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Angela

@bourb.xyz
217 followers 294 following 1.2K posts

New here, just looking around and trying things out. @AngelaInBold on twtr PhD in math. Moved to computer science + data science. Recently left academia. Lover of: FFXIV, mechanical keyboards, karaoke

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Angela @bourb.xyz · 02/09/2026
After my beloved cat Blitz died, I had a REALLY difficult and dark time. (It's been 5 years and I think part of me is still in that dark place, but that's not my point here.) 3 weeks after he died, an emaciated kitten started wandering my neighborhood. She came right up to me. How it's going:
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 05/06/2026
Great thread. Yet again, I'm hung up on an inconsequential detail: this part of the linked article is so fucking confusing to me. It's been a while since I paid much attention to SXSW but this does not compute...
Screenshot of the article with "SXSW in London" highlighted.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 02/06/2026
I wonder if this guy is friends with my favorite guy on the road:
At a red light, the car in front of me has no rear fender and is missing one of its tail light housings, the driver is resting his left hand out the driver window holding a cigarette, and there is a sticker on the rear windshield that reads "2 inch penis club"
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 01/06/2026
Fuck it, it's 3am and I can't sleep. I'll play this game.
Cristina Yang in Grey's Anatomy portrayed by Sandra OhGretchen in You're the Worst, portrayed by Aya Cash
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 15/05/2026
My dog Olive gives the best hugs. It takes her a little bit to warm up to visitors but worth the effort!
Black and white dog on a couch next to a fleece blanket
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 07/04/2026
This is my home's little terrorist, Olive. I love when she's cuddly and sleepy, but her full energy times push me to the brink of insanity daily. Wouldn't trade her for anything, though!
Black and white dog curled up on a couch
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 30/03/2026
For anyone who wants/needs the alt text:
Cartoon style illustration. In the bottom left corner, a small island with a city skyline and a speech bubble that says "Be sure to wash your hands and all will be well." To the right of the island, there is a sequence of ocean waves. The first is taller than the city on the island and is labeled "COVID 19." Each subsequent wave is larger than the previous, and they are labeled "Recession," "Climate Change," "Biodiversity Collapse."
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 04/03/2026
The article cites a very smart Reddit comment about how this is likely to go. I, for one, am absolutely not using any distro that falls in line with this bullshit.
"This is basically impossible for California to enforce" says CatoDomine on the Linux mint subreddit. "Even if Linux Mint decides to add some kind of age verification to comply with CA law, there's no reason anyone would choose that version."
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 03/03/2026
Carrie is great! Carrie's writing is great! Here's a photo I took while reading this book on vacation in 2018. You should get it and read it too!
In the bottom half of the photo: a hand holding a book with the front cover of "The Dying of the Golden Day" by Carrie Gessner clearly visible. 

In the top half of the photo: the railing of a boat deck beneath a lot of sky, with blue sea in between, with no land on the horizon.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 25/02/2026
📢 AN EDUCATED POPULATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY! Also, this product is aimed at *college* students. If you don't want to get deeper training in a field of study, the solution is to simply not go to college, not to cheat your way to a degree. And people are not livestock!
Screenshot of a paragraph from the linked article that reads:
If an AI can go to school for you what’s the point of going to school? For Advait Paliwal, Brown dropout and co-creator of Einstein, there isn’t one. “I think about horses,” he said. “They used to pull carriages, but when cars came around, I'd argue horses became a lot more free,” he said. “They can do whatever they want now. It would be weird if horses revolted and said ‘no, I want to pull carriages, this is my purpose in life.’”
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 23/02/2026
There is probably a broader lesson here applicable to educators, journalists, and communicators of all kinds. I won't spell it out explicitly, but...
2 panel meme featuring Principal Skinner from The Simpsons. In the first panel, he looks thoughtful, touching his hand to his chin, with the caption "Am I so out of touch?" In the second panel, his face is wide-eyed, as if he's just had a huge realization, with the caption "No, it is the audience who is wrong!"
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 14/02/2026
Scott, the volunteer human maintainer for matplotlib at the center of this story, wrote a 2nd post about the incident after the Ars story. The whole thing is worth reading but the conclusion is fantastic. theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...
But I cannot stress enough how much this story is not really about the role of AI in open source software. *This is about our systems of reputation, identity, and trust breaking down.* So many of our foundational institutions – hiring, journalism, law, public discourse – are built on the assumption that reputation is hard to build and hard to destroy. That every action can be traced to an individual, and that bad behavior can be held accountable. That the internet, which we all rely on to communicate and learn about the world and about each other, can be relied on as a source of collective social truth.

