iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 04/10/2026

And because I was too distracted by something to remember to add this joke to my last post...

Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 03/10/2026

Really enjoyed this old oral history of Soundgarden recording Superunknown from Spin. As usual, Kim has some of the best and funniest anecdotes. web.archive.org/web/20151003...

Kim Thayil: I remember Josh Homme coming by and I remember Billy Corgan coming by. Pearl Jam were hanging out. I remember Josh Homme really wanting to play ping-pong after Adam Kasper and I had just eaten a lot of Indian food. So we were all kind of sluggish and bloated and he was like, “Man, let’s play ping-pong!” and I was like, “If I play ping-pong, it needs to be against someone equally sluggish and bloated.” I remember that conversation like, “Come on you guys, let’s play!” and I was like, “Dude, I can’t move.”

Kim Thayil: We had a PlayStation set up in the back. I do remember Chris playing some racing games and occasionally playing Doom. I remember sitting there for, gosh, maybe a couple hours, watching Chris play Doom; I was so engrossed with the graphics and the nature of the game — and it got me pretty dizzy because if you’re just watching a video game and not playing it, it’s like being a passenger in a speeding car. Yeah, I remember eating sandwiches and watching Chris play Doom.

Kim Thayil: Bill Nye was compiling an episode about sound, and they asked if they could get a peek at the machinations of a recording studio and we said yes. They got some video footage of the band and Adam Kasper hanging around by the mixing board. I think we described the whole recording process as being a giant drinking straw.

Ben Shepherd: So Bill Nye the Science Guy came in and we did “Kickstand” for them. I think it was right before we started mixing, so the record was done and we did a whole segment. Yeah, that’s a weird episode of Bill Nye, talking about sound with Soundgarden.

Kim Thayil: We always had a warm spot for kids’ educational television. We always said if we were asked to do something on Sesame Street, we would do it, and that’s no joke.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 03/10/2026

I'm curious how Michael got the castle's outline to stay clean and crisp against what looks like a wet-on-wet background sky. Did he tape up the castle area (or use masking fluid?), or did he go over it with white watercolor or gouache after it dried? Or did he have really good control painting wet?

Crop of the background with the white castle.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 01/10/2026

🎶🎷Long......long......🎷🎶

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 30/09/2026

I choose to interpret the Afternoon graphic as saying Sears Tower is not a cloud, therefore cloud coverage is only 99%.

WGN Wednesday Planner Cloud Cover graphic, with four columns titled "Morning", "Midday", "Afternoon", and "Evening". Each one except for Afternoon says "100%" cloud coverage with cloudy photos accompanying them, but "Afternoon" says "99%" and has Sears Tower filling up the image.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 28/09/2026

Brian made the Gartoons tool for the film (it's named after him), which made lines on the CG assets have more of a hand-drawn look and movement to them, and he talked about that tool during the talk.

A darkened Brian Gardner in the foreground, with a projection screen filled with odd-colored CG assets from The Iron Giant behind him.

Behind Brian is a slide titled "Partial List of Gartoon Characters and Elements", with various assets listed under Characters and Effects Elements (Props, Vehicles, Set).

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 28/09/2026

Holy shit! Wasn't expecting to see Brian's name come up while reading this. I had a few night classes w/ him at TAG some years back, and I wrote about his part of an old Iron Giant panel a couple years ago (bauwerks.net/2024/03/iron...). animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-films-...

Back in the ‘90s, the American film The Iron Giant proved how effective a blend of 3D models and 2D drawings could be. Now, one of the Iron Giant’s own, original model files seems to have appeared online.

Archive.org page (https://archive.org/details/jazBrianGardnersJazDiskx772753pca8j84_msg00qnki) for "jaz: Brian Gardner's Jaz Disk <technical numbers and letters>".

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 27/09/2026

Wait...Shin G...Anno...heyyyyyy....

Shinji Ikari losing his mind inside his Evangenion from End of Evangelion.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 27/09/2026

I'd be remiss not to mention an early "get" of theirs interviewing Yun-fat when he was trying to break into Hollywood in the 90s. They collected a book with a bunch of articles and interviews during the mag's run. The politics articles seem a bit tankie-ish at times, though.

Cover of Giant Robot #6 with Yun-fat Chow on the cover, fists and arms up in the air, sneering towards the camera with a toothpick sticking out the side of his mouth.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 24/09/2026

Had to check out the guy's banner because even that smidgen you showed in the photo reeked of gen A/I, and yep, it is as I thought. What a fraud.

