@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

AmeliasBrain

@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca

Music (mostly blues & roots), gardening (weather-permitting), and everyday life with some science, politics, and public health, from a chronically exhausted, early middle-aged homebody nerd.

Also at https://front-end.social/@AmeliaBR for web-dev nerdery, although I haven't actually been working for years.

All currently rooted in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (#YEG), a settlement built at amiskwacîwâskahikan, a traditional gathering place of Cree and other indigenous peoples.

😷➕💉 > 🤧➕🤒 !

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

IPEdmonton, to random
@IPEdmonton@mstdn.ca avatar

The Brits are all talking about warnings not to eat a whole Easter egg in one sitting, and I am 🧐 about this, because in my dialect an “Easter egg” is a hard-boiled chicken egg that has been dyed pretty colours, usually by children, from those little kits we used to buy at the supermarket (do they still sell those? With the tablets dissolved in vinegar?). And I have eaten one of those in one sitting MANY TIMES, including as a young child.

What on earth is an “Easter egg” to the Brits?

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@Pentapod @IPEdmonton Woah, those are decadent, indeed. But yes, you would need something smaller for an actual egg hunt!

ned, (edited ) to ontario
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

This is the new face of healthcare in under Doug Ford. Do not let Danielle Smith do this to !

Note: "Care& is a modern private family clinic powered by Nurse Practitioners. Our mission is to deliver primary care that is comprehensive, efficient, and affordable."

Nurses, not doctors.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned Direct-billing nurse practitioner clinics already happened here in Alberta (there were news stories last year), and the government actually responded by making plans to set up a system where NPs can bill the public health insurance instead.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-nurse-practitioner-independent-clinics-1.7037047

(I'm not sure if this means they will be cracking down on nurses offering primary care by billing patients. IMO, the federal government really needs to clarify the Canada Health Act on this issue, so there's consistency.)

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

I would be uneasy about someone who enjoyed the serial killer colouring book.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic The... what now?

This sounds like AI product generation run amok. You know what's really hot right now? Colouring books for adults and true crime podcasts! Let's mash them together.

bkardell, to random
@bkardell@toot.cafe avatar

Sometimes when I have to give my name I say "K" hopefully before they type "C", "A-R" and then I have two similar sounding letters, so I say "D ... as in Dog", "E... as in elephant", "LL"... and sometimes I say "as in Cool J", but no one has ever even chuckled at this.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@bkardell (well, I just chuckled, so that's something, isn't it?)

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

is there a way to nicely ask someone why? like

"ooh, XYZ makes me so angry!"
"why?"
"doesn't it make YOU angry?!?"

yeah, but I wanted to know your perspective, I wasn't challenging your opinion.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic @DavidM_yeg Depending on the XYZ in question, "What is it this time?" might also apply.

(Works for everything from frustrating software to infuriating political parties.)

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

having snakes in your office sometimes means you have to open the window in winter because someone didn't eat their food overnight and the room is heated to 24°C

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic In related news, check your rodent supplier to see if this alert applies:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/snakes-salmonella-rodents-1.7148744

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

sitting around eating supper in my boxers at 10 pm. high me did NOT consider cooking time before starting this meal

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic I mean, I've done this even without intoxicants, just bad time management. Often following a late afternoon nap that means I wake up hungry after 7pm & start to get plans about what to make.

dabertime, to Alberta
@dabertime@mstdn.ca avatar

" offering $5000 to lure workers"
Lure? Lure them to what?
This sounds sinister. 😬

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned @dabertime The emphasis in the marketing for the new program is housing / construction trades. But, I wouldn't be surprised if the details also leave room for O&G industry to benefit.

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

oh. good

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic But do you pronounce 13rd as tenty-third or as thirteenerd? Thirturd?

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

thinking about taking transport down to the river valley. do Lyft/Uber allow dogs or…?

