Second Encampment

Back in June I made a post about a homeless encampment that had been developed on an empty field near the train station. They were issued an eviction notice for the end of the month, but the city has extended their notice on a monthly basis since then. They have port-o-potties now, I don't know if the city provided them. There are sunflower blossoms at the there right now, it looks really nice.

My position was in favour of the residents of the tent city. I said that in my view they are less dangerous not more when they are working collaboratively inside a community and have a reputation to preserve, and that the move to evict them wouldn't decrease the number of homeless, just divide them into small enough factions that the people complaining would be able to ignore the issue. My only reservation was that if we considered these living accommodation satisfactory, it might lead to complacency when I believe that all human beings deserve access to running water, heat and electricity.

Since then, a second encampment has developed in Kitchener's Victoria Park. Initially it was stated that it was in protest to the move to evict the train station tent city, however over time it became clear that the protest was at least doubling in purpose as another place of residency for our homeless.

The camp is set on Roos Island, a piece of land that branches into a wide river that flows through the park. It connects on one side by a bridge and on the other by a strip of land. There is a gazebo in the centre on which they have mounted a list of demands. They are as follows:

1. Stop evicting campers on city region land
2. No more police at overdose emergency calls
3. Stop ALL drug related arrests
4. Decriminalize ALL drugs and expand Safe Supply by 50%
5. Stop increasing the police budget
6. Use vacant properties in the downtown core for low-income housing
7. Provide low-income housing at 10% of income
8. Create space for housing alternatives in DTK
9. Create 1000 new low-income housing units in the downtown core
10. Stop CAS child abductions from Indigenous, Black, and low-income families
11. Sign over ownership of the bus terminal to the Indigenous Community
12. Formerly rename Willow River Park
13. Remove all colonial statues from the region; starting with Willow River Park 

I don't know what the process was like to come up with this list or if there's full consensus. They seem to be presenting themselves as strongly associated with the Indigenous population, but I've no idea what percentage of them have ancestry. Apparently a group called Fightback KW initiated this movement on Canada Day and has been supplying residents with many basic necessities. A local activist named Julian Ichim has been an outspoken representative on behalf of the tent city.

To clarify some of the demands, the call to rename the park is because the current name, Victoria Park, is based on Queen Victoria, whose rule oversaw expansion of the British Empire into what we now know as Canada. The idea is that having a park named after this woman celebrates the suppression of the Indigenous People. Similarly, the call to remove colonial statues is inspired at least in part by the big statue of Queen Victoria across the river from the tent city. After the discovery of the bodies of Indigenous children under former residential schools, red paint was splashed onto this statue representing the blood of these children. It was left up for awhile, and when the city eventually cleaned it up they put a plaque in front of the statue explaining its controversial nature.

The bus terminal they're talking about is Charles Street Terminal, the former centre for Kitchener transit. It got closed when they introduced the ION lightrail, and now we don't have anything like it, just a small transit office connected to a hotel. Since the terminal's been closed, it's been used as a homeless outreach centre during the initial lockdowns, and later a COVID testing site. Otherwise I think it's just a break area for ION security workers. I don't know why the Indigenous community would want this building, it's nothing special.

Reception to the train station encampment was divisive, and the Roos Island encampment has been received more negatively. That being said, it hasn't stopped people from going to the park and enjoying it, so far as I can tell. The playground still always looks full, there's always a lineup by the sausage vendor and ice cream truck, and I think every time I've gone, I see wedding photos being taken. 

People walk through the tent city. I've walked through the tent city, no big deal. So I still think people talking about safety concerns are playing it up. I will admit that I feel a slightly higher level of tension in the Roos Island tent city than the train station encampment, and that may be because the people of Roos Island are intentionally challenging the city by occupying land they understand is considered valuable.

I must admit, I think their demands seem a little lofty. Protesting encampment evictions and demanding an increase in affordable housing make sense, as these are driving our current housing crisis. Demanding a name change to the park and the removal of colonial imagery makes sense, because it concerns the space they are currently occupying. 

I understand that laws regarding drugs are a concern for some of their residents, I don't think the city has the power to decriminalize all drugs anyway. Affordable housing at 10% of income sounds like a challenge, I don't think I've ever had housing at that price even before the current market. I don't know why they want a bus terminal.

And while I believe that people with addictions should be valued and treated with dignity and that harm-reduction methods are more effective than prohibition, there is a lot of stigma around homeless people and the Indigenous community, and this strong emphasis on drug use in relation to these populations could bolster stereotypes.

