[NON BLOG] Random Encounters

While disembarking an hour ago from the College TTC station en route to my new job, a street person who I'd seen before in the area--a woman in her 50s--asked me for 15 cents. I walked a couple of steps past her, then I doubled back and offered to buy her something from the Cinnabon in the nearby College Park underground mall. I ended up getting her a cinnamon bun and a coffee.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in situations like this. Charlottetown was a rather different sort of situation; even in Kingston, poverty wasn't so visible. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do since episodic case-by-case actions surely can't be enough.

[BRIEF NOTE] ssyglb

Courtesy of kalevhunt, the USENET newsgroup soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi now has a Livejournal adjunct, ssyglb. Said newsgroup helped me out a lot back in 2002, when I was still floored by the discovery. I highly recommend it, and its new Livejournal community, for people similarly floored or just for young GLBT people interested in a safe forum.

[BRIEF NOTE] The Future of the Irish Language

From Language Hat. Brief version: Things could be better, things could be worse, it'll be around for a while regardless.

[BRIEF NOTE] Sociology of Tourism

Scott Martens has a post up at A Fistful of Euros, examining the heavily-touristed Spanish region of Valencia. It's rather informative. More importantly, it's quite funny.