iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 30/09/2026

I'm not saying every brand in Canada has to be a franglish pun, but Milk 2 Go/Lait's Go is a true masterpiece.

An image from the Lait's Go website with the text "Lait's Go: Fabriques au Canada, avec du lait de fermes Canadiennes" Below, three Lait's Go milk-on-the-go bottles in different flavours splash down into milk. It's milk all the way down, people.

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 19/09/2026

Hi Shoppers. Have your lawyers and comms team weighed in on what you’re going to do when this tells people to poison themselves?

A screenshot of an ad for Shoppers Drug Mart and their “PC Chat (tm), your AI Health Assistant”

0225

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 19/09/2026

Best. Expedition. Ever. Thanks, Hello Games, for quite possibly the greatest post-launch development effort I've ever seen.

A screenshot from the game No Man's Sky depicting a sinister orb-like "communications station" saying "I love you, E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer Diplo". It is a reference to...you know, the dinosaur from the E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer. (You also win said dinosaur by completing the current No Man's Sky Expedition.)

160

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 06/09/2026

Sure, it’s easy to mock, but this US Space Force uniform design reduces “are we the baddies” moments among America’s former allies by over 70%.

A screenshot of a post from Donald Trump depicting AI slop of the US Space Force uniform, possibly the Naziest military uniform anyone’s attempted in decades. We’re talking full on Galactic Empire jackboots, people. “Hilariously”, the caption notes that it’s inspired by the satirically Nazi-esque uniforms from Starship Troopers.

291

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 25/08/2026

Heads up, Canada: they're increasing tariffs on cuck chairs.

A Government of Canada list of American goods now subject to retaliatory tariffs: notably "Wooden furniture of a kind used in the bedroom", now subject to a 50% import tariff.

2193

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 25/08/2026

This is what inspired me to write the spinoff of my novel Cargo, a novella titled Tea with Moss and Honey, about the life and times of messy immortal trauma surgeon, poet, occasional warlord, and kindly little old lady Doctor Moss. (She’s also a giant spider.)

The hit tweet by Andy Ryan on Twitter: it’s a photo of two products: “Aloe Vera” cleaning wipes and “Evening Primrose Oil”. Andy captions it with “Two elderly English ladies greeting each other”. (Don’t get it? Say the product names out loud.)

090

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 18/08/2026

What's your favourite bible verse? Wrong answers only.

A screenshot from the Fallout: New Vegas (2010) DLC Honest Hearts featuring a conversation with the NPC Joshua Graham. He is bandaged from head to toe covering severe burn scars and is wearing jeans and a tactical vest.

He's hard as nails, saying, "I survived because the fire inside burned brighter than the fire around me. I fell down into that dark chasm, but the flame burned on and on."

081

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 07/08/2026

Sorry, everyone! The Tide has arrived.

A screenshot of mino dot mobi's Bluesky account visualizer: my account, @catherinewinters.com is "68: Augmented - The Tide". My Cadence is 90th (very metronomic) my Vigil 11th (very nocturnal gaps) my Lexicon is 52th (middling), my Polish is 88th (Very immaculate), my Drift is 41st (middling) and my chorus is 51st (middling.)

I literally have no idea what any of that means and I am THRILLED to see it.

120

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 03/08/2026

I didn't see any more cases of this in the transcript, but I assume this is the transcript being verified by someone and it being signed off on later by someone with a different typewriter? But what word would this have been before it was edited?

Copy of the above, but with the word "Pope" highlighted. It's written on a different typewriter, is not aligned on the right row or column, and contains four letters to the original word's six. The original transcription follows:

whether Chief Justice Marshall's analysis reflects the Indian viewpoint on property, or whether it's a white man's construct?
Well--
Excuse me, this may not be Marshall, I'm not sure. It's
certainly the Supreme Court, whoever it is. I wonder if you could tell me whether it's an accurate reflection of the Indian view of property, or whether it's a white man's
construct?
I have a feeling you could answer that perfectly
satisfactorily yourself. This is Anglo-Saxon law that I
believe derives from a Pope
dividing the world in half
between France and Portugal in a Papal Order about 1500.
This sovereignty business is, you know, that's really mythology, but legally compelling mythology.

