iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

🙌 My e-reading workflow has improved SO much since dropping Goodreads and Google Play Books! I am working on a follow-up blog post to brie.dev/goodbye-goodreads to talk about all the cool stuff -- and the remaining wrinkles! 🤭 I enjoy reading as much as I enjoy managing how I read and […]

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Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

🥹 Watching this monarch butterfly pollinating Tithonias was probably the highlight of my week! 🌱 I ordered native milkweed to help support these beauties. #bloomscrolling #tithonia

A monarch butterfly pollinating a Mexican sunflower

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W33 📘 Finished 'The Curfew' and 'Sundiata': both quick and excellent reads! 🎥 I watched 'My Neighbor Totoro': so sweet and beautiful! 🌱 The dahlias started blooming! This marked the seventh consecutive week of sunflowers blooming! 🎥 Super […] [Original post on social.lol]

Two cats interacting through a window: a tabby cat indoors swats at a white and black cat outdoors.

A beautiful bee pollinating a yellow single flower dahlia

A bright yellow sunflower with an unbloomed flower attached against a white wall, the photo was taken indoors.

A bright yellow-ish orange sunflower with a tiny bee on its face

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

🐝 Look at this beautiful bee and her pollen baskets! 🐤 See the seeds on the leaves in the background? The American Goldfinches have been dining on the other flowers on this plant! #BloomScrolling #sunflower

A large be with pollen baskets pollinates a red and yellow sunflower.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

🐦‍⬛ My Bird Buddy solar smart bird feeder arrived and I'm rather happy with how easily I was able to integrate with Home Assistant thanks to `pybirdbuddy`. 🧪 I'm also experimenting with sending photos of bird sightings to Mastodon (with #AltText)! #BirdBuddy #birb #HomeAssistant

A male cardinal photographed from a smart bird feeder with a GoPro and house and fence in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2026

🌻 So many sunflowers are taking their final bows. 😿 I know I should be happy they bloomed instead of being sad that they are wilting. I put so much of my heart into planning and tending for _months_ : it is hard to say goodbye. 💔 #BloomScrolling

A pretty yellow sunflower head droops and curves downward, greenery in the foreground and background of this photo taken at golden hour.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

🌻 These are both Orange Mahogany Bicolor sunflowers. This is my first year growing this variety and I will definitely add them to the mix for future seasons. I love going outside to look at them! #bloomscrolling #gardening #sunflower #helianthus

Close-up showcasing a vibrant yellow-orange sunflower head with a dark, textured seed center and striped petals against blurred green foliage in a garden with another blooming flower blurred in the background.

Close-up of a red-and-yellow sunflower head with a dark spiral seed disk, framed by large textured green leaves and a softly blurred background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W27 📖 Reading _Shogun_ for book club on my tiny e-reader. 🌻 The first sunflower bloomed! 📏 Inspired by a chat with @jayo I am measuring sunflower heights with a clinometer and trigonometry! 🍿 Watched _Minions & Monsters_, my 15th film of the year: cute! #TinyWeeknotes

A bright tropical Hibiscus bloom with green foliage against a red brick background

A tiny e-ink display with a black cat on the screen nestled in front of a row of encyclopedia volumes.

A fully bloomed sunflower with tree leaves in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W23 📘 Finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo! The 1975 made-for-TV film adaptation with Richard Chamberlain became my 11th movie of the year. 🎧 Discovered Billy Talent and Gob 🚲 A lovely rain helped cool me down as I biked Montour Trail […] [Original post on social.lol]

An adorable tabby cat chowing hungrily on a hanging basket full of catgrass

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 28/05/2026

Yesterday would have marked six years working at GitLab. That anniversary and the recent changes there inspired me to write about the CREDIT values, how important they have been for me and how they might help you, too. brie.dev/where-credit-due 💖 I poured my heart into this piece; I […]

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Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W21 🚲 Biked the gorgeous North Coast Inland Trail through Huron County in Ohio, longest ride of the year so far 📖 Trying to guess which portions were omitted from the abridged version of _The Count of Monte Cristo_. 🎥 I watched my 10th […] [Original post on social.lol]

A view of a long, flat, straight rail trail with trees lining either side

A bluish green bike rests along a covered wooden bench along a trail, with fields and sky in the background.

