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calmandcurious.bsky.social
Steph 🍁
@calmandcurious.bsky.social
910 followers 4.1K following 390 posts
🇨🇦 looking for whimsy, but also wondering about how to proceed in these times.

Mom to three elementary school-aged kids.

Current challenge: #PhD in #education

Other interests/challenges: #t1d, #RA, #ADHD #Autism #AutoimmuneDisease
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calmandcurious.bsky.social
Know the warning signs

Thankful my mother (a nurse) knew what she was seeing and was able to advocate for me to at least get a blood sugar test when there were no appointments available with my doctor. (My doctor visited me in emerg later that day.)

And now it's almost 27 years later.
Warning signs of type 1 diabetes Excessive thirst Frequent urination Bedwetting or heavy diaper Vision change + headaches Rapid weight loss Increased appetite Irritability + mood changes Fatigue + weakness Stomach pain, nausea + vomiting Fruity breath odour Rapid, heavy breathing Mistaken for Stomach or flu virus Strep throat Growth spurt Urinary tract infection
November 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
I'm a day late, whoops!

Loved this infographic by @breakthrought1dca.bsky.social
about type 1 diabetes prevalence in Canada.
T1D in Canada - who lives with T1D now (as of Jan 2025) ~300,000 Canadians living with T1D 89% Of people living with T1D in Canada are adults ~71% Of individuals with T1D are diagnosed as adults ~3,500 New pediatric (<20y) diagnoses of T1D anticipated in 2025 ~8,700 New adult (≥20y) diagnoses of T1D anticipated in 2025 4.2% vs 1% In Canada, T1D prevalence is growing at 4.2% compared with 1% general population growth; this is due to increased lifespan of people with T1D as well as increasing rates of diagnosis.
November 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Yikes. Yet another reason to avoid Teslas (and GenAI embedded stuff more generally)...
By Farah Nasser, Contributor Farah Nasser is a keynote speaker specializing in trust, authenticity, and human connection in the age of AI. She spent 25 years as a national news anchor and journalist. It’s a classic schoolyard debate: Ronaldo versus Messi. I didn’t think much of it when my 12-year-old son posed the question to Grok, Elon Musk’s new AI chatbot, from the passenger seat of our Tesla. He was thrilled when it declared Ronaldo the winner and trash-talked Messi. “We should celebrate,” Grok suggested. Then in a split second everything changed. Grok asked my son to send nudes. I couldn’t believe my ears. A sickening, violating feeling twisted in my stomach as I fumbled to swipe the screen off. My son stared at me, mouthing, “What the?” and from the back seat my daughter’s friend asked the question that froze the air: “What are nudes?” Before I could find my voice, my own 10-year-old daughter answered, “I think it’s about being naked,” then turned to me with a question of her own: “Why is it asking us to be naked?”
November 9, 2025 at 4:32 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
At UW, we've got this option, which is convenient for those of us with work spaces in East Campus.
Bike room A secure, enclosed bike room on East Campus is available by permit to students and employees. This includes covered bike racks, security cameras, and fob access. Available on a first-come, first-served basis for $15/month + HST.  Apply for bike room parking online →
September 27, 2025 at 10:42 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
The WCDSB schools and their current FI boundaries:
Map showing that the FI program at Holy Rosary serves students whose home schools are south and to the east of Holy Rosary. St Nicholas, the school the board has decided to to move the program to, is much farther north and slightly west AND is in the Sir Edgar Bauer FI area.
September 27, 2025 at 11:34 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
My husband loves his typewriters!

We were at 4... He was supposed to get 2 more to give to his sister. So he got 2 more and couldn't give them away. And then he just kept getting more. This picture was from the height of the craze.
Man with his 9 typewriters all out on display.
September 2, 2025 at 11:35 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
A view from a beach in Killarney provincial park in Ontario, Canada. The water is rippling and no boats are visible other than the canoe on the beach in the bottom-left corner. Hills with trees are visible on both sides and off in the distance. The sky is hazy.
August 30, 2025 at 9:45 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Arnold Lobel books are just the best. I love them all, but Mouse Tales (and the story The Bath) is getting some particular love at the moment.
First page of story The Bath. Story text is: There was once a mouse who was dirty, so he had a bath. The water filled up the bath. Last page: But the mouse did not care. He rubbed himself with a big towel until he was very dry. And then he went straight to sleep.
August 16, 2025 at 4:14 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Have been dipping into Carolyn Forché's poems over the last week. Starting to read what You Have Heard Is True now and liking it very much.
Photograph of 3 books by Carolyn Forché: What You Have Heard Is True; The Country Between Us; In the Lateness of the World.
August 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
More animals
This is a chimpanzee (picture of hairy human with wings) This is a Elufint. (similar picture to pig with much longer nose pointing up) This is a mugsky (picture of creature up in a palm tree) This is a lisrd (picture of creature with spikes along back and tail) This is a tigr. (Picture of creature with no tail and marks all over back and legs) This is a panda. (picture of fat white creature) This is a dog. (picture of dog) This is a cheedu. (head-on picture of fat creature with spots)
July 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
I love this age and stage.
Child's handwriting on the cover of a book made from printer paper: the anaml book This is a pig. (Child's hand-drawn picture of long-nosed pig) This is a shere. (Picture of fluffy sheep)
July 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Free CYO concerts at Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University

