Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams

I will accept no moral high ground from a government that refuses to ban a platform that is actively, in real time, right in front of our faces, creating child sexual abuse materials. They're not banning it and there are still government departments with official Twitter accounts. Fuck Carney.

I made my annual blog post about books I read last year: kipress.wordpress.com/2026/01/01/m... I mean it, I usually only post on this blog once a year for this purpose...

“Carrots,” the handsome boy called Gilbert Blythe said. “Your hair is red, and therefore it is like carrots.” Anne shot Gilbert in the leg.

The Alberta minister in the Globe this morning responding to whether or not he's read the four books that prompted the wide school book banning: "“I am struggling to find the time to read a quarter of any book, let alone four books." They're graphic novels.

“…beyond intentional attacks, drivers in cars, SUVs and trucks threaten the safety of our public spaces everyday but we treat the damage they do like the weather: something inevitable that just happens.”

The seasonal market near my house just announced it's opening on Wednesday and I had to come somewhere to post this because the change that makes to my life for 5 months of the year is too big to not comment on.

Lots of great student writing posted recently at Working Draft magazine! Here are few - Georgia Dyck on her first season as a wildland firefighter: workingdraftmagazine.com/chasing-fire/

91 results. That's every book I've published since 1993, in multiple languages, scraped without permission to train AI. They're robbing us in hopes of replacing us.

I’m involved with a student magazine, Working Draft (out of Red River College Polytechnic in Winnipeg), and it’s in the middle of publishing its annual edition: workingdraftmagazine.com A sampling:

If you can see the difference between New York-based and New York–based, you may be a copy editor.

Annual tradition, now on Bluesky. youtu.be/OCbuRA_D3KU

congratulations to poet, editor and lawyer [and VERSeFest 2024 performer] Chimwemwe Undi on her Appointment as Canada's 11th Parliamentary Poet Laureate! / @versefest-ottawa.bsky.social ; lop.parl.ca/About/Parlia...

I reviewed Jasmina Odor's The Harvesters in the December issue of Alberta Views. albertaviews.ca/the-harveste...

"Marley was dead: to begin with." What's going on with that colon? #AChristmasCarol #Dickens #Grammar #Literature

In my house we just have to make contrarian craft projects. It’s a rule. (This one by the teenager.)

Since yesterday I was talking about Gates McFadden’s struggles to get behind the camera opportunities, it’s time for me to share a story about the Doctor and how she’s one of the reasons I’m a Professor. 🧵 (Here’s us at the 2024 #StarTrek convention #STLV)

In my Catholic high school in the 90s, an official school-sanctioned frosh week tradition was the grade 11 girls dressing up the grade 10 boys for a drag show. Was this common, or just us? Once in a while I scratch my head about this memory. There’s… a lot to unpack.

Saw The Princess Bride on a big screen for the first time-in the 80s I missed it in theatres and saw it on VHS. The cult-movie-communal-experience was spot-on. Wish there were more rep cinemas, at which I spent a lot of time in my youth, but I guess those days are over. The cinemas. Also my youth.

Today marks 35 years since a gunman entered Polytechnique, separated the men from the women & shot 14 women to death. It is now Canada's National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence against Women. Threads suck on this app but going to try and include my thoughts here as possible : 🧵

Untangling Christmas lights with the teenager while she educates me in the full Chappell Roan oeuvre. Actually quite a pleasant evening.

What is the working class? Many invoke it in this election, but no one defines it. How much is it economic, when a plumber can make 10x as much as adjunct professor? How much is it cultural/an identity, or the kind of labor? Why so many 1930s white-guy versions when so many are women and BIPOC?

An end-of-semester reminder of "The Cult of Done Manifesto" by Bre Pettis & Kio Stark (2009)

Complain about autocorrect, but a lot of the typos I make on my mobile device are because the autocorrect is not working correctly. Because it doesn’t know which language I’m using (I use the device for language learning and for emailing my kid’s school in bad French).

I'm still adding, but for folks looking for all the cool Indigenous folks to follow, here's my growing list! go.bsky.app/MEaiVa9

"If you want to crank out words at a high volume, dispel yourself of such quaint, artificial notions as 'morning' or 'days.' They are artificial constructs designed by those who want to slow down your writing."

I had a lovely time on the Turning Pages radio show talking about my Cross series of supernatural thrillers and the importance of knowing when to research the hell out of something and when to let the imagination run wild. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. umfm.com/programming/...

Welcome to Walking Eagle News: Journalism so deeply and profoundly Indigenous, assholes constantly dress up like us and go to music festivals. (Eagle cries in distance)

I understand why many stores have a "leave all bags at the counter" policy, but do they have any stats on how many people (mainly women, carrying a lot in their bags) just... choose to skip that store? The money those signs have probably saved me!

If i was the richest guy in the world i would just do stuff like give the decemberists 100 million dollars to write a concept album about the hardy boys

Poets and Teachers: use BardCode.org to generate colourized visualizations of your poetry, revealling internal rhymes and unseen patterns. Here's an example:

Cash-Strapped Subway Threatens To Reveal Identities Of Customers Who Eat Subway If They Don’t Pay | Onion News Network

For folks who just joined, here’s the directory of user-created follow lists (“starter packs”). blueskydirectory.com/starter-pack... Just don’t go overboard like I did, and remember you can add people to a list to go back to later instead of a straight follow.

If you like something, then hit the like button. But if you REALLY like something and think other people should see it, then you should hit the repost button. Bluesky works differently than platforms you're already used to. Liked posts don't get boosted to new eyes. The key is reposting.

the argument that “even if AI gets better very slowly, it will eventually be incredibly good at stuff” rests on a faulty premise that can be exposed by simply asking yourself if social media has gotten better, at any rate whatsoever, since 2007

I don’t need to go on social media to have my worldview challenged I am in theoretical physics I have a new existential crisis daily

Random bands are following me! Forget Early Twitter, I'm getting MySpace flashbacks.

bpNichol, "a / lake / a / lane / a / line / a / lone", in Back Lane Letters, ECS, Toronto, 1994. Download the full chapbook here: www.bpnichol.ca/sites/defaul...

Heads up everyone - this means they hate how well the blocklists work, which is amazing. But also time to be discerning about which lists you subscribe to.

Okay, y’all… I have finally decided that retreat is the better part of valor. Bringing some rainbow energy over to these blue skies. #bydhttmwdi

Schwa is so mid. #linguistics

I can’t stop following people. I want to hear about all your niche research, listen to every activist and advocacy community, learn about regional viewpoints, practise reading other languages, and support all the artists in every art form. I’m a lot curious and a little overwhelmed.

I've done Julie's training before and highly recommend!

1/IMPORTANT thread about Bluesky funding and origins. Many folks know that it was seeded by Jack Dorsey around a libertarian vision of a magical network that wouldn’t need moderation because it would be decentralized and baked into a protocol (somehow).

I use StoryGraph and I concur.

NEW: The great Trump-Musk crackdown is coming. And it will hit hard & fast. Journalists will be first. But everyone else is next. I urge you to read my 20 lessons in How to Survive the Broligarchy, inspired by & featuring the great @timothysnyder.bsky.social 1/ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...