120

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 02/08/2026

I am happy for the future of graphic design to be Halal Family Movie Night blasted into my eyeballs forever.

191

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 29/07/2026

My wife and I exclusively refer to him as "Reacher from the TV show Reacher" thanks to @adamtots.bsky.social's comic "Reacher from the TV show Reacher".

A five panel comic:
Adam is sitting across a restaurant table from Reacher from the TV show Reacher. Adam is eating pasta; Reacher has a steak on his plate. Both have half-full glasses of red wine.

"Are you enjoying your butter noodles?" Reacher asks.
"Yes, thank you," Adam replies.
"Are you having a nice time on our date?" Reacher asks.
"Yes, Reacher from the TV show Reacher," Adam replies.
Adam smiles. Reacher blushes shyly.

093

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 26/07/2026

I'm certainly having some feels about this trend.

A chart I made from the data in the GLAAD report mentioned in OP's article.

It's labeled "GLAAD Where We Are In Film: LGBTQ+ characters by year"
The categories are "Gay men", "Lesbians" "Bisexual+", "Queer", "Straight", and "Undefined."

The ratios are more or less the same for each year, with 292 LGBTQ+ characters in films from major American studios in 2022, 170 in 2023, 181 in 2024, and decreasing all the way to 112 in 2025.

1299

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 24/07/2026

F/NB WAYFARERS x MURDERBOT Ship's cook Tai is horrified to discover their new crewmate is a terrifying alien: an ordinary human woman. Now Tai's stuck with bickering crewmates, sinister criminals, explosions, and worse, a human who wants to be friends. #QuestPit #A #SF #LGBT

Mood board/Agent's guide for my novel CARGO - a queer SF/heist/romance - 113,000 words

"Did you hear? There's a human on board."
A graphic of the wall of a spaceship with sticky notes and polaroid photos taped up. There are twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling.
alien ship's cook (fussy, anxious) + terrifying monster (ordinary human)

PITCH:
Tai’s terrified of humans. Everyone is. Violent pack hunters, humans are notorious for their strength, sharp teeth, and carnivorous appetites. But the ship’s cook is safe among the multispecies crew of the cargo hauler Coreward Baker: everyone knows the warrior species rarely leave their own space. Then Captain Raz hires Clarke, a human horticulturist.
Even after Tai overcomes their fear, they can’t stand Clarke. She’s bossy. Annoying. Useless in the galley, bad in a space suit. She might as well be cargo. Worse, she’s intent on befriending Tai—and why can’t they stop thinking about her, anyway?
That’s when things go wrong. As Tai starts to realize their feelings for Clarke, they’re horrified to learn that nobody on their crew of dropouts and runaways is quite who they seem, least of all Clarke. And it’s no coincidence. Raz reveals they’ve each been handpicked for a heist he’s spent years planning—and no one’s allowed to say no.

PRIORITIES:
make dinner
remain cozy
haul cargo
go for drinks
pull off one last score
try not to fall in love

FIRST PAGE:

“Did you hear? There’s a Human on board.”
I choked on my noodles and turned to stare at the diners at the next table. Like most of the restaurant’s patrons, the pair had hidden their profiles, a halfhearted attempt at anonymity.
“Gross,” the speaker’s crewmate said, oblivious to my alarm. “I hope it leaves soon.”
“Don’t let it hear you say that,” the first worker laughed. She made a show of looking for Humans, her eyes darting from table to table.
It. I frowned. I knew the workers’ language distinguished between people and things, and ‘it’ was an unkind choice of words at best.
The second worker shuddered. “I don’t know why we let them come here.”
The first laughed. “Are you going to stop them?”

