iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I am trying to write for the first time since my brain broke and I quit my professional writing job, and mostly I'm telling myself advice I gave others: get something on the page then make it good later; write like you're talking to someone; use human words; jokes are nice; video games is two words.

A photograph of a rugged Scottish landscape with bog before a loch and distant hills at sunset. A bicycle laden with bikepacking kit is leaning against a bent road sign post.

180

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Been a long time since I found a CD in the gutter so I was excited to indulge a passion for finding weird CD-Rs ( www.rockpapershotgun.com/i-kinda-miss... ). Alas, no mystery, no romance: it's a regular CD, and one which takes little imagination to guess why someone would hoy it out their window.

A photo of my gloved hand holding a CD copy of Rod Stewart's Fly Me To The Moon: The Great American Songbook Volume V while I'm sat on a bicycle.

160

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Today at my volunteering I pulled this horrible object out the riverbed ok talk to you later bye

A terrible mass of fabric, metal mesh, and ropes hauled onto a riverbank. It is the size of a fat dog and makes you feel like you're looking at what remains of a drowned witch after her sludge boils away.

150

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

On Friday I cycled 408km/253 miles from Edinburgh to York, through the night, as part of a wee team in the Easter Arrow event. Lots went awry (up to our leader sadly needing to drop out) but going gently loopy with great folks while riding dark country roads under a big moon into dawn was perfect.

0110

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

On one hand, it's probably a bad idea to ride 400km in one day without gears. On the other, it's a FUNNY bad idea - and a lot cheaper than buying a replacement frame. I'd be mega-upset if I hadn't decided my quads must be so mighty that they cracked steel, and therefore it's funny this happened.

A close-up photo of a bicycle downtube, with a crack almost the whole way through.

120

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I got into cycling longer distances over the winter, with a couple 230k rides complete then a 300k last week I had to abandon after my frame almost cracked in half. So now I'm uh getting into distance on my backup singlespeed, doing a 160k day last week and half-thinking about a 400k event in April.

A distant farmhouse illuminated by a sunbeam across a dreich Scottish hillside.

Two cyclists pushing their bikes across a patch of solid ice.

A sunny road through a Scottish Borders landscape.

A line of cyclists down a sunny country lane.

150

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Probably just hit the Screwfix and get a ton more rings. I think 550 zinc-plated lock rings would be quite pleasing.

A Screwfix virtual shopping basket containing 55 10-packs of zinc-plated lock rings.

040

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

I still think about Infra, and wish I had pushed more people to play it when I had a platform. It's nobbly and weird and surprising, a first-person explore-o-puzzler which opens with PowerPoint then tumbles into conspiracy and catastrophe. Down to £5 for a bit: store.steampowered.com/app/251110/I...

911930

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Wishing you a very merry Cyber Monday! Whatever your A/S/L, may you and your closest webring enjoy a day of mulling Jolt Cola and singing Front Line Assembly carols, free from trolls, lag, and power-tripping channel ops.

A neon yellow pager whose screen reads "GRAND CENTRAL HACK THE PLANET", a pair of mirror shades, and computer control doodad with lots of sliders and buttons with on a backdrop of black leather, zips, and chains.

3185

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Anyway, the best thing at the festivals for a second year running was the Clown Olympics, where clowns from around the world compete in clown sports in the park. The winners take custody of the Clown Olympic Flame (a toilet brush). Dominating victory from Japan, who hadn't even planned to take part.

A clown accepts a toilet brush from a clown.

070

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I won't reel off Edinburgh festival picks but if you're following me because of PC games, Stampin' in the Graveyard makes magical transformative use of trashed PCs. I was delighted by each turn as they were variously worn, illuminated, gazed into, held aloft, more. www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

A photo of a theatre stage where white plastic sheeting covers several mysterious boxes.

160

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Hip hip hooray, yesterday was the Burryman's day!

2309

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

That's a bit unkind of Nate; Drukhari are cringe tryhards. Have you considered bug friend?

A Tyranid just having a good time not doing anyone any harm.

140

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Okay but after the addition of transmog and an expansion's worth of clothes, I did buy every single garment in the game and play a lot of dress-up.

V wears a shimmering dress and a multi-eyed, orb-like helmet in a Cyberpunk 2077 screenshot.

110

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Tired: the Star Trek TNG episode with the brainwashing video game is absurd because WESLEY CRUSHER rejects gaming?! Wired: it's perfect because Wes would decry this as a casual baby game. Inspired: it's absurd because Wes doesn't use this as an opportunity to once again fail to start a LAN party.

Wesley Crusher resists having gamergoggles violently put on his head.

Wesley Crusher finally experiences joy as people look satisfied to find him playing a video game.

040

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

I also celebrated Cyber Monday by finishing a new Hackers pager, this time in Cereal Killer yellow. Main change was redrawing the display decal. Still not sure if I think it's better.

A neon yellow pager displaying the message "GRAND CENTRAL HACK THE PLANET".

A neon yellow pager beside a leopard print neon pink pager, both displaying the message "GRAND CENTRAL HACK THE PLANET"

A neon yellow pager in the movie Hackers, displaying the message "GRAND CENTRAL HACK THE PLANET"

142

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Wishing a very merry Cyber Monday to you and yr subnet! May you receive ops in your favourite IRC channel and greetz in a mod's readme.

A Cyber Monday greetings card, where I am wearing mirror shades and fanning a handful of floppy disks.

050

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

I like that de_edin has my favourite type of Edinburgh knobbly flourish. I am surprised by the modest name of its Cockburn Street analogue. But while I can understand the stairs on real Edinburgh tenements are nightmare chokepoints, these here are deeply alien and distressing.

Admiring Edinburgh architecture in a screenshot of Counter-Strike 2's de_edin map.

Zooming in on a street sign for Rooster Street in a screenshot of Counter-Strike 2's de_edin map.

An unnerving unEdinburgh stairwell in a screenshot of Counter-Strike 2's de_edin map.

Alien vibes in a screenshot of Counter-Strike 2's de_edin map.

041

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Counter-Strike 2's new Edinburgh map is cute enough, smooshing together some recognisable corners and architectural elements. But serious video game tourists must also visit Leith Waterworld via the Garry's Mod map for Trouble In Terrorist Town, which I've just noticed was remastered in 2020.

A Counter-Strike 2 screenshot of the Edin map, looking up a street which lots a lot like Edinburgh's real Cockburn Street.

A Counter-Strike 2 screenshot of the Edin map, looking up streets reminiscent of Edinburgh's Old Town.

Leith Waterworld as a slightly shinier Garry's Mod map.

25412

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 19/11/2023

Autumn in Big Tree Country.

010

Alice @asponge.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

Halloween prank tip: before squirting fake blood up a nostril so it will alarmingly trickle down over the course of a Teams meeting (which you will refuse to acknowledge), do check you picked up the bottle of fake blood and not the bottle of blood-red skin-melting chemical exfoliation. Tingly!

Two eyedropper bottles containing blood-red liquid: one unlabelled bottle of fake blood, and one labelled bottle of The Ordinary's Peeling Solution.

100