iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Somehow I've retained the mostly north-eastern/west-coast-lite accent of my parents despite decades in Dayton (and growing up in Oregon, Ohio, and Connecticut), but my brother's accent is a crazy mix of north-eastern, New Zealand, Irish, British and Australian (he's moved a bit).

A dialect map showing I mostly have a north-eastern accent/dialog but a mix of California and (somehow?) Florida.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The start of moules marinières. Well, my version anyways: Olive oil Garlic Herbes de Provence Sund dried tomato paste White wine Chicken stock Mussels

Cleaned mussels hanging out in a colander in the fridge. The organic sauerkraut behind it is *not* in the recipe. But... No. That would not be a good combo.

Big pot with garlic, olive oil, dried herbes de Provence, sun-dried tomato paste, and local cherry tomatoes.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Someone would like to be petted.

A gray and white tuxedo cat on her side, belly exposed and paws curled, looking expectantly at everyone at the dinner table. She knows one of us will get up and pet her.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Mouse toy under bubble wrap is now the best cat enrichment activity. She's got a very marsupial/soccer player taking penalty warm-up to her leap. Terrible at striking unawares.

A gray and white cat peering at a mouse toy under a crumpled layer of bubble wrap. She's contemplating.

A gray and white cat peering at a mouse toy under a crumpled layer of bubble wrap, from a different angle. She's getting ready to strike - front paw raised, back legs stutter-stepping.

A gray and white cat leaping at a mouse toy under a crumpled layer of bubble wrap. She's about to slide the bubble wrap about 3 feet, completely failing to get the toy.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Love to watch the world cup the way it was intended: so full of compression artifacts and glitches it's an impressionist painting.

A photo of a TV screen. There are blurry yellow and blue patches against a green field. They're supposed to be soccer players. It's impossible to tell what's going on.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Google search is going very well I see:

Google search of of "how to repel Ansel Elgort from kitchen"

The insane first search result that's been auto-generated by what can only be called Google's in-air-quotes-AI:

To keep your kitchen space free of Ansel Elgort—or simply to discourage impromptu DJ sets or dramatic Broadway auditions in your cooking area—try these highly effective tactics:Sound the Alarm: Keep a relentless, screeching Ansel Elgort Soundboard loaded on your phone. Whenever he crosses the threshold, blast his infamous 2020 Instagram live-streams. The awkwardness will cause an immediate retreat.The "Method Acting" Boundary: Start loudly "method acting" about washing dishes whenever he enters the room. Channel a grumpy, unenthusiastic stagehand and strictly inform him that your culinary workspace has a zero-tolerance policy for Baby Driver stunts.Serve Unappetizing Snacks: Keep a bowl of visually baffling food on the counter. If you leave out aggressively plain oatmeal, it is scientifically guaranteed to repel anyone looking to vibe in the cooking space.Implement a Dance-Floor Tax: Establish a firm house rule that anyone entering the kitchen must perform an immaculate, choreographed routine from West Side Story. He won't want to attempt a spontaneous number after a long day of filming Tokyo Vice.valid.tsv - GitHub0.023577005 turn sound prompts off in windows 10 in detail type sound in the search box on taskbar and choose sound or change system sounds from the result step...GitHubAnsel Elgort - WikipediaAfter starring in Steven Spielberg's musical film West Side Story (2021), he portrayed Jake Adelstein in the crime series Tokyo Vice from 2022 to 2024.Wikipedia

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Chai is not interested in human food, but she does like to spy on us eating.

A gray and white cat, standing her hind legs, very purposely minimally exposed watching us eat.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Assembling French onion soup.

Three white ramekins with toasted bread on the bottom. The bread has been rubbed with a garlic clove.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Somehow there is a small insect underneath the glass panel of my monitor and I would very much like it to find a way out before it dies and leaves the strangest dead pixel I've ever seen.

A photo of a monitor. There's a red circle around a black dot - if this were video it would be wandering around, clearly lost. Improbably, it's not on the monitor, but under the glass panel.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

RecipeSage : great, free, simple way to record recipes SmartPushti: Bitcoin, GenAI, and what has to be some sort of grift with a side of recipes.

