iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

One of @newertkrocker.bsky.social ’s students made this for him years ago, and while we own other pieces of their art now that they are a “real,” Grown Up Artist, this one still makes me chuckle every single time I pass by it. Shout out to English Teachers and amazing students.

A black bookshelf with many children’s books. There is a gray float frame with a marker and pen drawing of Edgar Allen Poe in sunglasses that reads “I Put the LIT in literature.”

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Headlines don’t sell papes, Newsies sell papes! (the 8y.o. asked for a Newsies themed birthday and tbh, it was the best.)

A birthday cake frosted in buttercream shaped like a stack of newspapers and a newsboy cap.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

It’s the time of year when so many delicious things are in season in Ohio and I am in heaven because it makes making tasty food SO easy

Caprese chicken with fresh basil, mozzarella, and heirloom tomatoes drizzled with balsamic on a blue plate, beside a big blue salad bowl with spinach, cucumbers, peaches, blackberries, pecans, and fresh mozzarella.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

I have been married to @newertkrocker.bsky.social for 14 years today. Spending my life with him is the greatest joy. I am so grateful we get to keep choosing each other.

A man and a woman smile for the camera at House of Blues in Downtown Disney, 2008(?)

A woman and man dressed as Ramona Flowers and Scott Pilgrim at Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA. 2010?

A woman and a man on a Route 66 road trip. Meteor Crater, Two Guns, Arizona. 2013.

A woman and a man on the grass at an outdoor amphitheater. 2023.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

I know that “hot” in the Midwest isn’t necessarily “hot” of other places. Climate change is real and central air (and window unit air) isn’t a given in many parts of Ohio! I never had air conditioning of any sort until AFTER college. Keep an eye on your neighbors and elders and stay cool, friends.

A screenshot from the City of Cleveland website regarding the opening of cooling centers. It reads: “Dates of service:
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Monday, June 23, 2025
Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Time:
11:30a.m. – 10:00p.m.

Locations:
Zelma George Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 3155 Martin L. King Blvd.
Collinwood Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 16300 Lakeshore Blvd.
Gunning Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 16700 Puritas Ave.
Kovacic Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 6250 St. Clair Ave.
Michael Zone Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 6301 Lorain Ave.
Frederick Douglass Neighborhood Resource & Recreation Center: 15401 Miles Ave.

Each site will have comfort areas for residents and filtered water fountains.“

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

The coolest part of beet green pesto is the lil’ pink bits in the pesto…

A photo of some roughly chopped garlic scapes and beet greens in a food processor. You can see pieces of deep pink stem.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Okay so I made this pesto sauce from some blanched beet greens and garlic scapes and then I made a pasta salad. I sort of wish I had balsamic glaze or something? but otherwise p. good. I feel like the leftover pesto will be pretty good on sandwiches.

A blue bowl holds some pasta with green flecks of pesto sauce on it. It is mixed with tomatoes, cucumbers, mozzarella and cannellini beans.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Tonight’s dinner left me very satisfied and with two thoughts: 1) fresh in season strawberries really are like a totally different fruit than my desperate January grocery store strawberries 2) I always feel like beets are going to be too much work and then roasting them is SO easy.

A roasted beet and strawberry salad with honey balsamic vinaigrette. The strawberries and beets sit on butter lettuce and cucumbers. There is crumbly goat cheese and cannellini beans on top. The food is in a blue bowl on top of a woven placemat.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Watching @newertkrocker.bsky.social be a Dad has healed my heart in so many ways. I am so glad I get to be on a team with him. He loves our children so well ❤️ Happy Father’s Day, Nate.

A dad laying on the floor with his kids sitting on top of him.

A dad with his child at the top of a lookout tower.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Joy is Drag Storytime with Veranda L’nai and Captain Kae! Thanks to the folks at Dobama and Mac’s Backs ❤️🌈💐cc @newertkrocker.bsky.social

A pirate and a drag queen sit with a happy parents and two kids on stage after Drag Storytime.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I think I might have to sit with this one for a while, because I absolutely think it’s on point and ALSO I never would have chosen these characters on my own.

Quinta Brunson as Janine Teagues in Abbott Elementary.

Melissa McCarthy as Sookie St James in Gilmore Girls.

Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

I was made for the years of parenting that are “I want to research ___ and make a cool thing about it.” It is absolutely the best. (If you are a parent who hates the shoebox diorama, I see you…but I am just having such a great time.)

A child in an orange dress with cars on it sits in a messy kitchen and paints foam on the blue water in a shoebox diorama.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

My Grandmother Carol has been gone from this earth for a whole year. I miss her more than words can say. I am so grateful she made space that felt like home and that she loved me.

