iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I read this essay earlier today and I can’t stop thinking about it. I love Hume very much, but the existential emergency of AI makes Kant’s insistence on human freedom feel bracing and timely readwise.io/reader/share...

The danger is only partly that the machines may fail to align with us. A deeper and largely ignored concern is how, long before that happens, we may have become too well aligned with them.
— Sasha Mudd

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 30/09/2026

At this point the phone part of my phone is mostly just a spam-call-delivery device

Screenshot of 8 consecutive spam calls on my phone app

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 29/09/2026

Is this the one? www.startribune.com/readers-writ...

< Back -
Back * The Minnesota Star Tribune G
MINNEAPOLIS SCHOOLS
Think of students' last year and a half
I'm writing in response to the Sept. 24 article
"School closure fight erupts in Mpls." I am a proud product of Minneapolis Public Schools and the pastor at Prospect Park United Methodist Church, which is directly across the street from Pratt Community School. Pratt is one the many schools slated for closure, and I am deeply concerned about it.
First of all, Minneapolis students have experienced a severe amount of destabilization and trauma over recent years. Last year, they opened the school year under the cloud and fear of the Annunciation School shooting, and then were met with the trauma of Operation Metro Surge. They opened this year hopeful with a fresh start, and just a few weeks into the year, they are now met with news of further destabilization with this transformation plan.

This is not the time for such a dramatic shift in our students' lives. At a time when they need stability more than ever, MPS is bringing about broad instability through its whole system. And when it comes to Pratt, this school is not only a beautiful multiethnic, multilingual, interracial community unto itself, it's an asset to the whole Prospect Park neighborhood. Its closure would leave a huge hole in our community. As our church supports and partners with the school in serving our neighborhood, I can attest to this.
I implore MPS to slow down, engage with communities more and dig more deeply into strategies that minimize closures or, better yet, eliminate them.
Paul Baudhuin, St. Louis Park

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 26/09/2026

It’s insane that something this awesome is even legal. Now I’ll listening to what I can only describe as a crooner on a station from Karachi

Ai image of the globe centered on Karachi, Pakistan. Against this, a button Saint “Take a ride”

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 26/09/2026

The dramaturgy! So when you tap “Take a ride,” you tune in to a random radio station somewhere in the world. It looks like this—could be anywhere. You listen closely to figure out where you are. As you listen, the map swirly pulls back, from town to country to continent, till you know where you are!

A satellite image of a random place, with a white dot in a green circle. Overlaid on this, a button dating “Take a ride” and below it a link saying “Where am I?”

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 25/09/2026

Hey, some of you dear weirdos might want to know about this weekend's Neuroqueer Career Summit, a free online conference that seems pretty amazing. I'll be on a panel tomorrow (9/26) about "Unmasking & Self-Advocacy at Work." Registration here: colorfulfutures.us/neuroqueer-c...

Graphic:

NEUROQUEER CAREER SUMMIT

Panelist: Know your Needs, Unmasking & Self Advocacy at Work

Ash brings an Internal Family Systems approach, sharing ideas from partswork to help attendees unmask and advocate for themselves more skillfully through internal communication.

DR. ASH CHUDGAR, PH.D.
- He/him or they/them
- Communication coach & consultant
- Trained in Internal Family Systems
- Approaches work w/a lens of liberation

Date of Panel: 26 Sept 2026

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 25/09/2026

Yes! This deal. We get it at Cub

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 25/09/2026

It’s so freaking good. Takes only 5 minutes to make. Avocados are a luxury we budget for

A piece of whole-wheat toast on a white plate. It’s covered in gochujang, a half an avocado, a poached egg, kosher salt, and lemon crystals

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 14/09/2026

Oh man. I tapped out of math at trigonometry. I thought “well let me look it up so I can reply thoughtfully” and I got this baffling image

f(x)
A У
a
A definite integral of a function can be represented as the signed area of the region bounded by its graph and the horizontal axis; in the above graph as an example, the integral of f(x) between a and b is the yellow (-) area subtracted from the blue (t) area

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 14/09/2026

Oh my gosh this is a real song 🐄 music.apple.com/us/album/cow...

An album cover: “THE SUBURBS / IN COMBO.” The picture shows five people wearing pants whose heads are blurred

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 13/09/2026

This differential grasshopper is eating @chugarden.bsky.social’s banana plant! The crunching is surprisingly loud

A big green grasshopper with fetching gold-and-black legs is audibly noshing on a giant banana leaf

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 13/09/2026

Yes! www.minneapolismn.gov/resident-ser...

**Raised bed dimensions**

You can grow plants in raised beds in the boulevard. It is important to follow the guidelines below to allow people sidewalk access.