SmartPushti followed me. Why? Who knows.

Their account description almost sounds reasonable (till you get to "share, sell, or exchange home-made dishes with your neighbors")

Their getting started instructions that include installing a bitcoin wallet (oh hell no, massive red flags) and using "AI tools" to convert hand-written recipes to their format. C'mon, that's so lazy and stupid.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I still love that this is the same cat that refused to come out from behind the toilet the first week we had her. This is a very content cat (up until we wrapped her up in a towel and gave her antibiotics).

A gray "tuxedo" cat lying on her side, eyes closed, white belly up, paws curled in. Happy.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

The WPA, but specifically for removing honeysuckle and Bradford pears and replacing them with native plants and trees.

A walking and bike path, the edges of it are surrounded by honeysuckle crowding out all other plants, shrubs, and trees. There are mature trees, but it's not clear where any sapling will be able to grow.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Everyone else at work at my level has "very serious portraits" for teams/zoom. I have me grinning like an idiot at Keystone wearing a helmet and reflective goggles. Might need to update my profile pic with a new one.

Person grinning like an idiot at the top of a ski run (Bergman Bowl at Keystone). Faded red ski helmet, silvery reflective goggles, a bright green/yellow wind jacket, blue ski pants, and black and red skis. Oh, and tan ski boots. In the background are mountains and under a cloudy sky.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

This plan "modification" is grotesque.

Whoever put this plan together should feel shame and *be shamed* for the rest of their lives. This plan is an insult to the American people.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Beautiful day skiing at Keystone, and a beaver dam (mid-ground hump of matted sticks and mud).

Photo from Keystone's Outback vaguely toward Breckenridge. Two peaks are visible in the background, ski runs cut through the forest, standing out in white. In the foreground are a few skiers and snowboarders getting to ride down the mountian

Photo taken from Keystone's Outback. Overcast sky, but the peak of Bergman's bowl is visible. The snow has mostly melted out of it. In the foreground is a wide expanse of snow.

A photo of a beaver dam (mid-ground, matted hump of sticks and mud). The background is a mountainside covered in an evergreen forest. The foreground is a very clear mountain pond, made by the beaver's dam.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Daughter and I roasting the new condo buildings at River Run out at Keystone. dO yOu LikE mY MasSinG? And "I will win this bet on most materials used on a facade". Bonus points for downspouts smaller than the ones on my house.

A vertical shot of the facade of a condo. The first two floors are faced with a rough-ish rock, but with a smooth gray stone layer between the two. Then the facade switches to something like a fiber cement siding in two colors: tan and dark brown. There are tiny downspouts for a huge roof.

This is a photo of one condo building. Each condo unit has at least three distinct changes of exterior shape. The amount of extra surface area to side/glaze as well as heat and cool (there is no passive cooling at all) is crazy. It's also quite clearly one building.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Seems harsh to ban bell bottoms.

A black and white sign with a stylized skateboarder wearing bell bottoms inside a circle with a cross through it. Can't believe they'd ban that particular pants style...

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Of course I'll follow back this perfectly normal account! Following 169K users is a totally normal thing real people do.

A screenshot of a bsky account that shows it is following 169K accounts.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

"Do these death numbers include death by cars, pedestrians and cyclists?" I wish car drivers lived in fear of being crushed by pedestrians. Or cyclists.

Screenshot of a bsky tweet asking, "Do these death numbers include death by cars, pedestrians and cyclists". I am absolutely not going to engage with/give them any air whatsoever if they're asking about deaths caused by cyclists (effectively zero), and pedestrians (you have got to be fucking kidding me).

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Clearly this is a perfect time for the "That's bait" meme, but I'd also like to point out that there were computer scientists that called chess algorithms "smart" and "intelligent" in the 1970s and the world would have been a much better place had a philosophy professor put them in their place then.