From the person's banner: a t-shirt with obvious gen AI artwork of some kind of frog wearing a blue cape, with text like "Ribbit. Resist. Repeat. No hope without hop", which makes no sense whatsoever. You can tell it's gen AI artwork because of the yellow tint to everything, plus the frog's right leg has four toes while the left has three, and its right hand has an indeterminable number of digits while the left clearly has three.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 24/09/2026

Think Mark Ferrari's color cycling pieces:

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 22/09/2026

Also, maybe I'm biased because I grew up with this film in the VHS era, but I feel like these burned-in subtitles should be a part of the film, and not a separate layer that uses whatever media player's default font and text size is, plus enabling subtitles for all text to read them.

From a laserdisc rip: closeup of Elisabeta's face, blood trickling from the side of her mouth, eyes closed as she lies deceased in church after committing suicide. Subtitles say "She is damned."

Over-the-cross view of Dracula in his red muscle armor after he stabs the cross. Subtitles say "The blood is the life..."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 22/09/2026

The last couple movies I watched inadvertently became a Richard E. Grant marathon. I watch Dracula so infrequently I always forget he was in it!

Beginning of Withnail and I with the title card superimposed over Marwood (I) sitting down, having a panic attack.

Title card for Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the font hammered into some kind of steel plate, lit by fire's orange-red light.

Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I, staring at an offscreen Irishman approaching him, look of horror on Withnail's face.

Richard E. Grant as John Seward in Bram Stoker's Dracula, euphorically laughing after injecting morphine into his arm, backlit by lightning.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 22/09/2026

I'm surprised I didn't break my neck from the whiplash I gave myself from reading this gem. 🤣

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 15/09/2026

I've made them at home 2x, but it's been several yrs. Not cha chaan teng or bakery quality, but for a 1st or 2nd attempt, they weren't bad. Low freezer space keeps me from making them again, but when I see half-gallon heavy cream at Costco, I think "I could make a lot of pineapple buns w/ that..."

A large cookie sheet loaded with 9 pineapple buns on parchment paper, fresh out of the oven and golden brown. They look like a first-time-at-home attempt, so not of HK bakery caliber, but still tasty and satisfying nonetheless.

One of the pineapple buns on a plate, sliced lengthwise and with large tabs of butter sandwiched in.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 15/09/2026

I guess it's a good thing Bluesky gave me this error when trying to reply earlier, as it gave me a little more time to stew on my reply, but I'm not liking the insinuation that I'm not allowed to write replies because I'm draining. So mean! 😭

My previous draft of a reply that only had "...Milk companies...?" and preceding text in the reply, but above the post is an error message that says, "<Bluesky ID gobbledygook> is not admitted for writes on this server: draining"

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 14/09/2026

What? Post cha chaan teng food pics? Don't mind if I do! (Unless I'm forgetting, I don't think I had eggs in Hong Kong! Between egg tarts, pineapple buns, and whatever else, either I skipped the scrambled or just plain forgot to try them.)

Pineapple bun with a diagonal cut and a huge slab of butter inside. Divine.

Glass of iced Hong Kong milk tea. Pretty good.

Bowl of oatmeal at a cha chaan teng. Not bad.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 13/09/2026

Might be an AI bot. As you were...*moves on*

A reply from someone: "If all you care about is consumer technology, this seems good. If you care about a free press, independent labor unions, democratic elections, opposition parties, the right to free assembly and free speech, China is one of the worst models on earth.
"

The original poster's reply (possibly an AI bot?): "You make an important point, Gary.

Innovation and consumer technology alone don’t define a successful society.

I care deeply about a free press, independent unions, democratic elections, free speech, and the right to assemble and dissent.

Innovation is powerful, but freedom is essential."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 12/09/2026

Tangent — Was face jewelry a thing for the protestors? I remember seeing/reading about the gas masks and goggles, shades, balaclavas or ski masks, and that's it.

Post text: "I thought we’d be well into face jewelry (as they wore to fool facial recognition in Hong Kong protests) and different baselines for makeup (like the dots and lines in afrofuturist works like Black Panther) and unisex clothing styles."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 11/09/2026

Not sure if this matters much considering the other factors, but do you know if the underperformance was Sony having unrealistically-high sales expectations, or did the games just not sell well no matter who made it? (Or both?)

One major factor behind the decision was the commercial performance of Kojima’s previous two games, Death Stranding and its sequel, which didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing information that’s not public.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 10/09/2026

My bird's not going away anytime soon (Yet? I hope?). 😌

JR's Icoca card, colored grey and maybe cerulean blue. A cartoonish penguin mascot sits at the bottom-center of the card.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 09/09/2026

Thanks for the reminder to post — I saw this impressive fella this morning. Ironically, it wasn't hot, or even sunny, but it's been humid, so.