A Lochby journal is open with a standard sized Field Notes journal on the right, a small eink display with a cat wallpaper on the bottom left and a tiny black and pink Moleskine notebook in the upper left.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2026

🌱 I go through this every year but... it's heartbreaking to find evidence of birds breakfasting on my seedlings in the mornings! 🤭 This is why I plant _way_ more seeds than will bloom...and give extras away! #Spring #Gardening

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

I decided on the new approach I'll use to signal that my blog posts are written by me without the use of generative AI. ❌ Tired: Written by Brie Carranza ✅ Wired: Handwritten by Brie Carranza 🤭 Bonus: Most posts I write do start out on paper. 🫠 There's a part of me that _hates_ that I feel I […]

social.lol

Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 11/05/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W19 🚲 Cycling Montour Trail while recovering from the half-marathon 🎥 Watched my 8th movie of the year: "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962) 🍓 Strawberry mani 🚀 New post on `brie.dev` (tiny e-reader) 🔍 Can you see the Xteink X4 on my bike? #TinyWeeknotes

A blue and green ombre bike with a yellow bag in the woods, a tiny e-reader is visible inside the top tube bag.

A woman's hand showing manicured nails with pink and red details and strawberries

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 09/05/2026

✍️ I wrote a guide describing how I'm using the $69 Xteink X4 as a serious part of my reading workflow: brie.dev/tiny-ereader I love this ultra-portable notification-free reading environment that syncs with my KOReader devices! 💰 I'm sorry about your wallet! #XteinkX4 #Xteink #KOReader

brie.dev

🤏 Making my tiny e-reader practical: a guide to the Xteink X4

The tools and configs I use with my Xteink X4.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 08/05/2026

🤭 I got pedals to match my bike frame! 😸 🧪 Initial test ride on Montour Trail this morning was a success! #Cycling

A collage of two photos of a bike. The bike is bluish green in color with pedals that match and bright yellow bags on the front and back of the bike. There is a fence and a wooden bridge and a trail in the background of the photos.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2026

🧰 One of the tools I use and recommend most often is `gron`. 🫠 Trying to make sense of a bunch of JSON quickly? Want something more accessible than `jq`? 👉 Use `gron` 👈 🔗 brie.dev/gron

Terminal output showing JSON returned by curl and by gron; the gron output is orderly and ready to be piped to grep.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

😎 One of the coolest things about the F5 Academy last week was getting hands on with `warp` (from the MinIO team): 🔗 github.com/minio/warp ✨ Built for for S3 benchmarking but also great for testing the impact of infra changes...and pairs well with […] [Original post on social.lol]

Grafana's MinIO Dashboard populated with data showing two hours of synthetic testing.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W18 🚲 Great brisk bike ride on Montour Trail Tuesday morning -- just me and the wildlife! 🏁 Another half-marathon in the books -- in my hometown! 📖 Read the first 20% of The Count of Monte Cristo: thoroughly enjoying it! 🎥 I watched Marty […] [Original post on social.lol]

The Andy Warhol Bridge (and it's reflection in the Allegheny River) are the focal points of this photograph of Pittsburgh's skyline. The Roberto Clemente and Fort Duquese Bridges are visible as are PNC Park and a few skyscrapers.

An adorable tabby cat peeks out from behind a lace curtain as he sits in the window and faces the camera -- as does his reflection in the window.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

🎒 I’ve always been a sucker for other people's bag setups and I'm happy with how things are going so far, so I’m finally sharing mine. It’s a #WorkInProgress—I'm definitely looking for more of the right cat pins, patches, and keychains to finish the look. 🐱

A teal backpack with keychains, pins and patches. A large keychain that looks like a NYC Metro Crd, a "certified good girl" patch, a "DO NOT PET" patch and a "PULL TO EJECT" kecyhain are visible among a few cat and Alaska pins.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W17 🚲 Hit old and new trails: cycling around Southwest Pennsylvania really is gorgeous! I'm happy to have most of my stuff -- especially my "MEOW" license -- plate on my new bike. 📘 Finished "Chain Gang All-Stars" for book club. Started […] [Original post on social.lol]

An extremely adorable tabby cat looks upward as a white strip of paper catches his attention, he's seated on a piece of crinkly brown packing paper.

A flow chart showing how listens were distributed among Jimi Hendrix, The Offspring, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Daft Punk and Rodgrigo y Gabriela from Monday-Sunday.