COMPS:
Murderbot by Martha Wells
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

TROPES:
Non-binary narrator masking anxiety with sarcasm
lying to themselves
non-human perspective (afraid of humans)
neurodivergent main characters
metaphorically disabled protagonist
slow-burn friends-to-lovers and enemies to lovers in the same relationship
disabilitynorm and queernorm setting
found family
loveable pet/terrifying monster

47228

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 24/07/2026

Nia Moredi just wants to look out for her little brother. Miss Laval needs to attend a governess-teacher meeting. Baarsin Dorvierre's being watched. Pickpocket Wren needs to recharge her misdirection charm. If only Nia could remember which of them she's supposed to be today. #QuestPit #YA #F #LGBT

A Pickpocket's Guide to High Society
(And Higher Mathematics)

YA Fantasy 80K words
Catherine Winters dot com

Against a subtly textured background of mathematical formulae and a hexagonal summoning grid feature a collection of intriguing objects:

The outstretched hand of some mechanical clockwork automaton made of white porcelain.
A purple and gold masquerade mask.
A set of brass architect's tools: a compass, a protractor, calipers.
A set of gears laid out, pulled from some kind of mechanism.

The Pitch
When she picks the wrong pocket, sixteen-year-old Nia unlocks a magical talent she didn’t know she had and catches the attention of people she doesn't want to know. Blackmailed into stealing a mysterious box, Nia accidentally awakens a living clockwork doll—that promptly runs away.

Accused of betraying the blackmailers, Nia and her band of would-be thieves go on the run, pursued by magehunters, street gangs, and the secret police.

When the doll returns to make a deal, Nia turns to the man whose lucky coin unlocked her magic, only to find him missing. Caught in a lie, Nia’s soon posing as an heiress, in the clutches of the man’s elderly landlady—who's intent on introducing the girl she knows as “Baarsin” to high society.

As Nia finds herself disappearing into the role, she and her friends must race against time to track down the people behind it all: a secret society of mathematicians whose influence reaches all the way to the governor herself.

Excerpt
Caz tensed. “There’s someone following us,” she hissed.
“I know,” Nia said. The man had been tailing them through the crowd for almost six blocks now. “He won’t be the only one.” She tugged Caz into the empty foyer of a boarding house and pulled out her misdirection charm. “Take my hand and stay quiet!”
“That won’t work on me,” Caz protested.
“No,” Nia said, willing herself to believe. “I can do this.” With all her strength, she pushed more of herself into the charm, the equation unfolding in her mind’s eye. She reached out, and as the world darkened around them, turned the doorknob, Caz clutching her arm. Nia pulled the taller girl close as the man pushed past them, failing to notice the door was already opening.
On the busy sidewalk, Caz let out a breath. A small boy leaning against a nearby lamppost glanced in their direction, an uncertain expression on his young face.
Caz cringed. “Sorry!” she mouthed.

Comps & Tropes
Includes the covers of four books:

Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan
Den of Liars by Jessica S. Olsen
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo's
Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

"Tropes" is loosely used here and includes:
Stealing is magical (literally)
Fish out of water (you probably guessed)
Working for the wrong people
Ancient magic (in over their heads)
The MacGuffin is blackmailing us
"Aren't you a little young to be a criminal?"
Metaphorically dyslexic LI (she's also dyslexic)
Creepy clockwork doll that complains all the time
Good at magic, as long as she has a compass & protractor
Grifter vs. con artist
Sword lesbian (in training)
Lying (a lot)
Found family of scoundrels
Ace protagonist (who hasn't had time to think about that)
One big job and then we can retire (oh no, somehow everything went wrong)
Let's break into a data centre!
No chosen ones, no choosing ceremonies, just hard work and practice.

2215268

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 23/07/2026

Marketing: You plagiarize that Canadian No-Name branding yet? Designer: Sure did boss, real fuckin creepy just like you asked. Marketing: what

4122

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 19/07/2026

Uh, grocery carts have had seats for small children to sit in since at least the 1960s.

A black and white photo taken in a supermarket, featuring a woman with a beehive hairdo pushing a grocery cart that looks identical to ones made today past a "food giant value!" sign promoting cans of what appears to be peanut butter or jam for thirty-five cents. A small child, presumably her son, is sitting in the back of the cart, just like his grandchildren do today.

070

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 19/07/2026

This is my fastest Four Corners yet. I’m great. fourcorners.smol.quest/15

Screenshot showing I solved the game Four Corners game 15 in thirty seconds like a badass. Four lives left, too.

120

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 18/07/2026

It takes 300 years for the authorities to solve the mystery of a marine biologist's tragic disappearance.