An ~4-inch lizard hanging on to a stuccoed fence post.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 08/09/2026

He was just coming prepared! 😄

Taijiri: Recently there's been a rush of new consoles announced, and most of them seem to be focused on how to digitize reality as faithfully as possible, raising resolutions and making objects look like actual objects. And yet in Star Fox you opted for abstract geometric shapes using polygons, which aren't anywhere near representing actual objects yet. What motivated that choice?

Miyamoto: Ah, I see we're taking a high-brow approach today. (laughs)

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 06/09/2026

Just happened to grab the one wrinkly one I got yesterday that wasn't damaged for my morning batch with breakfast. Damn you, early-bird aunties and uncles!

Photo of a jujube starting to wrinkle. Some parts are still solid and smooth, while some pits are forming with wrinkled skin covering them. Might look unappealing, but they taste sweet.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 05/09/2026

*McSweeney's voice* It's jujube season, motherfuckers.

Browned jujubes on tree branches, basking in the sun.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 03/09/2026

Coming with the late clarification like a dum-dum to say I meant tortoiseshell, not tortoise the reptiles.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 03/09/2026

I'd like to imagine there are tortoise-colored Totoros out there! (Obviously not a tortoise Totoro, but I got a laugh passing by this Donguri Republic store in, I think, Times Square despite not seeing any Ghibli-related stores the week before when I was in Osaka.)

A Donguri Republic store in Hong Kong, which sells Studio Ghibli merchandise. A large Totoro statue perched on flowers or bushes greets customers and passers-by at the front of the entrance.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 02/09/2026

I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Cook asked to hold off making this change until the new guy took over today. This is so fucking stupid.

Screenshot of Lake Ontario in Apple Maps, but is now relabeled Lake America (boooooooo).

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 28/08/2026

"I don't like people using AI to make 'new' or 'complete' Beatles photos (unless it's one that I really want a good version of — c'mon, guys, just this one time! I *really* wanted this one! But otherwise I don't like people doing this! I'll label em!)" 🙄 www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2026/08/use-...

Article title: "Use of A.I. in Beatles photos"

Gen AI-altered image of a young Paul McCartney and a female fan. The caption says "Photo fixed by A.I."

The original photo, which looks like a terrible 4th-generation photocopy with a lot of contrast and missing details in the faces. Caption says "Original photo from Beatles fanzine".

The post: "I have very, very mixed feelings about A.I. I have to use it for my job, and I see the benefits of it. It does save me time to get work accomplished. But when it comes to using it for Beatles photos, I have mixed feelings. I do not like people using A.I. to make "new" Beatles photos or to show the "whole picture" of a Beatles photo. Those types of photos really trick people.

I was playing around with A.I. and used the one photo that I have always wanted a good version of. This photo of Paul and a fan in the Autumn of 1968 was photocopied in a fanzine, and it did not turn out. I have never been able to locate the original photo, so I think this A.I. rendering isn't too bad. Paul's hair is wrong, but not by much, and the pattern in his jacket isn't the same. But overall, I think it looks good enough to give us an idea of what the real photo looked like.

Keep in mind that Beatle fans have been manipulating photographs since the early days, when they used to cut off the heads of the Beatles' wife/girlfriend and paste their own on top of it.

I will say that I don't plan on using A.I. on this site but if I do to illustrate something, I will always disclose its use and have the original available if anyone is interested."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 26/08/2026

I guess it's out of Variety's wheelhouse, but I'm surprised his voice and acting work for PC games wasn't listed among his voice work. He was good in Gabriel Knight!

Original portrait painting of Gabriel Knight from Sins of the Fathers, used for his dialog portrait in the game. He's wearing his black coat.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 26/08/2026

Wish I turned on HDR when I took my photos...same weather and everything!

The Anita Mui statue in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The statue is very dark due to underexposure despite the weather being foggy/overcast.

The Bruce Lee statue nearby in TST. Similar problems as the Anita Mui statue.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 26/08/2026

I recognize that pig...I mean, I haven't watched or read anything with Mcdull in it, but I saw the statue along Avenue of the Stars and, well, it stands out.

A bronze statue of Piglet McDull along Avenue of the Stars in Hong Kong. He is pointing upwards towards the sky and smiling. The Hong Kong skyline is visible in the background, separated by the bay.

Railing along the bay with McDull's "hoofprints" and a short bio. It says in Cantonese and English, "Piglet Mcdull is a comic character created by Brian Tse and Alice Mak. Mcdull's stories have been adopted to many award-winning movies since his debut My Life as Mcdull."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 25/08/2026

John Romita Jr.'s issue of Modern Masters is disappointing for a lot of reasons, and when it comes to his time on Daredevil, he barely discusses his time on that book. Blackheart isn't mentioned at all, from what I recall and saw from a quick flip-thru to refresh my memory.