A Pennsylvania license plate that reads "MEOW" on a blue and green bike resting along the trail with a wooden post and bench in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

🥰 It's a fact that "this too shall pass" applies to the good things, too. 😻 With that in mind, I wanted to tell you both that I enjoyed every episode of "Friendship Material" that I listened to very much @cygnoir @keenan I had many moments of laughter and of "😅🤭 OK phew, it's not just me" […]

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Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 23/04/2026

🏁 This tuxedo cutie has been waiting to greet me at the finish line of my training sessions this week: so cute! #CatsOfMastodon

A collage of three photos of a tuxedo cat facing the camera. The cat is showing its tongue in the first photo, stretching with mouth closed in the second and meowing with mouth open in the third.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

🤭 We've read 18 books over two years so I am having fun with the data from my IRL book club. 🥇 On average, people tend to prefer my book picks. 🤠 The most well-liked book of all was "Lonesome Dove" -- not my pick. 🔗 See every book we've read at blog.brie.lol/2026/04/book-club #BookClub

A screenshot of "Best Selectors" from the "Member Stats" section of a website showing that Brie's average is 4.3 stars, the other two are blurred but they have 4.0 and 3.8 stars.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 20/04/2026

🙌 Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W16 🏆 Earned 20 achievements in "Ever Seen A Cat?" 🌱 Moved all the seedlings inside: subfreezing temps in the forecast. ⚾ Watched the Buccos defeat Tampa Bay at PNC Park! 🚲 Increased distance and speed on the bike -- final weeks of […] [Original post on social.lol]

A collage of three photos of a tabby cat laying in a toy TV and playing with honeycomb paper.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026

☁️ It was cold and cloudy with drizzle this morning...but I cycled anyway. 🚲 I had a blast riding my bike until my shoes and socks were soaked through! #cycling #MontourTrail

A blu and green bike with a bench to the right and a red heart light, cloudy skies and a crushed limestone trail in the background.

Butterfly-themed nails in the foreground, blue bike in the woods in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026

🚲 Cycling: biked the GAP and to the Color Park! 🦋 Self-care: fresh butterfly-themed nails. ⛰️ Training: tackled nearby hills for 700+ ft elevation gain. #ThreeGoodThings #Cycling

A manicured hand extends from a denim jacket with three nails with orange, black and white butterfly details and a finger with green polish.

A blue bike rests against a multicolored wall with graffiti and posters

A very cute viewfinder that looks like a robot with the Pittsburgh skyline behind it

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 17/04/2026

🚲 Early morning bike ride to the waterfall at Montour Woods. 📖 Started reading "Race After Technology" by Ruha Benjamin. I'm already a quarter of the way through -- it's amazing. ☕️ Very lovely catch-up with a good friend. #ThreeGoodThings

The front half of a light blue bike is shown in the woods above a small waterfall.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 15/04/2026

🚲 Short morning bike ride focused on speed: PRs secured! 🦆 TIL the world's largest rubber duck is returning to Pittsburgh (for the stupid NFL draft but still...) - yay! 😹 Plop's bestie came over to nap on the porch and let me capture this candid of him mid-yawn! #ThreeGoodThings

A dirty white cat with his mouth open because he is mid-yawn, he's on a white wicker table with a porch swing and greenery behind him.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 14/04/2026

🌱 A few sunflower seedlings (Autumn Beauty, Mammoth Gray Stripe and Mongolian Giant) from last weekend's batch sprouted today! 🐾 I took a slow "active recovery" walk to play Ingress and enjoy the gorgeous weather! 😻 Look how perfectly Plop's eyes and collar match in the sun! #ThreeGoodThings

A cute tabby cat sits in the sun, his eyes are a very pale green and so is his collar.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2026

✍️ Tiny Weeknotes 2026-W15 🚲 26 miles on Montour Trail with the new bike. Still adjusting, but I love it. 🌱 62 more pots sowed: lavender + nine sunflower varieties. 📘 Finished 4 books. Top pick: Unabridged by Stefan Fatsis — nonfiction about the dictionary […] [Original post on social.lol]

A cute tabby cat sits in a window with a light curtain to his right and gray roofing to his right, through the window.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2026

🚲 Riding my new bike through my favorite trails was a blast! I still have a lot of configuring and adjusting before this bike feels like home but I'm super pumped (pun intended)! 🤭 NBD but...it's NBD! #cycling #NBD

In blue and green Trek bike in the woods.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 05/04/2026

🌱 I was sooo sure it was safe to start seedlings but nope! It'll be so cold this coming week that the garage won't be warm enough: I'll be bringing a tray of recently started sunflowers inside the house! 📸 It's totally worth it for moments like this come summer! #BloomScrolling

A yellow butterfly on an orange Tithonia flower with lots of blue sky in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

🎉 OK, I have grown to hate April Fool's day on the Internet _but_ waking up to realizing that I can sign in to dns.kitchen now makes me SO very happy! :prami: Happy birthday omg.lol! 🎂 #OMGLOL