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic The only thing I know on the topic is that people with licensed service dogs have often had issues with ride-app drivers denying to pick them up, so I'd recommend being darn sure that a small pup (in a carrier?) is OK before you wait around.

ETS chatbot says it's OK to bring a dog on the bus if they are in a carrier.

ned, to random
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

"Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to. It is really a very simple notion. But it’s one that the rich and powerful have always found extremely dangerous.

The assumption of Anarchism is that human beings are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to be, and can organize themselves and their communities without needing to be told how."

https://davidgraeber.org/articles/are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-maysurprise-you/

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@cthulku @ned Yeah, there's a big difference between "we don't like the current government & don't think their laws should apply to us" vs "we don't think governments, laws, or law enforcement systems are necessary or helpful".

(For myself, I'm firmly on team "anarchism is a beautiful ideal, yeah, but have you lived in this society lately?")

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@cthulku @ned That's an interesting example. Because, of course, most people do return their shopping carts, with or without coin deposits. And some will collect up the stray carts, left by others, that are in the way.

But on the larger scale, it isn't just about the lazy things people do that inconvenience others. It's about people actually hurting others (directly or by taking essential resources) through narcissistic perceptions of what they deserve, or exaggerated retribution for slights.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@cthulku @ned And I don't think any amount of social conditioning, to do what is fair just because regardless of threat of punishment, will change the fact that some people will believe that what's fair is something that prioritizes their own needs over others.

Which is why anarchism only ever perseveres in small scales where it's possibly to exile anti-social members, in sufficiently resource-rich / low-density environments that it's not worth it for the exiles to gang up & take over by force.

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

is it just me, or is this a supremely shitty way to depict data, with various shades of blue? I get what they were going for - water is blue - but just - no, CBC. no

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/in-this-drought-year-alberta-s-water-allocation-is-under-the-microscope-here-s-what-the-data-says-1.7133575

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic The colour scales aren't outright horrible: adjacent bands have OK contrast. Probably the result of asking a colour-scale generator to give you a monochromatic scale with N non-ordered categories. But in a pie chart where the labels are in a legend off to the side, there are way too many similar colours, yeah.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic Yes, exactly. Lots of news orgs like monochromatic colour scales because they translate well to black & white printing. You can't accidentally pick values that look good in colour but are indistinguishable in grayscale (or to people who are colour-blind). But that assumes that you actually make sure they're distinguishable, or at least sufficiently labelled, when coloured!

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

Canada Post just cut off my mail because they said they couldn't access my sidewalk. my shoveled sidewalk. I am extremely angry right now.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic When I've received those notices (Canada Post suspending service for unsafe access) in the past, it was usually for ice build-up. Since I don't go out a lot, that could sometimes happen during freeze-thaw cycles without me realizing it.

(I suspect some carriers are also much fussier than others; I haven't had a report in a long time. Although, I also have other neighbours sharing the walk-clearing duties now.)

But if you can't see a problem, there must be a # to call on the notice?

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

more things need to look like the iMac (bondi blue) for the sake of my happiness. if I were technologically inclined I'd take a bondi case and slap a new Mac Pro in it or something

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic @likelyjanlukas I was fortunate enough to get my first computer experience on an original Mac. My dad was an original-gen computer nerd, and he was able to add-on an order when his work bought them & get a bulk discount (though it was still probably very pricey for our family budget at the time).

When I see them now, I am astounded at how tiny they are. But then, I was very much smaller back in the 1980s, too!

But yeah: so much easier when we got the 2nd (external) floppy drive.

ned, (edited ) to random
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

This episode was the most heartwarming and heartwrenching story, almost of the whole series (though you can't deny the impact of Ellie and Riley, or the final hospital scene). It had me floored, and I believe my wife too. This strawberry plant scene shown here was the cutest ever... "Not on the strawberries!" <3

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned The strawberry plant scene actually bugged me, because he claimed that he grew the strawberries from seeds he'd received earlier that year, and those are definitely not first-year plants. Where'd you get the strawberries, Bill? Why you lying about them???

