iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

I found this incredible, teeny tiny fossil of a fish's fin today, though. It's not all bad. There is so much beauty.

A small stone on a pebble beach. On the stone is the fossilized imprint of a fish's fin.

BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

I'm back home on the east coast right now. Went for a lil trek down to the cove, and there are at least 2 dozen hawks and turkey vultures circling in silence 👀 I've never seen this many together at once... not hawks at least 💀 keeping my eyes open for whatever died around here, holyyyy

A photo taken straight upwards towards the sky. The sun is visible at the edge of the photo, and the sky is a mix of sun and clouds. There are tree branches visible around the edges. In the open sky in the middle, there are at least 8 hawks and turkey vultures seen circling above.

A photo taken straight upwards towards the sky, which is a mix of sun and clouds. There are tree branches visible around the edges. In the open sky in the middle, there are at least 14 hawks and turkey vultures seen circling above.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

This is Dillon. May he have a safe journey. I'm wishing so much care for his family at this heartbreaking time. There are no words, but his loss is felt widely. May he be safely with the ancestors soon.

Dillon Warren Breed smiling in a graduation photo and wearing a graduation cap and gown, with angel wings behind him.

Dillon smiling and holding a small boy in his arms.

Dillon sitting on a couch with a small girl, who has her arms around him. They're both wearing sunglasses. Dillon is making a goofy face with a raised eyebrow, and the little girl is smiling.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

@ Kneecap: "Níl fáilte roimh an RUC" (cops not welcome) includes internalizing cop behaviour. Níl fáilte roimh an RUC in your head, too. They're not actually your principles if you give them up when it's no longer easy to have them.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

LMAO I contain multitudes 😌✨️😶‍🌫️

A screenshot of one of my posts. It reads:
"If you have a beautiful relationship you cherish— regardless of the type or with whom— it's not chance or luck. You built that shit. That's you and another person, working together, adding kindness and joy to each other's lives. You should be proud of yourself for that."

One of my posts. It reads:
"If you can confidently punch and fight to defend yourself, your best weapons are your hands, and you know that already.

If you can't, then use the single key in stabbing and slashing motions. And again— go for the soft spots. And run for safety as soon as the moment arises."

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I just dropped my phone face-down in the mud and had no napkins or anything so I had to wipe it off with an oak leaf, and this is the first time in my life I've thought that maybe the song Nothing but Flowers by The Talking Heads made some points lmaooo

A screenshot of lyrics. They read:
"Once there were parking lots
Now, it's a peaceful oasis
You got it, you got it
This was a Pizza Hut
Now, it's all covered with daisies."

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

'Noist cúpla céist, do you want it in your chest? Or your knees? Or your head? DJ Provaí has the lead You can beg, you can plead, you can tell us what we need You can change your name, but you're all the fucking same

A screenshot of lyrics on Spotify. The song is "H.O.O.D" by "KNEECAP". The lyrics read:
Tiocfaidh ár lá, get the Brits out lad!
A one way ticket, please, I've lost my bus pass.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

"Tariff wars" how about Shut Up You made your own resource extraction bed, now lie in it colonizers

2 screenshots, one above the other, from canada's economy Wikipedia page. Top: "main import partners: United States- 49.2%.
Bottom: main export partners: United States- 76.9%.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

From 'What You Wish For': "Stories are, at their cores, emotion machines. [...] they distill human experience, and capture its meaning, and connect us to our humanity like nothing else."

Author's Note:

Studies using brain imaging have shown that when you read about a point-of-view character doing a thing, parts of your brain light up as if you were actually doing that thing yourself. On some very basic level, your brain can't tell the difference. [...] this is how stories work. This is how they bypass all our categories and prejudices and opinions, and just reach right into our chests and grab ahold of our hearts.

Stories let us cross the boundaries between ourselves and other people.

Firsthand experience is always our best teacher [...] but stories are the next best thing. Stories teach us how to put ourselves in others' shoes. They teach us empathy.

Stories are constructed almost exactly like memories. [...] We tend to think of memories as something we retrieve. [...] but that's not actually how it works at all. [...] special ones get encoded, [...] but even then, you're not encoding everything. [...] So you chose. You choose without even thinking about it. You choose the details that stands out the most, or get your attention [...] The rest of the memory, you make up. You fill it in with details so plausible you even believe them yourself. Just exactly like you do when you read fiction.