The original encampment was developed by the homeless community, whereas this second one was developed by homed activists who brought in residents with the offer of resources. I worry a little about their being a coercive element. People will allow themselves to be represented by your message if you're willing to offer them something. Also, I hope that they do have Indigenous representation, and they're not just using a popular movement to give themselves credibility. 

If I were an activist working alongside the homeless population, I think I would want to provide them with resources and make sure that any relevant demographic within them was represented, so I'm not accusing the organizers of wrongdoing, but with this current setup it looks to me like there's room for exploitation due to an imbalance of power between the organizers and residents. So I hope everyone is collaborating.

The city says that it doesn't plan on making moves to evict based on their belief that people will move out once it gets colder. I suppose they believe the same for the train station encampment. I don't really see where they think people will move to, though.

Flowers

Last year, me and Lee-Anne tried to grow sunflowers unsuccessfully. This year I planted 60 of them. They started to sprout but then someone ran over them with a lawn mower. Five survived. Three broke in wind storms. I tried to stake them up, but only one of the broken sunflowers made it through. Three left. Fortunately, two managed to blossom

Weird thing is, I thought I planted purple and teddy bear sunflowers, but I got regular ones. I don't remember if I put regular flowers in the mix, and the standard are just more resilient than the variants, or if I got ripped off. They were from different parts of the patch, and I thought I'd sorted the different types into sections, so it seems like they should be different types. Oh well.

Not only did we get the two standard blossoms, one was growing at least two additional blossoms in the joints of its leaves. I had a neighbour in Guelph who managed this, and I never knew how or why it happened. I have since heard from other sunflower enthusiasts that this is a semi-common phenomenon, and flowers like these are called mutants. Kind of a gross way of referring to them, when the outcome is so pretty.

Unfortunately, something attacked in the night and tore both their heads off. I don't think a human stole them, it seemed way to chaotic. It might have been a skunk. I've run into a skunk in the backyard twice and both times it was coming toward me, not away. Me and Lee-Anne also ran into three baby skunks one evening, and it seems like there's a lot of skunk sightings in general.

Anyway, I tried staking up the two now-headless sunflowers. I thought that if the mutant survived, we'd have a shot of its two additional heads blossoming but unfortunately it didn't make it. The non-mutant sunflower survived without its blossom.

This left one final flower, which had yet to bloom. It was the smallest of the three due to being one of the ones that broke in the wind storm. I'd been saying all along that it was my favourite of the three, since I love an underdog story. The first sunflower I ever grew broke in a windstorm and similarly survived.

Well, it eventually happened

 Missing a couple of petals since whatever creature took the other two blossoms also took a bite out of it. It also didn't fully unfurl, maybe due to its size, but I still think it counts!

While I'm at it, I'll show you some pictures of the bulbs that sprouted earlier this year.

They mostly came through in the spring.

As an aside, that sub shop that I've been talking about, Big John's, finally reopened after seven months, almost as unceremoniously as it closed.

Genealogy Results

A couple months ago, an ancestry detection service called 23AndMe was having a Father's Day sale. Despite not being one myself, I decided to take advantage of the offer and made a purchase. The bundle included an ancestral background check and a health and traits overview. I would have likely only bothered with the ancestry data, but I got the health information as it was a part of the sale.

They sent me a kit, I spat into a tube and mailed it back to their lab for analysis. I just got my results. 

Before going into them, I'll give a brief overview of what I understand of my heritage based on what I've been told by family members. On my mothers side we have the Landstreet family, which is an English adaptation of something like "Lundstrat", which is Dutch in origin. When they immigrated to the US they likely anglicized it.

Going by name origin is a weak way of tracking ancestry though, because it only follows the male line. An example of why names aren't always the best way to determine heritage is that my last name is "Sibbald", which is Scottish. However, my father was adopted.

Because of that fact, my father's side is a little difficult to trace. I did wind up in contact with the genetic side of his family when his biological mother wanted to meet him. Apparently they migrated from Sweden two generations back, making my dad 1/2 Swedish and me 1/4.

This is the bulk of my understanding. I think it's likely that I'm 1/4 Swedish with a drop of Dutch. Other than this, I've no idea.

People have guessed that I was Greek, and people have guessed that my brother is Italian. Back when I was in highschool, when I had long hair and no beard, some people thought I was at least partially Indigenous. I've been told I look Arabic a few times. 