The rise of untraceable, autonomous, and now malicious AI agents on the internet threatens this entire system. Whether that’s because from a small number of bad actors driving large swarms of agents or from a fraction of poorly supervised agents rewriting their own goals, is a distinction with little difference.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 14/02/2026
This is what a puppy who wore herself out at the dog park looks like.
A black and white dog laying on her side on the floor, too tired to move or hold herself up any longer.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 05/02/2026
This post inspired me to find an enchilada recipe and I finally tried it tonight. They LOOK great, but taste is TBD.
Dish full of beef enchiladas in a brown sauce and covered in cheese.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 03/02/2026
Only one of the 8 people quoted in the linked article sounded consistently reasonable to me. A few others had one or two insights. But overall, I think articles like this are useless. Not informative enough for the uninformed/under-informed reader. Just snippets for experts to smugly disagree about.
Quote attributed to Gary Marcus, cognitive scientist, in response to a question about AI's impact on education:
Most of the impact has been negative; high schools and colleges are at a loss as to how to proceed now that term papers are no longer valid either as an evaluation or as a means to get students to think. Most other applications remain speculative.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 15/01/2026
So proud of how this came out on my first try. Nachos w shredded chicken, queso, and corn in an elote-style sauce. Everything from scratch except the chips.
Plate with a base of tortilla chips, topped with shredded and seasoned chicken, queso, and corn.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 24/12/2025
With alt text
Image is a screenshot of a single internet comment, which is transcribed below verbatim--except for an explanation in parentheses near the end, which was added by me. 

@teaking701
Congrats on your 5 star recruits and one hundred million dollar facilities, SEC fans. Meanwhile, the MAC is out here playing real football in front of 14 people and a raccoon on a Tuesday night during a blizzard. You ever see a punter throw a touchdown to a long snapper while the scoreboard's on fire? Didn't think so.
While yall are busy arguing over which frat funded dynasty is slightly less fraudulent, Toledo's cooking up a triple reverse flea flicker in a game that ends 43-42 after six missed PATs and a goalpost gets stolen. That's not football. That's "maction" (explanation: play on the word action and the conference name of mac, stylized with the M A and C capitalized). You wouldn't survive one quarter in Ypsilanti.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 20/12/2025
Also, screenshot of the quoted post, and what it was in reply to, in case he blocks me, a person with no power or influence.
Screenshot of a post and a reply. Both are dated Dec 20, 2025.

Post in screenshot from @ryanabt.bsky.social: I would like to present the totally objective AI "architect" who believes that a professor of sociology is too biased to give an opinion on academia and AI but he is, evidently, well positioned. This person would have done well to take more humanities.

Below that text is a screenshot of the profile for @brandonlive.com, the first line of the bio reading "Architect for AI in Word at Microsoft"

Brandon's reply, which is the post that was quoted in my original post in this thread:
Are you for real? What could possibly possess you to post this? This is exceptionally toxic behavior. How does someone become so horrible.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 17/12/2025
I'm doing a Game of Thrones re-watch because I make bad decisions. So far, I'm enjoying it against my better judgment.
Screenshot of three text messages, all with the same sender (me).