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 01/04/2026

🥅 Goals for 2026 📸 Track favorite photos I've taken as the year progresses 🅰️ Reduce USB-A usage 🎥 Watch at least 26 movies 🎧 Listen to (more) new music ❎ Get rid of Spotify ✍️ Write weeknotes 🧬 Manage all domains with dnscontrol 📝 Write "app defaults" blog post 🙌 I am on track with all of […]

social.lol

Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 29/03/2026

🚀 I'm all registered for Pedal Pittsburgh in August! I *hope* to be ready for the 62 mile distance. I don't have to decide until the day of the event though so I am all set. 🔗 pedalpgh.org #Pittsburgh #cycling #PedalPGH

pedalpgh.org

Home - Pedal PGH

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 28/03/2026

🥅 One of my 2026 goals is to listen to more new music. There are two sites that I use frequently in support of this goal -- and they let me share my progress: 🆕 Get a random album to listen to each day: 1001albumsgenerator.com/shares/69a6… ✍️ Rating and reviewing […]

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Original post on social.lol

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 26/03/2026

🙌 I love discovering new-to-me Ingress (the game) tools all the way in 2026! This is simple and useful: 🔗 septicycl.es #ingress

septicycl.es

septicycl.es - Shaper Septicycle Info

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 25/03/2026

📸 Biking the loop at Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie yesterday was delightful! ❄️ The snow and wind on Misery Bay were totally worth it for the gorgeous beach and foggy forest scenery. (In 90 minutes, I saw one other cyclist braving the weather.) 📍 Erie is […] [Original post on social.lol]

A bike with a "MEOW" license plate rests on a kickstand with a body of water and a foggy sky visible in the background.

A green bike sits on a foggy beach, snow flakes are visible against the black seat, bag and tires of the bike.

A green bike is photographed on a beach with a forest and foggy sky in the background. A sign that reads "Beach View of Lighthouse" is right behind the bike and the lighthouse is faintly visible in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

😴 I fell asleep sitting upright reading True Grit -- and was wakened by the sound of my e-reader CLATTERING as it hit the floor. 🆕 I was super happy with the device so I replaced it with the exact same model: PocketBook Verse Pro. 📦 The replacement arrived and […] [Original post on social.lol]

A photo featuring a PocketBoook Verse Pro e-reader, its case and its packaging in the foreground. A pool with a swan float is in the background.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2026

🎮 I got my 8BitDo controller working as a page turner in KOReader on my PocketBook: yay! 🔗 Super quick write-up with Lua for key-mapping: code.by.brie.dev/snippets/23 #KOReader #PocketBook

code.by.brie.dev

ByteStash

ByteStash - Code Snippet Manager

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 11/03/2026

🙃 I really hate when clanker transcripts insist on gendering people -- especially when pronouns have not been supplied somewhere they have access to. 👉 This is what the singular "they" is for. 👈 🤭 Maybe I'm just cranky but it rubs me the wrong way. /rant

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026

I avoided it for a while but my first thought when I got Tahoe and Liquid Glass on my work computer was: omg, is something wrong with my contacts?

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 27/02/2026

📸 I caught @plop mid-yawn and honestly: yikes! He's normally so cute but this is scary! #Plop #CatsOfMastodon

A kinda cute tabby cat bares his teeth because he was photographed mid-yawn. he's seated in a windowsill with a light curtain to his right and a window to his left.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 23/02/2026

🥰 I love everything about my tiny lil e-reader -- except how easy it is to lose! #xteink

A small e-ink device with a reading inspired tarot card "the introvert" is shown alongside a Sharpie and a Metro Card for scale.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026

@robb 🤗 I certainly am enjoying the stickers: I love the note! (I use and love this tiny notebook!)

A thank you note that reads "Thank you Brie, enjoy the stickers! Robb" with a collection of black and white stickers that read "Training Data and "YoU wOuLdN'T dOwNlOaD a TrAiNiNg DaTa" with 🏴‍☠️ cool pirate ship vibes.

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 12/02/2026

🐾 Curious to find the pets of OMG.LOL! Besides my cutie @plop, I discovered @jinx yesterday—who else am I missing? #OMGLOL

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🐈‍⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲 @brie.social.lol.ap.brid.gy · 04/02/2026

[USpol, X, ICE, Ricky Gervais, lol] If you "took to X" to share your thoughts, I don't care what you had to say. 🔗 www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/poli…

hollywoodreporter.com

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