Lets see if that holds any merit. 

Genetic Background

According to 23AndMe, I am...

99.3% Northwestern European

No surprises here.  Goes along with what little I knew of my ancestry. If anything, it's surprising that it's so consistent.

Narrowing it further, it looks like within this continental region, I am primarily

Scandinavian, at 35.6%

Coming through my father's side, probably. Scandinavia includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Of these places, they found genetic markers for me only in Norway and Sweden. Looks like I've got more than the 25% I estimated.

Next, I am

British & Irish, at 27.8%

I've got genetic markers spread throughout both the UK and Ireland. Up next, I am

French & German, at 13.9%

This region is composed of Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Despite the name of the category, I don't have any French in me. Interestingly enough, I have nothing from the Netherlands either. I had guessed that I was a bit Dutch, which is the language of the Netherlands. All of my DNA in this category comes from Germany, so it looks like the Landstreet lineage comes from areas that are seen as modern day Germany.

Specifically, they found potential links to Baden-Wurttemberg, Brandenburg, and Saxony. Next up, I am

Finnish, at 3.9%

I almost feel like you can tack this under Scandinavian. Honestly, before doing this, I thought Finland was in that region. Geographically, it neighbours Sweden and has a lot of similar cultural elements at least nowadays.

Finally, I am

Broadly Northwestern European, at 18.1%

Basically, this is DNA that they were able to trace to this region but couldn't narrow it down further. Could be more Scandinavian or German DNA. Pretty consistent with everything else they found.

Of the remaining 0.7% of my DNA, I am

Eastern European, at 0.3%, North African at 0.3%, and 0.1% undetected

I think they leave the 0.1% undetected as a caveat, since it's essentially impossible to determine anything at 100%. Kind of like when ads say that cleaners kill 99.9% of germs.

They weren't able to narrow down my Eastern European or North African ancestry to any more specific regions. North African is the only real curveball here. That region includes Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, although who knows exactly where my DNA comes from.

Next up we have my health report. This one is scary because it could imply issues further on in my life. They made me give specific consent to reveal this information and I had to go through tutorials for the stats on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cancers saying that 23AndMe does not diagnose, that it doesn't guarantee anything, and that these conditions are impacted by lifestyle and environment as much as genetics.

So let's see what we have

Health Report

Looks like I have no increased chance of any form of cancer detectable by this analysis and no indicators for Parkinson's. Unfortunately, I have a slightly increased chance of developing late-stage Alzheimer's past the age of 65. I have one genetic marker passed down through one of my parents. Unfortunately, I suspected this might be the case as my granddad is currently suffering from dementia, as did his mother.

According to 23AndMe, this means that I have a 4-7% chance of developing it by age 75, as opposed to the usual 3% and at 85 my risk is 20-23% as opposed to the usual 11-14% Basically I'm twice as likely. Unfortunately I think there are other forms of dementia that aren't detectable by this analysis.

There are 10 additional health predispositions. I'm clean for all of them except Age-Related Macular Degeneration, which is a form of vision loss occurring in late life. I am at an increased risk, which means both my mother and father passed on this gene. The site is not giving me information on what age it might start or how likely I am to get it. Oh well, at least Lee-Anne comes from a family of optometrists.

Now let's look at what genetic conditions I could be at risk of passing on, were I to choose to have children.

Carrier Report

This section covered 45 inheritable conditions. Of them, there is only one that I have a genetic variant for, which is Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation, Type 1a. This is a condition that causes developmental delay, muscle weakness, and failure to gain weight. However, it says I only have one variant in my system, and it takes two to develop it. So if Lee-Anne also has the potential to pass it on, it could be a concern, but my genetics alone cannot cause it.

Next up is my wellness & traits report. This covers trivial info that I will be able to verify.

Wellness & Traits

The Wellness Report covers 8 categories. According to it I am...

• Unlikely to flush when I drink alcohol. This is true, never noticed a flush and no one's ever said anything
• Likely to consume more caffeine than average. True, I currently drink 2 mugs a day
• Less likely to be a deep sleeper. True, I am a notoriously light sleeper
• I am predisposed to weigh about average. This is false, I weigh significantly above average
• I am not lactose intolerant. True, I can handle dairy just fine
• I likely have the muscle composition of elite power athletes. That's a fun way to say it. I'd say true. I haven't trained for it but I am uncommonly strong with a naturally hulking build
• I likely have similar saturated fat and weight. Apparently this means I don't have a specific issue with processing saturated fats. I, uh... have no idea.
• I likely have average or less sleep movement. False, I toss and turn in my sleep.

