I spent most of the day in Ottawa today. Some of that was sitting in a courtroom watching legal procedures unfold, but the rest of the time I spent wandering around Elgin Street. Walking around downtown was an interesting experience. I wandered down to a great book store (Perfect Books), grabbed lunch at Subway, saw the striking PSAC employees, and enjoyed the sunshine.
Being able to walk to all the places that were interesting to me was different. I am used to driving from place-to-place-to-place to go anywhere. I could get used to being able to walk to the places I want – but the commute sucks.
The reason for my trip was to observe a court proceeding, and my main observation from it is that a lot of time is wasted. Not in procedure, although there is plenty of time-wasting and delays in the legal process. The time wasting I mean is in waiting. Technology to allow remote access to the court slows the process. Glitches, letting people into the Zoom feeds, translations, it all drags the system down.
Another thing I noticed from my trip, chameleons can take on all forms, even on two legs.
Three things:
Something to read – Wendy Mesley is one half of the podcast Women of Ill Repute. Her and partner Maureen Holloway have some great conversations on their podcast, and they seem to take turns writing posts about things. Mesley wrote about the CBC recently, which was interesting to read considering her history with the corporation. Read it here.
Something to watch – The series finale for Star Trek: Picard. The third season was all over the place, the writing could have been tighter, and had a few less loose threads. But… the finale managed to tie up many loose ends from three previous Star Trek series (TNG, DS9 and Minivan… err I mean Voyager.)
Something to listen to – This is a Brazilian music group called Milk’n’Blues. They do some covers, mash-ups, and original numbers. This one, a mix up of Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd is pretty good.
The last word (oooo I like this) – A leopard never changes his spots, a chameleon always changes his hair cut and clothing. Trust the things that never change.
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