jenny (phire)

@phirephoenix

I write code for a living and words for my sins. occasional blog posts at , weekly newsletter for organizing/activism in Toronto at @showuptoronto.ca.

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jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jul 8

lmao mirvish what the fuck this is like saying saturday was named for the car company saturn

a screenshot of a mirvish promo email with a line highlighted that reads “& Juliet is the perfect show to see in July — because the month is named after Juliet herself”

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jul 4

I got kitty a cooling mat and she not only sat down as soon as I plopped her onto it but I moved it under the bed where she normally likes to sleep and every time I’ve walked past she’s been on it in a different configuration, can I get a human sized one of these

overhead shot of brown and black cat with white paws draped across a rectangular beige gel mat

the same cat lying across the gel mat underneath a bed, the camera is near the ground and her face which is resting on the mat itself is staring out at the camera

the same cat is rolled over on her back on the far side of the gel mat underneath a slatted bed, about halfway in

the same cat is sitting on the gel mat near the edge, still under the bed, with her little paws stretched out before her and she’s looking up and to the left

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 19

I used my internet handle because my actual name is incredibly overloaded and a bunch of the models think I am a famous twitch streamer, and I was like oh interesting! I’m surprised I haven’t gotten any crossover tags for this person, and idk what the lesson here is lol but it’s something lol

screenshot of in the weights results for phirephoenix, assessing it as a variety twitch streamer known for cozy content

screenshot of the twitch account phirephoenix, with no content and no followers

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 18

plus ça change

Polymarket tweet: JUST IN: Meta's CTO says morale is near "the worst it's ever been" — leadership will offer increased snack budgets to lift spirits.

ancient meme of a tech bro standing beside a square pizza box as long and wide as he is tall, which is open to reveal four different square pizzas, and superimposed on the open box top are the words “please don’t form a union”

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 14

local historian gay af (complimentary)

description of luddite activist george mellor from brian merchant’s blood in the machine:

Born in 1789, the year the French Revolution caught fire, George had a staunch moral code, a sharp tongue, and charisma to spare. He stood "six feet by the stick, and with shoulders well back, and strong, firm, warm hands that gripped you to make you tingle," as one local historian described him. "His eyes were brown and full of fire, and dark auburn hair curled close upon a rounded head. He had a temper, if you like, but he never bore malice.

George's strong, square jaw accentuated his "resolute, determined appearance," as another writer put it. He was righteous, impatient, and blunt, a man of "iron will and reckless daring."

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 14

we had to effect a 7am rescue of my big beautiful dumbass cat this morning

rough illustration of a cat stuck on a ledge underneath a window, a woman dangling out the window reaching down to pick her up, and a man hanging onto the waist of the woman so she doesn’t also fall to her death

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 13

felt cute, whomst wants to sponsor

selfie of a chinese woman with long hair and glasses with a stop sign clearly visible over her right shoulder and a campari umbrella over her left, and there’s a hastily scrawled “time” underneath the umbrella so that the whole picture reads “stop, campari time”

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 12

panel 3 from the floccinaucinihilipilification comic of a mermaid saying with narrowed eyes and disgruntled mien “I will fucking increase the fucking thing”

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Jun 7

“I should go back to tumblr” superimposed over the I should buy a boat cat

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· May 28

to be a cat in a box in a ray of sunlight

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· May 21

this is the university professor liberals want

a beautiful yet stern long haired persian mix cat lying on a bed with her front paws crossed, sitting beside two stacks of books taller than she is, featuring a mix of culture, racism, leftist theory, and inexplicably a copy of the exorcist

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· May 4

not to substance shame but I think my cat got wasted on bubble wrap

top down view of big fluffy cat lying draped across a stretch of bubble wrap on the floor, clearly passed out

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· May 1

happy may day friends, labour is entitled to all it creates

red international workers day poster, with a hammer and gear in the centre and the words "organize sabotage strike" around the gear, "1st of may" written above, and illustrations of various tools of work scattered around, including farming tools but also books, needles, stethoscopes, etc.

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· May 1

Fuck yes @dianachanmcnally.bsky.social!!!!!

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Apr 25

hello can I interest you in the most beautiful cat in the world

a grey brown persian mix kitty with white paws and big green eyes is perched on the back of a chair, with a woman in glasses and a red tshirt snuggled up to her

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Apr 25

knock-off javert-ass motherfucker

Screenshot of Atlantic article

Theft Is Now Progressive Chic

In some left-wing corners of the commentariat, moral rectitude is out. Flagrant disregard of the social contract is in.