So, factoring out the saturated fat one because I didn't understand it, 23AndMe guessed correctly 5 out of 7 times.

Now for my Traits Report, which has 37 different factors. According to it, I am

• Less likely to be able to match musical pitch. True, I have a tin ear.
• More likely to be able to smell asparagus. True, I can smell it
• Less likely to have back hair. False, I'm a sasquatch 
• Likely not to have a bald spot. False, balding since 19
• Likely able to taste bitterness. True, I love bitter tasting foods
• Less likely to have bunions. True, I don't remember ever having them
• Likely not to have dimples. True, don't have any
• Slightly higher chance of disliking cilantro. Is this that gene that makes it taste like soap? I don't have that, I'm cool with cilantro
• Likely not to have a cleft chin. True, don't have one
• 50/50 chance of having dandruff. Doesn't matter because they went middle-of-the-road for this, but I don't think I have a dandruff problem
• Likely has detached earlobes. True, they're detached
• Likely no early hair loss. False, already said I've been balding since 19
• Likely has wet earwax. It's not like I've done much comparing, but yes I would describe it as wet
• Likely brown or hazel eyes. Yes, dark brown
• Less likely afraid of heights. False, I'm terrified of them. I can't look at the roof of an apartment building without getting dizzy
• Less likely to be afraid of public speaking. Kind of true. I do some public speaking in my job and I seem less hesitant than my peers to take on roles that involve this. Funny as I consider myself introverted
• Likely to have a longer ring finger than index. Yes, this is true
• Likely not to be flat-footed.  This was awkward to verify, but I believe this is true, I don't have flat feet
• Likely not to freckle. True, I never freckle
• Likely to experience hair photobleaching. I don't think so, my hair seems to be a pretty static colour
• Likely to have straight or wavy hair. I barely have hair anymore, but in highschool it was long and straight with a slight wave, so this is true
• Likely to have thin hair. SOME of my hair is thin, that is the stuff I'm losing. The hair on the sides of my head is thick, and I had a thick head of hair growing up. I think this one is false
• More likely to prefer vanilla over chocolate ice cream. Oof, this puts me on the spot. Both are kind of boring flavours. I thinks it's true overall, although I have no problem with chocolate. Vanilla is a little underrated because of its reputation for being the default
• Likely to have dark hair. Yes, dark brown
• Average odds of hating chewing sounds. They went middle ground with this, but this is not a particular pet peeve of mine
• Likely bitten by mosquitoes about as frequently as average. Sounds about right
• Less likely to experience motion sickness. True, it doesn't get to me
• Likely to have lots of hair as a baby. I think this is true? I think I remember seeing baby pictures of me with hair. It was a lot lighter than it is now, too
• Likely not to have a photic sneeze reflex. Apparently some people sneeze as a reflex to bright lights. This does not happen to me
• Likely not to have red hair. As I've already said, it's dark brown
• Likely to have lighter skin. Lighter than what? I'm white but I tan. I think I have slightly darker skin than most Caucasians
• Less likely to have stretch marks. I've got some
• Likely to have longer big toes. False, I have longer second toes
• Likely to have a bit of a unibrow. This is about right. A slight unibrow if I don't take care of it
• Likely to wake up at around 8:23 am on days off. False, that's way too early. Try 10:00
• Likely no widow's peak. I mean, I'm bald. I don't have a peak anymore, widow's or otherwise but that wasn't my balding pattern. I got a bald spot and it spread, Fat Friar style

They asked some questions that would be easy to get right based on statistics, and they went middle of the road a few times, but overall 23AndMe was right about 22 traits, wrong about 10, and indeterminate for 3

Haplogroups

This section talks about my maternal and paternal lines specifically. It's not as interesting as it sounds. It doesn't say what traits, vulnerabilities, or nationalities were passed down either side. But it does say that my mother's line is H1, which is the same as 1 in 19 23AndMe customers and my father's line is R-L2, which is the same as 1in 56. It gives some vague movement patterns of our ancestors, but each line just says we're European, which isn't new.

Under this category they do tell me what percentage of Neanderthal DNA I have. The Neanderthals were a type of primitive intelligent life that evolved alongside Homo Sapiens. The two were genetically similar enough that they interacted and bred together. Modern day humans are primarily Sapien in origin but geneticists are finding that we are much more closely tied to Neanderthals than we thought.

