iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Add a photo you took of something good.

A utility pillar on the way to my work painted up to show kids having fun. The day before I was able to say hello to the painter.

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

The 2005 BBC documentary Space Race has a reenactment of Werhner von Braun giving himself up to US troops after Germany's surrender. In real life his left arm was in a cast after it was broken in a car accident. In the documentary it didn't.

Actual photo of Werner von Braun taken May 2nd, 1945. His left arm is in an ungainly-looking cast and sticks out in front of his chest.

He had broken his arm and shoulder in March when his driver fell asleep at the wheel while shuttling him back and forth between the V-2 research labs in Peenemünde and the Mittelwerk slave labor factories further south. Due to von Braun's constant activity at the close of the war, it came loose and had to re-broken and reset.

A screenshot from the BBC documentary Space Race, showing von Braun surrendering to US troops with two good arms.

020

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Nah, we got the gist of it.

The end (selections 34 through 42) of a list of drinks on tap at the sports bar I'm sitting at while I'm typing this (currently 37-0 Notre Dame over Stanford, with three minutes left in the second quarter). There are four sours, four ciders, and Guinness.

020

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I think Jollibee may have a case.

An ad for "Jolly Spaghetti" from Jollibee, a fast food chain that originated in the Philippines but has spread worldwide along with the Filipino diaspora (which included my maternal grandparents). They're best known for their spicy fried "JoyChicken". The ad has a plate of spaghetti with the Jollibee mascot (a neotenous red cartoon bee) and the tagline "Jolly Spaghetti - Meatiest. Cheesiest. Sweet-Sarap*!"

* "Sarap" means "tasty" in Tagolog. Filipino-style spaghetti sauce is notoriously sweet.

110

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"Oh him? That's Harold. He came with the place."

From the picture , a close up of what appears to be a cat's skull. Mushrooms are growing out of the left eye socket and right zygomatic arch.

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I think they can make the Rays work if they apply themselves.

The Xindi prototype superweapon from Star Trek: Enterprise carving a gouge out of the middle of Florida before burning out.

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Make Mine the People's Zwieback!

A Soviet-era anti-drinking poster. A New Soviet Man is refusing a drink being offered to him with the caption "HET!" ("NYET!" in the Cyrillic alphabet). However, a picture of a present-day decadent capitalist dessert has been crudely superimposed over the offending aperitif.

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"You clearly have some sort of secret vault, no doubt filled with donations from the DNC and DSA." "Sir, that was Cartoon Mouse Jack Benny."

Mouse Jack Benny from the 1959 Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoon "The Mouse That Jack Built". It is Jack Benny (1894-1974) as a cartoon mouse, yesiree.

220

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This goes for visual puns as well.

Hana, a loyal retainer in the Fire Emblem universe, gives her opinion on wordplay while wearing a stern expression:

"People who say 'no pun intended ' are cowards. Intend your puns, weaklings."

020

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Have Manchester United expelled!" "But sir, those are..." "Do as I say!"

A scene from the S5 E4 Simpsons episode "Rosebud". After The Ramones insult Mr. Burns to his face during a birthday party concert, he angrily orders his lackey Wayland Smithers to "have The Rolling Stones killed" (sic). When Smithers tries to explain that The Rolling Stones wasn't the band on the stage, Burns angrily tells him to "do as I say!".

021

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Great thing about going to a con at a local community hall is when they have a bar open in the next room over.

Me as MAJOR ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG, LICENSED STATE ALCHEMIST, at the Portuguese Hall in Union City. There's a row of photos of various worthies behind me.

040

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Go Coby or go home. Also, phone @cpsc.gov or phone home.

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"And what about you, little Gobiconodon?" Gobiconodon: QUACK

Gobiconodon ("Gobi cone tooth"), an Mesozoic mammal that lived between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Periods. This reconstruction makes it look like an opossum with a furry tail; it's about the size of one too (about 40 cm/15 inches from nose to tail-tip).

021

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If you click here it should work

Highlight YouTube link which should open the YT app

001

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Iono I'm gonna stick with using my words.

"King of the Cage" by Brandon Bird, showing a jacked-up Abraham Lincoln tossing around a couple of jabrones.

He does a lot of other art in similar veins. I have a print of Benjamin Franklin seizing electricity from Zeus.

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Breaking: Melodia, the Mistress of Musical Mayhem will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

Melodia, one of the villains from the 1980s syndicated toy ad series SilverHawks. She has neon green hair, an outfit like early-mid period Lady Gaga, and wields the "Sound Smasher", which looks like a cross between a keytar and a Ma Deuce.

070

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

She's Armstrong's hermana.

The low to mid-tier supervillain Armstrong from the video game Dispatch. He's a heavyset Hispanic man with a crew-cut, jeans, a white T-shirt, and a sour facial expression. His natural arms are disproportionately small, but someone gave him two massive cybernetic atms that are mounted on his upper back.

000

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"They're the same picture."

A foghorn, with a bright red-orange funnel and two tanks (presumably either compressed air or propane). The resemblance to El Pendejo Naranja is amazing.

000

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

On the lonely islet of Rockall, a gannet squawks in relief.

The islet of Rockall, the last above-sea level remnant of a volcanic plateau located about 400 km west of Scotland and 700 km south of Iceland. It's a jagged spar of granite about 17 m tall and 20x30 meters at the base, covered in bands (going top to bottom) of brown seaweed and molluscs, bare rock, green algae/sea plants, and a whole lot of white guano. Glorious.

150

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

To add to the general chaos (doesn't help that I'm pretty face blind):

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Also responsible for one of the better James Bond movie intro songs - "A View To A Denticle".

