iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Is Gandalf a grand wizard bigot in white robes? In the Fellowship of the Ring, Gimli suggests the Mines of Moria and Gandalf says he will not go unless it is the only way. This implies that Gandalf is Dwarf racist, or that he knew it was destroyed. He is surprised the Balrog shows up though. So...

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Much of the difficulty in giving yourself permission to be happy is that we have to extend to ourselves the same compassion and kindness we would show a stranger when we know ourselves and our shortcomings most of all.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Take hydrogen gas Mix, heat, and wait an eon Thus, Behold a man! #haiku

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

When would you need whale repellent? You couldn't even use it on porpoise for orcas.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I'm going to be so annoyed if the thing that knocks down this house of cards is an octogenarian being outed as bisexual and not any of the CVS receipt length list of ACTUAL crimes.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

\@grok what is with the blue and orange serif text only AI images on blue sky today?

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

My Europa Universalis 5 hot take is that they shouldn't have broken the time down by the hour. This isn't Hearts of Iron where it takes place over a narrow window. This is over 500 years and it slows down the rate of play on an already slow game, considerably.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Why was the Rapture supposed to be today? Wrong answers only.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I love the response to billion dollar company, famous for doing shitty things, doing a shitty thing, as a collective "vote with your wallet" like that has ever worked on a monster that big. You could copy paste this every two weeks changeless. Your eyes are what feed the beast. Not your money.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Grief is just bleeding from the heart without blood. Every other emotion can have some purpose. Fear can keep you safe from danger, anger can help you respond to threats, anxiety even has the veneer of value. I miss my dog who isn't even gone yet.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Today's PKM addition is the 'pantheism controversy.' From Enlightenment era German #philosophy it was a public cat fight of nerds over the seemingly heretical monism advocated by Baruch Spinoza.

Screenshot showing text describing the German Enlightenment pantheism controversy

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Working on my Obsidian PKM today and added jihad. I was surprised to learn it doesn't mean holy war is is closer to meaning a struggle or effort made in service of Allah. If someone spots something wrong or to add/change, let me know! Feedback is welcome. #islam #obsidian #pkm #theology

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

While not the origin of the phrase the "I can only see so far because I stand on the shoulders of giants." is attributed commonly to Isaac Newton. He was talking about people like Da Vinci and Plato. This was one of the best and most influential scientists of all time, 300 years ago.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

"Things are bad! Yay!" Is so unnatural of an incentive structure that it's odd to me that we still haven't learned this tulip lesson

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Just imagine you're behind the veil of ignorance and turn your phone off?

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Hubris fills the Leger today! The whole stock market is up because the Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, said the economy was doing poorly and so -might- lower interest rates. That is flagrantly perverse. "Things are bad! Yay!" should clue humans into that something is wrong with this picture.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Pictured: Pokemaster cowboy out on the range waiting for espresso with their posse. Miss you already Seattle. But glad to be home.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Not that anyone asked, but if you name something "Pioneer Square," I don't expect there to be covered wagons. But I expect there to at least be a square.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Gender is a lie by Big Baby to sell more suffering.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I was at this panel at WorldCon and this is a really good write up of it. I agree with what the presenter suggested that a tiered semi-supervised learning system supporting other lower ranked but specialized unsupervised models.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Are the Mariners really doing that good or does Bluesky track location and trends off that? In Seattle for #WorldCon and that may be the first baseball trending topic I've bothered to notice. Maybe just cognitive bias, but uncanny.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Walking in the Seattle Center earlier and heard someone listening to Crash Course Politics on an honest to Dog boombox.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

This looks great! Sequel suggestion, Where the River Ends. Little known fact is Venezuela got its name when Amerigo Vespucci saw the stilted wooden huts the natives lived in over the water reminded him of Venice and so named it Veneziola, Little Venice. Seems like a good axial point on your map.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Just landed in Seattle for #WorldCon next week. Taking recommendations for food, fun, and folks to fun with.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Random suggestion but watched Wild Robot on Netflix and it was really good. I thought it was particularly interesting because it's a PG talking animal movie that features a lot of predators eating other critters. Not like bloody or gratuitous. But it didn't shy away from the reality of the "wild"

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Me and DINK wife at her sister's with their new baby. Cute but it's been a long weekend and it's not even Sunday. I can't nap normally but just slept on the couch through a whole movie. I'm mastering this Uncle thing quickly.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

#booksky It's really irritating when you plotted and partially written a story with a really cool, if absurd, way to resolve the plot, only for real life to top its absurdity budget. Now it just seems like it's copying the parody of reality that is our phantasmagorical panopticon of terror.

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Reposted by Arete Zayin

Douglas Cheape @douglascheape.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Help me. I am trapped in a haiku factory save me, before they

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Better than I'd manage, for sure.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

"Gah! Reddit isn't working. I'll go check what's up on BlueSky." *Reddit issues on top of Trending* Yea, seems about right.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

This is going in my quotes list.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

That feeling when you know someone has really been struggling for a long time sucks. But when they drop out of touch completely, even after reaching out repeatedly? When you don't know if they are ok, or even still around at all? I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Finding Nemo every time the teacher was sick or hungover.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

I like generative AI. I think it gets a bad rap. But the number one rule is if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. So are we really surprised the most garbage man on the most garbage website made a MechaHitler?

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Do you remember how absolutely idiotic the manosphere reaction to the 2016 Ghostbusters movie was? WTF was that even about? Gamergate lost it's momentum so the shallow end of the Y chromosome pool had to pick a new non-target target?

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Would it be a twist if M Night Shyamalan had a ghostwriter?

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Reposted by Arete Zayin

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

The flash flooding in Central Texas is absolutely heartbreaking. Michelle and I are praying for everyone who has lost a loved one or is waiting for news — especially the parents. And we’re grateful to the first responders and rescue teams working around the clock to help.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

If you were to fart helium, would it sound different? The answer appears to be "Sort of" It is most notable in our voices because of how it changes the movement of the resonance chamber of the vocal cords themselves. Here the resonance chamber would be your colon and has less free volume inside it.

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Start of Beyond Good and Evil: Supposing that Truth is a woman—what then? Is there not ground for suspecting that all philosophers, in so far as they have been dogmatists, have failed to understand women. Nietzsche says, "Not only are you other philosophers wrong, but you get no bitches either. "

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Remember to be actively thankful for what you have rather than wish it were otherwise. "Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours." -Marcus Aurelius

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Arete Zayin @aretezayin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Wait, what happened to RFK. Feels like every other day they paraded that clown as the distraction from the systematic murder of constitutional democracy. What did it move to? Or has everyone given up caring like me

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