A photo from ~1992 of me with my grandparents in their living room. My grandfather is mostly out of frame.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

I am still thinking about this pasta I made last night. I guess the silver lining of the children deciding that they “don’t like Brussels sprouts anymore” is that @newertkrocker.bsky.social get to eat leftovers. 🤷🏻‍♀️🎉

Mini-farfalle with a light cream sauce and Brussels sprouts sautéed with bacon. They food is in a stainless steel pan, on top of a crocheted trivet, sitting on a black table.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

It is so disheartening as a public educator in this era to receive postcards like this.

A spiky speech bubble on a cream postcard reads “Did you know you can easily redirect your state tax dollars to provide scholarships for [redacted] students?”

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) hey babe wyd? (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ Oh nm just thinking about the burning(s) of the Library of Alexandria

A woodcut, water colored print of “The Burning of the Library of Alexandria” by Unbekannter Künstler. Boats are in harbor of blue water, and the tan brick buildings are ablaze in orange flame. gray smoke billows from the top of the buildings.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) hey wyd? (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ Oh nm just taxing my life with the forethought of grief

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

It’s an unreal time to be in public education in Ohio. Federal funding directly impacts every single school in our district. State level policies threaten to undermine all we do, as well. We cannot stop fighting, calling, and raising hell.

A blue flyer which reads: Do cuts to the Department of Education have an impact in Ohio?
Gutting the Department of Education would:
-Deny 284,328 Ohio children of critical special education services.
-strip over 1 million vulnerable Ohio kids of critical education services.
-make college more unaffordable for working families.
-Cut career and technical education programs.
-Reduce teachers, increase class size.
-Reduce direct support for children.

#ProtectOurKids #AFT #OFT #CTU #UnionStrong

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Last one, I promise! The Raincoat by Ada Limón

The Raincoat

When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say, even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.
-Ada Limón

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda (this one is so so beautiful in the original Spanish, too❤️)

I Do Not Love You

I do not love you as if you were salt rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

that this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
-Pablo Neruda

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Always love your threads ❤️ The Orange by Wendy Cope

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.

— Wendy Cope

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

#12: Delicious in Dungeon vol. 1, by Ryoko Kui Monsters! Dungeon crawling! The best dwarf chef! I love this manga.

The cover for the first volume of delicious in dungeon by Ryoko Kui. The party is in a long hallway made of gray stone. Senshi (a dwarf), Chillchuk (a halfling), and Marcille (an elf) are in the background. Behind them is a red dragon. In the foreground on the left side is Laios, a blonde human male. He is wearing armor, has a pack and bedroll on his back, and is holding a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

#11: The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez I love a story that shifts between protagonists and winds their lives around and through one another. Anchored in the work happening in the Panama Canal and the impacts that it had on the surrounding community, I thought this was such a good read. 💙📚

The cover of “The Great Divide” by Cristina Henríquez. The background is red. Centered vertically between the title and author is a drawing of two men in a boat. Around the outside of the cover are drawings of native flowers, frogs, fish, a shovel, and a mosquito.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

#10: H is for Hope by Elizabeth Kolbert I read this one one letter at a time over the course of a month. The illustrations are lovely and it is a quick read that offers a lot of food for thought re: the climate crisis.

The book cover for H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert with illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. The cover is cut into many small frames, featuring (from L toe, top to bottom): flames with the subtitle “climate change from A to Z; many small houses with solar panels on their roof; a lightning bolt; a bird flying out of a tree and a bee on a daisy; the title “H is for Hope;” a wind turbine; palm trees in a hurricane; power lines in front of dark clouds with the name of the author and illustrator; a barn with many cornstalks in front of it.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

#9: The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M Waggoner Enjoyed the nods to "Murder, She Wrote!" and had fun with this one.

The cover of "The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society" by C.M. Waggoner. The cover is done in lavender and a dark blue/purple, made to look like a book shelf with an arched doorway cut out in the middle. The title is centered in that cut out. The O in Demon has horns, and the S in society has a devil's tail. There is a red cat sitting just above the author's name, batting at the devil's tail.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

In case you think ICE isn’t in your city…they are. If you are a teacher, make sure you and your school leaders have a plan. If they are popping in on small businesses, you know school buildings and bus stops won’t be far behind.

“ICE raid at Cilantro Taqueria on Coventry. The(y) took 3 people. Apparently other raids in Painesville and other Northern Ohio location(s) at the same time.”

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

#8: The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai I love this series. I want to live inside it. I love the father/daughter pair of food detectives; I love the way it reaffirms how memory and food are so delicately intertwined. So. Good.

A book cover. An orange cat peeks over the edge of a purple table at a plate with six sushi rolls and chopsticks on it.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

#7: The Most Wonderful Time by Jayne Allen I missed the season for this by a few weeks as I waited for my library to buy more copies on Libby! A romance that knows that life keeps life-ing and people can be shitty and racist even when you need to get your groove back. Jayne Allen is great.