It is popularly considered that the Neanderthals died out, but it is likely that they were simply absorbed into the modern human genepool overtime, their genetics overtaken because of their relatively sparse population compared to the Sapiens.

The Neanderthals were larger, stronger, more solitary, and more dependent on trapping or ambushing their prey, as opposed to the Sapiens, who were better long-distance runners, more slight of build, and more collaborative in nature.

When I heard that we have as much Neanderthal DNA as we do, I suspected that I had a bit more than most. After all, I am strong, solitary, and don't do much running. My forehead has a ridge to it, and I've noticed in some team pictures of the Summer Program staff where we formed a human pyramid, I wasn't as able to crane my head up as far as the others to face the camera due to a slight ridge of bone and muscle at the base of my neck. After all, I do have that aforementioned "Elite Power Athlete" build that was in my Wellness Report.

My theory does not bear out though. I have fewer Neanderthal variants than 86% of customers through my father's side, and less than 96% of customers on my mother's side. I am actually far less Neanderthal than most.

Family & Friends

This section tracks down genetic relatives that have taken 23AndMe and have chosen to share their information. I thought this would be a lot more interesting than it was. I found one of my greatuncles on the Landstreet side, and a handful of relatives on my father's genetic side that I've already got as Facebook friends. If I was looking to reach out to more people I guess this would be more interesting, but it seems like I'm already in touch with most people that I share a significant genetic connection with. It's otherwise a lot of 4th cousins with names and faces that hold no significance to me

Conclusion:

It was interesting to see that I actually had a pretty accurate guess as to my lineage. I've seen a lot of people be really surprised by what they got. Weird that I was 0.0% Dutch, and that that line likely comes through a German origin. Even though I was only confirmedly about a third Scandinavian, Germany and Finland are right near that area as well, and the general Northwestern European ancestry could as well. Seems like there's a lot of geographic consistency.

 People were pretty flatly wrong when guessing my ancestry, as I'm 0.0% Greek, Italian, or Indigenous. The people that said I was Arabic weren't as wrong, but I don't think my North African trace ancestry shines through enough to give a visual indicator.

The North African ancestry was the only real curveball. Not enough to have any real significance, but it's kind of fun to learn a detail like that.

As for health, the late stage Alzheimer's is a bit troubling but I'm still more than likely not to get it. It looked like I was more likely to get late stage vision loss, so it's good I know so many optometrists.

The trace data was fun but less accurate than I'd hoped, and I was disappointed not to have as much Neanderthal DNA as I hoped.

Fritou Sign Came Down

 Back in April I made an update about how a sub shop that's been open for some 50 years was relocating. There were rumours about what would replace it, with the prevailing theory that it would be shawarma. I was excited by this idea, since it's my favourite type of fast food and while KW is pretty oversaturated for shawarma spots, our neighborhood specifically is a dry zone for it.

Rumours turned out to be right, Belmont Village is now home to Sam's Shawarma! We went there on their second day and got pitas. To be honest, the wrap job was rough, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they just need some practice. They're our only local option and I'd really like them to succeed.

But what's more interesting is they finally took down the Fritou's Fried Chicken sign! For some reason, Big John's had a fried chicken sign on the outside and inside of their shop, which made no sense because they didn't sell it and the shop had been there forever so it seemed unlikely to predate it. When they left they took down their own sign but left up the Fritou's one. At their new location they put up a Crown Cleaners sign, even though it's completely unrelated to their business and wasn't at the location before they moved in.

But Sam's Shawarma finally took down the weird chicken sign that seemed so unremovable.

Big John's has been moving really slowly to reopen, but they recently moved in a drink chiller so that's progress I guess.

Public transit between Kitchener and Guelph finally improved. I used to take a Greyhound bus between the two cities, but as soon as the pandemic hit they pulled their service for an indefinite period of time. Eventually they announced they were done permanently throughout Canada. Despite having a network of buses, Go Transit did not step in to fill the void. There was one Go train with an extremely limited service, clearly meant for a very specific commute that was almost impossible for me to use.

So getting to Guelph and back has been a struggle since the pandemic started. Apparently Greyhound had a monopoly on the route between the two cities, and even though they announced that they were done, they still had to file for bankruptcy before other services could move in, which took awhile.

