Chu 朱

Got a good reminder today about how small things can make a big difference. First lecture for a cohort of data science students. I teach communications. We talked about how data doesn't speak for itself. It ust be contextualized... and it will get politicized. I said it would be used and abused in fights like women's rights, trans rights, minority rights... Data is never apolitical. A student came up to me telling me how refreshing I was and was nearly in tears as they said no professor ever talked about trans rights before. I think they felt seen for the first time at least at this institution. I certainly was not expecting such a response. Small thing that went a long way

I decided I like the Chinese term for the Milky Way more than English. They call it 星河 -star river. What else do people call it in other places? Edit: in Chinese it is also known as 銀河 - silver river. Star river is an older term for it it seems. I still like both over milky way.

I'd like to make an official entry into the #carryshitolympics.

I'm hoping it says something about me as an instructor that 60/62 students submitted their first assignment on time. One has an extension as they enrolled in the course the day it was due. So out of 62, only 1 AWOL assignment and could very be one of the accommodation students - haven't checked yet. As a TA, I don't think I ever saw more than 80% submitted on time. Class seems to be taking me seriously. #AcademicChatter

I used to think it was obnoxious of cyclists to blast loud music as they went by. Then I realized I was constantly on my bell dinging away as nobody looks at me... so why not blast music? I just ordered one of those speakers that you can attach to a bike handle and trying to figure it out now. Looks like I can put music on a stick and play it. So far, I have the entire Thriller album on there. What else is good biking music to annoy the jerks parked in bike lanes?

I'm hanging out at the park and there are two other cargo bikes parked on the side. We will need more space for cargo bikes. Better than making space for cars though.

I just want to send some love today to anyone suffering from trauma. It's something we don't talk about enough. I had a relatively small bout of trauma from seeing one of my kids get injured. Last night I had another nasty nightmare about a child being injured. Its the kind of nightmare I wake up from screaming. I can't imagine what living with major trauma is like. Just want to send some love today. I'm sure there are lots of people going through stuff suffering silently. Know you're not alone.

Another update on getting kids a device when they start to walk to and from school alone. My stance on "no" has not changed. Today is a big day for 11. Both kids had to get themselves to grandparents alone. Got fed, and 11 biked alone to taekwondo. I didn't ask for this but I did let people know 11 would be unsupervised till I got there. I got a update from grandparents when they left and just got an update from another friend that they arrived. I will die on this hill - Community building does far more for my children's safety than getting them a device to track them. A lot of people are looking out for my kids in my absence. I'll be there soon but in the meantime, my community is there already.

Pfft. As enlightened as the rest of them. White guy supports ban on female ordination of an Asian religion. The best thing I ever did for myself was take a religious studies course in University. At the time, I was lost. I was trying to break away from the Church that my mom dragged me to as a kid. I was struggling with ideas of going to hell, losing family, and add that to the suicide of my best friend. I was in a pretty bad place. I bought myself copies of every major religious works, including books about Buddhism. I genuinely read scriptures from various religions trying to find the one for me. I still carried the mindset that I HAD to have a religion. When I took the religious studies course, I suddenly understood that religion was about power. It was about controlling women. Religion was not about a higher being. It was about strict social structures in an organized society and a group of elites got to control the money and power under the guise of a higher order. Sure, it was the merchant class that held the money, and the political class that held the power... but it was the religious class that bossed both around. I hold particular resentment toward the church because of my childhood. My paternal grandmother was Buddhist and that didn't rub well with my Christian mother. I eventually grew to hate all religions nearly equally but with a soft spot for Buddhism. The ban on women reminds me not to hold soft spots. ALL religions hate us. And we should equally hate all religions and not let them tell us who is and isn't worthy. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/24/asia-pacific/society/briton-thailand-foreign-monk/

People of Ontario, please start referring to these wildfres as "Ford Fires". He cut over $184 million from the wildfire funding because climate change is his love.