By Thomas Chatterton Williams

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Apr 23

good evening to the basque fishermen of 1609 who liberated their female relations from the witch hunt and I do mean only to the basque fishermen of 1609 who liberated their female relations from the witch hunt

From Sylvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch (2004), emphasis and notes mine:

That this propaganda successfully divided women from men is suggested by the fact that, despite individual attempts by sons, husbands, or fathers to save their female relatives from the stake, with ONE EXCEPTION, we have no record of any male organizations opposing the persecution. The exception is the case of the fishermen of the Basque region where the French Inquisitor Pierre Lancre was conducting mass trials that led to the burning of perhaps as many as six hundred women. Mark Kurlansky reports that the fishermen had been been absent, engaged in the annual cod season. But,

[when the men] of the St.-Jean-de-Luz cod fleet, one of the largest [from Basque country] heard rumors of their wives, mothers, and daughters [being] stripped, stabbed, and many already executed, the 1609 cod campaign was ended two months early. The fishermen returned, clubs in hands, and liberated a convoy of witches being taken to the burning place. This one popular resistance was all it took to stop the trials... (Kurlansky 2001: 102)

(handwritten note: #notallmen)

The intervention of the Basque fishermen against the persecution of their female relatives was a unique event. NO OTHER GROUP OR ORGANIZATION rose up in defense of the witches. We know, instead, that some men made a business of denouncing women...

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Apr 16

honestly that’s so valid

screenshot of bsky’s notification tab with a “forbidden” error

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Mar 30

“vote tanille for ndp” leader orange header over an photo of the legs of ndp leadership candidate tanille johnson showing a fresh tattoo above the back of her left ankle, which is of a layered cake on a stand

email that starts “Hi friend,

So... I did it. I got a cake tattoo.

It's meaningful, cute, and it brings a smile to my face. What sparked this wild idea in the first place is the iconic Tony McQuail's "Economic Cake Chart." You know the one!”

above a photo of ndp leadership candidate tanille johnson wearing an orange blazer pulling up her pant leg to show her fresh tattoo to tony mcqual in classic denim shirt and straw hat

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Mar 28

Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie (2026)

a photo of a TTC sign on the upstairs wall facing people going downstairs on a subway station that says “look out, be safe! watch your step when getting on and off the escalator”, with a sleeping pigeon on top of the sign.

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Mar 24

my dog is very sad I won’t give him any kimchi

brown potcake dog lying on couch with head on paws looking up soulfully

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Mar 16

follow-up: she fell asleep in a super normal position, that all cats sleep in normally

big fluffy cat lying on its side across legs under a duvet, with its face nestled in the dip between legs

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Mar 16

for your consideration: the most interesting cat in the world

a big fluffy cat lying across a legs underneath a duvet posed like the dos equis man

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 23

(I feel compelled to note for the purposes of nerd cred that I had a different account I was using pre-2011, I've been on lastfm since 2006 but back in the day they didn't have username renaming features or I wasn't willing to pay for it idk)

another lastfm bar chart that just has entries from 2006-2010, averaging around 5-10k each with 2009 peaking at 25k scrobbles.

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 23

I know we're well into 2026 and the "in/out" format is done but I am here to say 2026 is the year we should all get back on lastfm

a bar chart timeline of last.fm scrobbles from 2011 to 2026, with values varying from ~5k a year to over 10k a year, a very small value in 2018 (probably less than 1k), nothing at all for 2019-2024, a teeny bar in 2025, and a substantially bigger chunk in 2026

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 23

this is from a stupid subway ad campaign that wealthsimple is running in toronto that I find deeply irritating, but the first time I walked by this pillar I thought the circled line said “stock evangelion” and was almost a little impressed before my brain caught up to my eyes

a bright yellow pillar with extremely difficult to read silver text that almost certainly doesn’t pass wcag, full of trite phrases that are meant to evoke futuristic things you should associate with wealthsimple I guess I don’t fucking know. some examples include “artificial intelligence” juxtaposed with “actual intelligence”, geddit. other examples include artificial husbands, bunkers, rice and beans, hyperinflation, hyper affordability, and lots of other largely incomprehensible nonsequiturs.

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 8

a gar is a fuel that goes in a flar

photo of an aquarium sign about an endangered fish in Ontario called a spotted gar

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 6

instead of getting mad at the main character du jour I think you should read my essay about choosing friction instead. I mean you can do both but I feel like the second one is more pleasant phirephoenix.com/blog/2025-10...

The thing that makes art interesting is that it was created by people who could have chosen to spend their time doing literally anything else. Do you know how long it takes to write a novel? Isn't it amazing how many people have done it anyway? Every human-authored book in the world, even the ones I think are absolute trash and not worth the paper they're printed on, is the culmination of hundreds or maybe thousands of hours of work by someone who had something they really, really wanted to say. Those are hundreds or maybe thousands of hours they could have chosen to spend hiking or cuddling their pets or socializing with their loved ones or playing Hades, but this thing they had to say was too important to ignore. I just think that's neat.

The problem with AI output masquerading as art is not that it's technically inept, or even uncanny. Al media generation has come a long way in the last five years and might well continue to improve technically. The problem with AI "art" is that it was not the expression of a mortal being choosing to spend its one wild and precious life clawing its way through mediocrity to try and imperfectly communicate a feeling with other mortal beings who, by definition, can never fully comprehend it, and therefore it is fundamentally uninteresting to me.

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 6

as always

post from visenyaism: Honestly fuck AI for making me have to go on and on defending the dignity of toil like I’m some kind of protestant

jenny (phire)@phirephoenix· Feb 2