I haven't used one yet, but they've been replaced by something called FlixBus. The Go Train is also offering regular trips now, which always seemed like the obvious solution.

I mentioned before that we got Finn neutered but I never followed up. Not much to say. We brought him over the light rail, dropped him off and came back for him later that day. The person there called him "Finny" and apologized for it, because apparently some people are sensitive about people giving their pets nicknames, even something as intuitive as "Finny". Not a problem for me.

 I felt bad coming back because there was a lot of construction and people shouting, and Finn was shivering in his carrier. An interesting guy walked with us for a bit, talking about his history with cats, saying he used to be abusive but he changed his ways with God's forgiveness.

 Finn had to wear a cone for a bit

I felt bad he couldn't scratch or clean his face on his own. You can also see in the picture they shaved a square of fur on his foreleg. It looked a little unnatural so I was happy when he grew it back.

He was pretty chill. Even when he was wearing the cone, he would sleep in the bed and cuddle with us. It would have been understandable if he were untrusting after the operation. After all, we put him in a cage, took him away from his home, left him with strangers that drugged and cut him, and then stuck a cone around his neck, all for reasons we weren't able to explain. That was all awhile ago and he's fully back to normal now

Lee-Anne Got COVID

Lee-Anne was in Orlando, Florida attending the NOAH conference last week. NOAH stands for the National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation. If I have somehow failed to mention it, Lee-Anne has albinism, which is a genetic condition that means her body doesn't produce pigment. People with albinism have pale skin, light hair and blue eyes, as well as some degree of vision loss.

The NOAH conference usually runs every other year but last time it got canceled because of COVID. They had virtual activities as a replacement and I attended some of them, but it's just not the same as in person. 2022 was the first time since the pandemic that the conference was able to be held. However, she still got COVID.

She came back last Monday evening, and on Tuesday noticed she had a sore throat. She took a rapid test and it came back positive. Since then I've been sleeping on the couch and we've been wearing masks in common areas. 

Her symptoms never got worse and it has now been five days since she's been symptomatic, which means she should be past her most infectious stage. I took a rapid test today and it came back negative, so hopefully I'm good.

It's surprising that I managed to dodge it, since apparently COVID is currently the most infectious common disease, this new strain outpacing measles for the title. Silver lining is that it's not as deadly as it used to be.

Because it's impossible to track the number of cases anymore, since people are taking rapid tests at home and not reporting results, policies are being decided based on hospitalizations. I don't think I mentioned it, but my organization reopened in its' usual limited capacity for what I think is the fourth time recently.

It's fortunate that she came back Tuesday evening, because I do in-person services Monday and Thursday, so this meant that I didn't have contact with any member afters connecting with her. I couldn't go in on Thursday, though.

There was an optometry conference recently, which we're aware of because Lee-Anne's family is rooted in optometry, and apparently 45% of the people that attended contracted COVID. It would be interesting to see what the results are for NOAH.

Rogers Shutdown

Last week I woke up and tried to say good morning to my coworkers over my work iPad, but found I couldn't get a signal. I switched over to Google chat on my work laptop but couldn't get a signal with it, either. Decided to disconnect and switch to data on the iPad, and still nothing. I went out to the Iron Horse Trail, sat on a bench and managed to connect with my personal cell phone using data, where I was able to connect with a few of my coworkers who were having similar difficulties.

The entire agency had been impacted. All our work phones were down. Turns out that one of Canada's largest networks had a nationwide shutdown. Canada is ruled by three major providers: Bell, Telus and Rogers. Even though there are a variety of other names, like Kudo, Fido, and Virgin, they tend to be owned by the big three. Even though I use a provider that is independent from them, it's still reliant on Rogers infrastructure, so I got shut down too. The reason I couldn't get data from my apartment is because I live in a basement and have a terrible connection other than WiFi. 

Our agency and my team sent an email explaining the situation, which is very ironic to explain why the Internet isn't working over email. Even though Rogers should hypothetically impact only one third of the connections, it felt like more than half of the people were impacted. We managed to host our usual group but only me and one other facilitator were able to be there, and I had to be outside and do it over my phone.

I wound up talking to a lot of people that were walking by on the trail. Somebody asked me if the Internet was back. Somebody asked me if I'd witnessed a car accident he'd just been in (I hadn't). Somebody sat down next to me and speculated about Russia attacking our satellite-based services.

