On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

I can't remember when Ontario Lotteries and Gaming ever allowed the Lotto Max jackpot to get *past* C$70 million.

As of this morning, they did that.

Long Twitter thread. Go read it, starting here:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1421215457206431744

Alternative, non-tracking venue for the same content:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/30/space-marines/#fairy-use-tale

I note that I own or co-own a few pieces of IP myself, including this weblog, and have created others under work-for-hire rules for other companies. There are still things that I - or any IP (co-)owner shouldn't expect to get away with.

I did a potentially foolish thing this afternoon.

I went to Perfect Books to pick up my copy of Rob Sawyer's Oppenheimer Alternative. Rob had a lot of fun and some eye-opening research moments in putting that book together, and I know he was looking forward to the promotional trail to support it once it hit the bookstores. Alas, Pandemic didn't and still doesn't give a damn about any of our plans. Including Rob's.

So, it's been months since the release, and I finally found financial room for this book a couple of weeks ago. But I put off picking it up until today. The delay was due mainly to the lockdowns' influence. Perfect Books is in the middle of Centretown, and I live out in Orléans. Which meant an Expedition. Bus and O-Train ride, both ways. In "normal" times, I wouldn't give this a second thought.

Anyway, I took that risk today. Perfect Books, then checking in on Randy Pippus and his games shop, Fandom II on Laurier West near the OPL Main Branch. Stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to unburden my sense of guilt, as I sometimes do during the winter months when there's no honor guard on duty to overhear me. Then walking up to Chapters Rideau to window-shop, and over to Globe Mags and Cigars for today's newspapers, and dropping in on some friends running another shop in the Market before catching the O-Train and bus back home.

I got some decent walking exercise today. I probably risked more than ten lives of people whose names are definitely known to me in the process. A lot more whose names I don't know, surely.

These trips haven't backfired yet that I know of...and I'm paranoically certain that one of them will.

Since Saskatchewan's not in the game today, I care just enough to hope that Hamilton cleans Winnipeg's scoreboard clock for revenge's sake.

May everyone playing manage to avoid CTE injuries. I know how unlikely that is, and feel growing guilt over that fact, but I guess I'm still not done with the CFL just yet.

1. A doctors' office for nerds, cat people (of all orientations and gender identities), and other assorted persons of (many) interest(s):

https://www.boredpanda.com/video-game-family-practice-clinic-therapy-cats/

2. A discussion of religion and Canadian politics on CBC Radio's Sunday Edition:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/religion-and-canadian-elections-1.5317748

3. What if education was declared a right for Canadians? (Admittedly, I don't phrase the question as Vice Canada does.)

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ne89bz/canceling-student-debt-could-help-pay-your-rent-what-if-the-next-pm-did-it

Apparently, there's this company in the west end - the southern end of Kanata, by the looks of it - that's looking for animators, user interface designers, and so on, called Kindly Beast. The people who used to run Karman Interactive joined up with them, and they've got two or three projects they're looking to move to front burners on their business "stove". Details here if you're interested.

...and then I go back to work tomorrow morning.

Meantime, I'm puzzling over a question of star system placement for Trekkish purposes. Specifically, Hobus.

Noticed in the process of mulling it over, this Memory Beta page. Players of that game are expected to believe that planets orbiting any given star could remain mostly intact (habitability issues notwithstanding) after their host star went supernova?

Courtesy of Jed Whitten's StarMap site, the general neighbourhood of Hobus, reaching 600 lightyears above and below Arbitrary Galactic Equatorial:

http://whitten.org/index.php?x_c=30&y_c=-30&z_c=0&xy_zoom=15&z_zoom=600&m_limit=&select_star=2411&image_type=normal&image_size=2000&max_line=0&trek_names=1

I expect the GAIA DR2 data might make this both easier and harder.

Apparently, there's this arcade on the river near Petrie Island out here in east Ottawa. Photos and audio by All in a Day host Alan Neal.

If you happen to be in Orléans over the weekend and have an interest in old-style video games, you might want to hurry over there.

I was hoping to gather with friends at a local pub for the game tonight.

The response to the Facebook event I posted, however, has been underwhelmingly clear. So...staying home tonight.

Apologies to anyone who was planning to show up...but one maybe and nine no-votes on Facebook made it clear that the event was going to fizzle.

...but wishing all my US friends well nonetheless. I'll be indulging in a similar ritual this afternoon by meeting up with a very local, very unofficial Saskatchewan Roughriders fan club branch down in the Glebe for the Western Division Final of the CFL playoffs. The Riders are one of two or three things I've regretting leaving behind when I moved to Ottawa with the rest of my family, so keeping an eye on what they're up to during the Canadian football season still matters to me.

Hoping to see the Calgary Stampeders properly rounded up at today's game!