climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction
Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph
Early this afternoon, I photographed a rally at Queen’s Park calling on the provincial government to remediate mercury contamination around Grassy Narrows which they authorized over fifty years ago.
Later, I took some portraits of a past professor of mine.
In each year of my PhD, I have applied for all the summer teaching assistant (TA) positions offered in the Department of Political Science (and, after second year, in the School of the Environment too). I never heard anything back as the result of my applications, including for frequently-advertised ’emergency’ positions and jobs in statistics courses which I expected to be less popular.
Today I had a brief conversation with a prof who I worked for in a fall and winter term and learned that virtually all summer TA jobs go to people who are beyond the 5-6 year span where U of T provides funding. Apparently, summer TA jobs all go to people who are in their 8th or 9th year, or otherwise well beyond the “funded cohort” and seniority is the overwhelming criterion used to select them.
It’s reflective of how U of T generally under-funds its graduate students, as well as how the quality of teaching provided to undergrads is clearly not a university priority.
Having finally finished grading the second set of late essay assignments, I am now calculating the participation grades for my tutorials in the fall and winter term.
The profile of attendance across time isn’t as flat as one might like, but doesn’t look too dismal:
On Wednesday, I am invigilating the final exam, which we are then meant to mark in a week.
I desperately need to be working on my PhD proposal and research ethics protocol, but I also need to apply for a TA position or some other kind of summer job, just to contain the rate at which my PhD savings are being depleted by food and rent.
My friend Rosie organized a Massey expedition to the former-brickworks-turned-community-space in the Don Valley.
It was a nice break from grading (and hourly email complaints for students demanding essay and participation grades).
I’m still recuperating a bit from the divestment setback, along with a string of other recent minor misfortunes, so getting out into Toronto’s remnants of green space was a good idea.
I had a photo gig from 12:00pm to 2:00pm on Monday, followed by post-processing and uploading. I then had a fossil fuel divestment meeting that ran officially from 7:00pm to 9:30 or so, but which flowed into an animated and informative discussion that continued until 11:30pm.
I am meeting with a divestment sub-group to talk about media strategy at 8am later today (Tuesday). At 9am, I am photographing the opening of this year’s Walter Gordon Symposium (WGS), which runs until 9:30pm. I will need to duck out for a long-scheduled and much needed haircut (10am) and then to teach two tutorials about linguistic and cultural diversity (4-6pm). I am going to try to catch the first hour of the Toronto350.org decision-making meeting (7-8pm) before dashing to the WGS keynote (8-9:30pm).
Wednesday, I am photographing intermittently from 10am to 6pm, then covering the WGS closing feast at Hart House.
I got my 16 GB iPhone 4 back in February 2011 and it has mostly worked well. Now, much like my 160 GB iPod Classic, the battery life is badly depleted. I am lucky if it lasts through a 30 minute phone call, or more than an hour or so of poking around with email or web access. It also has a tendency to shut down when used even briefly in Toronto’s cold weather and then need to be plugged into the wall to be re-started.
I called Fido and was told that I could stay on my current plan and get a free 32GB iPhone 5S, provided I sign a new two year contract. Getting an iPhone 6 would cost about $350 with the same contract. The 6S is only available with a more expensive premium monthly plan. The Fido telephone support people sent me to a Fido store where the staff said that they had black and white 32 GB iPhone 5S models in stock, but they couldn’t do the upgrade because they were closing in half an hour.
When I walked back today, the same shop told me that they had been out of the 5S for months because it is discontinued. They sent me to the nearby Apple store, which did have a 5S but which could not keep me on my current phone plan. When the employee there called Fido, they concluded that they could only give me the ‘free’ phone by increasing the cost of my plan from $55 plus tax to $75 plus tax for two years.
$480 for a ‘free’ phone was not very appealing. Instead, I am going to try paying $80 plus tax to have the iPhone battery replaced at the Apple store on Wednesday. I am also going to see whether it would be possible to fix or exchange my iPod. Apple has inexplicably stopped making the excellent 160 GB iPod, without now offering anything with remotely comparable battery life. Only the most absurdly expensive iPhones come close on storage, offering 128 GB for $700+.
I am sometimes tempted to get out of the smartphone system entirely and get a simple model capable of calls and texts only, and with much better battery life. Having constant access to email has both benefits and frustrations, and it’s sometimes nice to be able to tether my laptop through my phone’s internet connection.
The Community Response to the Report of the fossil fuel divestment committee at U of T has been submitted.
Tomorrow, I am on a panel on divestment and am teaching an SLR photography lesson.
Going forward, my main task is now my PhD proposal and the associated protocol for the research ethics board.
We are in the late stages of compiling the Community Response to the divestment committee report at U of T. There is still a lot to do, we’ve committed to having it done on Thursday at 4:30pm, and I have many other tasks and meetings in the interim.
Tomorrow, I am teaching tutorials on income inequality and redistribution in Canada. Wednesday, I have a course on research ethics in the social sciences and humanities. After the response is done, I am teaching a photo lesson and taking part in a panel on divestment on Friday. Saturday is Toronto350.org’s ambitious ‘visioning session’.
Once the Community Response is done, though, my overriding priority must be my PhD proposal.