iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 30/09/2026

Sometimes you have to watch the classics.

Photo of a TCL flat-screen TV in a dim room, with white plantation shutters on the wall behind it. On screen is a scene from the 1998 film Blade: Blade, in dark wraparound sunglasses and a long black leather trench coat over a molded armored vest, walks toward the camera through a white-tiled room, head slightly lowered. Blurred figures with reddish, bloodied skin crowd the foreground and background around him, some with arms raised.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 28/09/2026

I love @theverge.com Sometimes they cover the big issues, but other times ...

A Simpsons-style animated classroom scene where a tired-looking teacher stands before a chalkboard showing interconnected topics (Antitrust Remedies, AI Regulation, Data Privacy, Chip Export Controls), while Ralph Wiggum raises his hand and says "The Galaxy's hinge is 4% quieter," as Lisa Simpson and Bart Simpson sit among other students.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 25/09/2026

The prices of parking at Dodger Stadium over the years. While I am a Dodgers fan, these costs are astronomical. (and, yes, I've taken the shuttle from Union Station, it adds at least 2 hours of time)

Line graph showing Dodger Stadium parking gate prices rising from $1 in 1980 to $45 in 2026, with a notable dip to $10 around 2013 followed by steep increases through the 2020s.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 22/09/2026

Up to my usual nonsense in the evenings.

A tarot card labeled "I - The Magician" drawn in classic Winnie-the-Pooh illustration style, depicting Christopher Robin standing on a tree stump holding a wand aloft with an infinity symbol above him, surrounded by Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Rabbit, with a cup, sword, pentacle, and wand arranged on the stump before him.

A tarot card labeled "0 - The Fool" featuring a whimsical black-and-white ink illustration of a teddy bear walking along a countryside path, carrying a bindle over its shoulder, accompanied by a small piglet, with a butterfly, sun, and rolling hills in the background.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 20/09/2026

Out for three walks so far today. Saw this mushroom on a tree. Lots of shelf fungus on a neighbor’s oak. Not a good sign, as it represents internal wood decay.

A large shelf fungus growing out of the trunk of a tree at roughly knee height. The bracket is about a foot wide, with a thick creamy white rounded margin and pore surface underneath, and a glossy reddish brown and tan banded upper cap toward the back where it meets the bark. The trunk has deeply furrowed, peeling gray brown bark. A cluster of smaller brackets in the same white and brown coloring emerges from the base of the trunk at the bottom of the frame. To the left is a green lawn strip, dry grass and dirt near the trunk, and a concrete sidewalk with a street visible in the upper left corner.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 19/09/2026

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, ye scallywags!

A black Jolly Roger pirate flag featuring a white skull with an eye patch above crossed bones, mounted on a gold flagpole against an overcast sky.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 19/09/2026

I actually feel bad for the Tottenham fans.

Photo of a TCL TV on a wooden media console showing a live Premier League soccer match between Tottenham (TOT) and Aston Villa (AVL), score 1-3, at 93:31 in the +7 minute mark of stoppage time. Players are on the pitch with a full stadium crowd in the background, and a caption reads 'THIS WILL BE 21 HOME DEFEATS IN THEIR LAST 36 GAMES.' Sideline ads for TCS, Sportsbet.io, Coca-Cola, Stanley, and Betano are visible along the pitch.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 18/09/2026

Brentford starts the weekend right!

Screenshot of two stacked live-score notification cards for a Premier League match between Brentford (BRE) and Chelsea (CHE), both showing a 3-0 score at 90+5 minutes. The top Google card reads 'GOAL!!! Fábio Carvalho (90') extends the lead for BRE.' The bottom card, labeled '2026-27 English Premier League,' shows the same score with team crests and the note 'Fábio Carvalho Goal.'

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 17/09/2026

Soldering headers on a Adafruit Feather board early this morning before I need to rest my back.

A hand holds a small microcontroller board above a breadboard containing an ESP32 development board, with an Adafruit ThinkInk e-ink FeatherWing display and an orange flexible cable visible on a New York Times newspaper background.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 09/09/2026

Happy California Admission Day! 176 years ago, California joined the United States.

The California state flag (Bear Flag) displayed outdoors, featuring a grizzly bear walking on green grass, a red star, a red stripe along the bottom, and the words "California Republic" in bold lettering.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 08/09/2026

Further progress on my 'Chargetruth' device. Measures the capability of USB chargers so you know which are good and which are weak. Completed the 3D printed case that holds the display board/ESP-32 and the separate PD chip.

A hand holds a white 3D-printed "Chargetruth" USB Power Delivery charger tester displaying a black screen with green and cyan text showing PD charger specifications: 100W max, with voltage/current ratings of 20V 5.00A, 15V 3.00A, 9V 3.00A, and 5V 3.00A.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 08/09/2026

My mom’s Nest thermostat died. Additionally, I had to reset a tripped breaker. After a bit of troubleshooting, I jury rigged the fan on until the replacement arrives.

