I do not normally truck with the content of the National Post, but in this instance, I might well make an exception for the sake of our dignity as humans and my own petty career ambitions as both writer and illustrator.

Read on and react as you will.

Blame/praise fajrdrako for this: she succumbed to the LJ Writers Block meme, after all.

So...if I were inclined to finally go get my driver's license, what kind of car would I prefer to drive above all others?

Probably a Smart ForTwo or a Prius if I could possibly afford such a beast. Unless something closer to ecologically sound with similar or better performance levels were to hit the market by the time I was able to decide upon the subject.

Shoe leather and buses and the occasional train still manage to meet most of my travel support needs, though.

...and start a new one with what I hope will be a helpful idea:

http://spacingottawa.ca/2009/12/31/orleans-town-centre-cinema-a-possible-future/

Okay, you've got spacingottawa.ca bookmarked or RSS-subscribed now?

Good. Moving on...

Yesterday, more day-job hunting, basement-cleaning, general networking and skills-practice time in the morning. In the afternoon, I took up the invitation of another OSFS member to go see Sherlock Holmes - the new edition with Downey and Law as Holmes and Watson - at the Rideau Centre. It was a fun two-hour stretch, both for the effort to take the Holmes canon and crossbreed it with what the writers, Mr. Ritchie and co. considered some of the better elements of the Indiana Jones and 007 franchises. Also, it looks like they decided to try their own approach to filling in a gap in the canon while they were about all those other chores. (Anything further on that point will constitute spoilers for those who haven't already seen the film.)

It worked well enough.

Some of you may recall Justin as a founder of the original publicbroadcasting.ca and the organizer of nxew.ca. If you didn't know, he's got a new blog and here's the feed on LJ for it:

justinbeach

Go read this.

Please.

First off, I am not happy with the weather today. It would have been convenient had the snowfall happened overnight rather than during the day. But the Appropriate Forces are not bound by the need to provide convenience for we mortal souls, are they?

Didn't think so.

Second, I've been reminded that this is the first anniversary of the launch of the OC Transpo Drivers' Strike of 2008-'09. That night, I remember my last trip home on the bus before the strife took hold: I was on my way home from Saint Brigid's after seeing Gwynne Dyer hold forth on topics covered in Climate Wars. To say that it threw a monkey wrench into all aspects of my life would not be an exaggeration. Shopping, job-hunting, networking with friends and relatives, the whole works.

It was not fun. No.

May we never, ever suffer a repeat of that mess, people.

Third, to alexjay? Hoping you're having a good one today, with many, happier returns to come in the future!

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?

Something james_nicoll pointed out to me today in one of his latest: apparently, there's a small plague of cutbacks hitting the world's libraries again. Part of the outbreak hit John Scalzi's backyard, and he's unhappy about it. You can read about that over here.

I don't understand the idea of libraries being obsolete, because the evidence of my own eyes from visits to assorted branches in recent weeks tells me the idea's full of crap, if you'll pardon my Anglo-Saxon. Not even good crap, either.

Now maybe I just live in and visit charmed neighbourhoods. I dunno. But I tend to think from the arguments in progress that I'm not wrong to think there's still a use for bricks and mortar and paper and glue and cardstock.

Ian Gould, Luke Parsons, Mark Richards and I, we're betting at least part of our future on my being right on this one, I think.

How about you?

Thanks to fajrdrako for the inspiration: From The Fannish 5 on LJ - What 5 series would you resurrect if you could?

1. Due South - I'm still wondering what happened after Fraser and Stan went looking for the Hand of Franklin. And wouldn't "The Hand of Franklin" make for a heck of a title for either episode or motion picture?
2. Star Trek: Enterprise - I want the story continued properly to its necessary conclusion. Yes, I'm reading the novels and they've been damn good so far. But it's not the same. (But if Paramount makes TV out of the novels, I won't complain!)
3. The Equalizer - just because Edward Woodward was so damn cool.
4. John Woo's Once a Thief - That ending threw me for a bloody loop.
5. The Fugitive (2000 TV series) - I thought we had a fun approach to re-imagining the series for modern times. But I guess it was too soon for that, huh?

I may change my mind about this list tomorrow, of course...

Second-run movie houses are an under-appreciated resource in any city or town.

At some point today on Facebook, I wrote the following for my status:

In happy remembrance of friends past and present with birthdays and suchlike today...and in sombre remembrance of strangers I never got to meet.

At least one friend no longer with us, pikachette, had her birthday today. I know of others who also celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries and so on on this day.

Save for Chile, which had its own tragedy and madness begin some four decades ago on the same date, the rest of us found such celebrations overshadowed by the deeds of Wrong People eight years ago. We may, perhaps, may never be permitted the needful thing of healing our various wounds resulting from such macabre anniversaries. There are those who have a vested interest in seeing such wounds remain forever festering.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying.

And for the ghost of Leah AKA pikachette, if you're reading these words today?

I hope you've had a good one.

I am definitely amused by "Request Count"!

Thank you very much for this!

Taxes are not a necessary evil.

Taxes are simply necessary.

Okay, this is me calling for music recommendations. I've an account with emusic.ca at the moment(which could change at the drop of a hat), so...?

Okay. Some of you know that I've been a SHIELD/Nick Fury fan for a while now. So my interest in Secret Warriors won't be a surprise.

Some stuff's been going on in the last couple of issues that almost threw me out of the story. Now, I'm not so sure that Jonathan Hickman hasn't in fact thought things through.

( Allow me to explain... )

Some of you may have already seen the new Metropolis map that showed up a week or two ago in the pages of Superman Secret Files 2009. I was looking forward to seeing how whomever was contracted to do the artwork - I thought probably Eliot Brown would be hired for the job at the time, as he'd done a couple of works on the subject for previous Secret Files installments - would embellish the existing "Six Boroughs" map established by John Byrne and company back in 1986, and revealed to the public at large in 1988 via Mayfair Games' second edition starter kit for the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game.

Turns out that I was a little off on my expectations.
( Read more... )

To think there was such a fuss three years ago to prevent Ottawa from adding these babies - or others like them - to our transit arsenal.

Ridiculous!

An open note to altariel about your newest work...to say "thanks"! As ever, you've managed to find a story in some of the more unexpected places and make it work for you!

Thanks much for this!

Specifically about your music set-up?

Never, ever interrupt a song with a promo blurb! Wait until you’re between songs, otherwise you’re just being Rude!