There's a reason we love stories so much, and it's because our entire lives, all our memories, are made of them. That's why, when you read a novel, you already know exactly what to do. You do it all day, every day, as you tell yourself the story of your life. [...] This is why stories you've read have direct access to your heart. You know they didn't happen to you, but they feel like they did. And they feel like they did, because you built them in your head exactly the way you build your own memories.

If you genuinely love a story, that's a good story— period.

Fiction lets you struggle with life's big issues, navigating human relationships, figuring out who you are, coping with grief and loss in your imagination. It lets you practice for real life. It let's you get good at wrestling with all the big issues you need to wrestle with, in a safe way, because you know it's not real.

Reading for joy means giving yourself permission to read the stories you need to hear. It means finding your own compass, and trusting it to guide you.

One of the reasons we're still drawn to stories in adulthood is because they're still teaching us things we need to know. They're still helping us grapple with all the complexities of human life. They're still helping us get better at it. And when we find the right stories, the ones we really need, it feels right. It feels like joy.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

I'm adding some more of my abridged notes on Katherine Center's author's notes. Most of her books that I've read have them, and she is incredibly thoughtful and insightful and has put a lot of thought into many of the same things about this genre that I have ❣️ From 'The Rom-Commers':

Author's Note:

Maybe stories that let us see our best possibilities are exactly what this bedraggled world needs. Because love stories let us witness infinite ways that characters master pro-social behaviours.

Our lovers might not be good at love when they start, but if they want that happy ending, they better damn well figure it out. And so, over the course of the story, they master the many arts of listening, and connecting, and nurturing, and caretaking, and trusting, and appreciating, and savouring, and sharing, and empathising. They have to overcome their prejudices, learn to apologise, forgive each other, and sacrifice. When we read love stories, we get to see kindness in action, and human compassion, and connection made visible, and people choosing to be the best versions of themselves in the face of it all. Love stories show us people getting better at love, in real time.

Moral elevation: witnessing other people doing good makes us want to do better ourselves.

Your inner compass will guide you to the particular stories that you need to hear.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I take notes on whatever sticks out to me when I read books. Here's some from the first romcom I ever picked up— 'Funny Story' by Emily Henry. I'm feeling a lil exposed sharing such personal stuff, but if even one person benefits, it's worth it. I've learned so much it's unreal. ❤️‍🔥

Funny Story

You're not stupid. He told you to trust him and that's what you did. That's what you're supposed to be able to do with people you love; they just don't always live up to it.

All those moments throughout the days, weeks, months, that don't get marked on calendars with hand-drawn stars or little stickers. Those are the moments that make a life. Not grand gestures, but mundane details [...]

Life's short enough without us talking ourselves out of hope and trying to dodge every bad feeling. Sometimes you have to push through the discomfort instead of running.

The same universe that dispassionately takes things away can bring you things you weren't imaginative enough to dream up.

I can't wait for this whole world I've invited to surprise me.

A cynic is a romantic who's too scared to hope.

I hope you always keep some piece of that girl who sat by the window hoping for the best. Life's short enough without us talking ourselves out of hope and trying to dodge every bad feeling. Sometimes you have to push through the discomfort instead of running.

Too scared to go deeper in search of greatness when it means risking change.

I spent so much time accustoming myself to one kind of surprise, the kind hinging on disappointments, hurts, small abandonments, and emotional bartering, that I'd stopped considering there might be any other. A surprise, it turns out, is different when it comes from someone who knows and loves you.

It's easy to be loved by the ones who've never seen you fuck up. The ones you've never had to apologise to, and who still think all your "quirks" are charming. It's easy to be around people who don't know you, but as soon as someone starts to figure you out, as soon as you can't be perfect, it's easier to move on. Find someone new to be the cool, fun, laid-back one with.

I've always wanted to be that fun, easy person with no baggage. But after a while, someone either finally sees you, or they don't. And either way, it fucking sucks. Because if they see you and its not what they signed up for, then they're out of there. And if they never see you, it's worse. Because then you're just alone.

You make the people you care about feel like... like you want all of them. Not just the good parts.

