#wellness programs in toronto on

[urbancore]

Corporate Wellness Programs!

In today’s fast-paced society, incorporating wellness into our daily lives is a challenging feat. More and more, people are looking to work at companies or find accommodations that offer comprehensive, on-site wellness programming. In turn, companies are now searching for buildings that provide opportunities for employees to stay active and maintain a good work-life balance. Know More: https://yoururbancore.com/facility-management/

[muirneach]

complaining again about the thing i complain about literally every day but its sooo stupid that recreational sports are exclusively for children… what if im an adult who wants to have fun. n then theres beer leagues in the sport of your choosing but you cant play those unless you already know the sport but they dont offer adult sport classes. when i am king i will say fuck them kids and force recreational sports leagues to exclusively deal with adults

[globalhealth02]

Workplace Health Screening Programs Toronto | Corporate Wellness Services

Workplace health screening programs in Toronto help detect early health issues and reduce costs through corporate wellness services.

Visit Our GMB Address-

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (Mar 13) in SAN FRANCISCO with ROBIN SLOAN, then Toronto, NYC, Anaheim, and more!

Another characteristically brilliant Kashmir Hill story for The New York Times reveals another characteristically terrible fact about modern life: your car secretly records fine-grained telemetry about your driving and sells it to data-brokers, who sell it to insurers, who use it as a pretext to gouge you on premiums:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html

Almost every car manufacturer does this: Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, etc etc:

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/09/09/ford-state-farm-ford-metromile-honda-verisk-among-insurer-oem-telematics-connections/

This is true whether you own or lease the car, and it's separate from the "black box" your insurer might have offered to you in exchange for a discount on your premiums. In other words, even if you say no to the insurer's carrot – a surveillance-based discount – they've got a stick in reserve: buying your nonconsensually harvested data on the open market.

I've always hated that saying, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," the reason being that it posits decent treatment as a customer reward program, like the little ramekin warm nuts first class passengers get before takeoff. Companies don't treat you well when you pay them. Companies treat you well when they fear the consequences of treating you badly.

Take Apple. The company offers Ios users a one-tap opt-out from commercial surveillance, and more than 96% of users opted out. Presumably, the other 4% were either confused or on Facebook's payroll. Apple – and its army of cultists – insist that this proves that our world's woes can be traced to cheapskate "consumers" who expected to get something for nothing by using advertising-supported products.

But here's the kicker: right after Apple blocked all its rivals from spying on its customers, it began secretly spying on those customers! Apple has a rival surveillance ad network, and even if you opt out of commercial surveillance on your Iphone, Apple still secretly spies on you and uses the data to target you for ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product – provided the company can get away with treating you as the product. Apple can absolutely get away with treating you as the product, because it lacks the historical constraints that prevented Apple – and other companies – from treating you as the product.

As I described in my McLuhan lecture on enshittification, tech firms can be constrained by four forces:

I. Competition

II. Regulation

III. Self-help

IV. Labor

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

When companies have real competitors – when a sector is composed of dozens or hundreds of roughly evenly matched firms – they have to worry that a maltreated customer might move to a rival. 40 years of antitrust neglect means that corporations were able to buy their way to dominance with predatory mergers and pricing, producing today's inbred, Habsburg capitalism. Apple and Google are a mobile duopoly, Google is a search monopoly, etc. It's not just tech! Every sector looks like this:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Eliminating competition doesn't just deprive customers of alternatives, it also empowers corporations. Liberated from "wasteful competition," companies in concentrated industries can extract massive profits. Think of how both Apple and Google have "competitively" arrived at the same 30% app tax on app sales and transactions, a rate that's more than 1,000% higher than the transaction fees extracted by the (bloated, price-gouging) credit-card sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/07/curatorial-vig/#app-tax

But cartels' power goes beyond the size of their warchest. The real source of a cartel's power is the ease with which a small number of companies can arrive at – and stick to – a common lobbying position. That's where "regulatory capture" comes in: the mobile duopoly has an easier time of capturing its regulators because two companies have an easy time agreeing on how to spend their app-tax billions:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Apple – and Google, and Facebook, and your car company – can violate your privacy because they aren't constrained regulation, just as Uber can violate its drivers' labor rights and Amazon can violate your consumer rights. The tech cartels have captured their regulators and convinced them that the law doesn't apply if it's being broken via an app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

In other words, Apple can spy on you because it's allowed to spy on you. America's last consumer privacy law was passed in 1988, and it bans video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history. Congress has taken no action on consumer privacy since the Reagan years:

https://www.eff.org/tags/video-privacy-protection-act

But tech has some special enshittification-resistant characteristics. The most important of these is interoperability: the fact that computers are universal digital machines that can run any program. HP can design a printer that rejects third-party ink and charge $10,000/gallon for its own colored water, but someone else can write a program that lets you jailbreak your printer so that it accepts any ink cartridge:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Tech companies that contemplated enshittifying their products always had to watch over their shoulders for a rival that might offer a disenshittification tool and use that as a wedge between the company and its customers. If you make your website's ads 20% more obnoxious in anticipation of a 2% increase in gross margins, you have to consider the possibility that 40% of your users will google "how do I block ads?" Because the revenue from a user who blocks ads doesn't stay at 100% of the current levels – it drops to zero, forever (no user ever googles "how do I stop blocking ads?").

