iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It’s all heating up. July to September saw delightful/productive meetings with a Vocations Advisor. Now I have been invited to Phase Two’s “Discernment Meeting”. A bit of interview practice, it’s also another going over of all the Criteria! 😅 Now, where’s my suit… <quakes in episcopalian> ✝️⚓️

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

SANCTUARY: 📅 first Tuesdays Oct-Dec 2026 🕕 6pm–7pm 📍 St John's Episcopal Church, Princes St, Edinburgh. Join us for a new service with music, candlelight, and readings. Featuring jazz, gospel and roots music. www.stjohns-edinburgh.org.uk Please share widely. #Edinburgh #prayer #music #Anglican

text for a new prayer service, on the background of candles. Text reads as follows:

St John's
Scottish Episcopal Church

SANCTUARY

Tuesday 6th October
Tuesday 3rd November
Tuesday 1st December
6:00-7:00pm

Join us for our new service with music, candlelight, and readings.
Featuring jazz, gospel, and roots music.

stjohns-edinburgh.org.uk
St John's Church, Princes Street

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

9:36pm and didn’t even bother to knock on the door. Items just dumped on the (wet) doorstep.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

am I the only one who thinks Amazon is taking a liberty giving you a timeslot between 8pm and 10pm? For a start, folk, delivery or none, ought not to be marauding around in the dark. But also, I get up really early, weekends included. I want to be in my jim-jams (not asleep!) by 10pm. <grumbles>

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

What is this “Forum” thing on Facebook? Anyone used it?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Heavens! First the ridiculous idea of merging Scotland's 11 mainland territorial NHS Boards into two. And now Swinney wants to bring back the Regional and District Council structure (not seen since 1996). I'm sure nobody wants two-tier councils, and mergers remind me of a bumpy road in one sector.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Am I wrong in saying “well, that’s Denmark capitulated”?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’m curious who following these feeds: 👇 ✝️⚓️ ☝️…is in/around Edinburgh. Coffee could be in the running.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Trump criticises AI slowdown www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm... – Trump’s a dummy. Those AI models are probably more intelligent than he is. 😂 Joking aside, the fact that Anthropic is chary to release newer/advanced versions of its models doesn’t mean they’re buggy; it means they’re scarily advanced!

bbc.co.uk

Trump criticises AI boss who called for slowdown and says only guardrail needed is a 'smart president'

Stock markets fall in the US, Europe and Asia as Anthropic boss Dario Amodei says AI development should be slowed to "to reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong".

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

am I wrong, or if you don't sign in to Google Maps does it refuse to allow you see all seven days of opening times?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Our pear tree is old, maybe 50 years old, its pollinator long since dying to disease. Nevertheless it fruits every year, but strange, small puny things. This year it graced us with three windfall. The other jealous, wizened exemplars remain on high, but look at these beauties. Let’s eat, quick!

Three large, bulbous William pears. 🍐 Yellowy-green, ripe and ready for eating!

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I flew to America five days after 9/11. The atmosphere at security/immigration (layover, Newark) was one of palpable fear and dread. And we the living. Pray for those who died, those who battled to save them, those who mourn, and those who have made and continue to make some very hard decisions. 🙏

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

oh Netflix, why on earth would I want DUNE Part 2, if you haven't given me Dune Part 1? I heard that I'm not missing anything though. 🎬🍿

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Reposted by Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈

Helen @futurestand.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A video statement from the RNLI chief exec about recent events and about the RNLI’s unchanging and single mission, to save lives at sea. rnli.org/news-and-med...

rnli.org

Statement from RNLI Chief Executive Peter Sparkes

Statement from RNLI Chief Executive Peter Sparkes regarding Channel activity.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Choral Singing Taster Day: Saturday 5 Sept 2026 🕥 10:30am children 🕑 2pm youth 📍 St John's Episcopal Church, Princes St, Edinburgh. We are starting new youth and children’s choirs and would love you to be part of it. No experience required! This Saturday! #Edinburgh #youth #choir #Anglican

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The psychiatrist pointed me in the direction of a new term today: moral injury Quite relevant for persons trying to do their best in under-resourced public bodies. (Yes, I know it’s not quite the same as soldiers or whatever, but y’know…)

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

anyone know about Chocolatey Package Manager and want to explain it to me?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I can’t see the coverage at the moment but cutting the number of mainland health boards from 11 to 2 is ridiculous. I hope it’s resisted vociferously and that Swinney is forced out. Inept.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Starmer? Damp squib, wet blanket. Sorry. Concentrate on international affairs? Is this Blair 2.0? 🙄

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

here's a question: The Greens want to bring back district and regional councils, but before you answer that, what about this... Can we afford to do it? (anybody got access to accounts from 1994 when we did the opposite?)

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Reposted by Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈

daily bunnies 🐇✨ @dailybunnies.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A brown and white lop-eared bunny sits on gray pavement with leafy green plants behind it.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

1/ Stage 1 of the formal discernment process has been upon me. As part of that, I've been working through the SEC's criteria for the priesthood (Faith, Prayer, Self, Mission, Community and Calling) with a Vocations Advisor. Lovely lady. Some of it has been through homework, in that I write about— ✝️⚓

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

PSA: If you're going to wear a fascia, wear it properly. It is not a belt. It is not meant to be worn low. 😠 Just below the ribcage. It is to bind the cassock (soutane) to you, not to keep your trousers in place. But then again, so many don't wear fasciae, and I think it looks nicer with! 😅 ✝️⚓

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I do write drivel at times, but I would say that once I was tonsured, I found wearing a cassock (soutane) and fascia daily quite comfortable! Mind you, all that "manual labour" in first year had given me the figure for it (some find the fascia constricting, especially if worn incorrectly)!

