iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I specifically went to a college without fraternities for a reason. Not that this stops everything, but I just couldn’t.

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Reposted by Brian P Katz (BK)

Jessie Oehrlein @numberdance.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#MathsToday Leaving my future self some big "NOT THAT WAY" notes about how I introduced and & or in Discrete today, but we ended up at some good conversations about equivalent propositions anyway. And solid first steps into quantifiers (using materials from @thewordninjabk.bsky.social)

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

@chadtopaz.bsky.social I'm hoping that this is a <2min question for someone with your kind of expertise!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I need a little stats or data science support: I have data in multiple uni-dimensional discrete (integer) time series (course enrollment numbers). I believe that the numbers in previous time times are somewhat predictive of the next iteration, but also that earlier time steps contribute.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I love a good rainbow distraction on Connections, but boo about the purple group today!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

"The Comedy of Errors" in Griffith Park was really good! indieshakes.org

indieshakes.org

Independent Shakespeare Co.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

New AU concept: Rozanov is so scared of loons in part because he had a chance encounter with a bird and Bob Belcher before he dealt with his fear of pigeons somewhere near Boston. Rozanov immediately clocked Bob as bisexual, validated it, and helped him see how he was being a good dad. ...

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

DoorDasher just asked me if I own the bagel shop where I spend a lot of time working on my laptop because he's "been delivering for year, and I'm always here". Hehe. It's not the first time, but it's usually compliments to me as "manager" of a great staff. I take no credit, but they are great.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

FINALLY, there's a cat in one of these MM hockey romance novels. And it belongs to the confident hockey player, not the nerdy outsider. And it's name is PUCK, which is perfect for a black cat adjacent to hockey (and I hope night-time magics).

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I'm very pleased to announce that CSULB's Department of Math&Stats is hiring an Assistant Prof of Math Education for Fall'27! Applications due by 10/5/26. @cmcmath.bsky.social careers.pageuppeople.com/873/lb/en-us...

careers.pageuppeople.com

Jobs @ The Beach

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I DARE non-locals to guess what this is about. I'll try to reply tonight to confirm.

"I love your Long Beach accent. Say it again." "egg-semen-oh."

Dexter, the child scientist cartoon, whispering in someone's ear.

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Reposted by Brian P Katz (BK)

Grant @syncingsinking.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

New academic year so a good time to reskeet the #MathSky starter packs! go.bsky.app/66Us7WW

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I REALLY love ColorSweeper. It’s like MineSweeper and advanced Sudoku had a baby, and it is PHENOMENALLY well coded. The rules roll out perfectly, and these are crafted stages. @benjamindickman.bsky.social I especially think you might like this.

ColorSweeper loading screen with a yellow red blue green and second yellow splotch

An example game word at the top you see it stage 10–3 with a particular rule active. There are three filled red heart to the top before things has started. There are smattering of red green and blue squares some of them having numbers and along the edges, there are other numbers with dashes at the bottom there’s a button for hints and a toggle between filling a square with the color and blocking a color from a square.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I'm reading a book about a pretty/multi-racial/autistic guy who is trying to rules-lawyer himself into acceptance falling for an externally-sunny but internally wounded by a lost relative guy, and they know each other from work.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I do very think, therefore I much am?

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I’m excited, but I really hate seeing the tobacco, both because I hate the stuff for the evil harm it has done and because someone is trying to use this moment to entice vulnerable folks by making it seem hip.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Uncommon opinion, but I miss committees over the summer. (Of course not the bad ones!) The good ones are protected time for collaboration among people who share some common goals and bring diverse expertises that is also social community building! This is not me volunteering to Chair EVERYTHING.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Gaynoument: When the situation works out with exactly the villain and harm that you called from the start with your gay intuition, but no one listened

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Chef Luis Sanchez is hot, and I like his food. Just putting that out into the universe. shoutoutla.com/meet-luis-sa...

shoutoutla.com

Meet Luis Sanchez | Chef & Restaurant Owner – SHOUTOUT LA

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Reposted by Brian P Katz (BK)

Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I will reiterate: Christians in the West evangelize in public for the same reason men catcall. Neither is trying to persuade you; both are reminding you that the public sphere belongs to them and you exist in it at their sufferance.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I eat lots of cheese in part to protect myself from being eaten by sharks, who I believe are lactose intolerant. [Not my original joke.]

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I know it's the audio narrator not the character, but of all of the suspension of disbelief I've had to do for romance novels this year, this one broke me: A gay guy about my age who knows both Alanis Morisette and Idinal Menzel but only knows how to pronounce Alanis and not Idina correctly!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Listening to a silly MM romance. Gay single dads. Yes, there was only one tent for the scout trip.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Hannah Waddingham for Bond. With Gillian Anderson as Q. Oscar Isaac as ambiguous friend or foe.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Jimothy just sounds normal to me now. Like, I’m sure I had a Jimothy classmate a few times, right?

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Things are shit, so here’s something silly: I have an unusual tan right now. And it’s continuing to develop more color contrast.