The majority of web users are running an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

Web operators made them an offer ("free website in exchange for unlimited surveillance and unfettered intrusions") and they made a counteroffer ("how about 'nah'?"):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Here's the thing: reverse-engineering an app – or any other IP-encumbered technology – is a legal minefield. Just decompiling an app exposes you to felony prosecution: a five year sentence and a $500k fine for violating Section 1201 of the DMCA. But it's not just the DMCA – modern products are surrounded with high-tech tripwires that allow companies to invoke IP law to prevent competitors from augmenting, recongifuring or adapting their products. When a business says it has "IP," it means that it has arranged its legal affairs to allow it to invoke the power of the state to control its customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

An "app" is just a web-page skinned in enough IP to make it a crime to add an ad-blocker to it. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model" and it's everywhere. When companies don't have to worry about users deploying self-help measures to disenshittify their products, they are freed from the constraint that prevents them indulging the impulse to shift value from their customers to themselves.

Apple owes its existence to interoperability – its ability to clone Microsoft Office's file formats for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which saved the company in the early 2000s – and ever since, it has devoted its existence to making sure no one ever does to Apple what Apple did to Microsoft:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Regulatory capture cuts both ways: it's not just about powerful corporations being free to flout the law, it's also about their ability to enlist the law to punish competitors that might constrain their plans for exploiting their workers, customers, suppliers or other stakeholders.

The final historical constraint on tech companies was their own workers. Tech has very low union-density, but that's in part because individual tech workers enjoyed so much bargaining power due to their scarcity. This is why their bosses pampered them with whimsical campuses filled with gourmet cafeterias, fancy gyms and free massages: it allowed tech companies to convince tech workers to work like government mules by flattering them that they were partners on a mission to bring the world to its digital future:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

For tech bosses, this gambit worked well, but failed badly. On the one hand, they were able to get otherwise powerful workers to consent to being "extremely hardcore" by invoking Fobazi Ettarh's spirit of "vocational awe":

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

On the other hand, when you motivate your workers by appealing to their sense of mission, the downside is that they feel a sense of mission. That means that when you demand that a tech worker enshittifies something they missed their mother's funeral to deliver, they will experience a profound sense of moral injury and refuse, and that worker's bargaining power means that they can make it stick.

Or at least, it did. In this era of mass tech layoffs, when Google can fire 12,000 workers after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, tech workers are learning that the answer to "I won't do this and you can't make me" is "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" (AKA "sharpen your blades boys"):

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/

With competition, regulation, self-help and labor cleared away, tech firms – and firms that have wrapped their products around the pluripotently malleable core of digital tech, including automotive makers – are no longer constrained from enshittifying their products.

And that's why your car manufacturer has chosen to spy on you and sell your private information to data-brokers and anyone else who wants it. Not because you didn't pay for the product, so you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

Cars are enshittified. The dozens of chips that auto makers have shoveled into their car design are only incidentally related to delivering a better product. The primary use for those chips is autoenshittification – access to legal strictures ("IP") that allows them to block modifications and repairs that would interfere with the unfettered abuse of their own customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The fact that it's a felony to reverse-engineer and modify a car's software opens the floodgates to all kinds of shitty scams. Remember when Bay Staters were voting on a ballot measure to impose right-to-repair obligations on automakers in Massachusetts? The only reason they needed to have the law intervene to make right-to-repair viable is that Big Car has figured out that if it encrypts its diagnostic messages, it can felonize third-party diagnosis of a car, because decrypting the messages violates the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/drm-cars-will-drive-consumers-crazy

Big Car figured out that VIN locking – DRM for engine components and subassemblies – can felonize the production and the installation of third-party spare parts:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

The fact that you can't legally modify your car means that automakers can go back to their pre-2008 ways, when they transformed themselves into unregulated banks that incidentally manufactured the cars they sold subprime loans for. Subprime auto loans – over $1t worth! – absolutely relies on the fact that borrowers' cars can be remotely controlled by lenders. Miss a payment and your car's stereo turns itself on and blares threatening messages at top volume, which you can't turn off. Break the lease agreement that says you won't drive your car over the county line and it will immobilize itself. Try to change any of this software and you'll commit a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Tesla, naturally, has the most advanced anti-features. Long before BMW tried to rent you your seat-heater and Mercedes tried to sell you a monthly subscription to your accelerator pedal, Teslas were demon-haunted nightmare cars. Miss a Tesla payment and the car will immobilize itself and lock you out until the repo man arrives, then it will blare its horn and back itself out of its parking spot. If you "buy" the right to fully charge your car's battery or use the features it came with, you don't own them – they're repossessed when your car changes hands, meaning you get less money on the used market because your car's next owner has to buy these features all over again:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

And all this DRM allows your car maker to install spyware that you're not allowed to remove. They really tipped their hand on this when the R2R ballot measure was steaming towards an 80% victory, with wall-to-wall scare ads that revealed that your car collects so much information about you that allowing third parties to access it could lead to your murder (no, really!):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

That's why your car spies on you. Because it can. Because the company that made it lacks constraint, be it market-based, legal, technological or its own workforce's ethics.

