iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

"This is so exciting! And also kinda boring!" is what she told me when I got back for lunch.

J shape monarch caterpillar that's about to shed its skin and become a chrysalis

Mature chrysalis that seems ready to burst at any moment

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I would not give up being bald to have my old hair back, but if I could have a pompadour the texture of James's neck ruffle I totally would.

James, a magnificently fluffy brown tabby cat

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I was hoping they'd do their thing before I have to go to work but it looks like no. But we have a silk pad coming out of the caterpillar's butt!

Monarch caterpillar just about to go chrysalis mode.

Monarch chrysalis about to go butterfly mode

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Look at how good I look in it!

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Pupa update: I cut some leaves off of the ivy because I was worried they'd be in the butterfly's way. Shouldn't be long now....

A monarch butterfly chrysalis that is just about ready to pop

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 23/09/2026

*yelling at caterpillar* Are you gonna pupate or am I wasting my time here?!

A monarch caterpillar that has been poking around on a pair of handlebars for like an hour. I assume it's looking for a place to wrap up but it has produced no silk

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I tell people I'm probably the oldest person they know who has never been without a computer. My parents bought this sexy beast for my teenaged brothers the year I was born. One of them wrote a program that taught me to read before I went to preschool

An Apple II Plus computer in the exact configuration as the one I learned to read on: with two 5.25" floppy disk drives and an RGB monitor.

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 19/09/2026

Ten years ago. James remains this insistent upon getting his pets

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 19/09/2026

Not at all like with the bear. To her credit, Kelly did not get that close

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 19/09/2026

Photographic evidence that this is how it went down

First picture in the set. Across a large grassy area and a two-lane road, a bunch of elk are grazing. Beyond the elk is a campground. Beyond the campground is Rocky Mountain National Park

Second photo in series: Three elk are now on the same side of the road as me but still at the edge of the large grassy area

Third photo in the series: Two of the elk have gotten closer still, one now about halfway between me and the road

Final picture in series: Two young elk that are now alarmingly close to me

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 14/09/2026

I'm pretty sure I could pull off Charles Napier's thigh high boots, miniskirt, and cape ensemble from this episode of Star Trek

Image of Charles Napier from Star Trek, in outrageous futuristic hippie attire

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 14/09/2026

I had a playlist similar to this like 25 years ago. The theme was "songs Napster said were by They Might Be Giants."

Connor Stringer
@connorstring 6h
A fun moment on Air Force One tonight somewhere over the Atlantic. Two officials came back to the press cabin relaying message from the president - did we want to listen to his playlist while he worked?
We obliged. And here's some of what we got;
Jolene - Dolly Parton
The Undertaker's WWE entrance music
Teenage Wasteland— The WHO
Dorma - Pavarotti
Fernando — ABBA
POTUS later came back to see what we thought. A gaggle followed.

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 13/09/2026

Anyone who's better at deciphering chants than me want to tell me what they're saying in this clip?

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 11/09/2026

The jet flyovers at KU this season are T-38s instead of the usual F-16s and I really appreciate the change. T-38s are not that much louder than the unusually noisy Tesla that got lost in my neighborhood a week or two ago. F-16s shake the whole house.

T-38 Talon; a training jet that sometimes flies low over my house

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 08/09/2026

Doc is the most/least helpful cat I've ever had. Here she's inspecting my work.

A small tabby cat atop a pile of shirts. She is leaning her head back and meowing to camera

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 08/09/2026

Happy anniversary to my most perplexing calendar reminder

Calendar reminder for an annual event that's all day every September 8. The event is "what"

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 07/09/2026

Every ice cube tray in my house combined makes enough ice for two shirts.

A hodgepodge of ice, covering three shirts and representing a batch and a half of what I can freeze at once. three baseball-sized spheres, three trays worth of cubes, and a bunch of thin cylindrical ones that are supposed to go in water bottles.

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Dyed a shirt that I've had since I was in high school. Don't ask me about the brand, it was trendy for like five minutes in the '90s

Many-colored shirt looking like an explosion with a yellow center ringed by orange, red, blue, and purple. A bubble of colors at the top gives it a nuclear vibe. At the shoulders and hems it is cloudy black and rust colored

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This one is an abstract representation of Kansas in tornado season

The third shirt from above. Blue at the left shoulder, flowing jaggedly down and to your left into purple, which flows into a violent-looking gradient from rust to dark gray

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Here's a peek at a few that are already done

Tie dyed shirt in blues, purples, and browns

Tie dyed shirt with a green and blue star pattern that fades in to browns and purples

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 04/09/2026

Productive Sunday. We got one batch in the washing machine and a new one under the ice. The washing machine ones looked very dramatic after their rinse and I'm using some new colors in the new batch

Four multicolored shirts tied up in rain gutters. Yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and and black are visible in all

Folded shirts under ice. The top pair is green and purple, the bottom pair is orange and a rusty mix

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This was the cat I had as a single man and he never really got over having to share me with other humans.

Ash and the late General Smedley Butler. The General is cuddled up in a tight embrace with a look of bliss on his face.

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 04/09/2026

...I don't know what else I expected

My dialect map is centered in the middle of the country. The only blue parts are in the northeast.

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 02/09/2026

Gonna make a drink to toast the end of Seth Moulton's career. What an asshole.

Seth Moulton trails Ed Markey by 41 points with 8.5% counted. 70.6% for Markey, 29.4 for Moulton

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 01/09/2026

Crescent roll dough but make it pocket-shaped

Pillsbury crescent roll -- what would be four rolls laid out in two rectangles with a bunch of pulled pork in the middle

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 01/09/2026

Ah, finally September. That time of year when the heat of summer gives way to crisp, cool mornings and WHAT THE FUCK, KANSAS

10-day forecast. Today: 100°. Coolest day on the calendar: a week from now when it will be only 92 and the overnight low the following evening will be 72.

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Ash McGonigal @ashmcgonigal.com · 31/08/2026

Escape from the blanket is one of her favorite games

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I said to myself "I bet Ken Ham commissioned exactly the picture I want and I can just steal it because it's commentary" Lo and behold

Page from Dinosaurs In Eden, written by Ken Ham and illustrated by Earl and Bonnie Shellenberger. Noah and his family are surrounded by dinosaurs.

Text: Here we learn that God made a change. Now, because sin entered the world, and because of the effects of the Flood, Noah was told that from that
time on, people could eat animals for food.
This is why we can eat meat today.
Spinosaurus (SPINE-o-SAWR-us).
meaning "spiny reptile."
Hypsilophodon (hip-si-l.OF-o-don),
meaning "high-crested tooth."
Euparkeria (you-park-AIR-ee-ah), named in honor of W.K. Parker, English scientist.

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Usually by this point in the process I have a better idea of what I'm making but I am really just winging it so if you have any advice about what else should go on my sourdough rolls I'm all ears

Spam, spam, spam, spam, and spam in a pan.

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Close enough! I guess there's a reason I usually do more than one onion.

A very small pile of caramelized onions on a plate

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It's never gonna be dinner time.

The onions twenty minutes later. Maybe they are browner now?

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