And it was such an unforced error, too: it could easily have been explained that he found the berries growing in an abandoned house & transplanted them. They just needed someone who knew plants who had the power to correct the script!

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned (But yes: other than that quibble, that episode was a heart-wrenching little mini-movie.)

stephanie, to transit
@stephanie@ottawa.place avatar

We thought about using to go to the National Art Center tonight.

Four adult bus tickets: $15.20
Parking for our car: $12

It's absolutely ridiculous.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@stephanie Unexpected WFH side effect! When you're commuting by transit everyday & have a monthly pass, then using it for errands & outings (especially downtown) just makes sense. But yeah, when you're paying by the trip, the numbers don't add up with multiple people travelling together and a car as an option (except for giant events where there's no parking).

(But also: Wow, OCTranspo has gotten expensive! And next to no discount for Presto anymore. In Edmonton, it's $5.50/round trip on Arc.)

ned, to edmonton
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

So a 45 year old woman was killed in SE when RCMP laid down spikes along 50th Street around 23rd Ave (a very busy piece of road, from what I remember), which disabled a whole bunch of civilian vehicles before sending the stolen U-Haul they were after out of control and into her. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't a spike belt be laid out AFTER a road block, not just thrown down on the road for anybody to hit? The thief then jacked a car which had a kid, who was found safe minutes after.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned Oh, fuck. I saw the headline about the death in a crash, but that's a whole other layer of story.

Glad to see that there will be an ASIRT investigation, because this is yet again a case of police failing to consider public safety in their desire to play action-movie heroes. It seems Beaumont RCMP are no better than EPS on that front.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/woman-killed-in-hit-and-run-with-u-haul-truck-in-southeast-edmonton-identified-1.7125286

Pentapod, to random
@Pentapod@mstdn.ca avatar

This has been a pretty terrible week on the whole between Pansy getting a bladder infection and needing many expensive tests, and me managing to do something in my sleep that made me so dizzy I threw up more than once due to motion sickness. 😩 On top of work and house hunting deadlines. So for here is Pansy expressing how we both feel this week! Both starting to feel a bit better today I hope.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@IPEdmonton @Pentapod A friend started having bouts of extreme vertigo a few years back; she also eventually got relief from a physical treatment (in her case, from a chiropractor).

If I understood correctly, she was told it was probably caused by stress-related muscle tension in her case, so I'm not sure if it's the same underlying cause as for IP, but either way it's good to know there are treatments if you ask around.

ned, (edited ) to random
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

As a car-free job seeker right now, I'm running into this constantly. I was a licensed driving instructor before I went car-free. I taught thousands of motorcycle students how to stay safe on the streets. Why do I not qualify as a "Bike Educator", because I now ride a "Bike"?
I ran photo studios for 15 years, but now I don't qualify for any jobs as a photographer because I'm not driving a car? I was fine without for 10 years, in much higher professional positions than I'm applying for.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@ned It does at least sound like you'd be driving a City-owned vehicle (requires a special permit & no mention of needing your own car), so I'm guessing this is less about commuting to work and more about being able to quickly get to multiple off-site locations during the day.

But still, it's a little on the nose for a "bike educator" role in our sprawling car-centric city.

@keithzg

senanthic, to photography
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

no way to get there from here.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic Ooh, I don't think I've seen this one before, although you have so many great photos of that island & lake in different lights. But the golden glow is intense on this one, balancing out what would normally be foreboding low clouds.

senanthic, to random
@senanthic@mstdn.ca avatar

today is the five-year anniversary of my funniest cardioversion, which is a milestone that I think most people don't have, but it WAS really funny.

AmeliasBrain,
@AmeliasBrain@mstdn.ca avatar

@senanthic (well, now I'm curious...)

Either way: any major health incident that you can laugh over later is something to be thankful for, I guess.

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