An illustration of the head and mouth of a pelagornithid, a family of seagoing birds that existed from the early Paleocene (immediately after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs) until only about 2.5 million years ago. Many species were larger than any current bird, with some having wingspans up to 5-6 meters (15-20 feet) across.

This particular reconstruction resembles a seagull with wicked tooth-like barbs in its beak. These are not true teeth but denticles - outgrowths of bone that helped it grip fish and other sea creatures, and gave the family its nickname of "bony-toothed birds".

011

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Hey, don't sweat it - the giant millipedes ate them all.

An outline of an Arthropleua - a giant millipede nearly 3 meters long from antennae to tail - compared to a smaller species ("only" about 80 cm long) and a 1.8 meter tall human

2122

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I just think prototaxites are neat.

Several prototaxites rise out of a Devonian swamp. They resemble tall (up to 30 feet tall), skinny termite mounds. The name means "first yew" because they were originally thought to be primitive trees, but later analysis has indicated they're their own thing - not plants, not fungi.

4785

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

If they ever talk to you again, let them know that random facts do have their uses.

Yours truly back in March 2000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire:

"Which insect shorted out an early supercomputer and inspired the term 'computer bug'?"

A. Moth
B. Roach
C. Fly
D. Japanese beetle

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I found some at Goodwill stores in the Bay Area, but that may be a regional quirk. Noble Knight Games will buy but their prices are weak. I've sold a few on eBay. Once you write up the entry and box them up you can put them in a corner until they sell. If you find a better option let us know!

A bilingual English/French edition of "Lost Treasure/Trésor Perdu", one of the board games such as Dark Tower and Stop Thief put out in the early 80s that included electronic components. In this case, a "dive control computer" gave audio clues to the locations of hidden treasures on the game board. Still on eBay!

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"Talk to the hippo-lion-crocodile, pal. I just weigh stuff."

A scene from Egyptian mythology where the heart of a deceased person is weighed against the Ma'at (the feather of truth) by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the dead. The heart is heavier than the feather, meaning that the deceased and their heart will be thrown to Ammit the Devourer, a monstrous creature with the body of a hippo, the main of a Lionel, and the head and jaws of a crocodile.

The deceased person had his hands up as if he was requesting a hold. The caption reads "OKAY WAIT I CAN EXPLAIN"

001

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Wait, there's more?! I'm gonna have to rethink my whole maximalist wall art strategy.

A "Collection of Crabs" poster I got at Anime Destiny at UC Berkeley a while back while performing as MAJOR ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG, LICENSED STATE ALCHEMIST for the Cosplay Wrestling Federation.

110

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Twilight 3: Civil Twilight. Which side will Spider-Vampire join?

A diagram showing the three phases of twilight:

If the Sun is visible it's daytime, sunrise, or sunset.

Civil twilight - the Sun's center is less than 6 degrees below the horizon.

Nautical twilight - the Sun's center is between 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon.

Astronomical twilight - the Sun's center is between 12 and 16 degrees below the horizon.

Below 16 degrees it's nighttime.

020

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

(flips through it) Sheesh, who do you have to know to get in this thing?

A screenshot from an email - "<REDACTED> has shared this Power BI Report with you"

("BI" actually stands for "Business Intelligence", a Microsoft analytics program that crunches numbers and turns them into graphs.)

030

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The song was from Was (Not Was), probably most famous for their 1987 earworm "Walk the Dinosaur". TIL today: it was intended as a meditation on extinction and nuclear Armageddon, but the video had scantily clad women dancing in it. So a No. 1 dance hit it became.

Album cover from Was (Not Was) for their single "Hello Dad... I'm in Jail". A rough illustration of a human in some sort of box is in the center.

The cover from the Was (Not Was) single Walk the Dinosaur. The B-side had "Boom-Boom Acka-Lacka-Lacka-Lacka-Boom". A picture of a blue Apatosaurus dominates the cover.

A still from the MTV video for "Walk The Dinosaur". Four attractive (but not dysmorphically so) women in faux-animal skin two-piece "cavewoman" costumes are in a line dancing; around them are fake trees and plants meant to evoke a jungle.

0234

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

It's a heavily reinforced distraction, like the logo on Batman's chest (presumably with better tech).

Three panels from Frank Miller's 1986 mini-series The Dark Knight Returns:

1) A bullet strikes Batman square in the chest (no caption)

2) Batman falls back; a hole has been torn open in his costume where the bullet impacted ,revealing intact armor behind it.

Batman (internally): "... Magnum load has to be — hits me like a freight train — the place holds —"

3) While holding a rifle (!) in one hand, Batman tumbles backwards into the air over Gotham's downtown.

Batman (internally): "— why do you think I wear a target on my chest — can't armor my head — left arm numb —"

010

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!

Me with dyed hair at a trivia convention, looking askance at other attendees in brightly colored wigs.

030

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I've got just the thing for him to start the day with.

A carton of Humphry Slocombe Secret Breakfast* ice cream.

"Bourbon ice cream and cornflake cookies. Go ahead...who are we to judge?"

One Pint (473 mL)

* formerly "Daddy's Secret Breakfast", or at least that's what they called it at their shop at the Ferry Building in downtown SF.

000

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

That other guy certainly Wezen expecting that.

A diagram of the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog) showing the names of its major stars.

Sirius (Alpha) is of course the brightest and is located where the dog's neck would be. Other stars include Mirzan (Beta, the front legs), Muliphain (Gamma, the head), and Wezen (Delta, the...ah, lowermost chakra).

080

Joe Trela @alert74.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Sir, I believe what you have there is a can of Ojez Qqid, which was briefly produced by the Ruritarian State Beverage Company (RUST BECO) prior to the Periwinkle Revolution of 1997. Ebay that sucker!