Decades of feeling braced against the world, and now I can't find that sensation, the layer between me and everyone else. And it's terrifying, and freeing, and intense.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Katherine Center's authors note at the end of the first one of her books I read totally explained all of these feelings for me. I took (abridged) notes because it was SO impactful. I hope it sheds some more light for you too ❣️

From the Author's Note of Hello Stranger:

One year, for my birthday, I got a historical romance novel as a gift. After years of studying creative writing and "serious fiction" in school, I had never really read romance before. But I pushed past the decidedly non-literary cover and opened it up to the first chapter to "take a look at it." Three hours later, I was in the car, driving to the bookstore to get another one. I felt like a person who had spent her entire life eating boneless, skinless chicken breast, and who had just discovered chocolate cake. [...] There you have it, I fell in love with romance novels. For a long time, if you'd asked me why that was, I'd have shrugged and said, "because they're fun?" But now, after much overthinking it, I've figured out, at least in part, why they're fun. It's because romance novels really are unlike any kind of story. All stories have an emotional engine that drives them— mysteries run on curiosity, thrillers run on heart-thumping adrenaline, horror stories run on fear— and the fuel of those emotional engines is anticipation. We piece the clues together and predict what's going to happen, and we feel emotions—sometimes very strong ones—about what we're predicting.

Stories use different scenarios in different ways to create that anticipation, but most novels use a fair bit of what's called "negatively veilanced anticipation"— a sense of worry, a concern that things might get worse. [...] But guess what kind of anticipation romance novels use? Positively veilanced. They all run on a blissful sense that we're moving toward something better. Percentage-wise, the majority of clues writers drop in romance novels don't give you things to dread— they give you things to look forward to. This right here, more than anything else, is why people love them. [...] Anticipating that you're heading toward a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead, and there is a name for what you're feeling when you do that: hope. [...] love stories create hope and use it as fuel. [...] that's not a mistake. That's a guarantee of the genre; things will get better, and you, as a reader, get to be there for it. [...]

I think love stories are deeply misunderstood, in part, at least, because they don't work like other stories. Love stories don't have happy endings because their authors didn't know any better; they have happy endings because those endings let readers access a rare and precious kind of emotional bliss that you can only get from having something that matters to look forward to. [...] Hope matters just as much as despair. Because tragedy is a given, but joy is a choice. [...] but I think [...] love is a form of hope. [...] [Love] is unapologetically optimistic. [...] So I write stories about how love does that. About people healing from hard things; and trying to connect; and working like hell to become the best versions of themselves despite it all; about the genuine emotional courage it takes to love other people; and about the joy that courage can offer us. [...] Believing in love is believing in hope. And doing that— choosing, in this cynical world, to be a person who does that— really is doing something that matters.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I have a Solutions for Small Businesses card for small discounts on shipping, and Canada Post is sending us garbage anti-union propaganda to try and turn small businesses against CUPW. It's essential that we, as folks with small businesses, stand firmly with the union.

[Title]
With CUPW's national strike now in its
fourth week, the union's latest offer takes
major steps backwards
[Body text]
Canada Post has received the latest offers from the Canadian Union
of Postal Workers (CUPW) and is extremely disappointed that their
intent appears to be to widen the gap in negotiations, rather than
close it.
We are conducting a full review of the offers for the Urban and RSMC
(Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units and will share
more information as soon as possible. However, we do not want to
provide false hope to impacted employees, businesses, charities and
northern communities that were hoping for a speedy resolution.
We understand the serious impacts that CUPW's national strike is
having on your business, our employees and the millions of
Canadians who rely on the postal service, especially at this critical
time of year.
In the last few weeks, Canada Post has made several important
moves to close the gap and reach negotiated agreements, but the
union has reverted to their previous positions or increased their
demands.
Our core business is delivery. While postal services around the world
are working constructively to evolve their delivery approach to
respond to changing customer needs, CUPW's demands reinforce the
status quo and add significant and unsustainable long-term fixed
costs. One example is continuing to demand that our facility cleaning
staff and other contracted support services become permanent
Canada Post employees.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

On the implied bifurcation of the imagery of industrial spaces being reclaimed by nature:

A screenshot of white text on a black background. It reads:

Maybe the aesthetic of industrial/urban places crumbling and being overgrown with plants isn't a juxtaposition. Maybe it's actually a visual representation of the land claiming urban areas— and, by extension, human beings— as part of itself, rather than a false binaristic opponent. The land is saying to us that we are part of it and we always were and always have been, no matter where we go or what we build or even if it's just grandiose egotism. The land is also telling us that when we remember what it has always known, remember it and come back to it, that it will embrace us fully and completely as if we never left home.

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BeadsAgainstFascism @baf.bsky.social · 18/09/2023

Currently reading 'The Experiences of a Disabled Dominatrix' by Ness Cooper thanks to the SWEET Initiative!! Super good read so far: dsq-sds.org/index.php/ds...

A comic book style graphic of a dominatrix sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette, being served a drink in a champagne flute by a sub

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