iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 5h

Apparently, this is NOT a hoax.

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 12h

"What is the most blatantly stupid corporate rule you’ve ever been forced to follow?" No running in the halls. COME ON, GUYS.

000

Reposted by Ben McClellan

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver @lastweektonight.com · 14h

This week’s main story is about the Secret Service, why they’ve had so many close calls in recent years, and why some are privately calling 2028 “Armageddon.” Which we’re sure is just an arbitrary code name and nothing to worry about. Link to full segment in bio!

1540570

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 22h

Looks like Transport Fever 3, no matter how amazing it looks, is not in my future. I tried playing OpenTTD earlier, which is a spiritual forerunner of the game based on the great Transport Tycoon PC game from the nineties, and couldn't focus on it for very long.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

That moment when you want to send a message of support to someone who posts a stressed out status on social media, but hesitate because you wonder if you're the one they're really annoyed with. Or you fear they'll bite your head out after you reach out to them.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

But that question did throw me off, since it probably led to one promising (?) conversation getting terminated, and I was genuinely fearful that I was going to face another dating fiasco.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

She sent a very specific text: "Hey, you still up?" You probably know where that was leading to. However, things didn't pan out after that night, and after a second go round the following evening, and I never really heard from her again.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This time, though? I did manage to recover, and while I don't remember exactly what I asked, the date didn't turn into a disaster at all. We ended up sitting there chatting close to an hour after the bill got paid, hugged goodbye, then spent an hour on the phone later. And then after eleven...

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

And years ago, while chatting with someone on OKCupid before that platform went to hell, I asked essentially the same question to a woman, and I guess it didn't sit well with her, since that turned out to be our final conversation before she cut me off the next day with no warning.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"What is the weirdest thing someone has ever asked you on a first date?" It was, after a pause in conversation, "So, was there anything else about me that you wanted to know?" I admit that I was caught off guard, because I thought that was a sign things weren't going well.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"Driving through [Gary, Indiana] felt like the whole town just gave up and nobody bothered to tell the residents". I get what the OP was trying to say, but this sentence is a contradiction in terms.

010

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A random post on Threads: "The playlist at this Culver’s in Illinois is the most iPod shuffle shit I’ve ever heard in my life, literally have never heard so many random deep cuts of artists from the last 30 years." (The OP provided no examples of said playlist, though, and left us all hanging.)

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

After a couple of days, exactly one person liked that Threads post I made. It's a little disappointing, but it's still out there, and it could always suddenly catch fire in the future when I'm not paying attention.

000

Reposted by Ben McClellan

Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Announcing the merger with Titanic footage is an incredible bit

David Ellison • @ellisonskyd... 2h
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first ho Show

464142522844

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"When did you first start seeing gray hairs?" Early twenties. Just a couple of them, though.

010

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This morning, I took screenshots of a recent thread that I posted here, and posted them to Threads, a platform where people are openly speaking out about past experiences of sexual assaults by men. This could potentially lead to a lot of discussion, and maybe scrutiny cast on an old high school.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well, there was that one time in 2019 when I hung out with a 24 year old coworker, but that wasn't a date. And she preferred older men regardless.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"What's the biggest age gap that you will accept when dating?" I just turned fifty, as you know. I no longer do the "half your age plus seven" (32 now) rule any more. Not that I really did when I was younger. Nowadays, I probably would only date ten years younger or less.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I could never go in that early, even if I absolutely loved the job.

010

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Too bad you can't sacrifice sleep to enjoy the silence.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Boomers will also tell you that the best way to secure a new job is to basically barge into their office with the "Help Wanted" sign, give them a firm handshake, and asking what time should you start the next morning. Or they're telling you to hound them by phone just hours after applying.

010

Reposted by Ben McClellan

Spaceman Abe @astrovoyager.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My all time favorite. The Siamese elephants skit. youtu.be/-2OkR35ketA?...

youtu.be

Tim Conway elephant story

YouTube video by Joel Hardy

6427

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Do most people actually talk to their pets like they're roommates"? Sure they do. Also, if you say you've never told your pet "oooh, BIG stretch!" after seeing them stretching out, you are LYING.

000

Reposted by Ben McClellan

Being Liberal ®🗽🏳️‍🌈 @beingliberal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is great! Is Jesse Welles a modern day Woody Guthrie, or more like young Bob Dylan?