A book cover with two women, one white and one Black. The white woman is standing in front of the Chicago skyline and the Black woman is standing in front of a surfboard and palm trees.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

#6: The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García by Laura Tillman A reminder of how deeply our origins shape the people we become—and also about the capacity to work towards big dreams *with the support of community and the labors of others at your side.*

A book cover. A chef in black with a shaved head carries a crate of produce through a verdant garden covered in fog.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

#5: When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo This was such a beautifully written book. And the audiobook is super well done, as well. Loved this.

Vibrant flowers on a black background outline the shape of a woman and a man. The title of the book and author are written in all cap white letters.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

I was a little skeptical when I tried a new recipe that topped an easy pasta with a soft fried egg last night and it turns out I have just been missing out my whole life on something delicious 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ not aesthetic but very tasty.

Pasta with a butter, garlic and tomato sauce topped with Parmesan and an over medium egg. In a blue bowl, sitting atop a striped placemat.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

#4: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride I thought this book was so good; a mystery and a reflection on family, community, love, and justice. Waiting for it to comen back to me on Libby so I could finish was so hard!!!

A book cover with a light green background. There is a Black man in a blue hat, white shirt, and orange pants. He is holding something under his arm.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

#3: Lightning in Her Hands by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland Sisters repair a damaged bond and puppy love turns into a marriage of convenience. I really like the Flores sisters as characters and hope we get a book about Sky, too.

The book cover of Lightning in Her Hands. It is dark purple with flowers framing the page, Lightning in the Sky, and a man and a woman in silhouette.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

#2: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch I started this one on audiobook before the end of the year. Supernatural British Mystery! References to Punch and Judy!

The cover of “Rivers of London” by Ben Aaronovitch. Cream background with an illustrated map of London that has red marks all over it.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

A book thread for 2025! 💙📚 #1: Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 2 by Kamome Shirahama I continue to be delighted by this series and think the art is just SO incredible.

The cover of Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 2 shows an apprentice witch, Agott, sitting on a chair in the atelier.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

What a gift to have enjoyed so many good books this year! 💙📚

A collage of the covers of the 59 books that I read this year!

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

@newertkrocker.bsky.social is 40 today and is, as always, the best ever ❤️🎉❤️ The earth goes around the sun and we are so glad to start a new decade with you, Nate.

A white man with curly hair gives a thumbs up next to “Computer Space,” an early video game.

A family of four stands in front of Niagara Falls.

A man holding a menu smiles on the patio of a restaurant.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Wendell Berry’s “A Purification” always comes to mind at the new year—though admittedly where I live spring is still far off.

At start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck;
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Sometimes you just have to twin with your cat, I don’t make the rules 🤷🏻‍♀️

Slightly grainy photo of a white and gray cat sitting on a woman in a white and gray cat kigirumi.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Unrelated: I just found this tucked underneath my fingernail. Is this Twin Peaks?

A very, very small registered trademark symbol is shown close up on a person’s finger

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A busy day. A nice, traditional ending 🎶

A picture of a record player playing Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Pie crust o’clock, and photographic evidence of the existence of a Mom on Thanksgiving 🥧

A selfie of a white woman in a red shirt and cherry apron standing at a kitchen counter. On the counter is a pastry mat covered in flour and dough bits, an empty bowl and a knife used for cutting the pie dough into two balls.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

When I went to find it, it was gone…but this one is out there, too…

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

I finished book 50 today—“Brown Girl in the Ring” by Nalo Hopkinson. engaging and spooky with incredible female characters who use their power to change their lives and better their community, through hardship and heartbreak and pain. Oh, and they fight some gnarly spirits and awful drug lords.

Book cover for Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring. A woman’s face is at the center bottom of the cover and she is surrounded by the abstract faces of many spirits.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

October was audiobook heavy...and I re-read (re-listened to?) the first three Tita Rosie Mysteries by @mpmthewriter.bsky.social, because they are the best October literary comfort food.

The image show the statistics for @BadGuysEqualXPs reading in the month of October. It states that she read 7 books, totaling 2,110 pages. It has four charts, and shows the covers of "Threadneedle" by Cari Thomas, as well as "Arsenic and Adobo" and "Blackmail and Bibingka," both by Mia P. Manansala.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

If you see this, post a book you've read more than once.

The book cover for "Baby Goes to Market" by Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank. It has a blue background and shows an African mother with a basket balanced on top of her head and her baby lovingly hugging her around the neck.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 27/01/2024

#5 Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler I saved this one for myself for a long while. There are no succinct words for what Butler’s writing makes me feel. Broken and hopeful and resolute—and seen. She makes me feel so seen. Brilliance and vision, grounded in such fundamental truths.

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Kari @badguysequalxps.bsky.social · 26/01/2024

#4 Digital for Good by Richard Culata Understanding how to help my kids be good digital citizens is so important to me; and I have also really found it hard to navigate supporting them in their relationship to media and screens. I liked a lot of the tips that Culatta has to offer!

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