Looking for The Iron Heel

Searching, in vain, for Jack London in Ottawa.

I spent a good three hours walking around tonight looking for a copy of The Iron Heel by Jack London. It is the first of five novels on the reading list for my english class. Every other student must have been proactive about getting books for this class, because all these stores (all nine of them!) were out of stock.

Octopus Books – Bank Street and Third Avenue
Patrick McGahern Books – Bank Street and Third Avenue
Dragon Tail Bookshop – Bank Street and Fourth Avenue
Book Bazaar – Bank Street and Frank Street
The Book Company – Bank Street and Slater Street
Chapters – Rideau Street and Sussex Drive
Sunnyside Bookshop – Dalhousie Street and Murray Street
Argosy Books –  Dalhousie Street and Guigues Avenue
The Book Market – Dalhousie Street and Rideau Street

Can’t believe I walked this far in the cold only to come home empty handed. On the bright side, the War Memorial looked so pretty tonight:

Update 01/26/10:
I took out the map pictures. Nine photos of Google map screenshots is excessive. I did end up getting The Iron Heel from Octopus Books. My review: don’t even bother reading this one. It is socialist propaganda parading around as a novel. It’s less than 300 pages and it took forever to get through. I didn’t enjoy it at all! Our next book, Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov is even more tough to read. I thought I was good at this kind of thing: reading, thinking, reflecting. Guess not.  

  

True Patriot Love

Remembrance Day 2009 in the nation’s capital.

This year I spent Remembrance Day at the War Memorial in downtown Ottawa. Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were in attendance, along with the Prime Minister and the Governor General. Prince Charles and Michaelle Jean were both wearing stunning green* military uniforms. I was incredibly excited to see all these important people at the same time, on such an important day, at such a beautiful place, in our nation’s capital.

11/11/09

While Remembrance Day is an extremely emotional day, it is a mixture of sadness and happiness for me. On November 11, I am overwhelmed with patriotism. Half of me feels sad when remembering fallen soldiers, and half of me is happy because today Canadians are united in a great love for our country, all the amazing aspects and beautiful opportunities we have and everything that we can look forward to in the future.

11/11/09

The 21 gun salute, the jets that flew overhead, the veteran’s parade and seeing so many Canadians united together made my little heart feel like it would burst with pride and patriotism. Standing in a crowd of hundreds of shivering, poppy-wearing Canadians singing along together to O Canada was overwhelming. It was a beautiful moment, and I will never forget.

11/11/09

Update 11/13/09:
*
Accoriding to this picture, and this picture, the uniforms appear to be black. They looked green from where I was standing.

 

Fifteen Miles on the Rideau Canal

Pretoria is looking low. Everybody down.

 

A Funny Thing Happened in Front of the CBC Building

Step 1: Take off shoe. Step 2: Put your foot in your mouth.

The CBC announced 800 jobs are going to be cut. On Thursday, there was going to be a town hall meeting for employees. We are a group of three journalism students on a same-day TV assignment. The news is scary, but the story is newsy. To the CBC building we go.

Location: Sparks Street
Mood: Optimistic

Our reporter is speaking to two women standing outside the doors to the building. Many of the CBC employees don’t want to talk to us, probably because they’re not sure what’s going on themselves.

Somehow, our reporter persuades the women to go on camera. The first woman, wearing a CBC jacket, gives us a great interview and some even better advice on what to do as young journalists when our industry is facing hard times. She reminds young people to be passionate about what they do, and wait it out when times are tough.

We ask her how she feels, knowing that her job may be on the line. Will her job be one of the 800 cut?

She responds with a very confident no. She say’s that she’s been at the CBC a while and seniority holds a lot of weight.

We wrap up the interview. Oh, and one more thing. Can you please say and spell your name for the camera?

“Kathleen Petty. K-A-T-H-L-E-E-N P-E-T-T-Y.”

Oh boy. We all burst out laughing.

Yes, we spoke to Kathleen Petty on Thursday about CBC job cuts and we didn’t even realize it until the end.

What a rookie mistake. If I become a journalism prof one day, this can be my witty anecdote for the first day of class.

Atheist Bus Rides the TTC

Ask and You Shall Receive

Today, Philip Chin from the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign sent me a link to FLIKR pictures of the Atheist Bus ads on the side of some TTC busses.

“I think the pictures add a degree or normalcy and tangibility to the campaign. Once people see the ads running for a few weeks in Toronto without any problems, hopefully they’ll be more receptive to us in other parts of the country,” said Chin in the email.

Check out the slideshow here.

Read Kicked off the bus, an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen by Justin Trottier, president of the Freethought Association of Canada.

Photo courtesy of Philip Chin from the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign.

All Aboard the Atheist Bus

The Little Campaign that Could

Well there seems to be quite an uproar in Ottawa about the Atheist Bus ads.

Early last week, Ottawa was picked to be the next city for the Atheist Bus Campaign.

OC Transpo rejected the ads, and the Freethought Association faces a lot of challenges ahead before the campaign gets approval in Ottawa.

The matter will be further explored before full city council next Wednesday.

The ads were expected to roll out on Toronto buses this week, but I haven’t seen one yet. Here’s hoping.

A Guide to Living with Greenpeace

I Get a Hemp T-Shirt

On Sunday I was stopped outside of the Rideau Centre by a man working for Greenpeace. Normally I don’t stop for people who are handing out flyers, or strangers who are beaming at you, clipboard in hand. But, I was in such a great mood, my friend and I stopped to see what he was all about.

He was trying to recruit more members. Alright, that sounds ok. We get a newsletter, and The Greenpeace Living Guide which is printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink.

To be legitimate members, I guess we have to contribute some money. The sun was shining for the first time in Ottawa for a while. It was a beautiful day. So I signed up, and agreed to contribute $12 monthly. It won’t break the bank, and I get a Hemp shirt!

Oh Greenpeace, you had me at vegetable ink.

Citation Exaltation

The Internet is Neat

I’ve been cited/crosslinked. How weird to be looking up sources for my current Atheist Bus in Ottawa story and find one blog post attributing the news to my Atheist Bus story.

Atheist Bus Campaign Coming to Ottawa

Don’t Worry, Just Enjoy Life.

The Freethough Association of Canada wants to put Atheist advertisements on the side of OC Transpo busses.

Atheist Bus Ad

My first Centretown News story went live today. Check it out here. 

Photo courtesy of atheistbus.ca