iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My full-length coveralls that feel like mad overkill when I work on motorcycles are finally seeing enough use and grime that I don’t feel like a poseur in them, so there’s that. But still: yuck.

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I’m taking a frame-straightening class and it’s very cool but it’s really reminding me that oh yeah, I only like working on bikes, cars are big and dirty and crawling around under them sucks.

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Immediately impounding the car for a week could be a fun approach. Even multi-car households usually can’t handle being without one for more than a day.

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Pop science geology and paleontology audiobooks. They’re perfect: entertaining when you have trouble sleeping and unbelievably soporific when you’re sleepy.

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Oh I’ve been getting ads for that!

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Right?! I’m probably gonna road trip there sometime this fall if the weather won’t let me ride to Nevada to look at ichthyosaurs

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… and if you like necks, they have an elasmosaur!

When God was handing out necks, Morenosaur heard “sex” and said “yes please I’ll take as much as I can get” without blushing

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And! And! The museum has the only known fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur!!

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Also no chance I’ll be able to throw you a rope, I’ve been in this pit for two months

Doesn’t anchiornis look like a magpie wearing chaps?! 😆

An illustration of Anchiornis with stripy wings, a red crest and short striped feather crests running the lengths of its legs

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Yup, that’s the one! LACM 12831 is a Platecarpus and they also have a Plotosaurus bennisoni, a kind of super-swimmer mososaur that’s only been definitely found in California!

Yeah, some of them! Mosasaurs had dark-on-top, light-on-bottom countershading like a lotta sharks do. And melanosomes are how we know some dinosaurs were black, whitish, gray, brown, red, striped, or in the case of some feathered ones, iridescent!

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They think the staining is from its heart because it’s basically where the heart is in a dolphin and there’s only so many spots to put organs in a body plan like that

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Also red stains in the fossil matrix were found to be hemoglobin decomposition products! From MOSASAUR BLOOD!!!!

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As a former smoker, ewwwww cigarette smoke is super gross and I still hated encountering it even when I still smoked

YEAH THEY FOUND 80 MILLION-YEAR-OLD MELANOSOME STRUCTURES HOW COOL IS THAT

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Definitely swamped the nurse practitioner with mosasaur facts during today’s Pap smear appointment.

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It also shows discolorations that might’ve been left by its heart.

Mosasaur fact: the Platecarpus fossil specimen LACM 128319 is so well preserved that it includes imprints of soft tissue like bronchial tubes, scales and possible traces of the animal’s retina. You only need to go to Los Angeles to stare at an ANCIENT SEA MONSTER EYEBALL THAT CAN STARE BACK AT YOU.

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Whatever you agree to, ask for a dated receipt that includes a record of how you paid (cash, check, rent deduction, whatever) - handwritten is fine. And if you wanna sweeten the deal, offer to be the contact person for the installation so they don’t have to coordinate anything. :3

Depends on your landlord and location (states vary) but if you have a particular model in mind, I’d offer to pay the difference over their budget or go halves. Lotta small landlords are just happy not to have to pick one out and won’t mind what amounts to a tenant-sponsored quality upgrade.

Also the UC department I’m annoyed with has fossils from the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park site that I can’t go look at. (They’re a research museum and they did dig them up in the first place, but STILL)

Had to punt on this latest trip since I was short on time, but it’s on my list! Did see a bunch of mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in Colorado, though!

An articulated Tylosaurus rex skeleton at the Rocky Mountain Resource Center in Woodland Park

And now I’m mad at a whole other local university department for having 150 years of stuff I wanna look at that never goes on display.

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People talk like ADHD hyperfixation is whimsical fun, but imagine a seven-year-old going full dinosaur information fugue on you. Now imagine that seven-year-old lives inside your own skull for two months, while knowing another seven-year-old obsessed with an unrelated topic lurks in the wings.

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AND BONUS ICHTHYOSAUR FACTS ONCE I GET THEM CURIOUS AND INTERESTED ABOUT ANCIENT MARINE REPTILES

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My latest hyperfixation is mosasaurs so you know what that means: MOSASAUR FACTS FOR EVERYONE IN MY PRESENCE

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Today I learned that mosasaurs got the bends.

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I have some Triumph touring pants that have stayed dry for four years even in atmospheric rivers and constant rain, and some bombproof Klim rain pants. Everything else is an eventual exercise in sogginess.

Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Procrastinated on doctor visits for so long that when I finally dragged my ass in today, my doc jumped at the chance to order a raft of overdue and upcoming labs and bloodwork for me to take care of today. She must feel like she caught a shiny Pokémon.

Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I’d prefer not to for awhile, though.

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

After replacing the entire wiring harness twice and removing fully half of the bike to get to the worn-out clutch, I am now very comfortable with rummaging around in this bike’s guts.

About half a motorcycle on a mechanic’s lift. Pretty much everything behind the motor has been removed.

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Today I was on a motorcycle creeping up the shoulder of my least favorite freeway merge (three lanes turn into one poorly paved entry lane that immediately goes exit-only) when a pickup moved over for me and the driver poked his fingers out the window to give me a little biker wave. ❤️

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Discovered the “doesn’t need much work” BMW GSA needs a clutch replacement and I am going to do it because after one brief road trip on it I already love the big cow.

Nathan Edwards @grackle.space · 10/07/2026

Reposted by Arlette

none pizza with left all

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

“What if in addition to the six ABS brake fluid circuits that have to be bled in order, we also added two internal brake fluid reservoirs inside the ABS housing that need to be bled and filled separately? That’s a sane thing people will like, right?” - BMW, probably

Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I’m so happy you two found each other.

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Arlette @arletterocks.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Nope, that’s pretty much the opposite of how that stuff works - it slows digestion. Which makes shitting himself that much more impressive.