Cover for Modern Masters: John Romita Jr., which shows Spider-Man hanging upright on a web superimposed against a corner of a highrise, drawn by Romita Jr.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 24/08/2026

Looks like this is a Reddit post from one of the scrapers. This is scraping publicly-available data, it's not a hack. I don't know what Cara's trying to achieve here other than reimbursing for any extra costs on web hosting due to increased traffic. This kind of thing is happening to a lot of sites.

A Reddit post from someone titled "[AMA] I scraped all of Cara", and the text claims this person scraped all of Cara, gives stats that Cara probably quoted in their Go Fund Me page, and the person says it cost less than $10 to scrape the data.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 24/08/2026

I don't think Cara understands how scraping works — whatever mitigations you take to prevent scraping, it's damage control, not damage avoidance. It's also not as simple as "opt out and forget about it" — it's constant maintenance, like gardening.

A Go Fund Me article titled "Help Cara Fight Scrapers with Legal Fund" and subhead "Cara Needs Your Help!"

The first scrape was for 12M images, the second for 9M URLs, and the third 123k images, as well as information such as names, locations, comments, and text posts from our users.

While scraping can happen to anyone online, anywhere, the difference is Cara has gone out of its way to opt out. When many platforms either officially allow scraping, or have data troves much more massive than Cara, the end goal here does nothing but harass and inflict pain. All because we went out of our way to say no.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 24/08/2026

And give 'em an earful about using gen A/I images for their site. 🤢🤮

Text says "Our Funds Will Never Be Unjustly Frozen
We are a UK-registered organisation, and we use Wise (UK) to prevent unjustified and freezing of funds due to political reasons.", and there's a gen A/I image of a man's hands gesturing at his laptop screen with a "Bank account frozen" window above a frozen bank building. To its side is a badly-generated credit card image called "Bank Account", and the text looks like generated gobbledygook trying to pass as English text. The laptop screen has similar crap-looking English text on it.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 22/08/2026

These are interesting to look through because some have more of a Disney-ish feel, others feel more Japanese, and others still are brazenly going for the "legally-distinct Lupin III's car" look. Hope more of this stuff and info about the studio comes out of the woodwork sometime!

A sheet with four sketches of a woman with neck-length straight hair and bangs, wearing a stripe-patterned t-shirt.

Model sheet sketches of some onigiri-shaped amphibian-looking thing with long, ratty ears. In some drawings it plays a flute.

Three model sketches of another woman, this time with shorter, layered hair, a long-sleeve shirt tucked into her pants, and wearing a vest and a neckerchief in two of the sketches. Looks a bit western (as in cowboys, not hemisphere).

Several sketches of a three-wheeled car that looks pretty similar to Lupin III's Alfa Romeo. Legally distinct, I'm sure.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 21/08/2026

Still got a few years for mine (last trip was 2019), but I don't see trips in my future any time soon, so I'm debating about asking my Japanese friend very nicely if he'd treat himself to a drink or snack with mine next time he returns home.

An Icoca card, with the blue penguin mascot.

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 20/08/2026

"Wow, look at this exhibit of Chinese games in Shanghai! Too bad it's also a political statement." "What's the political statement?" "The games are Taiwanese, so they're saying Taiwan's a part of China." "Ah well, hope it doesn't detract from the games!"

Post from someone who presents themself as a Chinese games expert: "Ah man, they're doing a huge museum exhibit about Chinese single-player games in Shanghai!

Look at that giant wall of games the West knows nothing about! How I wish I could visit! D:

Only issue is that it's a political statement as well, since many (if not most) of those games are from Taiwan..."

A commenter from the thread: "What's the political statement they're making? Or do you mean that it's an unintentional statement?"

The original poster: "The statement being made is that Taiwan is part of China, a very heated topic."

Commenter: "Ah. Hopefully that doesn’t detract from the value of the games on display. It looks like a fantastic exhibition."

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 20/08/2026

*Preachy Bluesky/Mastodon power user voice* See, guys? This site totally HAS the juice! You don't NEED that loser hellsite to have a bigger, more meaningful, totally engaged audience! And unlike that OTHER site who's numbers are totally fake, THESE numbers are totally legit!

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Boooooooooooooooowerks @bauwerks.net · 20/08/2026

I'm laughing at the cameraman who recorded this swinging 60s Hong Kong film so brazenly creeping on women's legs and asses that even Kino's video description has to acknowledge it (not to mention a couple commenters calling it out). www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSNO...

From the video description: "Girl at traffic lights in split orange skirt, creepy."

A comment from the video: "The camera man is some creepy stalker"

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