"DESCRIBE YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE AS BORING AS POSSIBLE"

2131

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 15/07/2026

I’m confident most California winemakers wouldn’t even make this claim. But that said, please know that the provinces declining to stock American alcohol isn’t about stopping Canadians from buying it, it’s about preventing liquor store workers from having to clean up smashed overstock every shift.

Screenshot of a CBC news article: “California lawmakers are begging Quebec’s premier to put US booze back on the shelves. She won’t budge.”

“Rep. Mike Thompson says many Canadians are kidding out on “the best wine in the world”. Right, sure buddy.

061

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 14/07/2026

Sub Rosa is one of the all-time best “what’s Star Trek about?” episodes. It’s as much Trek as “I still think I was right to do that war crime lmao computer delete recording” and “oops the transporter again”. We should be celebrating Sub Rosa BECAUSE it’s a sex ghost story.

A tweet by me: “Doctor Crusher episodes are amazing: something spooky happens, gaslighting, gaslighting, Bev straight-up executes some dude, tai chi with Troi.”

I’m awesome.

1153

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 13/07/2026

When she picks the wrong pocket, Nia unlocks a magical talent she didn’t know she had. Now she’s posing as an heiress, a con man’s gone missing, and Nia and her band of would-be thieves are on the run from magehunters, mathematicians, and the governor herself. #BluePit #YA #F #LGBT #W #BluePit📖

A mood board of eight tiles and a centre square with lockpicking tools and ancient writing:
1. Always have an escape plan.
2. A swindler never lets herself feel like a fraud.
3. Don't look for the easy grab, look for the easy mark.
4. Never get involved with golems.

The pictures depict, clockwise from upper right:
A) A city of canals and towering footbridges. There are minarets and steeples and red-tiled roofs.
B) A market selling elaborate lanterns, all aglow.
C) A porcelain and gold hand, reaching upwards.
D) Two figures leaping across rooftops against the coming dawn.
E) A pocketwatch--or is it? Constellations and continents cover the front, the body of the watch engraved with runes. It's sitting on ancient parchment.
F) A wax stamp with removable chits that function as coins in a card game.
G) The lords of the city overlooking grand canals and issuing edicts. They are dressed in fine red robes and silks.
H) Assorted bones and shells used for divination and more.

811550

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 11/07/2026

Prepping for WW3 takes time. NATO and Europe are waiting out the clock on Trump (80) and Putin (73). Neither have real successors. Meanwhile, Canada, Norway and Germany are building a jointly-operated submarine fleet. At least 3 of your allies are developing nuclear weapons. Then there's Greenland.

A Wikipedia "infobox" for the Greenland Crisis, date January 20, 2025-present.

It's described as part of the larger Wikipedia section "American expansionism under Donald Trump".

Caused by: threats of American annexation of Greenland.
Status: ongoing: Operation Arctic Endurance and Operation Arctic Sentry
Opposing parties: United States vs Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, European Union.

It's not good, is the point.

020

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 04/07/2026

If it came on a CD, I know exactly what the cover would look like. (Via www.theworldaloha.com/aesthetics/g...)

A "Global Village Coffeehouse" aesthetic illustration from the 90s: I's a collage in earth tones, depicting a stylized hand holding a smart card, a figure talking on a cell phone while walking up stairs that turn into a closeup of a figure wearing a microphone headset. Next to it is a tree, stars, and a globe: the internet is here.

110

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 01/07/2026

72235

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 01/07/2026

I'm answering this in the spirit in which it was asked FOR SURE. Lovable little old lady Doctor Moss would be a spring dor beetle, because her exoskeleton's the same colour. (Don't worry about the photo; she's much, much larger than that.) #AwesomeCharacters

A top-down image of a moderately-shiny black beetle with iridescent blue and purple undertones. Her back isn't glossy, but richly patterned and textured.

171

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 27/06/2026

#QueerWritersChat A4: My wife would say this is my brand of humour:

The Human finished the ration bar and tore into another. I tried not to watch.
“So, the ‘Coreward Baker',” she said. “What kind of name is that, anyway?”
I bristled. Human ships probably all had names like ‘Staring’ or ‘Racism’.

