremblay Stations and left me behind when I got to UOttawa Station and - at that point - off the train.

Finally got the transit pass updated for this month - thanks again for the current unemployment insurance rules, federal government, or that (and much of my current ability to keep looking for work) might not be possible! - after I got there.

Looking at the Rideau Canal as I crossed the Corkstown Footbridge connecting the University of Ottawa's Sandy Hill campus with the "Golden Triangle" section of Centretown, I saw...a lot of underwater plant life blooming. I think that's normal most years, but with canal boat traffic largely shut down because of the Pandemic (like so much else), the greenery comes right to the surface in much of the canal that I was able to see.

Perfect Books is in the midst of an upgrade of sorts. Their longtime next-door neighbour, Elgin Jewellers, has shut down in part due to Pandemic and partly because the owner was already thinking of retiring. That decision opened up an opportunity that the bookstore has taken advantage of: to double their then-current floor-space. They'd already been managing to weather the Pandemic "storm" - and the reconstruction of Elgin Street over the year prior to the Pandemic's beginnings - fairly well due to bulk-order business, a devoted long-time walk-in clientele willing to pivot with them, and other factors. So owner Jim Sherman's taking this chance. I'd really like this to work out for him and his staff.

Maybe it's because of the binge-reading of the Retail comic strip series' archives these past few days, but I'd like to see independent bookstores - and other retailers - be able to keep going, and maybe a little bit of careful growth, too.

And that leads me to my next reiteration: that we need a better "new normal" to move into from these Pandemic times. I worry that we're not going to get that better "new normal" because of far too many reasons right now.

Noting this for future reference: I'm watching a Zoom presentation on this topic at the moment as hosted by Impact Hub Ottawa. Presenters are Valerie Stan and Valérie Assoi from the City for All Women Initiative (CAWI).

Since the neo-Nazis of the world are bent on villifying him, I've noted that Mr. Soros has all the enemies needed to make me inclined to trust his opinions on various matters. So I'm making a note to look at this opinion more closely later.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/perpetual-bonds-coronavirus-response-interest-rates-b1787183.html

I've still got some degree of privilege, despite my financial situation this past year. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to look at those video tutorials. Or, for that matter, read and pass this along:

http://jlord.us/blog/osos-talk.html

Nor would I be able to look at this (and thanks to kiaa for passing it along via talkpolitics):

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/seven-secrets-revealed-by-2020-by-yanis-varoufakis-2020-12

Getting to the point: we still want to leave the Time of Pandemic to enter a newer, better "Normal" than we entered it from. Right?

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...

Something to be concerned about? In an activist way, perhaps?

https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/why-do-canadian-conservatives-hate-the-cerb-d2b791aeb467

Interesting.

https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/washington-oregon-and-california-announce-western-states-pact