I'm Alex Kearney, a PhD student studying Computer Science at the University of Alberta. I focus on Artificial Intelligence and Epistemology.





Happy folk fest for those who celebrate :-)

At: Canmore folk fest

From 2023-08-04T12:16 To 2023-08-07T22:00


On my way to Canmore for the Folk Fest.

Victoria International Airport → Calgary International Airport → Canmore, Alberta


  • Watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
  • Passed my candidacy exam! 🎉
  • Finished my first pair of socks custom fit to me
  • Went to a celtic-themed pops concert for St Patrick's day 🍀
  • Made a looot of biscotti


This actually creeped me out the first time I saw it. There's this weird glorification of a guy who cares about Christine so much he taught her how to sing. Never mind the weird emotional manipulation, kidnapping, and torturing of her fiancee. I feel like this tweet captures the creepiness perfectly.


What I did Sep1 - Sep7

Indieweb-stuff:

  • Tried to federate my indiewebsite so that I could interact with mastodon through it (unsuccessfully)

  • Hacked together a websub hub which passes all of the websub.rocks tests.

  • Rebuilt large chunks of my site---particularly the back-end---so that the posting interface is nicer and easier to test.

  • Factored out my markdown albums, webmentioning, and hashtag extensions into separate repos which I can independently maintain.

  • Hooked up webmentions again so that I can see webmentions as part of an ongoing effort to improve usability of federation.

  • Hooked up in_reply_to again, so that I can send webmentions. This also lets me reply-tweet using brid.gy

  • Started posting albums and articles I'd held off on posting.

Reading:

  • Research proposals from different disciplines to figure out how I want to structure my candidacy document.

  • Bickhard's interactivism and process metaphysics

  • Anthony Chemero's take on representationalism

Other stuff

  • Karaoke 🎤
  • Symphony under the sky
  • Knitting an aran sweater I designed
  • Yoga 🧘


Trying to keep dry on the last day of folk fest. Trying.


One tarp up and one tarp to the right of the golden tarp!


Recovering from DLRL summer school by scrambling for tarp space at the Canmore Folk Fest 🎻 🎶


Family festival tarp burrito to keep out of the torrential rain for the @edmfolkfest. We managed to stick it out until the end! #folkfest #music #folk #efmf17


10 tarps back for Friday folking. 🎼🎻✨#folkfest #efmf17 #music #folk #



Another year, another @edmfolkfest lottery. #folk #music #efmf17 #folkfest


Edmonton's summer music never ceases to impress. #yeg #blues #music


@attaccaquartet performing for the @edmontonchambermusic's summer solstice festival. 🌞🎻#ssmf17 #yegphoto #yeg #yegmusic #yegarts #music


Yesterday's @YEGChamberMusic performance: reminding me that even 9 year-olds can be crazy-talented musicians #ssmf17 #yegarts


Of Monster and Men hitting the main stage.



Can't imagine a better place to hold a folk festival than cradled by the Rockies in Canmore!


I just found an old re-mix from an old mash-up. I've been searching for this for 3 years now.

This is the best.


Using the Erhu for the solo in the Magic Flute's aria was unexpectedly fun! #yeg


On of the pianists at the chamber music festival was using a tablet for sheet music. #yeg .