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

every so often I go and trim off old posts, and it's amazing what you see. Of course it's all dated, that's why I do it,but the topics can be quite heady: why things ended up where they did in the RCL, would Jesus save space aliens from the planet Zog, and of course endless amount of Breviary stuff.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

anyone found a problem with Spotify Desktop today? If you switch to a Music Video for a track, you then can't switch back? The usual controls aren't there. Had to turn it off globally in Preferences, because music videos also disable lyrics, and hey... how do you sing along while you're working?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

sometimes I have a cry when I hear particular songs. No real reason. I found a playlist. "Classics For Crying" on Spotify. Oh dear. Oh dear. There aren't enough tissues.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

ChatGPT found the beginning in David Adam's The Edge of Glory (1985), continuing: "That refreshed I may wake To work again for thee." Good, but where's the Holy Spirit? Apparently another prayer in the same anthology begins: "As I take my rest Spirit keep me with the blest" (sounds right too!) ✝️⚓

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

is there a way to signal to Spotify that I find adverts for Gambling odious, repugnant and morally offensive?* There should be. * I know they all mean roughly the same. 😜

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Really don't like MS Copilot's attitude these days. Sometimes I run queries through both it and ChatGPT, but often now just ChatGPT. Don't like having to tell an AI it's condescending and presumptuous. Today it said ChatGPT was hallucinating, when actually it just had access to more copyright works.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I've asked this before, but I often have the beginnings of a little childhood prayer rattling around in my head: "As I enter into sleep, keep me Father keep; As I seek a safe repose, Christ my eyelids close" ...but I can't remember any more. Does anyone know it?

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

What on earth is going on with Trump? Rename another body of water? (Lake Ontario) It's gonna be so awkward in two and a bit years when we have to rename back the Gulf and Lake of America, and maybe by then America River, America Bay, American Sea, Loch America (excuse me I'm Scottish...)

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

People's Palace revamp gets £14m government boost www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – finally, a mention of some work on the Winter Gardens! I don’t give a monkey’s abt the People’s Palace. The Winter Gardens (glasshouse) was instead a go-to for me, when I lived in Glasgow. Heartbroken when it closed.

bbc.co.uk

People's Palace revamp gets £14m government boost

The well-loved Glasgow museum has been closed since 2024 for a major refurbishment.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

something that galls me (two kinds of employees here): Overheard someone who started in 2015: oh I’ve still got 27 years to go. Me, in my mind: I joined in 2001; I’ve done 25 years, and got 22 to go! (So shut up!) Little do they know, I plan to escape.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Despite giving you a method (meeting GDPR), both FB and Bluesky need to come up with better ways of zapping content. Facebook's Activity Log is hamstrung by having to select some things one at a time, others in batch, but deletion not always working. Bluesky just needs a mass delete interface.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I was culling my old posts when I came across this gem from Fr Edward. Just perfect.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It would’ve made sense to first state: It’s a ticketed talk on Saturday 17 October 2026, 2pm-4pm, Walpole Hall, St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. ✝️

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

1/ Neurodiversity and Worship: A Practical and Liturgical Theology What if our worship could bring us even closer to God and each other? What if our communities could be blessed even more? Led by Dr Léon Van Ommen, Centre for Autism and Theology, Aberdeen University. #Edinburgh #Anglican #autism

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

1/ Choral Singing Taster Day: Saturday 5 Sept 2026 📍 St John's Episcopal Church, Princes St, Edinburgh. Join us for a taste of choral singing. We are starting new youth and children’s choirs and would love you to be part of it. No experience required! (cont'd) #Edinburgh #youth #choir #Anglican

Choral Singing Taster Day: Saturday 5 September 2026, St John's Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Join us for a taste of choral singing. We are starting new youth and children’s choirs and would love you to be part of it. No experience required!

Children’s Choir (ages 5–12): 10.30–12.30pm
Youth Choir (ages 12–18): 2–4pm
followed by Evensong 4.30pm

Register your interest: bit.ly/choristerday or music@stjohns-edinburgh.org.uk

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Gardaí roads policing officers "do not have pursuit training" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – did Tara McManus and the BBC mean to say that? I can understand response or compol officers not being trained for pursuits, but I'd think traffic would be. It's a bleeding shame.

bbc.co.uk

Kildare: Officers told not to pursue car on motorway

The Garda Representative Association said officers were given a command to "disengage" with the car after it took "evasive action".

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I don’t mind the tourists. But… TOO MANY …it’s just the volume. I’ve heard the Edinburgh Festival was titchy in the 60s.

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

tfw, you get up in the night, and then going back to bed, you sit down (in the dark), and go to take a drink of nice cold water from a flask, then you sort of nod off somehow, and drop it, spilling almost 800ml of water on the carpet? 🌊

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

second day of train derailments in England. Just ghastly! Is it caused by the extreme heat? 🥵

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

9,455 good men and true. But what about the 22,239? Sheesh! 🙄

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Mark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳‍🌈 @bolshevikbear.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

What do people think about WhatsApp usernames? If the name you want is the same as your Facebook usernames, it wants to link the two. Is there any way around this? The logic being, if your Facebook account is compromised surely they can hijack your WhatsApp account? 🤨

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