iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nothing but respect for MY Digger

Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) relaxes on the rooftop terrace of his Cairo home in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Some southwest Minneapolis news. When the place reopens, a substantial portion of the books for sale will have belonged to my mom. So if you'd like to read the exact copies of books about mystery-solving cats that I read in the summer of 1991, you're in luck!

A South Minneapolis house with a sign on the fence indicating that it is the future home of the reopened Paperback Exchange, coming in 2027

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I've been trying for days to get this mf to pick Kermit the Frog as part of a combo with something else.

A Codenames guess list, in which the blue spymaster has repeatedly tried clues with targets including Kermit the Frog. For musicians, the guesser picked Johnny Cash and synthesizer. For singers, they picked the Beatles, Grateful Dead, and mix tape. For leaps, they picked Neil Armstrong and Birkenstocks.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Yes, exactly! Penguin Classics are based on the same idea - uniform frame with a photo of an artwork - but the frame is classy and stylish as hell.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The original 90s Dover Thrifts were incredibly simple but had more character than the swooshy blue frames.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The National Park Service similarly realized in the 70s that they needed a uniformity to their brochures, but the design they came up with was modern and thoughtful, despite its simplicity, instead of feeling like graphic design is their passion.

National Park "unigrid" brochures, with the uniform white-Helvetica-on-black-band title design.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The direction taken by the cover designers of Dover Thrift Editions bums me out a little. I understand that the uniformity saves them, but I miss the same-style-different-specifics aesthetic of the older editions.

Dover Thrift Edition of "Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories" by Hawthorne. The cover is a selected painting framed by a concave blue stripe and a darker blue field with the title and publisher information in simple modern typefaces.

Earlier Dover Thrift Edition of "Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories" by Hawthorne. The cover is designed to look like a tombstone in an Edward Gorey cartoon.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Does she have one of these on her hand?

A man's hand, extending from a blue sleeve in a tan suit. A tattoo on the back of the hand reads "remember Sammy Jankis".

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My mom passed away early Monday morning. She'd been in pretty bad shape for about 4 years, in assisted living for 2, and under hospice care for months. So it was a long, slow process until things moved pretty quickly last weekend.

A very skinny high school graduate, in a purple robe, with a trumpet stuffed under his arm, hugs his mom, in a black blazer with a swirly golden brooch. They're both wearing sunglasses and smiling broadly.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This seems so familiar, but I'm not placing it. The dress is giving Lil from Fire Walk With Me, but the wig is giving Julia Garner.

Batman holds up a mugger, who demands "WHAT ARE YOU?"

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Kind of can't get over how bad most of the panel choices are.

Logan Roy says: You are not serious people.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Yo, Bing Wallpaper, what the fuck is this shit?

Windows desktop wallpaper: stylized artwork advertising the Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts 11-Film Collection.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Tapped just a moment too soon.

Ryan Jeffers starts his swing at a pitch that's only about 15 feet from the plate. He's about to hit a 3-run homer.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Can't believe they're doing this shit again.

Google map screenshot with Lake
Ontario labeled "Lake
America".

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

$31. Welcome to Pokemon Worlds.

A decent but not especially big or fancy bbq sandwich and a sabra hummus and pretzel pack.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Me retiring my beloved North Star flag if the MNGOP appropriates it.

Luke Skywalker stands before Vader's funeral pyre.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Update: I will be buying the shit out of this playmat this week.

A Pokemon San Francisco Worlds 2026 design with a deep blue background, absolutely filled with simple outlines in many colors showing SF landmarks, Pokemon, and geometric patterns.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I got a National Park Passport stamp in that second building this past spring.

An NPS Passport stamp for the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area - Dows Historic District, dated May 29, 2026.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

They just tell on themselves, every single time. This is on top of: - conservative framing for everything - polled on the state flag - trying to scare about taxes raised on incomes over 400k and wealth over 10M Mostly, because always Democrat never Democratic LET ALONE Democratic Farmer Labor.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Got a very long survey that was ultimately about the MN Gov race and scaring the respondent about the DSA and a handful of lefty environmental and economic policy proposals. They tried... but they just couldn't help themselves.

A man sweats the choice between two buttons:
- Feign non-partisanship, or
- "Democrat" Party
He is labeled "republican pollsters"

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

McBuckets shooting the all-time-record 10th 3 in a game.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

If Pokémon doesn't make a playmat of this design available at Worlds, they're leaving money on the table. My money, at least.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

They don't even give you a real pizza box smdh.

A personal-pizza-sized box but it's made of that floppy white cardboard they make cake boxes out of, and there's no thick cardboard inside to stiffen it.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Oh boy, an opportunity for anyone who wants to use this meme I made for its actual original purpose!

Harvey Keitel sits with Tim Roth across the table from our point of view, berating Steve Buscemi in the foreground: "you don't have any idea what you're talking about"

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

@pickledllama.bsky.social - Found your crop art at the airport. Big crop art exhibit near the end of Concourse G.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

View from 8th & Nicollet Mall, 20th floor. Target HQ is the big building, Nic Mall to the left of it, sculpture garden bridge to the right in the distance.

View out the 20th floor of a downtown Mpls building. Looks very foggy but it's wildfire smoke.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

@musicologyduck.bsky.social Re: the helicopter emergency landing in NW, the area it landed in is very curious. It's raised and flat, and full of air vents. I wonder whose property it is - is it connected to the German Embassy next door? What's under there?

A portion of Google Maps showing a grassy field between the German Embassy and GWU in NW Washington DC

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

RIP. I hope he got to see Montana.

Sam Neill wearing a Soviet naval officer's uniform.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

TSG Entertainment has been around for at least 12 years, waiting for their shot, and they blew it.

Wikipedia info box for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Production companies: Universal Pictures and Syncopy.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Anyway, here's me and my brother at A Capitol Fourth in simpler times in 1997.

2 skinny teenagers on lawn chairs. The US Capitol Building looms behind them.

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Fred Beukema @beukema.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Last month I visited the site of the other turning point that was occurring on the same days about 1000 miles away. While the Minnesotan contingent at Vicksburg did not endure the same level of heroic sacrifice as those at Gettysburg, they were part of a shared legacy. Here is the MN monument there:

A large gray stone obelisk sits at the top of a low hill near some trees It has a bronze statue of a seated man and a plaque on the two visible sides of its base.

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