Ashley Morton
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ashleymorton.bsky.social
Ashley Morton
@ashleymorton.bsky.social
230 followers 180 following 420 posts
High school physics teacher, engineer, rugby referee, father, spouse, transit lover, Sci Fi reader, cyclist, board gamer (mostly Frosthaven), BCer by birth, Haligonian by choice.

(...in no particular order.)
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ashleymorton.bsky.social
Wait, the #123 goes... Where?
Front of a Halifax Transit bus, parked at Bay 4 is the Scotia Square Terminal in downtown Halifax. The screen at the top of the windshield indicating the bus's route reads "123 TEST PATTERN".
November 13, 2025 at 3:13 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
She was awesome. Kids were asking to take pictures with her all weekend. She put so much work into the headpiece...
On Argyle Street, Halifax, outside Hal-Con, my wife, dressed as Derpy Tiger from K-Pop Demon Hunters, holds her (prop) flower pot up to the huge one outside the Halifax Convention Centre, as if comparing them. My wife Kes stands in our living room dressed in her Derpy Tiger costume. The living room is a bit messy, with blankets on the couch and board games stacked on top of the book shelf in the background. Kes's costume is a powder blue onesie, painted to match Derpy's markings, as well as a large head, made of papier mâché. The tongue is sticking out, and holds a small piece of paper, as in the movie (K-Pop Demon Hunters), when the Tiger is delivering a message.
November 10, 2025 at 2:10 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Man, my wife is good at everything! She randomly decided a couple of weeks ago to make a Derpy Tiger costume for Hal-Con.

It was just a goofy idea, for some fun - she's not a cosplayer, she's a remote-working research manager who coaches kids' rugby as a hobby.

Fast forward 3 weeks...
My wife sits, tired but happy, holding her Derpy Tiger head and her Hal-Con costume contest ribbon.
November 10, 2025 at 12:44 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Tee hee. Fantastical creatures attempt to organize themselves in number order... #HalCon2025
November 9, 2025 at 7:10 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Nice that the St. John's airport is trying, by including Indigenous languages in their welcoming, but it kinda has the opposite effect unless they proofread it. Pjila'si really needs that "L".
Airport luggage retrieval belt with "welcome" in several languages printed below it. The Mi'kmaq is misspelled - a letter is missing.
August 27, 2025 at 5:36 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
My daughter and I had a great time hanging out last night, learning Japanese and trying to install Ubuntu. She figures this pic of the table, complete with cat messing it all up, describes our relationship pretty well.
August 19, 2025 at 2:37 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Applying for a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation, and it tells me *because* I'm from Canada I must pay in US Dollars. It wouldn't bug me if they made me pay in pounds, but USD? <grump>.
Phone being held up to camera with phone screen visible. Text on phone screen says: Your payment Because you are applying from Canada, you will need to pay for your application in United States dollars (USD). Your application will cost 22.36 United States dollars. This includes fees for currency conversion. (link at the bottom of the screen reads "Choose a different country".)
August 13, 2025 at 12:50 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Time for me to get on a plane to leave my parents' in Bella Coola. Every time I use this airport, I'm charmed by it.

For example, here's the pilot pulling the luggage cart out to the plane.
Small passenger plane parked on a runway. Mountains are behind it, and the cargo door is open. A walking pilot is pulling a cart with luggage towards the plane.
July 30, 2025 at 6:08 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
This did not suck. Not even a little bit.
Music festival stage with sign "Bella Coola Music Festival". Sunset light is shining on mountains behind the stage. A small audience is on the grass in front. A girl is playing a violin on a side stage.
July 19, 2025 at 3:29 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
@halifaxexaminer.ca #ExaminerBus Route 7, southbound on Novalea/Gottingen, 6:40pm yesterday (July 2nd). Bus 1252. Only ad on the bus, but in good shape.
Inside a Halifax Transit bus. A Halifax Examiner advertisement is visible in the upper right.
July 3, 2025 at 1:42 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
My students are clearly quite confused...
Award certificate. Text: "Most likely to save the world: Mr Morton. Citadel High School. June, 2025."
June 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
The fountain's up and running, and I'm ready to count bikes on the Halifax Common! #pedalpollsondovelo cc: @velocanadabikes.bsky.social
Morning photo of the Halifax Common Fountain in operation. My shadow is visible in the shot. Selfie of me mugging beside the Halifax Common Oval & pedestrian/bike path.
June 3, 2025 at 9:53 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Best unsolicited spam text ever.
Text from phone number 251-355-3081, asking "Do you need wok?"
April 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
I love my job. I get questions like this from high school students. They make my day.
Text of an email (names of students blacked-out): Good afternoon Mr. Morton [hidden] and I have a question on quantum physics. We were thinking about the de Broglie wave equation when we realised that we did not have a strong understanding about the quantities that we were working with. If momentum is a vector quantity, and the de Broglie wavelength is proportional to the reciprocal of momentum, is the de Broglie wavelength a vector quantity? This did not make intuitive sense as we have been thinking about the de Broglie wavelength as a measure of probability. Thanks in advance for your help,
February 8, 2025 at 2:04 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
VERY wet ride on the feet, on the way in, and I forgot to pack extra socks.