I connected with someone from a country overseas (won't specify where, just for vague privacy reasons). They told me the Internet had been lost there as well and that they believed it was a worldwide phenomenon. Since I was just hearing this after that other guy was speculating about Russia attacking satellites, I was sufficiently spooked. Even though I'd been previously informed that it was just one Canadian company that had been taken down.

There were issues with people being able to contact emergency services. Business payment systems were down, relying on people to pay cash. Since the pandemic's initial concern with surface transmission and the subsequent call to get people to stop using cash, not too many people had it handy. 

I had to go somewhere after work, and I wondered if the light rail would be able to accept payment from me. It did, but at first it confirmed me as a University of Waterloo student (which I am, but I'm not attending enough courses to get a funded pass). The voiceover wasn't able to announce when the next train would arrive, but had a generic message about intervals between arrivals. Also, weirdly the machines had spat out a bunch of receipts on both ends. I also saw some electronic bus signs showing weird code instead of bus schedules. I guess Grand River Transit uses Rogers.

People got their connections back in intervals. My mother and brother got theirs back the following morning. We were disconnected for three days.

Canada has terrible service providers. We have some of the highest prices on the planet and we still managed a nationwide shutdown. Rogers has said it was triggered by a maintenance update. I don't know if that's a vague and veiled reason or if it was actually that mundane.

Microsoft New Fonts

This might be old news to a lot of people, but it hasn't been put into action yet. So let's talk about Microsoft's decision to change their default font.

In 2007, Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the default font in Word, and replaced Arial in Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook and Wordpad.  It was seen as an improvement on Times New Roman, the previous default, as Calibri was built for readability on computer screens while Times had its roots in print media, designed for the British newspaper, The Times in 1931. 

Times was chosen as the first default Word font because of its popularity and readability at the time, as well as its compatibility with then-current technology. After advancements in computer graphics, it just made sense to upgrade.

Arial, the other font replaced by Calibri, was developed to mimic Helvetica, a much loved font developed by the company Monotype. Arial was made as a go-around which could be used without having to pay Monotype.

Times New Roman is a serif font, with a robust, solid, and crisp look, while Arial is sans-serif, with softer and fuller curves and Calibri is a sans-serif with subtly rounded stems and corners.

Now, after fifteen years of dominance, Microsoft has chosen to dethrone Calibri. Reasons for the change are up to speculation. The stated explanation is simply that, "while Calibri has served its purpose well, it's time to evolve". Lucas DeGroot, the man responsible for developing the font, believes that the change has more to do with keeping up with contemporary tastes, than it does with readability. While that sounds a little salty, he claims to all for the change, saying that people can develop a distaste for default fonts due to their being overused and misused.

The new default font has yet to be determined. Five new potential replacements have been selected, and the choice will be made democratically. Microsoft is reaching out to the public to vote on which one they would like to see become the new default.

These are the candidates:

Bierstadt: A precise serif font suitable for grid-based typography, but meant to feel a bit more approachable and less institutional, with a "human touch". It is also the only serif font on the list

Grandview: Inspired by German road signage meant to be readable at a distance, this font is supposed to be "mechanical but elegant"

Seaford: The look for this one was inspired by armchairs, and is meant to have a gently organic and asymmetrical appearance.

Skeena: This one is described as being "quirky" with the most varied contrasts between thickness in its letters, and exceptionally high strokes

Tenorite: With exceptionally large dots, accents and punctuations, this fonts' creators said they were "craving something round, wide and crisp" and that they didn't "shy away from going large and circular".

As for my preference, I will say that I'm not fond of that weird typed "a" that Bierstadt and Grandview use (as well as the font I'm using now). I appreciate more consistency between commonly-used handwriting and typing. I guess the "a" is meant to be closer to cursive, but that style has fallen out of use. Makes more sense to model after the printed letter.

Grandview has the coolest inspiration though, and Lee-Anne has given it her vote as the one most legible to her as someone with low vision. While I don't like their "a", as someone who cares about accessibility, this is big points for this font.

Bierstadt gets some extra points too for being brave enough to be a serif font in a non-serif world.

I like Skeena's tilted "e" and it seems the most fun. Default fonts aren't really meant to be fun though.

DeGroot, creator of Calibri, votes for Seaford without giving much reasoning aside from saying it's "strong" and "nice" while not being absolutely neutral.

Tenorite doesn't seem eccentric enough to warrant the carnal description its' creators gave.

I guess my vote is for Grandview despite my misgivings about its' cursive-inspired "a" due to its accessibility.