Coming to you hot from… 10:03 pm Wednesday evening. I’m here writing about my column — specifically, how I settled on the name. Because it was a long process. I put a lot of thought into names (see also: Talkin' 'bout m' name)

If you haven’t yet, you should read it :).

To Point, To Interest

I really struggled to come up with a name for my column. A friend and I sat on a call and brainstormed a shit ton of names (thanks for that, by the way!). But none of them super felt right. I realized — I don’t have a theory of what makes a good column name. “I know it when I see it” might work for identifying hardcore pornography, but it’s not so helpful when you’re trying to generate — this analogy is breaking down — when you’re trying to generate a name. So, like I did with my own name, I figured out what I wanted from a column name and what I liked/disliked in others. I did so in the form of just brain dumping a bunch of words. And I’m lazy so you’re just gonna get those words. I think they’re kinda interesting

What Makes a Good Name? (unedited from my notes)

What makes a good column name? I think it should certainly be connected to the topic, but how much is the question. I don’t think it needs to fully follow the topic. Like it doesn’t have to be “writing about thoughts about AMS Council”. But it also shouldn’t be like Buzz Buzz Bitches. I think it should be one where — even if you don’t get it immediately — once you know the topic of the column, it will be pretty easy to connect them strongly. Like (Dis)connection doesn’t necessarily immediately bring to mind like… social situations and interpersonal relationships (it could be a computer networking things, but I acknowledge I am a cs student lmao). But once you know that’s what it is, it makes so much sense.

I like alliteration. I’d love if that could get in there.

I think I’d like something a little bit clever about it. A little word play, a little reference, something like that. But it shouldn’t be distractingly so. And it should be something that is broadly understood. So no BBB stuff.

I don’t want a name that leans into drama. We want to be depolarizing, not adding to the noise in a nasty feedback loop (as delicious as that sometimes is). This column is going to be one of compassion — but also one that won’t hesitate to criticize. At least I hope. The future is uncertain. Maybe Riley will take away council food.

Existing student governance related columns are: Powers at Be, Living the Institutions, AMS Decoded, Senate Recentered.

Additionally, the news series: Between the Motions, Senate Summed Up, and From the Boardroom.

Of these, my two favourites are Powers at Be and Between the Motions. I think my least favourites are From the Boardroom and Senate Recentered. Why is that?

For Powers at Be, I think it builds off of a sense of… almost helplessness? Like there’s the saying of like “that’s just the powers at be”, and oh boy. I’ve been told that that’s just how it is and there’s no point worrying about it simply so much. And the column name is meeting you there. The name is saying this is how it is, but the articles are saying “but it doesn’t need to be”. Really good name.

For Between the Motions. I dunno I just think it’s kind of iconic? Like there’s obviously a ton of motions being thrown around in AMS Council. Honestly, I think my column would do better with this name than news lmao. Because they’re news, they sort of have to… just say the motions, whereas the column can read between the lines/motions, so to speak.

I think one of the interesting things is that my column like… I dunno. I don’t think it’s necessarily like AMS Council 101 material. Like it’s not just “what is AMS Council.” It’s AMS Council + opinions. I dunno maybe that makes it more 101 because you have a catalyst for at least an opinion (to agree/disagree with). Which I think is easier than forming an opinions out of the aether. Genuinely don’t know why I’m thinking about this here. I’m just putting all my thoughts down.

I think From the Boardroom is just boring. Like it’s pretty obvious. Board of Governors. Notes/information from the Boardroom. I don’t think it does anything clever. It does its job though.

I think Senate Recentered is the worst name of the bunch (sorry if you came up with it!). [Editor’s Note: I didn’t add the sorry parenthetical. That was in my personal notes.] It’s just… It’s boring and I don’t think it’s doing much centring of senate. It’s just… summarizing senate, in a way.

So… we want something witty. Something tied to the AMS, but not just saying exactly what it is. A name that meets people where they are and draws them in (to greater enlightenment! Because my thoughts are enlightenment, obvs). Woof.

The List

So, some of these names were generated before I made this list, and some of them were generated after. And most of them don’t even match with anything above. Some are just jokes. We were brainstorming, so everything goes on the list, no matter how dumb.

We tried for a hot sec to come up with one where it could be initialized to AMS.You can see there’s a point in time towards the end that I just started riffing on card/ball-based idioms — truly no idea why. There were also a couple egg-themed names. Because… AMS > The Nest > Nests have eggs.

Final Two

There were really two names in final contention at this point. I’ll tell you about the one that we didn’t go with first.