15 min ago: Season 3 is pretty good, has a good bit of some of my favorite characters. The Hound, Gendry, Marjorie, Podrick, sassy Missandei.

8 min ago: Also, Danaerys is kind of fun this season. She has dragons but isn't totally psycho yet.

Now: And fucking TORMUND GIANTSBANE
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 23/11/2025
Well you couldn't be that man I adored You don't seem to know, seem to care What your heart is for I don't know him anymore There's nothing where he used to lie Conversation has run dry That's what's goin on Nothing's fine I'm torn
Pope Leo speaking passionately into a microphone
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 06/11/2025
Apparently my husband just found out about Good Charlotte this week. I haven't listened to them since like 2005, but I'm happy for him. Now he's downstairs blasting a mix of early 2000s alt rock and pop punk. It's adorable.
Message timestamped "Now" that reads: The production on this is really nice. Digging this band!
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 18/10/2025
Bonus points if the person holding this sign is in cosplay
Voice actor Ben Starr (voice of Clive in FFXVI) in Tifa (FFVII character) cosplay
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 24/09/2025
I am having a bad day and this feels soooooo ominous.
Screenshot of an internet browser where the address bar reads "dwarf fortress wiki dot org" and the body of the page is "404 not found nginx/1.22.1"
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 11/09/2025
LMAO returning my Pixel 10 because it just died on the 8th day of use. This is my second Pixel that died out of nowhere - the previous one was my Pixel 2 that restarted for an Android update and never booted up again, totally bricked. I think I'm done. CW: explicit language in the video
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 30/06/2025
I scrolled down to reply to the quoted post with my first thought after reading it (comparison to Kavanaugh) but @wagatwe.com made basically the same point already, and further down in the thread @spacewastrel.skunk.agency made me want to laugh/cry. I cannot improve upon it so I'll just share it.
@wagatwe.com so the people who kept telling us that college men raping their schoolmates isn't a big deal want us to freak out about a table?
@kinokosaur.bsky.social A table has more rights than women to them.
@quercusmax.bsky.social The *owner* of the table, you mean.
@comedycatnip.bsky.social If the owner is male.
@spacewastrel.skunk.agency Like they'd ever let a woman own a table!
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 18/06/2025
Justice for Callisto! The newsletter is great too, but I clicked because of the image preview. She looks so much like my beloved Blitz, who I lost unexpectedly a few years ago and my heart still skips a beat when I see pics of cats that look like him. Such pretty and unique coloring 💕
Cat with black, gray, brown stripe pattern on the top of the head and on the sides, back, and tail, but pure white legs, belly, cheeks, and chin. With a little brown spot in the middle of the pure white right beside the nose. He is Blitz (2013-2021) and he was loved.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 30/05/2025
I know everyone is making LOTR jokes, but my brain is stuck on the end of the caption beneath the photo. What kinds of made-up shit will future archeologists and historians who study my stuff say? "Ah, this probably symbolizes X." No, dude, I just thought it looked cool. It's not that deep.
Screenshot of BBC News article titled "Centuries-old ring found 'gleaming in the sunshine." Under the headline is a zoomed in photo of a gold ring held between two fingers with visible engraving on the inside of the ring band. Under the photo there is a caption that reads: The Gawdy ring, which is in a very good condition, includes a depiction of a tiny skull - believes to be a reminder of mortality.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 28/05/2025
A very happy "lol stay mad" to all my enemies this morning
Chat bubbles of a text conversation. Received the message "Tons of men in the comments crying discrimination lol" and sent the reply "Men just can't catch a break, can they? 😏"
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 19/05/2025
Take the fictional characters quiz and post the first four you know: openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac... (My own comments in a reply, didn't want to mess up the quote text too much.)
Hodgins from Bones Do Brown from Back to the FutureJeff Goldblum in Independence Day Marty from Cabin in the Woods
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 10/05/2025