When they say a higher tax rate will disincentize the rich from working more, why is the answer not "great!"? Let someone less rich do the work

All of Sheeran's support acts show us what solidarity looks like and why it's important. None of us can fight the power and influence of the billionaire lobby alone. We must stand together. Sheeran is too much of a coward, but I respect the people who stood behind Mackelmore, even at their own professional expense. Solidarity. Sheeran is shining bright as the ass he truly is in this saga. Political neutrality is a joke. That's another word for Nazi. https://globalnews.ca/news/12061171/ed-sheeran-support-acts-withdraw-macklemore-removal

Doc has me off wheat and dairy for 3 months to help diagnose some GI issues. Please send me your Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free life hacks. I am one week in and questioning so many life choices right now.

RE: https://techhub.social/@NSFVoyager2/117274945554081393 Could very well be all that alien anthropologists have of us.

RE: https://climatejustice.social/@chu/117283927596792623 Update on this. Day 1 of riding with a speaker. One person about to step into the bike lane looked back and did not step in front of me! It's working!

A thought about family, community, trust, and privilege. I used to be very careful not to leave the house without my wallet and always carried some emergency cash in an inner pocket just in case. Not only did I stop double checking a long time ago, today, I noticed I deliberately left my wallet at home to have less to carry (as long as it's not a planned shopping run). Granted I'm not going far. I'm in the neighbourhood. Despite being out and about for several hours, I know I'll be seeing family later. If there's a situation in the neighbourhood, I can rely on friends who will be with me to spot me. Even the local store has my account and I can owe for a day or two if I was desperate for something. There's a certain level of community that had to be built before this. There's also reliance on family and knowing I'll see them and knowing they are close. This isn't the kind of thing I did when I was younger and didn't know people as well. I wouldn't dare. Community building means being able to trust that your community will be there to bail you if need be. It means having people around you know will have your back. It's also the type of thing capitalism wants to deprive us of. Lack of community means reliance on the capitalist system. It means turning to things, tech, instead of people. Fighting the system first and foremost means building a strong community that will be there for you. It means you have to be there for everyone else too.

The 11yo is totally ready to be a parent "We're going to the bike park today?!?! Yay!!!!! Oh. Bring some bandages!"

I painfully have to call my health insurance company (this is Canada, not even the US). "For safety and security, we sent you a pin to your phone..." "The person you are calling is not taking calls right now. Try again later" And that was that. It just ended. WTF

Saw a superyacht and wishing orcas came to the great lakes.

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/116997262133211532 Holy Shit. This is next level. Not even pretending anymore.

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social I thought this headline for it was particularly spot on.

Not even good Cantonese. With all the available Cantonese media out there, the huge HK media market of the 90s, they couldn't even pirate enough good Cantonese to make a bot that speaks it properly. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tilly-norwood-glitches-piers-morgan-switches-language-speaks-cantonese-9.7352222

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Toronto through the roof right now. Outdoor activities are being cancelled, and people are crawling indoors. People with respiratory ailments are suffering. Canada's Prime Minister thinks another pipeline is going to fix our AQI. You gotta have pretty low IQ for that. I honestly hope there's a lawyer prepping a class action lawsuit against the oil men somewhere for this.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@KristopherWells/116955954653490033 I remember this well. Over Boxing Day dinner my brother and I argued about this. My mom had some church friends over. I got a scolding from one of the church bigots. I stormed out the front door of my own house while my mom hosted her shallow church friends. The next year I told my mom she could choose to have her big Christmas holiday church friend gatherings or have me home for Christmas. It would not be both. That bigots did me a favour. That basically ended the rest of my family pretending to tolerate Christmas anymore to appease my mother and I've never had to pretend to celebrate the commercial holiday since. Knowing what happened, my then boyfriend knew I was serious even though at the time, being from Alberta, he still had reservations about the idea. He would debate the topic in a respectful way and I eventually won him over (I would not have stayed with him if i didn't). I may not be the best ally but I never stood by silently while the LGBTQ community was getting bullied in front of me. Fast forward all these years, just last month, that same boyfriend (now husband) said to our son about the locks on Paris bridges) "one day maybe you will understand these silly traditions if you ever come back with a girlfriend.... or boyfriend." Canada was a leader in this. I have many fears that these hard fought rights will disappear though. NEVER VOTE CONSERVATIVE

@gimulnautti@mastodon.green @jensorensen@mastodon.social If they could, they would proudly not pay them anything at all.