One common critique of my enshittification hypothesis is that this is "kind of sensible and normal" because "there’s something off in the consumer mindset that we’ve come to believe that the internet should provide us with amazing products, which bring us joy and happiness and we spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return":

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-have-great-conversations/

What this criticism misses is that this isn't the companies bargaining to shift some value from us to them. Enshittification happens when a company can seize all that value, without having to bargain, exploiting law and technology and market power over buyers and sellers to unilaterally alter the way the products and services we rely on work.

A company that doesn't have to fear competitors, regulators, jailbreaking or workers' refusal to enshittify its products doesn't have to bargain, it can take. It's the first lesson they teach you in the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Your car spying on you isn't down to your belief that your carmaker "should provide you with amazing products, which brings your joy and happiness you spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return." It's not because you didn't pay for the product, so now you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

The consequences of this spying go much further than mere insurance premium hikes, too. Car telemetry sits at the top of the funnel that the unbelievably sleazy data broker industry uses to collect and sell our data. These are the same companies that sell the fact that you visited an abortion clinic to marketers, bounty hunters, advertisers, or vengeful family members pretending to be one of those:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

Decades of pro-monopoly policy led to widespread regulatory capture. Corporate cartels use the monopoly profits they extract from us to pay for regulatory inaction, allowing them to extract more profits.

But when it comes to privacy, that period of unchecked corporate power might be coming to an end. The lack of privacy regulation is at the root of so many problems that a pro-privacy movement has an unstoppable constituency working in its favor.

At EFF, we call this "privacy first." Whether you're worried about grifters targeting vulnerable people with conspiracy theories, or teens being targeted with media that harms their mental health, or Americans being spied on by foreign governments, or cops using commercial surveillance data to round up protesters, or your car selling your data to insurance companies, passing that long-overdue privacy legislation would turn off the taps for the data powering all these harms:

https://www.eff.org/wp/privacy-first-better-way-address-online-harms

Traditional economics fails because it thinks about markets without thinking about power. Monopolies lead to more than market power: they produce regulatory capture, power over workers, and state capture, which felonizes competition through IP law. The story that our problems stem from the fact that we just don't spend enough money, or buy the wrong products, only makes sense if you willfully ignore the power that corporations exert over our lives. It's nice to think that you can shop your way out of a monopoly, because that's a lot easier than voting your way out of a monopoly, but no matter how many times you vote with your wallet, the cartels that control the market will always win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[sunnystrollblog]

sky toronto runs a tight ship

tween branch and his dad boss sky toronto

i’ve decided to dub this the saccharine sweet au might change the name later

anyways when branch was twelve he was put into the “lil buddie program” a program that paired orphan trolls with a ‘big buddy’ who would take care of them until they got a permanently adopted. sky was chosen for branch and well he never got adopted officially so sky kinda just kept him… but it’s totally not a father-son relationship definitely

colored version

[chukys-mouthguard]

For your prompt requests maybe prompt #1 with Joseph Woll, maybe she lives in Toronto and he went home for the off-season.

I’ve never written for Joseph Woll, but he cracks me up in any little player personality type videos so I really enjoyed writing this one!

“I don’t think you’re gonna even recognize me when you see me babe.” 

Smirking to yourself you couldn’t help but chuckle. Joseph had been talking all about his off season training and how excited he was to get back to Toronto. To which you could attest, he looked great. He’d spent the summer with a couple of old teammates and they all committed to a pretty strict training program. The results were more than Joseph could’ve expected, giving him a nice confidence boost ahead of training camp. But of course it was also a plus for you to be able to drool all over your boyfriend’s new hot body. 

“What did you get facial reconstruction surgery too? I didn’t know that was part of the training program.” He snorts out a laugh, always loved your quick comebacks and digs you could dish out. 

“God I miss you.” 

He lighthearted tone now fading as his line of the phone goes silent. 

“One more night, and then you’ll finally be back in my arms.” You playfully call out into the phone as you head to the fridge to grab a drink before plopping down on the couch. 

“One more night might as well be 10! I don’t know what’s been hard this summer; my training schedule or not having you to come home to everyday. Of course you couldn’t be making me bomb ass dinners like usual. Would probably have to throw a few extra salads into the mix. Oh my god and no more cookies or banana bread.” 

He jokingly whined into the phone as you just shook your head. “Babe, you know there are healthier baked good alternatives I could make right?” “Yeah and they probably taste like shit! I can’t have you ruin my opinion of your baking with some gluten free buckwheat flower yak’s milk concoction. Noooo way!” 

