I saw the Grey Cup Game with about a hundred other Saskatchewan fans in exile per the Facebook invite of the alumni association of my Dad's alma mater at the Prescott last night. I think Stuart Immonen speaks for me very effectively indeed over the "Charlie Brown moment" of the last five seconds of the game.

The Ottawa Small Press Book Fair was lively and busy. I hope to post photos to Flickr later in the week.

Good to see duncanmac at the OSFS AGM before I went to the Grey Cup party mentioned above!

Back to you!

Ontario's offering green license plates for anyone living here with a green car. The design looks not too bad. I assume they're sticking with Driver Gothic for the registry alpha-numerics on the actual plates?

John Scalzi pointed out a few things about a certain inevitability that maybe we should finally admit to having achieved as fans and pros and move on to something else from there. What do you think?

I'll be at the Ottawa SF Society meeting as one of the speakers instead of part of the audience.

Theme is "science fiction and the arts". I'll revise this post with the rest of the speaker list ASAP.

Same time and place as per usual: 2 PM, Dalhousie Community Centre on Somerset and Empress.


Further details here at Facebook for anyone who's got or getting an account!

One of the things that our current transit strike hasn't kept me from was the Ottawa SF Society Christmas party.

Herein are Joel Polowin, Lyn Saunders and one other noble soul at the Scrabble table.

Talk about an attention-getter of a title, huh?

Anyway. Went to the OSFS meeting, had fun as we discussed the science of finding extrasolar planets. I was mildly surprised by the relative lack of attendance, but it's the first meeting of the fall and the room was smaller than we've gotten used to. Our old space at the Dalhousie Community Centre has been modified with hardwood floors for dance classes to be held. Not good for moving folding tables and stackable chairs.

Feels like the home stretch on the short story SF project, but I'm still trying to nail down a few details here and there. Some of it's trying to listen to the characters, one or two things are research issues.

My camera. My good and loyal Canon A70, after six years...is starting to get cranky about battery pack issues. I know I charged up and loaded a fresh batch not 48 hours ago, and it keeps the auto-shutdown dance. Most recently, just minutes ago in mid-upload to my iBook. Not convenient, and I may have lost all the pictures of the last 2 days in the process. I may just decide to buy one of those discontinued but still being sold models at Henry's tomorrow.

If the day job leads that sprung up on Wednesday and Thursday don't deliver tomorrow, that is.

Whirlwind of sorts.

Finished putting my latest APAzine for Legends together. It's being printed as I type this, although there's some weird and interesting font glitches occurring in the hardcopy. Random characters that should be bold printing as italic, unexpected font substitutions, and whatnot. Not quite sure why this is happening, but at least the actual text is still there, as are the photos and the map. Must've happened when I saved from Pages to PDF.

Rain's coming down here at the moment. Not too heavy, but just enough to make you go for the umbrella. Gentle film noir rain, if there's such a thing.

OSFS meeting tomorrow at the Dalhousie Community Centre on Somerset West and Empress. Details at ottawa_sf for anyone interested, and the topic is extrasolar planets. Given the current count is a little over 300 such objects...ought to be fun for anyone who shows up!

Short story's past 5,500 and closing fast on 6,000. Here's hoping it's coherent when it's done...

Back to you.

Anyone here know of listings of Canadian-based Trek fan groups?

Something I sent off to CBC Audience Relations tonight in my role as an activist-fan:

I want a third season of _Intelligence_ to be part of CBC's 2008-'09 viewing schedule. Despite what the ratings appear to suggest, it is one of the best drama offerings in the CBC English-language television slate these past two years. This series would make a strong counterpoint to _The Border_ and the opportunities for cross-promotion are considerable.

NB: I'll be posting this message on my Livejournal weblog to make my feelings known to the public at large around the world; Like many other viewers, I know full well the success _Intelligence_ has had to date in international syndication. It would be good to see _Intelligence_'s international fandom also be well-served by CBC.

Always a good combination in the tail end of January in my neighbourhood. Just enough snow and just cold enough for winter to really be here, and just enough daylight for a human to keep feeling human in most cases. If that blasted Expedia TV ad were really on the money on Canadians' reactions to the weather at this time of year, then the US could claim our real estate under eminent domain law alone, as most of us would've suicided from clinical depression with Seasonal Affectedness Disorder on the side for real and for keeps by now.

No. We're mostly okay here, or getting there again shortly.

Some other news:

I'm 2/3-done on the pencils for # 2 of Local Hero as of yesterday. Looking forward to seeing how the inkwork looks, and I'll share excerpts of the results of that whenever I can in the months ahead. Sales are slow and steady so far on the first issue, which is good news as well.

For light reading recently, I've finished re-reading kradical's Star Trek: Articles of the Federation. I'll say it again: it's a damn good book, and if you like either Trek in its varied forms, The West Wing, or both, you should give it a look yourself if you haven't already. Test-drive your local library's copy first if need be, but do it soon.

My next light reading project? The Last Spike by Pierre Berton. I'm only a dozen pages in, and already I'm kicking myself for not looking into this one sooner. I can only plead the stupidity of youth on this tome on the last years of the process of building the original main line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, Canada's first truly transcontinental line.

I'll be attending the OSFS Annual General Meeting this afternoon. We have a financial statement, previous AGMs' minutes, and a new board to approve, elect, acclaim, or whatever it is we need to do as a chartered non-profit under Ontario law. And entertainment to watch afterwards, too. Should be lively, whatever happens.

More to come...and over to you now.

A couple of things I've got in mind for spending at least part of my weekend, one of which is definite, the other perhaps not so much yet.

First the maybe: Software Freedom Day's rolling around again tomorrow, and I thought I'd go take in the event and see what might be seen. I use some open source freeware in the course of my work and looking for work and personal amusement as well on an almost daily basis and this event at Carleton University's Tory Building looks to be a chance to perhaps some of the people who contribute to that software.

Now the definite: the Ottawa "chapter" of the Stolen Briefcase fan club is meeting again at the Patty Boland Pub on Sunday at 5:30 PM. This is for local fans of Da Vinci's Inquest, Da Vinci's City Hall and Intelligence, so it doesn't matter if you belong to the Yahoo!Group where the idea for these gatherings started or not. If you're a fan of any of these shows, you're welcome to show up.

More later today, hopefully...

...or maybe not. I just spotted something on Usenet's alt.tv.due-south newsgroup that led me to this web page, proposing a revival of the RCW 139 conventions. Just thought some of you might be interested.

Yes, there is such a thing. As far as I can tell, it's still somewhat disorganized at the moment, but it's there.

One of the pieces of evidence for it is something on Yahoo!Groups called "The Stolen Briefcase", a gathering of fans of shows produced by Chris Haddock and his gang of TV show-makers. It's one of those places I go when I decide to hang my fandom-membership hat.

Tomorrow night, at about 5:30 PM(give or take a bit), there's going to be a very informal get-together of some of us. I hope to be there and have some fun as a fan.

A few things of minor interest:

• Mildly boggled by the idea of a quarter to honour the next Fantastic Four movie. What the devil's going on with that‽
• Found out about a revival campaign site for Due South. Somehow this pleases me, although I have to wonder at the odds of success.
• More on other stuff later.

Those of you reading this in Canada might be interested in a resource I recently stumbled across, thanks to the Ottawa SF Society Links Page. It's called Fandom.ca.. Go seize control of the place. :-)