Our Council Our Monkeys

I think this one would have been so funny! I don’t think it would have been good — there’s no way we could have gone with it. But I kind of think it’s perfect. Because I wanted it to say “AMS? That’s a thing we should all care about.” It’s bestowing ownership of our student union onto the reader. It’s kinda a funny idiom. It would have been perfect! Except… calling councillors monkeys is like… um. Bad. On a lot of fronts. Like honestly? Maybe we shouldn’t call any human beings monkeys. Just a bad vibe in general. It’s also like… not great on the whole compassion thing? It’s saying that the AMS are a bunch of wacky, zany nerds just making a mess of things. Which like… maybe if I were making an Instagram disendorsement infographic would be an acceptable thing to say (and even then… really??? what are you doing???? you’re not helping the state of discourse arrrrgggghhhhhhhh) but especially when trying to create a less antagonistic space, it’s super not the vibe.

Point of Interest

I really like Point of Inquiry because it has the whole Robert's Rules of Order connection (thus tying it back to council). But it also comes at it from a place of curiosity. It's not necessarily saying "this is where all the answers are", its saying "lets discover a bit more about this together" (at least that's the vibe I get from it). And I think approaching from a place of curiosity and discovery points towards a more constructive outcome. It also kinda still makes sense even if you aren't a cool kid who gets the Robert's Rules reference (though only to the extent of being a topic that is inquired into). The only sad bit is that it's the less popular sibling of point of order and no one is out here interrupting people by shouting "Point of Inquiry!" during a council meeting.

Other News

This Newsletter is really weird

My partner’s mother reads my newsletter (crazy times) and the other day I mentioned I was in a computer networking course and she was just like “Oh yeah, I knew that. You failed a quiz didn’t you?”

I feel like I’m reasonably intentional about what I share on here. It’s just really weird to confront it face-to-face. Especially since I LITERALLY SAID I WAS EMBARRASSED BY THE QUIZ :(((((( (it’s bad, y’all)

My partner also egged it on a few times by being like “oh mom you know about that, it was on the newsletter” which I think was very mean.

Anyways, love you Martine. Can’t wait to see you and Andy in August!!!! (you too Tom, don’t feel left out).

I’VE GOT A UBYSSEY EMAIL

Everyone be calm. No one freak out. Be cool and normal. We don’t want to “appear cringe.” But I do, in fact, have an @ubyssey.ca email. You may applaud, send me emails of congratulations, throw flowers at me, etc.

I’ve very excited. I’m well and truly in it now. And they’re already paying like $10 a month for my email (I’m pretty sure that’s around the price), so it’s too late for them to realize that I’m actually just a chucklefuck pretending to be a big kid who can handle responsibility!

What I’ve learned from this experience is that if you spend months publicly thirsting after an organization, they might notice you and like you and think you’re cute and want you to join them. All of you nerds should take this to heart and live your life by this.

Hi Ayla :)

I HOPE YOURE FEELING BETTER BESTIEEEE

Welcome to such a strange little thing that I do. Honestly? It’s a little bit ridiculous. There’s truly no theme anymore. It’s just whatever random bullshit I whip together int he time I have. There’s basically no editing and it’s so low quality — mostly in honour of CK’s mass email a couple months ago. So… I hope you enjoy??? Here are a couple of my favourites, if you (for some reason) haven’t made your way through the entire archive.

• Why The Ubyssey is the Most Kissable Organization on Campus (Pt 1) 

• Podcast Pitches for The Ubyssey. Number 7 Will Surprise You (NOT CLICKBAIT) 

• Thoughts on Every RPG I've Played 

• Unfortunately, you won’t be able to access the true version of A Presidential Affair (Web Version). But if you’re interested in some gay AMS fan fiction, ask some of the other editors 👀 

I well and truly am making my way through The Ubyssey’s masthead one editor at a time. I think at least one of Colin and Stephen are next — just because of AMS Council this Wednesday :(.

(Oh speaking of, Riley can you do that thing where you hire security guards to keep students from entering the MKF and also keep journalists from entering the MKF, making it so The Ubyssey’s newsies have to flash their press passes and then have an extended conversation persuading the security guards that they are in fact journalists and they should in fact be allowed into the meeting. I just think it’d be a fun bonding moment for me, Colin, and Stephen :D)

From the Archive

I think this old spoof issue is timely (I’m a big fan of its cost being $19.18):

Like y’all. Look at this table of contents! It’s so fucking good! You should go read this issue.

That’s All!

I’m back from my little trip now. It was very relaxing. Picked some rose petals, read a book that has a character named Quyên, went canoeing, sat in my room setting up a macro that takes a markdown file and runs a terminal command causing a javascript program to convert the markdown file into an html file then launches a headless chromium instance to render the html file as a pdf so that I can turn my TTRPG notes into a nice and fancy pdf. You know, all the normal stuff people do on a vacation to a cabin whose only electricity is solar-powered battery banks.

Honestly the biggest realization about how I felt this weekend is that I still had just as much shit to do as normal, I just didn’t feel guilty about not doing it so I was able to have a chill and not stressful time. Which is maybe a perspective I should adopt more broadly. But also feeling guilty and the dread of not having done things is the only reason I do things so…

Until Wednesday at 10:03 pm, buzz on, my busy bees!

RIP online sinceline 😭 gone before your time since 2025