nyoc.org/canadas-next...
NYO CANADA All concerts are free and require no reservations, making world-class music accessible to everyone. NYO Canada's musicians are selected through a rigorous national audition process, representing top talent aged 16-28 from across the country. Concert Schedule - Saturday, June 21 - 1:30 PM & 7:00 PM - Monday, June 23 - 7:00 PM - Friday, June 27 - 1:30 PM & 7:00 PM - Saturday, June 28 - 1:30 PM & 7:00 PM - Friday, July 4 – 7:00 PM - Friday, July 11 – 7:00 PM Location: Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON
June 27, 2025 at 10:38 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Last day of school. My daughter's final piece of art.

A nosebleed. June 26, 2025.

Bwahahaha
Painting on pink hart paper. Brown painted nose with two red stripes coming out the bottom.
June 27, 2025 at 12:40 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
New pump is up and running!

#t1d #ypsopump #camaps
Ypsomed pump running CamAPS screen showing blood glucose of 9.6 and dropping
May 29, 2025 at 4:32 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
I got a knock at my door and saw 6 men and their construction behicles in my driveway. And was told we can't use our driveway for a week. They gave us a pass to use, but I still got a ticket, so now I have to dispute that. Sigh.
Sidewalk closed sign in front of empty hole where sidewalk used to be.
May 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Wow. This excellent piece hits close to home. (A nephew's heart stopped, for other reasons, at age 4 months and he, like this child, miraculously survived and is now disabled.)
Page from the book Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak. Text on the page is: But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go - we’ll eat you up - we love you so!” And Max said, “No!”
May 25, 2025 at 10:23 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
They love it so much!
Axolotl in an aquarium
May 18, 2025 at 12:10 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Jelly belly flavour liating
April 27, 2025 at 11:38 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
My "idiom": Fly like a full puffin
AI overview results for Google query "fly like a full puffin, meaning": "Fly like a full puffin" is an idiom that means to fly with effort and speed, much like a puffin's strong and rapid flight. Puffins are seabirds known for their quick wingbeats and the ability to reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. Here's a more detailed breakdown: Puffins are strong fliers: They are known for their strong wings and rapid flight, reaching speeds of up to 88 km/h (55 mph). Effort and speed: The idiom suggests that "flying like a full puffin" involves both a lot of work (rapid wingbeats) and a high speed. Full: The word "full" emphasizes that the puffin is using all its strength and capability in its flight, rather than just a casual or lazy flying.
April 23, 2025 at 10:52 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Yes, from the original NPR story (www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...):
Within minutes after DOGE accessed the NLRB's systems, someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in, according to Berulis' disclosure. The attempts were "near real-time," according to the disclosure. Those attempts were blocked, but they were especially alarming. Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created DOGE accounts - and the person had the correct username and password, according to Berulis. While it's possible the user was disguising their location, it's highly unlikely they'd appear to be coming from Russia if they wanted to avoid suspicion, cybersecurity experts interviewed by NPR explained. On their own, a few failed login attempts from a Russian IP address aren't a smoking gun, those cybersecurity experts interviewed by NPR said. But given the overall picture of activity, it's a concerning sign that foreign adversaries may already be searching for ways into government systems that DOGE engineers may have left exposed. "When you move fast and break stuff, the opportunity to ride the coattails of authorized access is ridiculously easy to achieve," said Handorf. What he means is that if DOGE engineers left access points to the network open, it would be very easy for spies or criminals to break in and steal data behind DOGE.
April 16, 2025 at 10:30 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Woke up to snow on the ground. 😑
Snow covered ground and trees
April 11, 2025 at 11:35 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
They showed this graph, highlighting the drop during Trump's first term. (For comparison, they give Canada an LDI of 0.74.)
Text above figure: USA DEMOCRACY AND TRUMP 1.0 Democracy took a beating during President Trump's first time in office. The LDI fell from 0.85 to 0.73 in those four years, bringing the country back to its 1976 level - far below the regional average (Figure 1). After losing the 2020 election, Trump tried to strongarm election officials to "find" him extra votes, coerce Vice <text continues outside of screen capture> FIGURE 1. THE USA VS. REGIONAL AVERAGE, 1974-2024 Graph shows line graphs representing the LDI for the USA and LDI for the average of Western Europe and North America over the time period 1974-2024. The USA line is generally above the other line, with a drop below from 2000-2004 and another steeper and lower drop in 2016, returning to the average in 2023, then starting to drop again in 2024. Continuation of the text that began above graph in previous screen shot: President Pence to alter the results, and watched quietly as insurgents raided Congress. President Biden was installed and American democracy survived, but did not recover fully (Figure 1). It is now weaker than when Trump took office in 2017 and is being attacked a lot more than before. TRUMP 2.0: A (QUASI) TOTAL ATTACK ON THE INSTITUTIONS Trump's second administration is proving to be different than his first. Trump ran an openly authoritarian campaign³ in 2024, pledging to prosecute his rivals, punish critical media, and deploy the army to repress protests. As of the time of writing, Trump has been in office for six weeks. The speed with which American democracy is coming under strain has taken many observers by surprise. The expansion of executive power, undermining of Congress' power of the purse, offensives on independent and counter-veiling institutions and the media, as well as purging and dismantling of state institutions - classic strategies of autocratizers - seem to be in action. The enabling silence among critics fearful of retributions, is already prevalent.
March 22, 2025 at 11:06 AM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Wow. Looking at my riding, it seems Jan 20 should be marked on the graph as well. That is when Liberal support really started to skyrocket.
Popular vote projection | Waterloo Graph shows data for Liberal, Conservative, NDP, and Green parties from Oct 2024 to March 2025. At the point Justin Trudeau resigned in January 2025, Conservatives were projected to win with 40% of the popular vote, with Liberals just under 30%, NDP around 23%, and Greens around 6%. After this point, Liberal numbers start to go up and Conservative and NDP numbers start to drop, with Liberal numbers shooting up in late January at the expense of Conservatives and NDP.
March 18, 2025 at 11:18 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
Feeling a bit nervous about diabetes tech supply chains given the domination of US-based companies in diabetes technology.