Last Thanksgiving, I took notes while my mom made our most precious family recipe, my Italian grandmother's sauce. Tonight I finally tried to make it myself, facing my decades-long fear of it not coming out right. Luckily it was a success! Next step is to add the homemade meatballs! 🍝
Plate with a large serving of gnocchi, smothered in homemade red sauce, with a meatball on top, and a side of garlic bread.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 08/05/2025
Got an email about early access for this new service for "older adults." Nothing in the email, on the website, or in the FAQ about eligibility. I'm in my late 30s, is that "older" enough for you, Lyft? (JK the main feature seems to be phone support, and millenials don't do phone calls)
Screenshot from Lyft website that says: Lyft Silver. The keys to independence for older adults. Introducing Lyft Silver, a service designed for older adults. Lyft Silver riders can easily get where they’re going with the option of live phone support, and they can share ride details with people they trust. Lyft Silver is available for early access nationwide to the first 25,000 riders to sign up.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 04/04/2025
The person who fostered before we adopted said ours is Border Collie + Boston Terrier, based on the characteristics of the whole litter. But we think she has some Jack Russell Terrier features too. Only 4 months and 13 lb so we're not sure how big she'll get.
Black and white puppy curled up in a green dog bed with a blanket and a ball.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 01/04/2025
Pupdate: She's been here a little over 2 weeks now. She's intelligent, curious, and energetic, but also sweet and cuddly. The cat is tolerating her better, but puppy wants to play with cat SO BADLY and cat is not interested. Last night puppy brought cat a toy and it was so sad to see her rejected!
Black and white puppy curled up in a green dog bed with a mini tennis ball in front of her.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 27/03/2025
I highly recommend anyone who cares about tech's impact on society read this! It's fairly short, and doesn't rely on understanding highly technical jargon. This is my favorite part:
Screenshot from the blog post with this sentence highlighted: AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 18/03/2025
The world is still shit but this puppy is amazing. She's been so good and cuddly with me while I've been sick the last 2 days.
Puppy laying belly-up on a plaid blanket on a couch. I am laying under the blanket, and the puppy is positioned between my legs.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 17/03/2025
Alright 99% of my feed rn is depressing as fuck. Here are a few pictures from when I met our new puppy on Saturday. After much deliberation, I think we settled on the name Olive today.
Me holding a puppy against my chest, looking down at her and smiling. The puppy is looking right at the camera. She has little floppy black ears. Her fur on the sides of her face and around her eyes is black. The middle of her forehead down to her whole snout is white. Her front legs are visibly resting on my arm and chest; they are white with faded black spots. Me sitting in the back seat of my car. The puppy is sitting in my lap, looking up at me. Me napping on our couch after we got home. Puppy is laying on my tummy comfortably, again looking directly at camera. I am asleep but actually look happy.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 11/03/2025
I have been a Steelers fan longer than I've been able to form complete sentences (see attached). I seriously will not watch them or give them any money in 2025 if Rodgers is on the roster.
Photo of me at age 2-3 years old, wearing a Steelers hat and jacket and smiling.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 05/03/2025
Bringing this energy to the morning commute today
Text message bubble that reads: A wizard is never late, she always arrives exactly when she intends to.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 27/02/2025
Just realized if I do get a set from this drop, I will have to move @staffandbranch.bsky.social up to #1 on my wishlist, bc I will outgrow the small tin I'm currently using. (see 📸) TBF I've wanted a Staff & Branch dice box for a long time, but this would give me a sense of urgency!
Small silver rectangular tin holding two 7-piece dice sets. One is light pink stone with silver sparkles and silver numbers. The other is made of resin. The resin set is primarily dark purple, almost black, in color, with subtle medium purple swirled in, and gold painted numbers.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 27/02/2025