Close-up photo of a round white Nest thermostat wall mounting base, showing the wiring terminals. The left column is labeled RH, W1, Y1, G (all unconnected), and the right column is labeled C, O/B, AUX/W2, Rc — with a blue wire connected to C. In the center, unconnected white, red, green, and bare copper wires hang loose near a small built-in bubble level.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 04/09/2026

If you’re not putting together IKEA with a cordless drill and Allen wrench bit, you’re doing it wrong.

Close-up photo of a red and black Milwaukee cordless drill driving a bolt with a hex nut into the crossed light-wood legs of a stool or bench frame being assembled on a blue patterned rug. A hand holds the drill, and a foot in a colorful tie-dye slip-on sandal is visible to the right near a woven wicker basket.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 04/09/2026

A complete design failure by Google, where the search bar is so reduced in size, due to icon/feature bloat that it's unusable. A group of people sat in a room and agreed that this was a good idea.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 04/09/2026

I’m born & raised in Los Angeles by parents from Iowa and Minnesota

Screenshot of a mydialect.us results page titled ‘Your dialect map.’ Text reads: ‘Redder areas talk more like you; bluer areas least. You talk most like someone from California — about 56% of your answers match a typical resident.’ Below is a color-coded map of the continental US, Alaska, and Hawaii, shaded from red (most similar) in the West to blue (least similar) in the Southeast, with a legend labeled ‘Least like you’ to ‘Most like you.’ A ‘Save map as PNG’ button appears below the map. A second section, ‘Cities most & least like you,’ lists most similar cities as San Francisco, CA (56%), Los Angeles, CA (56%), and Phoenix, AZ (55%); least similar cities as New Orleans, LA (49%), Atlanta, GA (49%), and Nashville, TN (50%).

Screenshot of a mydialect.us card titled ‘What gave you away,’ subtitled ‘Answers that point most strongly to California.’ It lists four question-and-answer pairs: ‘What is your general term for a big road that you drive relatively fast on?’ — freeway; ‘What do you call the insect that flies around in the summer and has a rear section that glows in the dark?’ — firefly; ‘What is the distinction between dinner and supper?’ — I do not use the term supper; ‘What do you call the little gray creature (that looks like an insect but is actually a crustacean) that rolls up into a ball when you touch it?’ — pill bug.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 04/09/2026

I’m up before dawn with the dog again. Seeing dating/reading/pronunciation ‘discourse’ revving up. So I’ll re-post:

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 30/08/2026

Grabbed a few variegated lemons in the easement, using a 3D printed fruit picker.

A fruit picker tool with a basket attachment reaching into a lemon tree filled with green and yellow lemons at various stages of ripeness.

Seven lemons in varying stages of ripeness, ranging from green to bright yellow to overripe brown-orange, scattered on a bed of dry straw.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 28/08/2026

Continued progress on the USB charger tester.

A USB Power Delivery charger tester displaying PD charger specifications on its LCD screen, showing a maximum of 100W with voltage/current profiles (20V/5A, 15V/3A, 9V/3A, 5V/3A), connected to a small green circuit board with multicolored wires on a dark surface.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 28/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 26/08/2026

Building a USB charger analyzer and got the basics working.

A Feather ESP32-S2 microcontroller with a TFT display showing USB Power Delivery charger capabilities (100W max at 20V/5A) connected via colored wires to an Adafruit USB-C PD breakout board with a glowing green LED, plugged into a USB-C cable on a dark surface.

An Adafruit Feather ESP32-S2 microcontroller with an OLED display showing "NOT A PD CHARGER, 12W, 5V 2.40A, MAX 12W" connected via colored wires to an Adafruit USB-C Power Delivery breakout board with a USB-C cable plugged in.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 24/08/2026

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

A Ukrainian flag with its distinctive blue and yellow horizontal stripes flies on a pole outdoors, with green trees and a clear blue sky visible in the background.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 24/08/2026

Seen on our morning dog walk: Belladona lily and a young alligator lizard

Two delicate Belladonna lilies, pale pink trumpet-shaped flowers with white stamens bloom together against a background of dry, straw-colored grass and soil.

A small alligator lizard blends into a ground covered with dry, pale gray twigs, straw, and small pebbles, demonstrating natural camouflage.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 23/08/2026

A Western Giant Swallowtail seen while walking the dog this morning.

A black and yellow Western Giant Swallowtail butterfly rests with open wings on dry, gravelly ground scattered with straw and dead leaves.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 22/08/2026

A plethora of sports riches today

Screenshot of a sports schedule notification timestamped ‘Today at 5:30 AM,’ headed ‘Sat Aug 22.’ It lists one final score under ‘Final’: baseball icon, Dodgers 5, Pirates 4. Below that, under ‘Today,’ six upcoming games with sport emoji icons: soccer ball, Brentford vs Spurs 9:30a; football, Rams vs Saints 1:00p; football, Bengals vs Bears 4:00p; baseball, Dodgers vs Pirates 4:15p; basketball, Sparks vs Sun 6:00p; soccer ball, LAFC vs Portland 7:30p. The text is black on a light gray rounded rectangle, white background.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 21/08/2026

Premier League starts today! We are Bees!