Your laugh now filling your apartment, causing Joseph to even laugh at his own words. “I don’t even know if buckwheat flour is a thing…or yak’s milk. But if it is, I don’t want it!” 

The two of you continuing on your conversation as you’d heard the sound of Joseph’s car turning off, the locking with a beep. You hadn’t even noticed he was driving if you were honest. To excited about the conversation of him soon being home. 

“Joseph Woll, where on earth are you driving to this late at night?” Scolding him playfully you can hear him grabbing something from his car, assuming he had one last late night training session before he came back to Toronto. 

“Home silly goose.” 

Shrugging it off you picked back up in the conversation, discussing some new plot point that was introduced in one of your guilty pleasure tv shows that Joseph loved hearing the drama about. 

“And then, they built up the entire episode for you to think she was going to end up choosing Aaron, but then at the last minute she-knock knock knock- who the hell is knocking on my door at 11:50pm. Babe, stay on the phone please?” 

He hummed a response, letting you know he was still on the line as you nervously walked toward the door. The peep hole being covered so you couldn’t see who the culprit was. Deciding you weren’t tempting fate, you walked away, pickup back up with your story. 

“Babe who was at the door?” 

“I don’t know the peep hole was covered! I’m not trying to die before my boyfriend gets back home!” 

He laughed at you as a triple knock came again. 

“Trust me babe, open the door…” 

Something in his voice made you suspicious, quickly hustling back to the door to open it. Only to find Joseph standing their with a cheesy grin on his face as he laughed at you. 

“Joseph Woll you scared me half to death! What is wrong with you?” 

Playfully smacking him before jumping into his arms, wrapping him in a hug before pulling his lips to yous. “I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to get home to you. Can you forgive me?” 

He pouted his lips only to have the pout kissed away by you instantly. “Of course, now wait a minute-“ taking a step back you eyed him up and down. Taking in how his chest and arms now filled out his tshirt, how his joggers clung to his thighs. 

“I’m not sure we’ve actually ever met, you don’t look familiar, what’s your name?” He rolled his eyes at your comments, poking fun at his claim you’d not even recognize him. 

“Very funny, guess I won’t show what I look like without the shirt then if you don’t recognize me.” He leaned in as he spoke, his lips almost brushing yours with his words before he headed off down the hall to the bathroom. Turning the shower on, as you quickly followed. 

“Joooo, you know I’m just messing around I-“ stopping in your tracks you’d turned in the doorway of the bathroom to find him now shirtless as he reached into the cupboard for a towel. 

“Wow.” 

Simply the only words you could get out as he just smirked, slightly chuckling at your reaction before turning to face you. Closing the distance as you tried your best to look him in the eyes though his muscles really stealing the show. 

“Do you wanna pick your jaw up now or after I shower?” 

[ansonmountdaily]

Anson Mount on his podcast 'The Well'

While shooting Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 in Toronto, Anson filmed a podcast episode with co-host Branan Edgens, chatting about tv, books and music.

Anson's book recommendation is The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut. The book explores the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life, and cellular automata. Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake.

Anson's graphic novel recommendation is THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds. It revolves around the idea that if enough people believe in a conspiracy, it becomes real, and there is a government agency involved with keeping reality stable. The agency is controlling the narrative for what they claim is the greater good. What is the deep, dark secret behind the Department of Truth? Read the first issue online at the official site.

Source: The Well Drop #22 clip (July 1 2024, recorded on Apr 29 2024)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A rapid test importer landed an estimated $2 billion in federal contracts in 2021 and 2022, despite giving regulators incomplete data about its product’s accuracy, Global News has found. A year-long investigation into federal procurement revealed that BTNX, a small rapid test supplier based outside Toronto, deleted dozens of specimens, or samples, from a study it submitted to Health Canada. That evaluation showed how well the company’s test detected COVID-19. The deletions made BTNX’s test appear more reliable and sensitive than it really was, according to researchers Global News consulted. The device could detect the virus in users who were the most contagious, but results from leading regulators’ evaluation programs indicate BTNX’s test was much less dependable in all other cases.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[sammaggs]

Remember the last time I was like oh, turns out I totally was at the Canadian Screen Awards that time Paul Gross receive a lifetime achievement award that one time and my ADHD memory completely spaced on it?

Well, it happened again. The 2011 Canadian Film Centre's Worldwide Short Film Festival (CFCWSFF) was my first job ever in Toronto (in fact it was part of my Master's degree program) and I worked in Guest and Talent Services and so yeah apparently I was in the room for this.

That sounds nice!! I hope I had a nice time!! Enjoy the talk:

[bigbeanbear]

A friend of mine was telling me her recent encounter with an actress who was super nice to her fans, and it reminds me of my first time meeting Stephanie Beatriz at Twin Cities Con last month. She was so funny, easygoing, sincere, considerate, and dedicated as a person.

