On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

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

I'll get to the point: I am not sure if you're aware that Chanel Pfahl has earned the attention of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network by her conduct before declaring her candidacy for the Zone 8 seat on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

I emphasize my choice of verb here: "earned". I say that based on their profile of her activities and conduct:

https://www.antihate.ca/anti_transgender_candidates_enter_school_board_elections_ottawa

She is a person dedicated - so far as I can see - to restoring the protection of law to specific forms of bigotry, against transgender people for openers. We dare not expect her to stop there given the information provided by antihate.ca in the link included above - for example, we see references to "critical race theory", a pet target of Trumpists in the United States - and that's horrific enough. With that in mind, I'm alarmed to see her self-advertisement on page 2 of this half-month's edition of The Orléans Star. Such promotion of hatred is clear evidence that she is unfit to serve on any school board.

I will vote against all organized bigotry, including organized transphobia. I therefore look forward to information on Pfahl's competitors for the Zone 8 seat with great interest.

Looks like we're going to restart our writing workshop sessions in person again at the Rideau Branch of the Ottawa Public Library on Tuesday nights come September. I'll try to remember to upload the advertising design-work I've just had approved closer to the start date.

Meantime, I've got offline chores to do over noon hour, so I'll "see" you this afternoon, okay?

Got through another day.

I'm getting (offline) writing done, so there's that.

Interesting to note this, in the context of watching #Typewknd lectures and workshops...

#typography #languages #fonts #fontdesign #research

https://twitter.com/unicode/status/1437883058581954562

https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/UnicodeStandard-14.0.pdf

(What tags to get rid of in favour of adding one for "Unicode"?)

(There's an eight-dot version of Braille now?)

So I'm on the mailing list for this stuff. It's publicly available to anyone interested, and you can sign up at the City Hall website, ottawa.ca. I missed the Finance-EcDev committee meeting this morning, but want to remind myself re: tomorrow and Thursday of this stuff...

All Council, Committee and Board meetings will be held by remote, electronic participation, unless otherwise noted. For a complete agenda and updates, please sign up for email alerts, visit ottawa.ca/agendas or call 3-1-1.

The City of Ottawa continues to take COVID-19 seriously, and in following the advice of provincial and federal governments is making significant changes to services and programming to help protect the health and wellbeing of the community. City Hall is temporarily closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19. In-person meetings have been cancelled. Such meetings, as warranted, will be held electronically until further notice. For more information about service disruptions, please visit our COVID-19 webpage.

Finance and Economic Development Committee – Tuesday, May 4 at 9:30 am

Presentation - The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic Campus development - a transformational healthcare city building project - project update
Conservation Authorities – 2021 levies

Transportation Committee – Wednesday, May 5 at 9:30 am

St. Laurent Boulevard transit priority corridor (Hemlock Road to Innes Road) environmental assessment study - statement of work
Intelligent transportation systems and connected and automated vehicle update 2021
All way stop control at the intersection of Queen Mary Street and Vera Street
Speed reductions gateway zones in Lowertown, Sandy Hill and Vanier
All way stop control at the intersection at Sweetland Street and Osgoode Street

Agriculture and Rural Affairs – Thursday, May 6 at 10 am

Zoning By-law amendment - 5564 William McEwen Drive
Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program 2016-2020 review and renewal
Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendment - 2621 Donnelly Drive
Amendment to the engineer’s report for the Faulkner municipal drain
Open mic session - Osgoode Youth Association - rural Ottawa youth mental health collective survey results

For more information on City programs and services, visit ottawa.ca or call 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401). You can also connect with us through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

...and we've had snow squall warnings all day today here in Ottawa-Gatineau. Despite mainly sunny skies and daytime temperatures just barely on the melting side of 0ºC.

Job search keeps on keeping on, and I got in some practice time with Affinity Designer over the weekend in order to make a birthday card for my brother. He liked it. And it's good job-related self-training to do this.

I've got weekly writing workshop tomorrow afternoon, and while it won't win me awards in poetry - or any other writing worth publishing - or immediately land me an editorial job anywhere, it's still good practice and good mental hygiene.

So, right now? I'm listening to As It Happens on the radio as I get this entry composed and published...

Writing workshop in progress this afternoon, for practice and for mental health.

Tonight, I get to watch a lecture on architecture organized via Zoom by Carleton University's Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. Been wanting to attend those, but timing pre-Pandemic never seemed to work out. Especially with the distance between Carleton U and Orléans. Zoom lectures are a boon right now!

Apparently, there's a get-together for "crits" being organized if you're working on a font expecting to work with the language.

https://www.alphacrit.alphabettes.org/

If you know someone who's interested, feel free to pass it along.

I'm getting help. It's sporadic, scattershot, but I'm getting help.

The new glasses are good. Unemployment insurance is helpful. I'm still looking for steady work and people are trying to help me with that too.

That writing workshop with Sandy Hill Community Health Centre and the Toronto Writers' Collective is helping keep my writing skills in practice AND maintaining whatever mental health I still have.

Also, I have a volunteer project, helping the Canadian Conrunners mailing list members organize a Discord server for real-time conversations at need now. I think I mentioned this a few days ago?

Disorientation re: time passage in action just now, right?

More on several topics,