• Setback:
• 6 inches from sidewalk
• 2 feet from the road gutter
• Maximum of 15 feet in length

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 13/09/2026

What does this woolly-bear portend? Observed in NE Minneapolis today, trundling vigorously along #mnwx

A woolly-bear caterpillar whose fur is apparently divided in thirds, black-red-black

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 12/09/2026

Heck yes we celebrate goldenrod. Wasps love it 🐝 😍

Two severely elegant wasps or hornets, I don’t know which, enthusiastically occupy the bright yellow puffs of goldenrod flowers

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 11/09/2026

This very evening, in Columbia Heights, HSI and local police kidnapped another of our neighbors. They were all remarkably relaxed. Over the winter, they were rampaging; now they are quiet and confident. We could not stop them. 19/x

A man with a beard wears a POLICE vest with a Taser attached

A tattooed HSI agent performs hours gender to an audience of fellow goons as Somali neighbors look on

Three ICE guys strut down a street in Columbia Heights. They are wearing stretch chinos and little sneakers while carrying long guns

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 10/09/2026

“The Roasting Pan Has Been Soaking Since Sunday”

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 10/09/2026

This is a heck of an entertaining Minnesota AG poll

Ron Schutz Says He Will Stand Up for Minnesotans Ron Schutz is running for attorney general on a promise to fight for people who are struggling in this state. On his candidate questionnaire he was asked to name the biggest struggle of his own life. He wrote that it was taking up golf as an adult, since he never played growing up.
Do you find this information useful? *
Yes

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 09/09/2026

In case you were wondering too (old is on the left)

New UMN maroon #6d001f, slightly duller and cooler and unmistakably worse. The “Leave A Future” of maroons

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 04/09/2026

Southeastern PA, ACTUALLY

“You talk most like someone from New Jersey - about 52% of your answers match a typical resident.”

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 03/09/2026

No no! You can’t see it it the photo but there’s a big spider in the middle. I tried to take her photo here. Look

An orb-weaver spider hangs out in her web, photographed against a moody midwestern sky

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 03/09/2026

I love that you and @amanjo.bsky.social are posting about this simultaneously

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 02/09/2026

They still make AAA Triptiks triptik.aaa.com

Two Triple A Triptik map books, one (“Expressly prepared for you”) marked “To West Palm Beach” in marker. Via this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xennials/s/GURpPaqIKq

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 01/09/2026

The two op-eds about Spider-Man that @sethbose9.bsky.social are *extraordinarily* similar, too—same argument, same cadence, same beats. Unsurprisingly, Pangram flags them both at "100% AI"

By DeWayne Theielen: "Imagine a right-wing mob following progressive streamer Hasan Piker from city to city, boarding his vehicle, punching him and chasing him until he bled. Imagine a fundraiser praising the attacker as a patriotic superhero. No responsible progressive leader would explain the beating as the foreseeable consequence of Piker's rhetoric. They would condemn it—and correctly so—because the principle cannot change with the identity of the victim." https://minneapolistimes.com/jake-lang-is-not-a-license-for-political-violence/

By David Tinjum: "Now change the name. Imagine Hasan Piker arriving in a conservative town to deliver remarks the local population considered hateful. If a far-right crowd surrounded his vehicle, sprayed irritants, climbed aboard, punched him and then celebrated the attacker as a hero, progressive leaders would rightly reject the claim that Piker had incited his own beating. Police protection would be understood as a duty, not an endorsement. Attention would remain on the adults who chose violence. Changing the speaker's name should not change
the rule." https://minneapolistimes.com/when-speech-becomes-violence-and-violence-becomes-speech/

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 01/09/2026

Three years! I played violin as a kid. At 45 I realized the mandolin was basically the same instrument, and bought one. Mandolins have been glued to my hands ever since. Thank you for this delightful question! What’s bringing you joy?

A bearded man is playing the mandolin on a patio in Minneapolis

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 01/09/2026

Glamorous arthropods in the garden tonight. A yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) and a “differential grasshopper” (Melanoplus differentialis)

A striking black-and-yellow spider sits in the precise center of an orb-style web, head-downward. They have made a bold vertical zigzag pattern in the web immediately beneath them

A mellow gray-green grasshopper rests in the middle of a copper-and-gold dahlia blossom

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 31/08/2026

Yeah, I’m into Crop Art

An unpleasant nineteenth-century painting of a young child holding a riding crop in a threatening manner

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 31/08/2026

I have a hunch that this is a female bird, but that’s just based on vibes. Hawk experts, what say you?