The Web is so broken now. There's a very specific board game I'm interested in so tried to search. First non FB hit was taobao, a store I don't care to order from. So clicked down a few links. Could not get past security verification on one site, then needed an account to even view the product on another. It's like the Internet doesn't actually exist anymore.

I am optimistically including "Ethics" as part of proposal writing criteria. I know I am lying through my teeth telling students that ethics in business matter. But still. I will lie.

@amiserabilist@beige.party @tino76H@norden.social @RAlpenstern@troet.cafe OMG. Most perfect background ever. I'm almost tempted to put this on my computer so it shows up every time I plug it into the overhead projector in the lecture hall.

Air in Toronto is so bad everyone not trading on Bay Street is calling it an apocalypse. Bay Street is licking their chops calling it sweet, sweet profits.

USA doesn't ban guns because guns don't kill people. People kill people. They won't ban AI because AI doesn't do bad things, people do bad things. Oh... it did a bad thing on its own. Uh.... It's "unprecedented" Um... Hm... We still can't ban it because uh....

Update: It doesn't look like I can even make this icon go away.

There are some paths of logic I will never understand. Some grandkids of my parents' friends are making up for lost time and now learning to swim. It never happened before as the now ex wife was scared of the kids drowning. She's out of picture now so the dad is getting them swimming lessons. I don't get it. I'm worried about kids drowning so I will make sure they don't have basic water survival skills. 🤔🤔

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org Another unexplored danger of bacon.

@Pinchy63@ottawa.place @FknHannu@zeroes.ca My whole family is masked when outdoors. I dropped off kid 1 at camp. There was a little girl also getting dropped off. The smell was so bad she was pinching her nose and breathing through her mouth and coughing. I looked judgmentally at the parent. I'm in Bible belt North though. I doubt many here believe in masks. It's not in the book of john.

RE: https://halo.nu/@theguardian_world_news/116924883915195900 We're number one! We're number one! Oh... and a pipeline will clearly make this all better.

Canada, you know, the country that pretends it's committed to environmental stewardship is building a pipeline after thousands of heat deaths in rich Europe, let alone poor anywhere else.

@RnDanger@infosec.exchange @sphcow@mas.to I just laughed out loud imagining what the students are going to think of this one.

@sphcow@mas.to What the???? This is definitely getting used. Thanks! I'm going to throw up a bunch of examples and have them analyze them.

Masto friends, Looking for some help. If you've come across any particularly good or annoying sales pitches in your inboxes, can you screen shot and send it my way? It's for a communications course I am teaching and writing a pitch one of the elements. I figure we can analyze some real world examples. Thanks!

These are Ford Fires. Our politicians own this. They play politics with fire fighting budgets, climate change science, and lives. Heads need to roll and I no longer care if this expression is figurative. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/namaygoosisagagun-first-nation-wildfire-9.7272350

@michaelgemar@cosocial.ca Q4 numbers, probably.

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social This seems like a F around and find out kind of moment

@sphcow@mas.to HAHA. I had assumed as much.

@Pinchy63@ottawa.place Never vote for bankers. Or conservative.

@dbattistella@mstdn.ca No news on Mad Mitch yet?

@TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world Never stop your enemy from making a mistake

RE: https://masto.ai/@Miro_Collas/116928105738810900 What the Americans are doing is a crime against humanity. If our courts won't judge them, history will. May whatever God they believe in judge their hypocrisy harshly.

That fuckery that's happening to Fauci right now... Yeah. That's literally fascism

@bob_zim@infosec.exchange @petrillic@hachyderm.io We may be rapidly heading back to a time where the only way to do anything like send money or apply for a mortgage is to move your butt down to see the bank manager.