From the machine-learning-generated artwork (which I could influence but not control), to the Interlude poem that speaks from the space between this world and the next, Out of Body is steeped in uncertainties. Listen now on your streaming service of choice.

Reading list

Interesting links I haven't had a chance to check out yet.

Recommended reading

Stuff I enjoyed and that I think you'd like, too.

Posts

Lilith’s Brood Book Review

Octavia E. Butler
This three-part series manages to bring the reader intimately close to the main characters’ desires and fears without rendering a judgment on whether they’re good or bad. I found myself constantly re-assessing until the last page. An alien species saves humanity from nuclear fallout, but they are captors as much as saviours. The aliens’ expansive family structures and gender identities challenge human ways of being, and position them to bring about an enlightened future that can overcome the tendency for human self-destruction. But are the humans willing participants in this leap of faith, or was their free will extinguished on first contact? Apart from the second half of the second book, which became repetitive and tedious, this story is challenging, uncomfortable, seductive and imaginative.

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28 January 2023 Rating: 4/5

Split Tooth Book Review

Tanya Tagaq
Hold this memoir carefully in your hands knowing its sharp edges will cut you as you rush to turn the page. There is nothing fantastical about the myths that Tagaq blends into her story, only an undeniable truth. Euphoria and despair, curiosity and fear: opposites hold hands in this book and make the world whole.

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02 January 2023 Rating: 5/5

Love in the Days of Rage Book Review

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Name-dropping Parisian streets and landmarks is not a substitute for creating a setting for this novel. For what’s supposed to be a love story, Ferlinghetti is way too fixated on gratuitous phallic imagery and never once mentions pleasure. Like Annie’s lover Julian, the so-called anarchist banker, this book is also full of shit.

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30 December 2022 Rating: 2/5

What environmentalists can learn from the labour movement

Today, the lowest-paid group of education workers (represented by CUPE) are on strike in defiance of the Ontario government’s new law that prevents them from doing so legally. This is a big deal, and I applaud everyone who’s able to show up and picket the offices of MPPs. Unionized workers in Can…

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04 November 2022 Politics

Projects

Tri-City Hip Hop

Explore the places in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that have shaped local hip-hop culture. Featuring music videos and first-hand stories from the artists themselves.

https://tricityhiphop.com

Bylines

Subscribe to your favourite Canadian writers no matter which publication they appear in.

https://bylin.es

Contexts

Slides from a presentation I prepared about software architecture in the real world. Tech isn’t a bubble. It’s affected by, and affects, a user’s environment, social biases, business models, and the other software it interacts with.

http://samnabi.github.io/contexts

Traction

A self-hosted, file-based solution for mass email campaigns. Traction was developed for Hold The Line Waterloo Region’s campaign against Bill 66. We coordinated with dozens of local advocacy groups. Community members sent over 18,000 emails to local mayors, councillors, and members of provincial parliament. In less than a month, Bill 66 was amended to respect our demands.

https://github.com/samnabi/traction