See longer and more detailed descriptions of my experience that day below:

Stephanie was one of the earliest guests that arrived at her autograph table, just a few minutes past 10:00 am, when the exhibition hall opened for the day. There was a bit chaos of the lining arrangement, as the VIP holders got lined up right in front of the autograph table and leading towards the check-in table in the back. Stephanie was confused by the situation and asked a fan in my front about what was happening. After they explained in detail, she joked that they should be in charge. Her voice was already sounded very deep and a bit hoarse, unlike her usual high pitch.

When the line finally went around and back to the autograph table, I saw her kind of frowning at her autograph for one of the first fans (the fan probably said something about the outcome was good) and she made fun of herself, “why am I being so judgmental about my own autograph?”

When it came to my turn, I remember telling her that I just became a fan since Hazbin Hotel but I caught up on Brooklyn 99 later on. Her eyes lighted up and asked me what I thought of the show, and like many fans, I told her that I loved it and now it was my comfort show, and that was why I put together my costume with the elements of both Vaggie and Rosa Diaz. She was delightfully surprised when she registered my full costume, and then I pulled out the prop knife from my belt below the table (you know, like the way Rosa pulled it). She laughed, “ Yep, gonna pull it out of nowhere.”

I’m not going into details of her solo panel and the Hazbin panel, as I have posted all my records of the solo one, and the latter one was posted by someone else on YouTube. I will just note that her voice got more and more hoarse during the back-to-back panels, a lot worse than when I got my autograph. FYI, she said in her More Better podcast recently that she had been sick since she returned from Toronto, which was just a couple of days before this convention. Also, initially her name was not listed for the Hazbin panel in the program, but it was announced right before the panel that she would return for this panel as well.

After the panels, I headed back to the exhibition hall to wait for my turn of photo-ops with Erika Henningsen and Stephanie. Have to say, Stephanie is really tall in person. And Erika was very kind to offer to hold the spear as I was in the middle.

For the one photo taken solely with Stephanie, I asked her if she could hold my prop knife, and in return, she asked me if I wanted to act tough together. After I thanked her and leaving, she said, “you are going to love this one.”

Of course I love how it turns out. A bit background is that all props were inspected outside the exhibition hall and zipped with a hot pink cable tie when passed the check. So I had this long ugly ass zip-ties on both handles of my prop knife and spear. It was easy to get the zip-tie off the spear because the handle was detachable, but not the knife. And I did not have scissors with me. When I handed Stephanie the prop knife, I thought I would need to remove the zip-tie in photoshop later. But Stephanie was so observant and considerate that she hid the zip-tie with her hand by holding on the tip of that handle! Compare the photos above and you will see it. I felt warmth in my heart when I got the print and realized what she did for me.

When I brought the printed photo for the second autograph, the waiting line was insanely longer compared to it in the morning. I was probably in line for more than an hour and a half. One of the volunteers there told me that Stephanie’s line was the second longest of this day, with Hayden Christensen’s being the longest.

I remembered Stephanie’s voice was very much gone when I finally got my turn around 7:00 pm. I handed her the print and she commented, “Look how tough we were.” I told her that I really appreciated her being here today even so with her voice like that, because I was moving to Canada very soon. I further explained that the US immigration process took too long so I opted for another option. She made a 👎 sign, agreeing that American immigration sucked. She also asked me which city I was moving to, and when I replied Toronto, she said that Toronto was the best city in Canada and she loved it there when she shot Twisted Metal Season 2. Finally I thanked her again and she said it was nice meeting me.

The exhibition hall was supposed to close at 7:00 pm, but I heard that she stayed beyond 8:00 pm to finish with all the fans in line, which she did not have to, actually. A volunteer told me on the day before that it was up to the guests how long they decided to stay for the signing. Also, there were guests who pulled out due to sickness or scheduling right before the convention, but she not only showed up but spent the entire day talking to fans, even though she was obviously sick and lost her voice. I mean, this woman really is a super human being, and deserves all the love and praises.

[urbancore]

Effective Mental Health Programs in Toronto - Support & Resources

Explore mental health programs in Toronto offering support, counseling, and tools to manage stress, anxiety, and other challenges. Find personalized care and community resources to improve mental well-being and overall health. For more information visit our site: https://yoururbancore.com/

[grantmentis]

Women’s Hockey News Round Up 6/16-7/1

Everything here is official only, and try to list the most relevant transactions globally but may miss something, so always feel free to add! Since a lot of people who follow this blog are North American/most familiar with the PWHL, i put less context there than I may for other leagues

Extended indicates they did not change teams. buckle in this one is long as hell

PWHL (North America)

RETIRMENTS: Becca Gilmore (OTT) and Erica Howe (TOR) announce their retirements

PWHL Ottawa signings: - Alexa Vasko (PWHL Toronto) for one year -Logan Agners (Quinnipiac, undrafted) for one year -Rebecca Leslie (PWHL Toronto) for one year -Anna Meixner (Brynäs) for one year -Shiann Darkangelo (extended) for one year,