Stephan Geering who either has a fetish for being embarrassed, is a complete idiot, or possibly both posting "Challenge for those who are very confident that Claude isn't conscious: Explain how human consciousness works." This is a profoundly stupid question and the world is dumber for it being asked. It shows a fundamental disinterest on his part in learning even the most basic theories on intelligence or cognition. Hell, he could have just read the Wikipedia entry on "Theory of the Mind" (not great but at least it's *something*), but no he had to eject this worthless string of words into the world.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Two crocus blooming in the front yard. They managed to make it past squirrels in winter.

Two crocus blooming in a slightly muddy/leaf-moldy yard. The crocus have green and white variegated leaves. The flowers are purple on the outside, with a set of inner orange petals as well.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Did a malt smoking machine vendor write this article? Yeugh. Manufacturing consent for the consumption of the worst beer.

Photo of a bearded man with a red hat and black shirt with a slight smile looking at a pall of smoke coming out of an industrial oven/smoker with trays of grain inside it. The entire idea of a smoky beer is grotesque. Why would anyone want a beer to taste like a cigarette or whiskey? The article is clearly trying to manufacture.consent.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

We're at Disney World to watch our son marching with his HS band in a parade. The theme of our in-the-park hotel is "The 90s" and I feel like Disney really dropped the ball using a laptop as the sculpture in front of the hotel instead of a Dixie "Jazz" cup.

A photo of a 4-story sculpture of a laptop from the 1990s. It's running Windows with a browser open to ABC's website. Yes, there's a modem hookup on the side. The gates to the pool behind the sculpture have one button and a serial port connector at the end of their cable.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I'd say he has a humiliation kink, but disabling quote tweets and complaining about it sure seems like he just doesn't want to learn. The nuclear block just removes dealing with nonsense like people who don't recall that BEETHOVEN WAS DEAF. Or pick any number of other similar artists.

The guy from the awful "name one disabled famous artist" (I am not exaggerating, that's how dumb/offensive it was in defense of large language model-based tools), saying,

"I deserve some of the pushback for how I presented my point. I'll take my lumps there.

Getting dunked on as another ableist white dude is quite something though."

He *didn't* take his lumps. He disabled quote tweets and complained in this tweet about having his feelings hurt. He learned *nothing*, and as a result I'm blocking him so damn hard.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

A bunch of people standing in front of a painting by Boticelli, in the process of taking pictures of Boticelli's Venus at the Ufizzi:

A circular painting by Boticelli (I forget which one) in a beautiful girl frame. In front there's a crowd of people looking at, and photographing, Boticelli's Venus).

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Not linking to the (design?) group "gaping void" but this has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. "Are you sure that graveyard isn't also full of people who started early or on time?"

A sign in the Dayton airport reading "the graveyard is full of people who were going to start tomorrow". Possibly one of the dumbest pieces of signage I've ever seen (not including crazy evangelical billboards).

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

This is the same cat who spent a week smushed behind a toilet hiding from everyone.

Small-ish gray cat with a white belly, belly up, eyes closed on a lap with a blue blanket getting a belly rub.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Going to have the go with the Dinosaur Book (Operating Systems Concepts by Silberchatz, Galvin, and Gagne). Every edition has dinosaurs on the cover, but the 10th is going hard.

The front cover of the computer science textbook "Operating System Concepts" by Silberchatz, Galvin, and Gagne. It's a smiling? Snarling? Tyrannosaurus Rex head, with a black background.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

This doesn't make it too far outside of Dayton but Brucken's Dusseldorf Mustard (horseradish mustard) is a damn delight. I'm really dropping the ball on not adding chow chow or piccalilli on bratwurst along with it...

A photo of a glass container of Brucken Dusseldorf Mustard - a mustard with horseradish. Vinegary, mustard-y, with a lot of fresh horseradish kick.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

We went to see Thievery Corporation play at Bogart's and they were great. Highly recommend. Probably the first concert we've been to in, uh, about 20 years (sigh, kids). Interesting audience: from college kids up to old people like us.