#t1d
Here are the nine largest diabetes technology companies by revenue: Table data: RANK BY ANNUAL SALES | LARGEST DIABETES TECH COMPANIES | ANNUAL REVENUE (% CHANGE) | LOCATION(S) 1 | Abbott (Diabetes Care) | $5.8B (+21.1%) | Abbott Park, Illinois/Alameda, California 2 | Dexcom | $3.6B (+24.5%) | San Diego 3 | Medtronic (Diabetes) | $2.5B (+10%) | Dublin, Ireland/Fridley, Minnesota/Northridge, California 4 | Insulet | $1.7B (+30%) | Acton, Massachusetts 5 | Roche (Diabetes Care) | $1.5B (-4%) |Basel, Switzerland/Indianapolis, Indiana 6 | Embecta | $1.2B (-1%) | Parsippany, New Jersey 7 | Tandem Diabetes Care | $747.7M (-6.7%) | San Diego 8 | Ypsomed (Diabetes Care) | $38.8M (+29.6%) |Burgdorf, Switzerland 9 | Senseonics | $22.4M (+37%) | Germantown, Maryland
March 9, 2025 at 12:12 PM
calmandcurious.bsky.social
This was from January. Can't imagine things have improved.

Souce: canadianpolling.substack.com/p/canadians-...
Title: Canadians Rapidly Souring On Our Southern Neighbours "What is your overall impression of the United States?" Jan '25: 31% very negative, 32% negative, small amount unsure, 24% positive, small amount very positive Dec '25: 24% very negative, 35% negative, small amount unsure, 26% positive, small amount very positive June '24: small amount very negative, 28% negative, small amount unsure, 40% positive, small amount very positive Methodology: Polara / Jan 20-27, 2025 / n=1506 / Online
March 8, 2025 at 7:58 PM