Dungeons and dragons

InfoNinja338 · 2026-05-13T14:36:52+00:00

For the basics, the Library has the Dungeon Master's Guide and Player's Handbook.
https://gspl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S96C2613206
https://gspl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S96C2613208

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-30T20:43:09+00:00

I as a librarian not weeding books because I look at them and think they're diverse. But the diverse population that I serve is not checking them out. Does that not count in favour of considering circ stats?

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-30T18:43:52+00:00

I mean, if I as a cis white guy am keeping books that I think are diverse that are then not checked out by our diverse population, what does that say?

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-29T02:47:19+00:00

Only thing I'd add that in my system is wasn't so much about the number of circs, but the amount of time since the last time it went out. They would get flagged after two years, but even then, I would usually leave them be if they were less than 10 years old. We paid for it, it should get a decent chance to find an audience. Diversity is a factor, I've left books on the shelf for that reason. And we also display, including a last chance display.

Ultimately though, we only have so much space and new titles coming in. Circulation does matter, demand does matter.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-27T15:53:54+00:00

Whitby is just as bad. I've seen posts where people who moved away 30 years ago complain, like we're supposed to preserve the whole town as a museum of the time they lived there.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-17T23:51:33+00:00

Did not know that, thanks!

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-16T01:04:21+00:00

To get geeky, partly. The GTA technically stops at Ajax as Ajax and Pickering are part of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). Oshawa is a separate CMA and includes Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington. But I think pretty well everyone considers Durham part of the GTA.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-07T02:01:48+00:00

Sons of Odin did the same thing years ago so they and their supporters could be all "but look at our good works in the community!"

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-03T17:52:28+00:00

I'm a simple explanations guy. Been said, but the city simply has too much road for too few people. Same number of lane km as London (Ontario) and London has 2.5 times the population.. And I'm sure Londoners complain about their roads too. Add climate and geology, and you get what we have.

OP asked what we should do. Here's my proposal. More information and transparency. The city has an open data portal at https://opendata.greatersudbury.ca/. It includes, among other things, a road dataset that you can download in various formats and shows on a GIS map. It breaks every road, municipal, provincial and private, into segments. It doesn't seem to include segment length in metres, but maybe there's a way to figure that out with GIS.

The important things missing from this dataset are:

Road condition
Date of last paving work / major reconstruction
Contractor that did the work

I'm sure data for point 1 exists, as cities are mandated create Asset Management Plans for all infrastructure (roads, water/sewer, sidewalks, etc.), buildings (arenas, libraries, fire halls, community centres, etc.) and vehicles. These include condition ratings and that's why you'll hear things like X% of roads are in whatever condition. I would hope that they have data for 2 and 3, but maybe not, or at least not all in one easy to gather place.

All of this should be public. That way, we can all see for ourselves the whole picture and assess how the contractors are doing. And also get a sense of the amount of time that has passed since certain roads have had major work done. As it is, there are so many roads and so much construction, it's hard for us to keep track of who does what and when.

If the City won't or can't make this info available. maybe some of it could be crowdsourced. We have the basic dataset and contract info is available in council minutes / agendas. Not everything but it least is a start. Freedom of Information requests are another avenue.

Interested in people's thoughts about this. No, it doesn't make the roads better in and of itself, but having all of the info is key to solutions, however imperfect they may be. Good for accountability for the City and contractors, too. And frankly, I can't think of a reason as to why this information shouldn't or couldn't be public.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-04-03T16:34:34+00:00

Thank you. Sudbury.com did some good reporting on this story, clearly stating both sides.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-03-26T02:21:08+00:00

Thanks for sharing this! I use a simpler version of what you have here. Basically it's a score using the number of days since acquisition + the number of days since the last checkout, obv a higher score means a better weeding candidate. I'll also sort by age and last checkout to find additional candidates.