A Cooper’s hawk perches on the wicker back of an outdoor sofa

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 31/08/2026

We did not invite the predator, but the predator has arrived 😰

An intimidating Cooper’s hawk perches on the wicker edge of an outdoor sofa. Its piercing yellow eye meets the camera’s gaze

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 28/08/2026

As a human being who still gets paid for ghostwriting, I find these two sentences distressing in several ways at once 🫠 www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Perhaps outsourcing an op-ed to a chatbot isn’t materially different from outsourcing it to a ghostwriter. (Although if that’s the case, maybe we should question the practice of ghostwriting before using it to justify AI.) — Will Oremus, “Is This the End of AI Shame?” WIRED

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 28/08/2026

Such a blessing to witness this sublime event with everybody. Some of us even saw a shooting star! I am going to bed happy, reminded again that human beings are generally disposed to respond to experiences of awe by holllering YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS 🌙

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 28/08/2026

My phone cannot capture it, but it’s so visible to my eyes! Amazing 🤯

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 26/08/2026

The handy little app that tidies up my computer menubar has *such* an unfortunate name

Screenshot from an email:

Liked Ice? Give it a review!

Hi Ash Chudgar,

Hope you're getting great value from Ice. We'd love to hear your thoughts on it. When you have a moment, could you drop us a quick review?

Thank you for your contribution!

[Leave a review]

(All joking aside, the app is great, I recommend it if you have a Mac https://icemenubar.app)

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 24/08/2026

1, on purpose. I deliberately undermine the cishet-white-maleness of my appearance in every way I can. I wear fancy shirts and bobbles in my beard! But Minneapolis Spider-Man’s epic badassery made me question this choice. Maybe, in a time of resurgent fascism, we SHOULD be be intimidating? 🤔

Minneapolis Spider-Man is poised to give the Nazi Jake Lang a damaging right hook

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 23/08/2026

That's a very good question, because after all we do not know who he is yet. Here's my best guess at how this will go:

We are trying to figure out SPIDER-MAN’s secret identity. (If you know, please message me!)
He presumably wants to stay anonymous, as superheroes do. But I will update folks here the instant I’ve securely identified him.
Then I will make sure he gets the money we raise for him! I will post immediately here when that happens too.
If for some reason we can’t identify him, we will ask GoFundME to refund everybody’s donation.

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 22/08/2026

Wait, has nobody set up a way to contribute to Spider-Man’s legal defense? Should I do that?

Bluesky search for “spider-man legal aid fund” returning no results

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 22/08/2026

Minneapolis Lawns Crave This One Sign. Feds Hate And Fear It 👀 www.cedrickfrazier.org/lawnsign

Handsome learn sign that says PROSECUTE ICE / VOTE FRAZIER
/ DEL & LABOR ENDORSED / cedricktrazier org

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 21/08/2026

My library doesn’t have the ebook yet (requested), but I started reading the preview and WOW, you are not overselling it. Here she blows my mind *in a two-word parentheses* 🤯

“Introducing what Marx called a
"metabolic rift," it inaugurated what has been misleadingly dubbed the Anthropocene, an entirely new geological era in which "human activity" (really, capital) is cannibalizing the planet.” Nancy Fraser, *Cannibal Capitalism* (Verso, 2022)

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 21/08/2026

You can attract ex-Catholics by including this bad boy in the karaoke catalog

The blue “Glory & Praise” hymnal familiar to Catholics from the 80s

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 21/08/2026

Oh man this poll is doubling down. We are the “Democrat Farm Labor Party” now 😈 🐀

Screenshot of a hilarious push-poll:

If the race for U.S. Senate were held today, would you be voting for:

- Michele Tafoya, of the Republican Party
- Peggy Flanagan, of the Democrat Farm Labor Party

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 21/08/2026

Democratic Farm Labor FTW 🚜🌾

Screenshot of a poll from “assistusa.org” with this question:

If the election for state legislator in your area were held today, would you be voting for the:
- Democratic Farm Labor Candidate
- Republican Candidate

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 19/08/2026

Me and the Boof and the Boof Boof ridin’ All up on the mound with the ball right beside him youtu.be/2XY3AvVgDns?...

Beyoncé sings “Countdown” in a black bodysuit while the world’s best dancers look on from behind her

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 16/08/2026

Just seen in South Minneapolis. Man, people are strange

A yard sign with the Rebel Loon that says “REBELLIONS ARE BUILT ON HOPE / RESIST ICE” onto which someone has applied an ANGIE CRAIG sticker

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Ash Chudgar @chudgar.com · 14/08/2026

Six months later, @polphilpod.bsky.social has provided a staggeringly comprehensive answer to this question of mine (and many other questions, too) www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-rea...

"I might hurt someone in anger, but then stop if they plead with me. However, if I believe that someone will always be a threat to me, that their pleading for mercy is lies, that as soon as I stop attacking they’ll kill my family, then I won’t stop." — Toby Buckle, "Fascists Really Believe It," *Liberal Currents* https://www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-really-believe-it/

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