182

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 26/06/2026

Tai spends about a hundred pages having a complete and overly-dramatic emotional breakdown and nobody else seems to be sympathetic. A couple readers have commented on this. #WritingA

“Yeah, but not like before!” Captain said. “Before, you used to complain about her all the time. I figured, great, I’ll let Tai deal with the Human, and then you’d report back and do the thing where you’re all prissy and offended—yeah, that’s the one!” He gestured at my face. “And you’d go on and on about how rude she’d been and how you were mad at her because of whatever it was.”

181

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 25/06/2026

Yes, Slate. That is definitely what happened.

Matt Bors' famous "these Trump people are racist" comic:

Panel 1:
"My GAWD," a Normal Person says, staring at her phone in dismay. "These Trump people are racist."
Suddenly, a MAGA-hat white dude appears! "That attitude is what's PUSHING me to be racist!" he insists.

Panel 2:
"Say what?" asks the normal person?
"MIGHT AS WELL!" the MAGA-hatted weirdo says. "You say I'm a Nazi, so I'll be a Nazi if that makes you happy."

Panel 3:
The normal person is at best alarmed, at worst, incredibly dismayed, but above all, confused as shit, because that is some MAGA lunacy right there. "It...doesn't," the normal person assures us.
The MAGA chud loser is dissatisfied with that! "I bought this Waffen SS uniform for halloween," he says for some reason. "You'll cry 'offensive' so maybe I'll just wear it every day."

Panel 4: The aforementioned MAGA dude is no longer wearing his hat, as he shaves his head forlornly while a tattoo artist inks a bigass swastika on his arm, the scale of which Graham Platner can only dream of. "I just hate to do this," the now-full-on Nazi says sadly. "I feel bullied, really."

092

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 25/06/2026

Tea With Moss and Honey: Yup, another messy immortals kinda deal. It's basically just this set to Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever". #UnhingedPit #SF #W and #LGBT (kinda, sorta)

Andy Ryan's hit tweet: "Two elderly English ladies greeting each other"
The image is a packet of cleaning wipes labelled "aloe vera" and a bottle of "evening primrose oil". Get it? Because English accents? Old lady names? You get it.

1169

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 22/06/2026

This is the kind of thing they can understand: it’s autocomplete.

A screenshot from the Financial Times genAI explainer linked above, illustrating what an LLM might “think” is most likely to come after “The Financial Times is:” “about”, “more” “a”, or “biased”. The word “about” appears to be more likely than the others.

110

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 21/06/2026

It's been a while, but this is how I understand dads show affection and approval of their 42-year-old children's technical prowess:

A mockup of a "green text" iPhone conversation:

Dad: Dear True Skies
Dad: It's dad
Tru Skies: Hi dad
Dad: Can you help me open this PDF and also heres a funny meme I found on Facebook
Dad: it's about trump
Tru Skies: Happy Father's Day

110

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 17/06/2026

Name a TV show you’re positive no one remembers but you. THAT'S NOT HOW YOU SPELL "WHOOPS", PEOPLE.

070

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 14/06/2026

Vancouver might have problems, but it's a good reminder that cities are actually allowed to do this:

Vancouver's Stanley Park and West End as seen from the air. The white high rises and glass skyscrapers of Vancouver's densely-populated downtown abruptly stop and dense conifer forest begins.

524413

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 14/06/2026

I think it might be a LOT older than that. I suspect it's one of those things like steam trays inset into food counters with pictures of the foods served and fake stone painted on plaster to make your restaurant seem classy. (I'm not sure where this restaurant's debit card terminal went, but...)

Part of a ruin from Pompeii: a food counter painted in a cheerful yellow. The counter has steam trays inset into its with pictures of the foods served and fake stone painted on plaster on the back wall to make the restaurant seem classy.

010

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · 12/06/2026

#WeeknightWriters A3: Also, someone spamming the chat hashtag just now reminds me that I made a script that makes the adult-tagged content buttons remind me never to click on them when I'm in public. That's a KIND of joy, right?

The "Adult Content" toggle button on a Bluesky post, except on my screen, it's bright pink to remind me not to click it.

260