PWHL Toronto signings: -Daryll Watts (PWHL Ottawa) for two years -Emma Woods (PWHL New York) for two years -Raygan Kirk ( Ohio state) for two years -Izzy Daniel (Cornell) for two years -Megan Carter (Northeastern) for two years -Julia Gosling (st Lawrence) for two years -Hannah Miller (extension) for one year -Allie Munroe (extension) for two years

PWHL Boston signings: -Lexie Adzija (extended) for one year -Hannah Brandt (extended) for two years -Emily brown (extended) for two years -Sidney Morin (extended) for one year -Sophie Shirley (extended) for two years

PWHL Montreal: -Mikyla Grant Mentis (extended) for one year -Cayla Barnes (Ohio State) for three years -Elaine Chuli (extended) for one year -Mariah Keopple (extended) for one year -Amanda Boulier (extended) for one year

PWHL New York Signings: -Abbey levy (extended) two years

PWHL Minnesota signings: -Liz schepers (extended) for one year -Denisa Křižová (extended) for two years -Michela Cava (extended) for one year -Klára Hymlárová (st cloud) for two years -britta Curl (Wisconsin) for one year,

Josh Sciba joins PWHL New York as assistant coach. He has experience as Union College's head coach of their women's program as well as with the USWNT as an assistant coach

SDHL (Sweden)

The league has announced they will have goal cameras in place next season!

Finnish national team defender Sini Karjalainen joins Skellefteå AIK after playing with Brynäs last season

18 year old Swedish defender Thea Liodden signs with Linköping HC from AIK

Clarkson University forward Darcie Lappan signs with MoDo hockey

Providence College captain Rachel Weiss signs with HV71

16 year old Ebba Westerlind, who has shown very strong success in Sweden's youth programs, signs with Frölunda HC

Ann-Frédérique Guay, who played 4 years at Norwich University on the D3 level before transferring to UMaine and having a successful final year, has joined Linköping HC

American forward Naomi Rogge, who was successful last season with SDE, has joined Linköping HC

SDHL veteran Emmy Alasalmi joins Linköping HC

Lily George of University of New Brunswick joins Leksands

Dominique Kremer, most recently with PWHL Minnesota, has signed with SDE

Jakob Löf joins Brynäs as an assistnt coach. He previously coached the programs u16 team

Swedish National Team forward Michelle Löwenhielm extends with SDE for another year

Naisten Liiga (Finland)

Rising Finnish national team star Emma Ekoluoma changes teams from Kärpät to Ilves

Norweigan national team defender Iben Tillman will join the league and HPK specifically after a strong performance at the D1A World Championship

24 year old finnish forward Anni Montonen returns to Kiekko-Espoo after spending a season in the SDHL. She previously played for Kiekko-Espoo from 2019-2023 and was one of their top producers

Susanna Viitala, who played for TPS last year and was just under a point per game, joins Kiekko-Espoo

Julia Kuusisto get a one year extension in Ilves after a season where she took a big step forward and played with the u18 national team

defender Nelly Andersson will be back with HIFK after playing 23 games with them last year for the first time and getting experience with both the u18 and senior team

Defender Ilona Palin who spent time with the team last year as well a the u18 Finnish team, will return to HIFK for another year as well

SWHL / Postfinance Women League (Switzerland)

HC Davos ladies make four big signings -Swiss national team defender Alessia Baechler who played with ZSC Lions Frauen last year -Renee lendi who also played with ZSC and their B league affiliate -American/Canadian defender Lucie Tenenbaum. This is particularly interesting because Tenenbaum played prep school with Bishop Kearney last year and is committed to Minnesota State for the year following next season, so cool to see her develop in Switzerland for the year in between -Italian national team forward Aurora Abatangelo who was with Ladies Team Lugano last year

EWHL (Central/Eastern Europe + others)

The rebranded KSV Neuberg Highlanders also add five new players -Bishop University graduate and defender Marie-Camille Théorêt -Slovenian national team forward and EWHL Veteran/consistent top forward Sara Confidenti -Slovakian forward and EWHL top scorer Nikola Rumanova -American forward and SUNY-Oswego graduate Kensie Malone -American forward and Franklin Pierce University graduate Claire Casey

[toasttt11]

introducing hayden

Hayden Lee Blake was born June 4, 2001 in San Diego, California to her parents Harrison and Maddison Blake.

Harrison and Maddison met each other when they were very young at a hickey training camp hitting it off immediately, they are childhood sweethearts.

Harrison was drafted second overall in the 1986 draft to the Edmonton Oilers, he played with the oilers for eighteen seasons and won three stanley cups with them, he made many records and had incredible accomplishments in the NHL becoming of the one most well named in Hockey.

Maddison was an incredible hockey player, playing four years of hockey in collage and getting multiple gold medals for her national team, she stopped playing on a team after the birth of her daughter.