A New York Times Sports section spread titled "Predicting Aces and Busts After an Off-Season Shuffle," featuring colorful crests of Premier League football clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, and others arranged across two pages.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 20/08/2026

In 2020, I bought a batch of NVIDIA T4 Tesla cards to build out a VM cluster for remote video editing. ~$2,000 each at the time. Best case today, six years later, they're worth ~20% of that on the market. Using GPUs as loan collateral looks like a disaster in the making. 🧵

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 18/08/2026

Adventures in beekeeping: Installed new queens 5 days ago. The Pink and Blue hives had released their queens already. I released the queen into the Green hive.

A gloved hand holds a queen bee introduction cage with mesh screen, with the candy plug open, over an open beehive filled with honeybees on wooden frames.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 18/08/2026

While you were partying, I studied the blade.

Three vintage Hewlett-Packard RPN calculators laid out on a blue floral fabric background. From left to right: a silver and black HP-15C scientific calculator, an HP-28C with its clamshell case open showing the keyboard on the left panel and the display and numeric keypad on the right panel, and an HP 32SII RPN Scientific calculator with an orange, black, and white keyboard.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 14/08/2026

Lydia just met Wickham on the Meryton space station. Shit’s kicking off now!

A hand holds a Kindle e-reader showing the cover of “Pride and Prejudice in Space” by Alexis Lampley. The grayscale cover art depicts a woman in a flowing Regency-era gown against a large moon or planet backdrop. In the background, a room is visible with plantation shutters, a mantel with decorative items, and a bed with colorful bedding.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 13/08/2026

Adventures in beekeeping: Needed to requeen 3 hives today. Took 3 hours to find all the feral queens. Had a chair out there so I wouldn't hurt my back, but I'm exhausted anyways.

Two clear plastic queen bee cages containing queen bees resting on a brick surface, with several bees visible both inside and outside the transparent enclosures.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 10/08/2026

Moved the swarm trap to the hive stand and added entrance reducers/closers to the Blue & Pink hive boxes.

Two wooden beehives in a backyard setting — a smaller unpainted box mounted on a post with a purple entrance disc, and a larger mint green Langstroth hive stacked on cinder blocks, surrounded by ivy and wood chip mulch beneath a deck.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 09/08/2026

A science fiction section in the NY Times Book Review is a rare sight. Discussing qntm’s There Is No Antimemtics Division is miraculous!

A newspaper book review page photographed at an angle, resting on blue and white patterned fabric. The column is headed “Otherworldly / Science Fiction / by Amal El-Mohtar” with the headline “Lies, All Lies.” An illustration shows a person with a bob haircut holding their head, their face duplicated into three overlapping layers against a purple background. The visible text reviews two novels, one about a secret division containing memory-erasing creatures and one about a war catalyzed by a secret weapon.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 07/08/2026

Doing what I can to help generate some Dodgers mojo to get out of the slump.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 06/08/2026

Attached my 3D printed fruit pickers to wooden dowels. The dowels are 4 feet long. We'll see if these work well or if I need longer dowells.

Two 3D printed fruit pickers with mesh fabric bags attached to wooden dowel handles, held by a person's hand in what appears to be a workshop or garage setting.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 04/08/2026

Adventures in beekeeping: Used the steam wax melter yesterday evening to harvest beeswax. This morning I weighed the beeswax and it's almost a full kilogram!

Three aluminum foil loaf pans containing hardened beeswax, arranged on newspapers spread across a white surface.

A large slab of bright yellow beeswax resting on a digital Amazon Basics kitchen scale displaying "992 g" on a newspaper-covered surface.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 03/08/2026

Gathered some variegated lemons in the easement while walking the dog. The screw holding my makeshift fruit picker fell out, so I fixed it up with a piece of wire I found on the ground.

A dog sniffs a lemon being held by a person's hand over a fruit picker tool on a dirt path outdoors.

Six lemons of varying sizes arranged on a white tiled kitchen counter, with a small orange-tinted lemon at the top and several larger yellow-green lemons below.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 01/08/2026

Saw a Western Giant Swallowtail butterfly while walking the dog today.

A black and yellow Western Giant Swallowtail butterfly rests with wings spread open on a sandy, leaf-strewn ground, displaying its distinctive yellow-banded wing pattern.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 01/08/2026

Saw this at the bookstore and am intrigued.

A hand holds a paperback book titled "Pride and Prejudice in Space" by Alexis Lampley in front of a bookstore shelf. The cover art shows a woman in a space helmet and white armored bodice, her lower half flowing into a voluminous pink and gold gown that resembles a nebula. A blurb reads: "A dazzling addition to the Austen-verse." —Julia Quinn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series.

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Michael Pusateri @cruftbox.com · 31/07/2026

Adventures in beekeeping: Bottled honey this morning and ended up with 55 bottles!

Dozens of bottles of Wildflower Honey from Cruft Apiary in South Pasadena, CA, with yellow lids and black-and-yellow bee labels, arranged in rows on a blue patterned tablecloth.

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