Blurry photo of the band Thievery Corporation on a stage light by red, green, and yellow lights. They were great.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Vindaloo in (major) progress:

Marinated chicken searing in a pan with par-cooked potatoes, the vindaloo sauce, and tomatoes waiting to go in. Barely seen is the bottle of cider vinegar.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

This is a deeply stupid headline. My Volvo V60 has better gas mileage than the SUV version (the XC 60). Station wagons are lighter, safer, and more useful than a SUV. The V60 has better carrying capacity than a Rivian, cybertruck, or most pickup trucks I see around town. Sean Duffy is an idiot.

Headline for a Reuter's article on decreased fuel economy rules. Sean Duffy (an absolute idiot, and unfortunately the US secretary of transportation) is quoted as saying it will bring back wood panelled station wagons.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

The new cat is unfortunately a tree cat.

Photo of a cat climbing into a Christmas tree. Only the bottom half of a gray and white cat is visible.

Photo of a cat, tongue out licking her face. She is happily burrowed into the tree.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Watching my daughter eat a croissant is a lot like (I assume) watching a serial killer flay someone alive.

A croissant that has been slowed picked and unrolled, layer by layer. The more, let's say traditional, approach to eating one begins at one end and ends at the other.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

@americanfietser.bsky.social : Once again biked to the grocery store, picked up most of Thanksgiving dinner, and biked back. The only time drivers aren't annoyed is when you've got a child carrier, otherwise you're a nuisance to them (locally). In the past, I've put dinner for 14 in the carrier.

Photo of a blue bike with a yellow and black Burley Bee child carrier. Next to it is a large shopping cart that is filled, with a roasting pan gift from the grocery store for spending far too much money at it this year.

A Burley Bee child carrier filled with stuff for Thanksgiving dinner - including a whole 20-ish lb turkey. This year is "small" but I've done the same for 16 people in the past.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Cat, no longer squished behind toilet:

A view looking down into a great room. There's a small gray and white cat near a large sliding glass door. The same cat that spent most of the first week with us squished behind a toilet, hiding in terror. Of course, she's also held this pose for the past 5 minutes. Not a fan of surveillance.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Progress. She did spend most of the afternoon inside our bedframe though.

Small gray-striped tuxedo cat curled up in a lap. She looks mostly content.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Disturbing synchronicity on the timeline.

Memento Mori posting "I am asking all men on International Mens Day to smile more"

Immediately after it is Ed Zitron's smiling face image - a disturbing extreme closeup of a smiling face.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Progress with the new cat: she is still terrified of the house, but can deal with the bathroom door being open all the time. She doesn't try to hide behind the toilet anymore, but will race to sit next to it if anyone walks in.

A gray striped tuxedo cat sitting next to her safety toilet. Or perhaps it's a service toilet?

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

With all the pathetic compensation ICE agents do with their "tactical" shit, surely the UK's own horrific version of ICE wouldn't engage in such... Oh, I'm being told they're *massive* Nazis.

This country literally has the famous comedy sketch scene of "are we the baddies?" and their version of ICE just goes and does this? She's wearing a severe-looking black uniform with gray piping that looks straight out of a Nazi officers look book. Hugo-fucking Boss would be proud.

U.K. Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood walks through Downing Street to attend the annual National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London, United Kingdom on Nov. 9, 2025.
Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

I don't know the full history of our new cat, but she was a stray someone took in, and then after about a year gave to the Humane Society. "Timid" is an understatement. Absolutely terrified of everything is more apt. The first two days she spent smashed behind the toilet and the wall.

A Gary and white cat, bit quite asleep, curled up on top of a fluffy cat bed.

A gray and white cat being petted while sitting on a blue blanket.

A gray cat hiding behind a toilet. Just the rear of the cat is visible. Not particularly good at hide-and-seek.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

A photo of the new cat getting used to the house.

A photo of a mostly gray (yes, it looks black) cat attempting to hide behind a toilet.

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Seamus @combinatorial.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

It is time to carve some pumpkins. And not instigate a forest or house fire. ...might have put too much kindling in there.

A wooden deck with one of those ubiquitous solo fire outs with a gout of flame coming out of it in the foreground. In the mid ground is a table with pumpkins and various bowls and carving instruments. In the background are two beautiful spruce trees that will one day fall and crush the house. Fortunately they're still quite young.

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