Hayden inherited both of her parents incredible hockey skills and passion and knew she wanted to play since she could skate on the ice.

After Harrison retired in 2005, the blake’s moved to Toronto and their house was next store to the Hughes’s.

The Blake’s and Hughes’s both immediately got along so well, Harrison and Jim became the best of buddies, Maddison and Ellen both had so many similarities they became best friends, Hayden and Jack are only a few days apart so they just easily clicked and became each other’s best friend, Quinn becalmed Hayden’s biggest protector and her older brother figure, Luke was young when he met the Blake’s but right away he immediately adored Hayden and would follow her every where.

Quinn immediately saw Hayden as his sister and became a very protective older brother to her, he has always been the person she goes to when she needs a hug and just some comfort.

Jack and Hayden are platonic soulmates, the two are so close and know everything about each other. More often than not they were mistaken for twins.

Luke has been Hayden’s little shadow since they met, Luke had always loved just being around Hayden and Hayden has always treated him as her child and has a very large soft spot for him.

The Blake’s and Hughes’s moved to Michigan in 2019 when Jack and Hayden both joined the program, that’s where Jack and Hayden met the rest of their best friends.

Trevor, his sunshine personality mends so well with Hayden, he is always making her laugh and smile and adores his best friend.

Cole, he became her unpaid therapist and her best friend who always knows what to say.

Alex, the one who brought out Hayden’s chaotic side and the two were usually up to no good when they are together and love to prank others.

Matt, her favorite reading buddy, the two sharing a love for reading and always sharing books, he’s who she goes to when she needs to calm down.

Hayden’s parents tragically passed away in 2018 and she was not yet 18 and had no other blood family alive, the Hughes took her in as that is what her parents had wished for if something had happened.

Hayden’s draft year was extremely tough for her, the pressure of the upcoming draft but also her being heartbroken from her parents death it was a hard year for her, when she in the draft lottery that the Oilers had the first pick she hoped that is where she would get picked just as her dad did.

Hayden found another piece of her family in the Oilers specifically Connor, Leon, Zach, Ryan and their families.

Hayden’s story is only just beginning.

[brian-in-finance]

Caitríona Balfe attends the "Ford v Ferrari" press conference during the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox on 10 September 2019 in Toronto, Canada.

Image: Roxstar Entertainment

Collider Media Studio Returns To TIFF With Some of the Biggest Names in Hollywood

With the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) just around the corner, we’re thrilled to announce that Collider Media Studio will be returning to the Toronto International for another round of exciting interviews with support from Range Rover Canada. This year we have one of our bigger line-ups ever with scheduled talks with the top talent of the festival including Bobby Carnavale, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gilian, Cobie Smulders, Ben Foster, Olympic Gold Medal Boxer Claressa Shields, Chloë Sevigny, Henry Golding, Beatrice Grannò, David Gordon Green, Pamela Anderson, Max Minghella, Orlando Bloom, John Turturro, Caitríona Balfe, Soul Rasheed, Brett Goldstein, Imogen Poots, Jee Young Han, Dakota Johnson, Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Ron Howard, Ana De Armas, Isabella Rosellini, Ed Burns, Shamier Anderson, Minnie Driver, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Ryoo Seung-wan, Sandra Oh, Haley Joel Osment, and Gretchen Mol to name a few.

The program is produced by Leading Hollywood Events and Communications group, Roxstar Entertainment and their successful hospitality platform, the Cinema Center. Our sponsor partner Range Rover will help get the talent to our media studio with the 2024 Ranger Rover Sport, the official luxury vehicle partner of the Cinema Center and Collider Studio. Celebrities can enjoy the latest Range Rover Sport’s blend of sportiness, refinement, and connected convenience, ensuring they arrive at their red-carpet events in style and comfort.

Additional supporting sponsors include poppi soda, the better for you soda brand made with ingredients you love, like fruit juice and apple cider vinegar that create a mouthwatering soda with only 5 grams of sugar and 25 calories. Beloved by celebrities like Post Malone, Hailey Bieber, Kylie Jenner, Billie Eilish, Russell Westbrook, and Olivia Munn, poppi is revolutionizing soda for the next generation. poppi is now available at major retailers across Canada, including Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Metro, Save on Foods, Maxi, Safeway, and Costco and key ecommerce retailers amazon.ca, instacart.ca and well.ca.

In addition, the Cinema Center will be serving up a themed cocktail menu featuring the ultra-premium Tequila Don Julio, as well as Ketel One Vodka, Tanqueray Gin, and Bulleit Bourbon. Don Julio’s luxury tequila is renowned for its use of only the highest caliber, fully matured and ripened Blue Agave that has been hand-selected from the rich, clay soils of the Los Altos region of the state of Jalisco.

Other partners include Canada’s new premium spring water brand, Legend Water co. and Peoples Group financial services will all be engaging our talent and guests with product offerings and special brand experiences onsite.

Check out the poster below and stay tuned to our socials for updates on this year’s Collider Media Studio at TIFF.

