Tootfinder

#Rant
Rob Shaw is solidifying his position as the new Dean of Right Wing, anti-Worker Legislative Reporters in British Columbia.
With these gems, it's incredible that he has an education or goes to a doctor at all…
"The BCTF is typically one of the most militant unions, and quickly prone to job action.”
BCTF Strikes since 2000:
2005
2014
phew! almost got to three!
Remember that this was at the time of a union-busting BC Liberal government that had to go to the Supreme Court of Canada to get told that they ripped up union contracts unconstitutionally and were *forced* to compensate many years later.
"The ratification is a win for a New Democrat government. And extraordinarily expensive for taxpayers, too."
“extraordinarily expensive. Really? How is a wage increase that is *barely* in line with inflation after literally decades of below-inflation increases, “extraordinary”? I'll wait.
"Teachers can thank the BCGEU for turning what was an initial 3.5 per cent wage offer over two years by government, into a more than 12 per cent increase over four that is now forming the baseline for all other union deals."
Indeed! For those who can do math, that means 3% each of 4 years instead of 3.5 over two. But thanks Rob for making it seem like 4 times more!
Thanks BCGEU members for your solidarity and perceverence! I have been on strike. It sucks HARD. But it was worth it and it works.
"The ratification by the BCTF means roughly half of the 450,000 public sector employees now have deals of some sort with the province. Two majors left on the table are nurses and doctors.”
Oh no! Let’s not pay doctors and nurses! Surely they'll stay regardless in our incredibly overworked and under resourced healthcare system!
Like how does Mr Shaw believe we are to stay competitive or attract people. Or is he just not worried about getting sick….
"The skyrocketing deficit has the NDP government inking sweetheart deals with organized labour on the one hand, while pledging to cut public sector jobs with the other.”
Ya, we could have kept those public sector jobs if it weren't for fools like you who demanded governments cut taxes over the past 20 years instead of reasonable rises to... again…keep up with inflation and retain service!
It is a crappy balancing act that the NDP is doing and I do not like a lot of it. At the same time as Mr. Shaw complains about "sweetheart deals" for people in post-secondary, I am seeing historic cuts in that same sector. It's a blood bath actually. So the potential wage increases are going to be welcome, but feel pretty hollow as so many collegues have left.
Rob Shaw would have had us all lose our jobs and take a pay cut at the next one for good measure.
Thanks but no thanks Rob, your world view sucks.
https://www.nsnews.com/economy-law-politics/rob-shaw-ndp-deal-with-bc-teachers-sets-another-costly-precedent-for-public-sector-talks-11966874

I don’t know the individuals involved in this particular conference. What I do know is that there are people worldwide — including but not limited to a great many Jewish people — who have been working with all their might •not• to deny the trauma of others, to work toward true justice and peace. And I know that denying them space for their voices to be heard is a core part of how Netanyahu’s horrible war has been propped up for so long. Recognizing how multiple shared historical traumas shape present conflict seems to me like a good and essential first step.

All the talks in sync at 30 minute intervals. This is too short really. They either have to dive in with jargon I don't get to explain in depth, or barely manage to summarize before the time runs out. No time for Q&A at all which leaves you wondering why not just watch it on youtube?
There's a hall full of stands from corporations of varying evilness giving out useless tat with trademarks on it. People go mad for the loot. Seems to make people quite excited to get a pair of socks or a fidget toy. I leave them to it. Don't like talking to salespeople even if you get free socks with trademarks on them. I don't wear logos in general anyway.
The AI bootsterism is strong, but not omnipresent. Plenty of talks on team management or deployment or progress in non-amazon cloud systems or whatever. Even if they can only be quite surface-detail and lacking depth due to shortness.
It's like being in school really. Flowing from lesson to lesson. Mostly being taught things that will be irrelevent or are boring or are unlikely to ever really come up.
Short break before street party now.
#devWorld

my dad hanging out with his anti-fascist krewe on a sunny day

With the eight week improv course ending last week, I timed it well to start a new group with a new set of eight sessions this week.
The Free Association seem more serious than Hoopla. They have 50% longer classes for a start. Three hours rather than two.
More instruction and notes rather than just positive encouragement. Clearer aim even from the early levels. More like a classroom than a playground.
First couple of sets of eight at Hoopla are just aimed at getting you to lose your decorum and allow yourself to be free and spontaneous. All really short form games, lightning rounds. Parlor games rather than theater.
But the Free Association's aim from the start is to get you building scenes and then stories. Their first set of lessons is titled "intro to long form". This one "Scene work".
Not so much the one minute parlor games, more focus on acting and characters and drama.
In vague terms at early stages that is. I mean, they have more in common than different. Plenty of short games in warm-up at FA and I just finished a whole set on drama and story with Hoopla.
Three hours is pretty long though. Starts half an hour earlier, ends half an hour later. Good thing it's also much much closer for me. Ten minute walk instead of 40 minutes on the bus.
We did lots and lots of first-scene head-to-head, mostly concentrating on trying to get specific. Check that after two minutes the audience knows where you are and who you are and how you know each other and what you're doing and none of the players are unsure either. Make it all specific as soon as possible, ambiguity is the enemy.
And everyone got that and exercised it pretty much flawlessly right away. So good group.
#theFreeAssociation #improv #london