iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben (he/him)

@classicsftw.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.1K following 1.7K posts

Personal blog of a gaymer, music lover, reader, and nerd (especially about hormones). Husband to Stephen, father of Athena and Persephone 😻😻 📍Philly #TransLivesMatter blank/empty profs=block StoryGraph 📖: app.thestorygraph.com/profile/bence…

Posts Replies Media

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Now reading 🧙‍♂️

A picture of the book Magic: The Gathering Arena by William R. Forstchen

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If you ever wondered what being married to me is like 🤗 happy Monday bsky fam let’s get after it

A cartoon drawing of a man with his right arm around a woman who is leaning into him with her right arm on his torso. The text at the bottom of the image says “You always know exactly how far to take the bit so that I get annoyed but don't leave you." An author signature “Rusty E.” is in the bottom right corner of the image.

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🎶 I wonder if youuuuu 🎶

Mirror selfie wearing a hat that says “WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA

A selfie with my tongue out

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Status check: sweaty and ready for the mf weekend Chin status check: absent

A sweaty selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Recovery purrs

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Happy birthday to @talltbh.bsky.social , the person who somehow chose to marry me and shares a love with me I wasn’t sure I would ever have. Going through life’s ups and downs with you is the greatest gift I get to experience. So thanks for being born on this day [redacted] years ago. I love you ❤️

Talltbh and I take a selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Saw a gorgeous sunset last night but the most beautiful part was @talltbh.bsky.social

Tall Tee Bee Aytch looking stunning smiles wearing a striped light green and white button down and sunglasses. Oh and another guy smiles to their left at hip level.

Tall Tee Bee Aytch looking stunning with their gorgeous full smile smiles wearing a striped light green and white button down and sunglasses. Oh and another guy smiles to their left wearing a blue shirt with some flowers on it and sunglasses

Tall Tee Bee Aytch looking stunning smiles wearing a striped light green and white button down green shorts and sandals. In the background, there are people attempting to leave into their cars. there is a fluffy pink cloud streak up above. A half moon is visible.

The first picture but the dweeb in the left now has his tongue out 🙄

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Bugs bunny No meme

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Gm hotties I just want you to know I’m manifesting a great Tuesday for you

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

And yet not following me 😔

Trixie Mattel smiles for the camera weakly

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Congrats on channeling Lisa!

Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons wears a pearl necklace and blue suit with her palms spread out and eyes squinted. A junkyard of cars is behind her. Text in the middle center says “It looks like I have to take down the system.”

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

What if, and just hear me out, we ALSO had a great Tuesday? I’ll come over and stare at you like this if it helps (or even if it doesn’t)

A seal point Himalayan cat with a wide eyed gaze watches you. She compels you to have a good day. How can you say no to that face??

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Let’s have a great Monday, y’all

A cartoon of a cat with a speech bubble that says “let’s fucking goooooooooooo” and wearing a shirt that says “team let’s go”

Two raccoons remind us that there is only trash can, there is no trash cannot

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Also I need you all to know that if I send you this, I mean itttt

Carly Rae Jepsen holding a microphone looking off to the right of the picture and looking so fabulous in the music video for Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” with orange text in the lower-middle part of the image that says “I’m all in”

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Wait you think magic doesn’t exist?

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

A great way to start the day! (Philly bbs go to schmaltz on 18th and Wharton!!)

I’m holding a mug that says SCHMALTZ in multiple colors. My left AirPod is visible, I’m wearing a white t-shirt but it’s actually a slayyyyter shirt 😍

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Good morning, Saturday morning (sound on for purrs)

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Hahaha

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Silvertone really brings out the hair

A selfie in black Calvin briefs

That same selfie but with the silvertone filter bc Hair

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Goodnight, moon.

A weather forcast. The text: Uranus was the first planet discovered using a telescope. Your anus, on the other hand, is visible to the naked eye.”

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Do people still like post-haircut pictures?

I’m wearing a backpack and a gray shirt! Woooo

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Seated for my solo showing of Hadestown what’s this about?