Collider

Caitríona Balfe attends the "Ford v Ferrari" press conference during the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox on 10 September 2019 in Toronto, Canada.

Remember the return to TIFF?

[floodkiss]

A couple weeks ago, I led a zine making workshop/Palestinian solidarity event for my local Asian racial solidarity group. I gave a primer on zines and DIY as well as the political roots of DIY publishing, and some tutorials. The theme was reconnecting to resistance in an open learning circle since the Asian continent has a long and wide breadth history of resistance. We provided zine making supplies and I brought both some Palestinian zines and a curated collection of examples from my personal zine library! It was also potluck style.

It was kind of interesting leading this workshop! I don't consider myself to be an expert on revolutionary histories, there's a lot of theory and info to catch up on, but I read a lot of PFLP and Palestinian resistance writing when I was in my undergrad because I was able to meet Joe Sacco who was the cartoonist who published Footnotes in Gaza and Palestine (around 2017?). I also designed some posters for his Toronto visit in partnership with the TPFF. Most significantly, I read Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine by the PFLP - it is both a historical document and a live program that lays out the fundamentals of Palestinian liberation as well as localized analysis (160~ pages). There were Asian people in attendance originating from all over the continent and of varying faiths but no one was familiar with historic Palestinian resistance, only with the current narrative about israhelli occupation - so of course I was happy to to talk about Ghassan Kanafani, Leila Khaled, and the PFLP and the historic 3rd world solidarity movements across Asia!

Most people weren't familiar with zines either, so I was also very sparkly-eyed in info dumping about zines to the room! One of the participants brought musakhan rolls which are a traditional Palestinian dish... they were SO yummy... I did have more than I should have... and they included the recipe as one of the zine pages!!! There were also many Filipinos present resulting in me going home with a lot of leftover turon (it helped me survive my ongoing depressive episode in April lol)

Overall it was so nice having conversations with others regardless of where they were at in their politicization journey. There is always more to learn, and more time to spend with one another...and we can all grow together too 🫶🏼 politicization can be very personal and I think as long as we can develop principles, sense for collective, and maintain revolutionary imagination - we can survive together!

Here are some of the Palestinian zines that I brought for people to sift through! I have like 20+ pdfs on my computer and more from encampments that I've visited and will hopefully scan soon!

Palestine: An Introduction from DecolonizePalestine ABCs of Occupation & Resistance by Rachel Mattson The Palestinian Struggle for National Liberation by OBF-HRD/Manila University BDS: What it is, Why it matters by Leila Abdula Razzaq Digitized copy of Ghassan Kanafani by Anni Kanafani (Beirut, 1973), found via the internet archive! From Galilee to Gaza, A voice from Palestine from CrimetheInc. Handala and Other Symbols of Palestinian Resistance & Revolution by...me! (I'll add a link later)

[doctorhelena]

Steggy Fic: Teach My Feet to Fly, Chapter 7/14

Summary: Peggy Carter, a world class ice hockey player learning to figure skate as part of a Canadian reality show, has an iron-clad rule about never, ever dating a teammate. Which means that she’ll simply have to get over the ridiculous attraction she has to her new figure skating partner, Steve Rogers.

Note: This story is complete, and has 14 chapters in total. New chapters are posted weekly on Fridays.

It’s also a very long-delayed thank you gift fic for the lovely @teaandatale!

Rating: PG

Read Chapter 7

Read from the beginning

Excerpt:

Toronto, Canada Battle of the Blades, Week 5 First Week of Competition (Thursday)

Rehearsals for the opening group number in the second week were no less chaotic than they had been for Week 1. It was partly, Peggy supposed, because not only were the figure skating techniques themselves getting more difficult, but each team also now only had a week to learn two new full routines: both the opening group number and their own new program. It was very easy to get the sequences confused - well, easy for the hockey players to get confused, at any rate. 

“I’m on your left,” Steve reminded Sam again, as, out of the corner of her eye, Peggy watched Dugan slide into the boards in a valiant attempt to avoid crashing into Sam and Steve.

Sam made a face. “Sorry. guess we’ll all have to take another lap.” He turned to Pietro. “Did you take it already? I assume you took it already.” Pietro grinned. He was a notoriously fast skater, and while he somehow made it work to his advantage while ice dancing with his sister, if left unchecked he did tend to skate far too fast for even the star hockey forwards to keep up - in figure skates, at least. Peggy wondered why on earth he hadn’t chosen to compete in speed skating instead. Lack of support for the sport in Sokovia, maybe.

It was also just a very odd routine to begin with, having been choreographed by Loki Laufeyson, Jarvis and Dottie’s assigned choreographer, who tended toward the avant-garde. Loki, wearing dramatic black and somehow managing to pace moodily while on skates, was getting increasingly impatient with the hockey players’ continued inability to “imbue every movement with glorious purpose”. Although Dottie, to be fair, seemed to be quite good at it.

Of course she was.

Read the rest of the chapter on A03