When I was a kid, the dedicated teachers at St. Rose School in Edmonton showed up every day to set my peers and I up for success. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to go back and thank the teachers doing the same for the next generation #WorldTeachersDay.

The title of my next paper: On Whether Beginning a Paper Title with "On" is Acceptable

Watching Keeping Up Appearances and other British comedies as a child unquestionably shaped (warped) my sense of humour. This news is terribly sad, but also nice to see Patricia Routledge’s entire career being celebrated.

(solemnly) You've had mail.

At what point in the fall term is it no longer acceptable to start an email with “Hope your new academic year is off to a great start!” September 30 is still good, right?

It's well past time for the federal and provincial governments to strip private colleges of their DLI designations and legislate them out of existence. These strip mall businesses are exploitative and an embarrassment to the entire #cdnpse sector.

I go one step further than @joeldavidhamkins.bsky.social—an academic whose quality of writing I try to emulate in my own—in that I'm an avid user of both the em dash and the less appreciated en dash, thanks to the technical editing courses I took back in 2014–15.

[Taps Calendar]

it’s time for universities to return to their core mission (acting as the settings of novels by middle-aged professors about the midlife crises of middle-aged professors)

Check out the four amazing projects led by my summer research student and others in our department!

REMEMBER WHY WE HAVE THIS HOLIDAY, PEOPLE.

Like the writer, I’m also a chalkboard traditionalist and never used overhead projectors while teaching. But reading this eulogy brought back all kinds of grade school memories.

One thing nobody tells you about flying to/from an airgun competition is that your boarding pass gets this neat WEAP designation that makes all the airline staff give you a mildly concerned look.

Had a great time these past few days at the Canadian Pistol National Championships, and came home with a silver medal in the men's 10m air pistol marksman class. Looking forward to upgrading this to a gold next year!

My cartoons for this week’s @theguardian.com books #holiday #vacation #reading

exercises in concentrated academic spite are my absolute favorite papers to read eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237.pdf

"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week." --Willa Cather, 1925 and timeless

I couldn’t leave England without first paying a visit to this otherwise unassuming building.

I did it. I went to the British Museum and I saw the meme. Forget the conference, this was my real justification for going to England.

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

It really was something else to stand in the Bletchley Park office of the man himself. I feel like this is the computer science version of a pilgrimage.

After visiting the British Library today, I’ve now seen seven different copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio in my life, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that’s 3% of all First Folios in existence.

This cupcake had a table of six of the world’s best automata theorists (and me) sitting and staring, trying to figure out what language the Turing machine recognizes. You might say we were as busy as beavers.

every single academic should be allowed one " no <3" when responding to reviews

First full day in England and I've learned two things so far: 1. It's VERY disconcerting to sit in the front passenger seat of a right-hand drive car. 2. English people love the word "sorted".

On July 17, 1976, Canada hosted the Olympics for the first time. Held in Montreal, it featured 6,073 athletes competing in 198 events and 21 sports. The cost of the Olympics would take 30 years to pay off. This is the story of the 1976 Olympics. 🧵 1/14

Came across a great book at the used bookstore this past weekend ("Broad Band" by Claire L. Evans, @theuniverse.bsky.social) and within it I found a delightful poem by Radia Perlman. This is definitely getting worked into my lecture next year on spanning trees.

Me after saying I wasn't gonna buy any more books for a while

I don’t get the big deal about continued fractions, these things are super easy!

A favorite Wodehouse trick, which I feel is under remarked, is playing with what you’re allowed to do in a text. Funny example from an early novel.

I had the most wonderful dream last night in which I had a hideaway office in a nonexistent building on campus where I could get the “real work” done. It had wood-panelled walls and built-in bookcases and two doors. I was crushed when I woke up.

Shame I need to run across the track and add the missing apostrophe.

Wild to see this situation in a different field when (IME) someone in my field can reasonably keep up with the literature, nobody complains about reviewing from either side, and barely anyone counts papers/citations. Like comparing a Chihuahua to a Great Dane: they’re both dogs, but so different!

Liddle’ USA, who wants to have a day off so badly this week, is celebrating their Independence Day, which is a boring name by the way, without even knowing that Canada already did it earlier this week! Maybe if the USA became our Cherished 11th Province, they could enjoy their day off sooner!

As I've matured as an academic, I've grown to dislike footnotes. Today, I found an authoritative legal concurrence I can point to whenever I need to back up my stance.

Indiana Jones will be played by a rotating cast of three adjuncts who answer to two different associate deans

The story behind Mike Myers's SNL 'elbows up' moment #MikeMyers #ElbowsUp #Canada www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Happy Canada Day 🍁 KANA’TA 🟥🍁🟥 #ViveLeCanada #Canada #KANA’TA #CanadaDay

Getting super excited to visit England for the first time next month. I'll be in Loughborough for one week for conferences, and then spending another week in London and environs. Any suggestions on what to see/do outside of the typical tourist-y sights?

In 1976, Canada hosted the Olympics for the first time when Montreal welcomed the world to the Summer Olympics. But behind the scenes, Montreal police were raiding gay establishments and shutting them down. This is the story of the Montreal Olympic Cleanup. 🧵 1/8

Putting conference/travel/accommodation expenses on your personal credit card: ☹️ Going on the trip: 🙂 Filling out the claims paperwork: ☹️ Getting your expenses reimbursed from your research grant: 🙂

I feel like @spaikin.bsky.social is the only person who can wear t-shirts with Ontario's premiers on them and still manage to look cool. I'm waiting to see the orange Bob Rae (or even better, the green Ernest Drury) shirt to break up all of the reds and blues. #onpoli

me: there’s nothing worse than opening a blank document microsoft word: hold my beer

Maybe I'm missing something here, but why is there a market for an AI tool that gathers references for you *after* you've written your content? I know I'm old-fashioned, but familiarity with the literature seems to me like a good idea when you're conducting research.

Today, let’s take a moment to recognize and celebrate the namesake of our most prestigious award: Alan M. Turing, who was born on this day in 1912. His work cracked the Enigma code, helped win WWII, and laid the groundwork for #AI. More on him, here: amturing.acm.org/amtv.cfm

Academic freedom mostly means freedom to work on something for 10 years and still not submit it