This paragraph in particular struck me. A good way to explain PhD funding to people who aren't already intimately familiar with it. For context, the "modest salary" I received as a PhD student in Texas 10-15 years ago ranged from $15k (first year) to about $20k (ABD), and they didn't cover tuition.
Doctoral students typically do not pay for their advanced degrees. Instead, they work in research groups or labs, or sometimes as classroom instructors. In exchange for this work, universities usually pay them a modest salary and waive or cover their tuition. In engineering, the sciences, and medicine, the cost of that support comes mostly from faculty research that is in turn paid for by grants received from the federal government.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 01/01/2025
Why would Amazon Prime rub this in my face like this? Are they planning to cut me off after the first 100 min of a 2+ hour movie?
Picture of television screen. The Amazon Prime logo is in the upper left corner. There are cards on screen for "Top Rated movies." The selected card is for the movie Skyfall. Under the movie title, it reads in bold green text "Leaves Prime in 100 min." Under that it shows the rating (5 stars), number of ratings (16.4k), the length (138 min), year of release (2012), genre (Action - Adventure), and rating (PG13).
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 17/12/2024
Same, except this rule also extends to the $200 bean bag I bought for my home office during COVID lockdown so I would have some place comfortable to read/watch stuff when I didn't need to actively be at my desk.
Brown/beige bean bag, with a Boston terrier standing on it, looking directly at the camera.Brown/beige bean bag, covered in a cozy-looking orange blanket. Two Boston terriers are curled up on it, napping.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 06/12/2024
I had basically decided earlier today I was finally ready to leave Twitter completely because I hadn't seen anything important or entertaining there lately. Then on my goodbye scroll it hits me with this!!!
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 05/12/2024
I try to avoid trendy social media things because I'm an ✨adult✨ or whatever but this thing that is supposed to be a roast was actually super flattering. blueskyroast.com Those topic stats tell me I'm not posting enough about football and TV though.
Screenshot of output from blueskyroast.com for my Bluesky account. The summary reads "A delightful blend of nerdy charm and candid comedy, with a sprinkle of existential dread."
Below it gives statistics: 85% authenticity, 75% thought leader. Topics 90% AI and Data Science, 85% Gaming Culture.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 04/12/2024
I kind of hate that the annual music summary gets made when there's still like 1/6th of the year left. My results are unsurprising but I have lots of new followers here who may not know me well. Welcome to my vibe. Also, I HIGHLY recommend The Downside with @gianmarcosoresi.bsky.social (podcast)
Screenshot of YouTube Music 2024 summary. 
These are the top 5 songs on your 2024 soundtrack
1. Modern Girl by Bleachers
2. Texas Hold Em by Beyoncé
3. Alma Mater by Bleachers
4. Old 45s by Chromeo
5. II Most Wanted by Beyoncé and Miley CyrusScreenshot of YouTube Music 2024 summary.
You were in the top 0.5% of Bleachers listeners. You listened to them 17x as much as the average listener. Screenshot of YouTube Music 2024 summary.
Your top artists of 2024 were
1. Beyoncé
2. Bleachers
3. Chromeo
4. Taking Back Sunday
5. The AtarisScreenshot of YouTube Music 2024 summary.
Your top podcast
The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi
You spent 3538 minutes listening to it in 2024.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 21/11/2024
Screenshot. (Also, this reminds me I need to add a banner image to my profile here. Oops.)
Blue Sky app screenshot showing my profile pic, my display name, and a button with a caution sign that says "invalid handle" next to it.
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 17/11/2024
Exhibit #583810485 of why I love Mike Tomlin
Screenshot of a tweet from Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) that reads: Mike Tomlin told @BobLabriola of the Steelers' website he plans to send former Raven Patrick Queen out for the coin toss today.
"I'm going to send him out for the coin toss, if that gives you any indication. Motivation is good. We're human, and everyone wants to feel wanted."
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 01/11/2024
Oh, wow, look at the calendar. It's time for... #emo
Cover art for the album "For All of This" by The Early November
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Angela @bourb.xyz · 29/10/2024
Mike Tomlin, I love you so much. #Steelers #MNF
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