iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I'm afraid we don't have a button to express that.

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Hello! For how many years have you been able to look through these bars and see, more or less, this view? Also, traditional, what time of day was the picture taken?

Imposing blue bars offering a view of a spacious park: bare trees, leaves on the ground, a public footpath.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

RESULT: it was Dorchester, successfully guessed by @mythalive.bsky.social. Surprisingly, several people got the right area of the country by sheer fortune. I'm afraid I was being a bit mischievous when I said 'easy one'. This was essentially impossible. Barred!!

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Easy one to get you back in: in which town was this taken? It was a destination on my last tour, with a population of under 50,000.

A solid wall of holly, as it were, seen through the four vertical bars of a fence.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

'Dude, don't tell me you don't know about August 21. That's, what can I tell you, it's the day we all gather to eat these shitty herrings which smell like shit. And then afterwards we all release an album.' 'Release...?' 'An album, yeah.' itunes.apple.com/album/id1829...

itunes.apple.com

Bedtime Lies by Robert and the Very Bad Dogs on Apple Music

Album · 2025 · 20 Songs

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

After all, 'red herring' tends to mean a misleading clue, a false friend, doesn't it. You've never heard a detective say 'aha! This looks like a normal-coloured herring.' Still, to make sure, you call Helga, your friend in Gothenburg. At the word 'surströmming' she becomes effusive.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Sure Strumming. It sounds... ... ...yes! You dash up to the kitchen and check the flags backwards again. Surströmming. Things are coming together. What does it mean, this strange word? You pay the £7.99 to ask Google. It starts talking about herrings in Sweden. You're disappointed.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

As you're putting your leotard on for the day ahead, the first thing you see on the bedroom floor is your receipt from the music place. THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT SURE STRUMMING, it says. Something jars. It's like you've got a fly up your nose. You're sure the music place wasn't called that.

180

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Last night was a blast. You went to Reverse Karaoke. You go in a booth, choose a song, they play the vocal track, and as a group you have to supply the guitars, bass, drums, other percussion and production. It's a lot of work and you spent a fortune on instruments. But you went to bed happy.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

But - again - there's always music to distract you.

1140

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Maybe standing on your head will help. Maybe reading them backwards will help. Maybe it's more a case of pounding your chest, having a good old cry, and then perhaps a nice bowl of pasta. How these people are getting in your house, and what they mean by all this, remains a serious concern.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

This time they're... it can't be, can it? Upside down!? And also there's something off with the colours. They're not quite in black-and-white but they don't really show up either. You rub your face, your hair, your stomach; you leave your downstairs friends alone for now. 'My word,' you mutter.

National flags. A string of eleven of them. Upside down. And greyscaled. Again, impossible to say which flags. Although it isn't a particularly easy puzzle even if one knew.

2170

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Up the stairs you go, rather than down, because for some reason you had your entire house reconfigured this week, spending £350,000 for the builders' 24-hour service. It's lucky you inherited that mystery fortune in February this year. You stop. Not again. Not more flags.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Heavens, what a night of dreams. For the third night running. Why did you dream that your cat was a pig? Why did you dream that you choked on a fig? Why did you dream the sky wasn't that big? Especially that last one. The sky is, very obviously, huge. Not ONE thing you dreamed was true. Again.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

The Company will let you talk amongst yourselves for a little bit. Please spread the word to any other former employees.

180

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

What is there to be done? You put your favourite band on and get to work.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Why would anyone do this, and what are they trying to communicate, you ask yourself. You can't help feeling that prickle of fear and intrigue down your spine and in your downstairs friends. It's a feeling you thought you'd forgotten. 'This is too much for me,' you murmur.

A sequence of national flags. But I cannot tell you which national flags, because I'm afraid we are in a PUZZLE SITUATION.

6200

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

You stumble downstairs, wearing absolutely nothing but the wizard's hat you've had to keep on for the last 10 days after losing a bet with Steve. 'Holy shite!' you blurt out, rather oddly. But with good reason. Someone has painted a load of flags on your kitchen wall. W the actual F?

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

ATTENTION ALL THOSE WHO PLAYED THE COMPANY: BREAKING NEWS It's a long time since you escaped from The Company, but this morning when you woke up, something felt... familiar. There was a song in your dream that you almost recognised. You grope around in vain to recapture the melody.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

AMAND-ED RESULT: it should be on the record that Amanda got it bang on. Very well done to her as well as Maayan. There were small clues in the Christmas lighting and Toronto itself was gettable but you needed some luck with the temperature. You. Are. Playing. Barred. (Sort of.)

5180

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

So that was the original planned visit. It was FOR my 40th birthday, not AT the time. So actually not 'alarmingly accurate'. But.

010

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

This is all alarmingly accurate. The New Pornos shows themselves had been postponed from Summer 2020.

110

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Well done to a number of you who got very close to this by different routes, but especially @agentmaayan.bsky.social who got to 5.5 simply by converting her lucky number from fahrenheit into celsius.

290

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Some excellent detective work, here. The temperature - as recorded on a phone note - was a chilly but not unbearable 5 degrees celsius when this was taken, in Toronto, on the 11th of December 2021 (it had been much colder a few days before, when I saw my favourite band there, two nights running).

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

What was the temperature when this photo was taken? Use celsius or fahrenheit depending on what you think is the appropriate choice for the country.

Inner-city scene, taken through bars. There appear to be coloured lights hanging from the bars. Behind them, we can see a couple of cars in motion, and the lights of a high-rise building - with a couple of smaller buildings, hard to make out in any detail.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

The fun thing about this is you can do it with intricate calculations or just total vibing.

020

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

WAIT. Someone - @lizgwyn.bsky.social - had it BANG ON (although not necessarily by the right route). Very well done everyone. You are playing the prequel to a game called Barred.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

RESULT: this picture was taken on London's South Bank at 6.14pm, in March 2022. @dryadula.bsky.social was incredibly close with 6.17pm, followed by @simonbissen.bsky.social 6.18pm. A lot were close-ish. Guessing the time of year was probably key. Some of you are very good at weird stuff.

5140

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Some people are also way off. But I can see why.

180

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

The time of year is key, certainly. We can agree on that.

010

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Again: the hour and minute this was taken, please.

A river, buildings on the bank, seen through bars, under a greyish/faintly yellow sky with a light dusting of cloud.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

And we will return to (something like) The Company. Don't worry.

070

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Hahaha oh I see. Look, I hope not to serve jail time at any point. If I do, I'll get a book or two written, but I'd be doing that anyway.

110

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Oh, it's not a legally compromising reason but it's pretty nerdy. But then, look at the company we're in here.

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Plenty more to come. I think people would be surprised by how many photos like this I have accumulated. I was about to say WHY I started doing it, but it would be a spoiler for the future.

3100

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

It was April 7, 2022: after the clocks changed (I think). I don't know if that means you would have been one minute away, as it were...

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barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

The majority of people guessed too early in the morning, probably swayed by the idea that rowers are often out on the river very early (true, but on this river you see them at all sorts of hours). Several used the sun for deduction. Some just guessed. A handful used a mad website.

1100

barredmarkwatson.bsky.social @barredmarkwatson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

The answer was 10.06am. It was taken in April 2022 on Swan Street Bridge, Melbourne, looking over the Yarra River: one of my favourite spots in the world. @mythalive.bsky.social was within ten minutes. Honourable silver medal to @louiejw.bsky.social.

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