Well, I'm in a high school physics lab - I can do something about that...
A pair of wet socks hanging from a ring stand over a hot plate.
February 7, 2025 at 12:45 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Best certificate ever. It's a certificate that says "CERTIFICATE" on it!
A certificate from Alta Gymnastics with my name on it that doesn't really say anything on our, other than that this is a certificate.
January 12, 2025 at 4:01 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Christmas morning in my hometown.
Outdoor - 2 mountains, corner of a house. Mix of evergreen & deciduous trees. Green (mossy) & snow-free lawn, snow at higher elevations on the mountains.
December 25, 2024 at 5:51 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Vancouver, as I primarily experience it.
Photo taken out the window of a small airplane. The window is covered in droplets, the sky is grey, and the visibility is poor.
December 21, 2024 at 6:53 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
I'd say those are pretty solid ones!
screen snip of my bio: "High school physics teacher, engineer, rugby referee, father, spouse, transit lover, Sci Fi reader, cyclist, board gamer (mostly Frosthaven), BCer by birth, Haligonian by choice. (...in no particular order.)"
November 29, 2024 at 2:39 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
I kinda love that the hundreds-of-years old fortress (Halifax Citadel) has a robotic lawnmower.
A robotic lawnmower in the foreground, the Halifax Citadel in the background.
September 18, 2024 at 6:35 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
First 20%?
Bluesky's automated 10-million-users graphic, showing that I was #1,980,212.
September 17, 2024 at 12:43 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
You know what's good?
A) Espresso 46 is good.
B) My cats are good.
C)The super cool new pride-themed rugby ball my rugby club just got is good.
External view of Espresso 46, a pair of windows under an awning, where they sell coffee and delicious snacks. Two cats - a grey one moving inquisitively towards the camera, and a tri-coloured arranged to look out the window, but also looking back over her shoulder towards the camera. A small, cluttered table in the entryway of my house, with two tacky ceramic statuettes (polar bear, bull), a glasses case, a bin of peppermint nobs, a box of disposable masks, several pairs of colourful sunglasses, and a Gilbert rugby ball with the Pride flag emblazoned on it, and several other rainbow-themed details in its color scheme.
September 4, 2024 at 10:57 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
I continue to be floored by the fact that ChatGPT can't count, find, or place the number of letters in a word. This is the response I just got, from ChatGPT, on the main OpenAI site.

I'm showing this to my students as soon as they get in the door this year!
Screen-grab of a question-and-answer from ChatGPT. Here is the text, copied-and-pasted: I said: Where are the "r"s in "strawberry"? ChatGPT said: In the word "strawberry," there are two "r"s. They are located as follows: The first "r" is between the letters "a" and "w" (strawberry). The second "r" is between the letters "b" and "e" (strawberry). So the "r"s are in the 6th and 10th positions in the word.
August 28, 2024 at 12:07 AM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Maybe everyone knows this, but you know that bump on the top of the tall building at SMU in Halifax? (pic below) It's a real astronomical observatory, and you can have it take pictures of cool things like planets and galaxies for you. They all get posted here: @BGO.observatory.social.ap.brid.gy .
Screenshot showing the Loyola Academic Building at St. Mary's University in Halifax, with the telescope dome on the top circled in red. A spiral galaxy, with many other individual stars visible in the frame. Image is taken by the Burke-Gaffney Observatory at St. Mary's University, and has text around the image giving that info, as well as "Observer: Norman Schneiderman", and "ID: 26541 imaged on night of 2024-08-24"
August 25, 2024 at 12:59 PM
ashleymorton.bsky.social
Here's what that looks like, just for Dalhousie (Sexton + Studley) and SMU.

(Imagine if it were to include Université Sainte-Anne, the NSCC on Leeds Street in the North End!

Sorry for bad mouse-drawing skillz!
July 18, 2024 at 6:31 PM