A picture of a guy wearing a light blue Philadelphia Union hat and a light blue shirt throwing up a smirk and a peace sign ✌️

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Loving this weather rn

Selfie of a shirtless man smiling with mirror sunglasses and purple shorts

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Always serious about sunscreen but still got burned

Mirror pic of a gay in his underwear flexing his right arm looking at his phone

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Bloomf is being very nice about entertaining my thoughts about the Christopher Nolan filem

That one meme where the girl is pointing and yelling to that guy at the music festival and the guy has a look on his face like he wishes he could be anywhere else in the world

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Katya the drag queen looks down with her eyes open

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Hair went kinda crazy this morning

A man wearing a tank top with red solid color on the shoulders with a white torso AirPods, and pink shorts with psychic pokemon. The picture is taken in a mirror with a blue cellphone. There is a lil torso peaking out under the tank top

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Brain feels like melted plastic

Two raccoons, one each in the upper left and lower right corner of the image. There is text in the top center of the image “Not to self-diagnose but” and in the bottom of the image “something is wrong :)”. The image is from @nocturnaltrashposts

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Periodic reminder apropos of absolutely nothing:

The picture is a 4 panel animation. In the top left corner Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh holds a card with a text overlay that says “don’t speak ill of the dead.” In the top right panel, Yugi smirks and holds a card. In the bottom left panel, he reveals the card which says “don’t be a piece of shit while you’re alive”. In the bottom right panel, Kaiba is surrounded by bright light and his face is filled with horror.

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Happy Friday from the bar ✌️

A selfie of me wearing a white tee and gold necklace. I look tired real tired. The background has a number of flags as decorations for the World Cup

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Is tapeworm friends with screwworm and if so could tapeworm calm screwworm down plz

A Bloomberg businessweek article headline talking about flesh-eating screwworms that sound terrifying.

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

She explains her approach well (and throws some shade at prior translators while doing it).

A picture from Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation, p. 87

My translation is written in a style that echoes the rhythms and phrases of contemporary anglophone speech. It may be tempting to imagine that a translation of a very ancient poem would be somehow better if it used the language of an earlier era. Mild stylistic archaism is often accepted without question in translations of ancient texts and can be presented as if it were a mark of authenticity. But of course, the English of the nineteenth or early twentieth century is no closer to Homeric Greek than the language of today. The use of a noncolloquial or archaizing linguistic register can blind readers to the real, inevitable, and vast gap between the Greek original and any modern translation. My use of contemporary language—rather than the English of a generation or two ago—is meant to remind readers that this text can engage us in a direct way, and also that it is genuinely ancient. My Homer does not speak in your grandparents' English, since that language is no closer to the wine-dark sea than your own. I have tried to keep to a register that is recognizably speakable and readable, while skirting between the Charybdis of artifice and the Scylla of slang.
All modern translations of ancient texts exist in a time, a place, and a language that are entirely alien from those of the original. All modern translations are equally modern. The question facing translators and their readers is whether to try to disguise this fact, through stylistic tricks such as archaism and an elevated, artificially "literary" register, or to underline it, and thereby encourage readers to be aware that the text exists in two different temporal and spatial moments at once.

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Oldest not interested in play right now

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Caption this (lemme have it)

A white guy wearing sunglasses squats on some rocks.

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

“Double rainbow into the ground” is gonna be the name of my EP

Double rainbow reaching the ground

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Hotel lighting was Not Good so you get natural lighting instead

Selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

well I’m not gay so

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I just a baybee.gif @talltbh.bsky.social

Short leggies and long leggies

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Hair kinda felt like Johnnie Cage here

Selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

In bed at 9pm gn fam

Selfie with a cat

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Found him

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Something about hotel lighting

Hotel lighting selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Well it bothers me so

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Me, dying

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

This view and wine and pizza and brownies

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Just in case you didn’t believe me

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

SS26

Mirror selfie

Ben (he/him) @classicsftw.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Nap incoming