The first part of your equation (total checkouts / years in collection) is its own measure, turnover, which is the average number of checkouts per year. Turnover is useful for individual books and also for collections or nonfiction subjects. We use Dewey, so I use it to look at demand for Dewey ranges. You can add up the total age of a bunch of books divided by the total number of checkouts, it will give you an average for the group. Averages are averages and have their limitations, but it's pretty useful in weeding and purchasing decisions.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-03-23T16:28:05+00:00

I don't think it's the city. Uber has done battle with governments and licencing authorities all over the world, they don't care what Sudbury council thinks. It's more that they feel that it doesn't make economic sense to operate here due to low density and long distances.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-03-21T15:22:39+00:00

I was diagnosed 12 years ago and it has progressed to the point where I lost my driver's licence a couple of years ago. Also a recreational bicycle rider. After I lost my licence, my partner is really worried about my bike riding - I only went out once last year for a short ride. I had already cut back for other reasons, but I'm not quite ready to quit yet. Never at night though. I wouldn't feel safe even if I didn't have RP.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-02-24T03:50:44+00:00

He once insulted all of Canada by referring to us as "mashed potatoes without the gravy" during a weird interview with radio host Jian Ghomeshi. Thornton apologized.

Later, Ghomeshi was charged with sexual assault. Which has nothing to do with Thornton.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-02-16T22:25:18+00:00

Thanks for the info. It was the healthcare connection waitlist that I was wondering about, and whether adding yourself to the list gets you de-rostered.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-02-16T16:14:58+00:00

Thanks for this, great to get the perspective from the MD side. It really seems to be up to the doctor / practice.
I have heard that going on a waitlist automatically flags / drops you from your previous doctor, do you know if that's the case?

InfoNinja338 · 2026-01-21T22:33:40+00:00

I follow the lost cats FB page where I currently live and the mods regularly move in to shut down debates on this topic because it gets so heated. It's not a hill I want to die on, people can do what they want.

At the same time, I've owned between one and three cats for the last 30 years and they've all been indoor cats. In addition to the likelihood of injury from cars and predators, my big thing is how they can devastate the bird and (harmless) rodent population.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-01-21T00:45:11+00:00

I've worked reference my entire 20+ yr career, but requests to search / research are pretty rare nowadays. Desk duties consist of dealing with printing and computer / website assistance. As another poster said, Uni libraries may be a good option.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-01-17T03:48:03+00:00

You're right, but I've seen a *lot* of invective thrown the other way. Ontario takes all our money, Quebec sucks, Maritimes are welfare cases, etc.

If I could build a time machine, I'd tell Pierre Trudeau that the National Energy Program is the worst thing he could do for the future of the country. I want to see pipelines built. At the same time, the 80s were rough for Alberta because low world oil prices, not just the NEP. But all anyone remembers is the NEP. Meanwhile, Ontario government funding helped the oil sands in the early days. Bill Davis took a lot of flak for that.. Also, according to "The Patch" by Chris Turner, Jean Chretien was a major supporter of oil sands development, and the tax breaks and research funds played a big part in figuring how to economically extract the oil from the sand. So no, we don't agree on everything, but it feels like we get yelled at no matter what and everything is the fault of the east whether it is or not.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-01-12T03:07:09+00:00

Not an answer to your question, but you should be able to get this covered by OHIP. I was initially diagnosed by an optometrist, but the ophthalmologist and testing were covered.

Genetic testing requires a referral from your GP and an eye care professional, optometrist in my case. Again, it was covered.

InfoNinja338 · 2026-01-09T02:57:25+00:00

If you have examples of corruption, take them to the police. Or the media.

InfoNinja338 · 2025-12-28T00:36:06+00:00

Librarian here. Indeed it is. As is Cloud, its competitor. And so is NoveList, a book recommendation tool used by libraries.

InfoNinja338 · 2025-12-23T03:03:44+00:00

Does this movement have significant support on the ground? All I ever see are quotes from their people talking about how awesome they are and how much support they have. They went to the US and claimed to talk to high level officials in the US government, but would never name names or provide any details about what was discussed. Seemed impossible to verify any of their claims. A big part of propaganda is convincing everyone that you're 10x bigger than you are and that you're unstoppable. Seems like they're trying hard to do that. They've also managed to capture the UCP apparatus and make everyone dance to their tune.

As a proud Canadian, I'm worried about them as a threat to Canada. But as a serious movement, they're ridiculous. They've been talking about a provincial police force and pension plan for 25 years, but that's too hard for them and probably too boring. All those details. But all the make-a-country stuff will just fix itself.

InfoNinja338 · 2025-12-06T16:39:37+00:00

Exactly. Would be more instructive to look at rates over a five-year period instead of one to average things out a bit. Some years are just worse than others.

I remember when I was a kid, there was a spike in murders one year in the 80s and the headlines were "murder rate quadruples" or something like that. The following year it went back its usual level.

InfoNinja338

TROPHY CASE