55521

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not that too many people will see all of this and start to investigate a little further, but everything I said here is the truth. And it wasn't just limited to some backwoods, lily white high school 20-30 years behind the times.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Unfortunately, the girl was forced to leave Pleasant Plains shortly thereafter. For some reason, that school's culture dictated that "snitching" was a far more reprehensible crime than sexual assault. She became a pariah, and got threatened with violence from other female classmates.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One girl I used to know DID report two boys sexually harassing her in their shared art class. The school actually took action against the two boys, who both seemed more pissed off that they got caught rather than the fact that they were making a girl extremely uncomfortable with their actions.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Although, it could be that they didn't speak up because they were too wasted to clearly remember everything. They knew something happened to them, but almost no one knew who was responsible, unless they bragged about it at school the following Monday, or if two or more kids were gossiping.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This behavior, I've learned, happens pretty much everywhere. But for some reason at Pleasant Plains, it was normalized to an uncomfortable degree. Like I said elsewhere, girls usually didn't report who had gang raped them, because they didn't want to be labeled as a "snitch".

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sorry, time and space doesn't absolve you from what you would do while drunk at somebody's house party. Raping a girl who had passed out from too much alcohol (or if they were drugged) is still a crime. Just because the victim decided not to confront her attacker later doesn't make it all right.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It has been over thirty years since that time, but it's probably a safe bet that some of those boys who didn't die young or go to prison most likely have families and careers, and they just think their teenage crimes was them just "having fun" and "part of growing up".

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

For the record, the school in question is Pleasant Plains High School in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, fifteen miles northwest of Springfield. A lot of the boys who went there during my time at that school (1992-93) would behave quite abhorrently around girls in class, and especially at parties.

100

Reposted by Ben McClellan

George Wallace @mrgeorgewallace.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Excited to see how the Atlanta Hawkeyes do this year and whatnot.

381579143

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A couple of years later at a different bar in another state, I sang "Dare to Be Stupid" by Weird Al, and got such a negative reaction that the karaoke jock wouldn't let me sing again that night. Dishonorable mention: Any song with notes too high for me to hit.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"What would be your WORST karaoke song?" I once attempted "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M., couldn't keep up with how the lyrics were performed originally, and ended up slaughtering it. Ironically, the karaoke host complimented me, just for attempting that one.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Why Hasn't Trump Renamed New England Yet?" ...PLEASE don't give him any ideas. Although you know, and I know that the thought probably has crossed his mind a few dozen times.

001

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It wouldn't be any one major purchase I'd make. It would probably be me and my big mouth unable to keep it off social media for very long.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Your very distant relative whom you have never heard about just passed away and left you $100 million in cash. You decide to lay low for a few months before you make any major decisions or major purchases, but what will be the one thing that will give it away?" To be completely honest here...

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My experiences hearing about it was 1992-93. I, sadly, won't be surprised if this is still happening in high schools today, even with the shadow of social media lurking everywhere, and making it almost impossible to do anything, good or bad, without being documented.

010

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I knew people like that in high school. Every Monday morning after a wild weekend, some of them would be bragging in class about what they had done. And the girls victimized almost never reported being assaulted while drunk and passed out. They feared being labeled a "snitch" more than anything.

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As seen on r/Teachers: "My theory on the literacy crisis: kids aren’t watching enough TV." ...that is certainly a unique take. When I was a kid, it wasn't without possibility that a student might be accused of, or dismissed because they're "watching too much television".

100

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lunch date on Monday. Still need to finalize which non-chain restaurant I'm taking her to.

030

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Re: Mergers between news departments of two competing TV stations in a market. It's probably not about consolidating operations, and more about controlling what people want to report by reducing competition. It just happened in the town where I live, and down the road in Louisville, too.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The new Chuck Klosterman book is WILD, man.

000

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"You are attending a 15 person corporate meeting with your boss. You have 35 seconds to get fired. How do you do it?" Say out loud "Boss, I'm trying to prove a point to someone on Reddit. Can I respectfully request that you terminate my employment in 35 seconds?" Boss: Ben, be quiet.

010

Ben McClellan @benmcclellan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Watching this, I still half expect Cartman to err and accidentally take a bite out of his tablet.

010