My arm with a tan, but the letters “Hi” are written in large font on the forearm by non-tanned skin.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Happy for the sexy bisexual demon, but in my experience UA has been actively courting white nationalists for a while. Maybe this will be a pivot, but it will take time to earn trust.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I met with reps of both Senators and my Representative 18 months ago and suggested that they be proactive about which grants would be targeted in CA. The staffers were nice, but it was news to them. One asked me to email them Cruz’s “hit list”.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I'm possibly going to be close to tears for the next two weeks. Please be gentle with me.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Jacob Tierney reasks the old question from The Matrix: did you notice the woman in red? No. Not at all. There was a shark.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I was just invited to an MCU opening as a distinguished person in Long Beach. (It’s not what you think.)

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I'm very pleased to announce that CSULB's Department of Math&Stats is hiring an Assistant Prof of Math Education for Fall'27! careers.pageuppeople.com/873/lb/en-us... @joinmaa.bsky.social @rume-sigmaa.bsky.social @amtenews.bsky.social @nctm.org @todos-math.bsky.social @awm-math.org #NAM #AMATYC

careers.pageuppeople.com

Jobs @ The Beach

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

BK is marked safe from the 7/15 Great Onomonopia Wordle outrage.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

There is a man here blaspheming against the music of the original Moana.

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Reposted by Brian P Katz (BK)

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It's conference season, so I wanted to share the AI refusal statement I put at the end of my presentations and book talks. Feel free to use it!

AI Refusal Statement
I did not use generative AI at any point in the production of this book or presentation, including the literature review, writing, editing, translation, organization, or any other task (e.g. brainstorming). To the extent that it is possible to know, I did not cite any studies that used generative AI.
Justification: GenAI technology is based on stolen labor, anti-solidarity between workers, class exploitation, structural racism, misogyny, environmental injustice, and climate destabilization.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Also, Dougray Scott was the literal reason I was sure I was gay. fb.watch/Iie-WwFI4h/

fb.watch

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The YA werewolf romance series I'm reading has a surprisingly unsubtle allegory (direct mapping?) of establishment liberals (w/o introspection) begging for support from Indigenous folks and ecofeminists to survive a reactionary uprising of manosphere supremacists. I was expecting moony pining...

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I've been invited to give a short plenary presentation about the recent history of defining inquiry at the IBL SIGMAA business meeting at MAA MathFest @joinmaa.bsky.social, which takes place Saturday Aug 8 in Salon J, 11am-12:30pm. I hope folks will still be at the conference!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This paper has been a REALLY long time coming. It's about a course I taught for many years called Tools of Inquiry, in which I try to teach students to ask and explore their own mathematical questions, including with technology. It's a little like an introduction to research experience at scale!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

If you've every heard me say that I like epistemological puzzles, this is what I mean. This version I copied is better than some, but I would edit the moderate cis/het tontería out of it. [Don't be a jerk in the replies, but it's OK to share thinking if you're unsure of your approach.]

Decades after graduating from colleege, former roommates, John and Peter, cross paths.
P: Long time no see. Are you maried?
J: Yes, and I have three kids.
P: Wow. How old are your kids?
J: Guess. The product of their ages is 72.
P: I don't know. One more clue, please.
J: The sum of their ages is the same as our old dorm room number.
P: I still remember our room numbers, but I cannot guess. One more clue, please.
J: My youngest loves to eat durian, but her two older brothers hate durian.
P: Ah, okay. I know your kids ages.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Ok, I can sort of do this! But it’s hard. Having already read it in English, I’m getting 70-80% of the words with knowledge and context combined, plus memory, and it’s pushed over into just slow hard reading.

Cambiar el Juego y Game Changer. Los mismos libros en lenguas diferentes.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I would trust this stranger in an emergency.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I play trivia most Tuesday evenings at a local dive bar/restaurant. The host, Ron, is great in several ways. One is that he replaces the provided final round with a more interesting music round. In the last year or two, he has had a few guest run this round for fun. Last night, I took my first turn!

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

You’d think a 16yo living with me would get my FFVI references when I suplex her, especially since we’ve played it together. But she doesn’t have opposable thumbs and is a sweet fluff princess.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I've read a lot of romance novels this year. This is partly because I enjoyed the Heated Rivalry show, partly because one of my goals for the year is to be more proactive about not being single (the connection may not be obvious), and partly because I needed sweet/cozy things to manage trauma.

From Heated Rivalry, Season 1 Episode 6. Shane and Ilya sit outside, lit only be a small fire. Shane sits up on a couch, Ilya rests his head on Shane's lap. In the show, this is when Ilya first admits things about his mother's death.

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Brian P Katz (BK) @thewordninjabk.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

“These children are making me question my belief in ontological evil.” MM romance novel

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Reposted by Brian P Katz (BK)

Spencer Bagley @sbagley.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Heyyyy, if you're local at all, come have a beer and yell about hot dogs! I promise to say the words "Betti number" and "singular homology" and also have silly props

PAXTON PUB

GOES BACK TO SCHOOL WITH DR. SPENCER BAGLEY

JUNE 25 7PM

IS A HOT DOG A SANDWICH? HOW MANY HOLES ARE THERE IN A STRAW? WHY IS A MATH PROFESSOR ASKING THESE QUESTIONS, AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER? COME HAVE A BEER AND FIGHT ABOUT THE PRECISE DEFINITIONS OF IMPRECISE THINGS!

365W PAXTON AVE

SL,UT

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