The Cheat Sheet: January/February 2018 City Council (Extra Special Low Effort Edition)

On this meeting’s agenda: waterfront transit, a Rail Deck Park development proposal, various TCHC issues, self-driving cars, cryptocurrency, a new revenue tool, and, of course, tree removal applications.

Several items were deferred from the last meeting; check my previous write-up. Continue reading The Cheat Sheet: January/February 2018 City Council (Extra Special Low Effort Edition)

Social media resolutions for 2018

More creating, less commenting.

’Nuff said.

Ranting about racism in the media or whatever outrageous thing an outrageous person said is exhausting and it doesn’t change anything and I’d rather just take a nap or whatever. I need to make the stuff I want to see.

More Mastodon, less Twitter.

This is partly because Twitter has become a deluge of terrible news at a scale beyond the human mind’s ability to process healthily, and also on principle. Proprietary platforms funded by ads and venture capital don’t make for good communities. I’ve put my money where my mouth is and joined social.coop, a co-operatively run Mastodon instance. No ads. No algorithms. No Nazis.

This means my coverage will change—less livetweeting, more aimed at people beyond Toronto. What would a German hacker or an Appalachian activist or a Filipin@ K-pop fan want to know about what’s going on at Toronto City Hall? Why should they care?

More iNaturalist and BugGuide, less Instagram.

I’ve been using Instagram for my spider photos, but have been neglecting to upload my photos to iNaturalist and BugGuide. I love the stuff I see on Instagram, but all the ads and the lack of chronological order is extremely annoying. So I’d like to shift my focus and try contributing to different communities.

More PayPal, less Patreon.

In the wake of Patreon’s unpopular and quickly walked-back fee changes, I think a lot of us users recognized the precariousness of depending on a platform we can’t control and whose goals do not necessarily align with ours. I’d like to cut out one of the middlemen and encourage patrons to switch to going directly through PayPal, which also allows for automatic monthly donations.

A platform like Liberapay is more in line with my needs. Right now it’s at a stage where I’d be comfortable asking people to switch to it, but I will be keeping an eye on its development, and on similar open-source platforms.

Less Facebook.

I’m just going to stop trying to “engage” on Facebook. Aside from the ethical and privacy considerations, it’s just plain hard to use. None of my devices have more than 2 GB of RAM! I can’t handle all that! Also, I hate finding out about my neighbours’ terrible opinions.

Adapted from this toot.

Spiders of Toronto: #2017bestnine

So there’s a thing going around Instagram where you post a collage of your top nine photos from 2017, ranked by likes. Here’s mine:

As determined by 2017bestnine.

Maybe not surprisingly, there wasn’t much overlap with what I considered my best photos! I couldn’t quite narrow them down to nine, but here they are, in chronological order. Continue reading Spiders of Toronto: #2017bestnine

The Cheat Sheet: December 2017 City Council

This month Council will pass the rate-based (water, waste, and parking) budgets. Also on the agenda: Rail Deck Park, SmartTrack, taking action against anti-Black racism, AirBnB regulations, and more.

Continue reading The Cheat Sheet: December 2017 City Council

The Cheat Sheet: November 2017 City Council

Since the last regular Council meeting, Council narrowly voted to appoint a Tory supporter to replace late councillor Pam McConnell; Waterfront Toronto announced its partnership with Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs; and City Manager Peter Wallace frankly discussed Toronto’s possible futures in an annual address.

On this meeting’s agenda: the Bloor bike lanes; a Parks and Rec master plan; Metrolinx fare integration; the George Street Revitalization; and more.

Continue reading The Cheat Sheet: November 2017 City Council

The Cheat Sheet: October 2017 City Council

Council returns from its summer hiatus today, and so I’m back with my usual guide to the agenda. Quite a lot has happened on the municipal scene: Cllr Pam McConnell’s death, Chief Planner Jen Keesmaat resigning, cops in schools temporarily suspended, harm reduction workers creating an unofficial supervised injection site, no doubt more I’ve forgotten. Anyway. Onward.

Continue reading The Cheat Sheet: October 2017 City Council

Spiders of the Western Waterfront

If you follow my Instagram you’ll see that I spend most of my spider-watching time on the western waterfront. There’s an abundance of diverse spider habitats all along the Martin Goodman Trail, but there are several parks that are worth dedicated visits. Here’s a tour…

Continue reading Spiders of the Western Waterfront

I Read Reports So You Don’t Have To: Sept. 5, 2017 Budget Committee Agenda

After a few months on summer break, City Council committees start meeting again this week. Including my favourite one, Budget Committee! Here’s a quick read-through of the agenda, adapted from Twitter. Mostly because my soul recoils at the thought of using pictures of text instead of actual text.

Continue reading I Read Reports So You Don’t Have To: Sept. 5, 2017 Budget Committee Agenda