iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 09/10/2026

Yeah, I know. That’s exactly why I asked why they would CHOOSE to do this to themselves. My point was simple: if the goal is that surgery will make them look BETTER than they would by aging naturally, they aren’t getting their money’s worth.

The infamous Eccentric Homo painting by Elias Garcia Martinez, and how it looked after Cecilia Giménez “restored it”

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 04/10/2026

If they carried lots of snacks, we could call them…

A bag of Scott’s Max Weed & Feed lawn treatment

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 18/09/2026

My wife got me two Japanese Chef’s knives for Father’s Day. They are incredibly sharp, to the extent I got cuts several times. One’s Damascus, with an olive wood handle, and the other has a laser-etched pattern which help foods stick to the blade less and a comfortable & gorgeous blue stone handle.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 17/09/2026

Weird, but not the worst beer I’ve ever had.

Martin House Brewery’s Best Maid Bread-n-butters Pickle Beer

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 15/09/2026

I asked my local chain - their response to me was encouraging. No unlabeled mystery meat here.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 05/09/2026

Costco, for certain, and I asked the biggest Texas grocery chain (HEB) and they also voluntarily label their meat. I’m happy because I want to smoke some beef on Labor Day, and I know I can trust my meat sources.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 02/09/2026

How bad is GOP derangement, now that they realize that we don’t trust them on the economy? And there are no Democratic candidates in Texas who are advocating for the government to seize the means of production. They might as well just say “BOO!!!”, since all their voters are afraid.

Billboard alongside Interstate 35, in Georgetown, Texas. It’s double-sided, too!

It reads ”Texans:
Democrats now support communism
Republicans don’t!!”

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 25/08/2026

Well, any Texans wondering about HEB and mystery meat will be happy to see that HEB labels the country of origin!

Hi Darren,

H-E-B imports very little beef such as specialty and select cuts, and we voluntarily list the country of origin on packaging.

Thank you,

Jordyn

H-E-B Customer Relations

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 25/08/2026

What kind of people would deliberately target children for murder and justify it as some sort of preventative security measure? Oh, right.

Children were especially vulnerable in the era of the Holocaust.

The Nazis advocated killing children of “unwanted” or “dangerous” groups either as part of the “racial struggle” or as a measure of preventative security. The Germans and their collaborators killed children for these ideological reasons and in retaliation for real or alleged partisan attacks.

Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about 1.5 million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy) children, about 10,000 German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, as well as many Polish children and children residing in the German-occupied Soviet Union. Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents (13–18 years old) had a greater chance of survival, as they could be used for forced labor.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 13/08/2026

He is clearly happier without the hat!

The same cat, sitting on my lap, without the hat. Now, he’s chillin’

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 13/08/2026

For my daughter’s 18th birthday dinner, she decided everyone must wear a little party hat. Our cat does NOT seem to be happy about this!

Image of our black cat, T’Challa, wearing the same small, silver cowboy hat the author is wearing as he types this ALT text.

Our cat looks both annoyed and resigned, which tracks.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 07/08/2026

Haven’t they done that already? “Vegan” “soy boy” They’re angry because the Jesus he worships is defined by the gospels, particularly Matthew. Texas Republicans worship Mammon, with lip service to some vague, undefined Jesus.

A threads post:
flmimig: A vote for a socialist/communist is a vote for Satan, especially Mr. Talarico! The supposed Christian who hates Christianity!!🤔

Reply from mariterecantue: When the con man “Trump” appeared, Christians were the first to be fooled.
But the Latino Christians we all know now were the biggest fools. They drank the whole bottle. Talarico is a real Christian. Only a realist like me knows that.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 24/07/2026

Well, yes, you’re absolutely right, but I specifically meant with regard to Samantha Morton. Circe has already appeared in Creature Commandos, played by Anya Chalotra. She is probably under contract if the new Wonder Woman film gets off the ground.

A full-color illustration of the DC Comics version of Circe, drawn by George Perez. She is sitting in a sort of lounge chair, with a cup in her raised left hand, and her right arm on the chair’s armrest, while that hand glows bright with magic energy. A crystal ball near her shows Wonder Woman’s face.

(It looks like it was originally from Who’s Who in the DC Universe)

A poster shot of Anya Chalotra as Yennefer on The Witcher.

She voiced Circe in the animated Creature Commandos, and James Gunn has deliberately cast actors who will do this in live action when the time comes (starting with Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.)

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 12/07/2026

If grass-fed beef eats grass, then I’m a little concerned about these cows…

A sign at P.Terry’s Burgers:

P.Terry’s Angus Beef is completely
*hormone free*
*antibiotic free*
*vegetarian fed*
-Always-

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 11/07/2026

The bomb which the USA dropped on Hiroshima is the simplest Atomic Bomb design… hpmmuseum.jp/modules/exhi...

A detailed cross-section of the “Little Boy” Atomic bomb, as dropped on Hiroshima.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 29/06/2026

Matches my socks! Very cool!

Darren’s Abstraction socks with Kinger’s purple highlights, from “The Amazing Digital Circus” merch.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 18/06/2026

The rib he took a bite of was absolutely a beef rib. Not only have I purchased one at the same location, but I frequently smoke racks of pork ribs (this was during Memorial Day weekend), and just there aren’t any that huge!

Pork ribs, which I smoked for around 6 hours on May 24, 2026

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 14/06/2026

Will they hand out ponchos?

A photo of the storm prediction for Washington DC tonight.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 14/06/2026

I would absolutely vote for Pete, because he’s smart and competent. A person’s sexual orientation is not related to those qualities, so the fact his girlfriend is gorgeous and accomplished is not at all relevant to his qualifications, but it does kinda blow Brandon’s dumb argument out of the water!

A photo of the lovely Brianna Menard, director of TEXPAC and a descendant of the man who founded Galveston, Michel Branamour Menard, along with her boyfriend, James Talarico, who won the Democratic Primary for the US Senate in Texas, and will be facing the obviously corrupt and philandering Ken Paxton in the General Election.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 09/06/2026

You can read the Eisner-winning story it’s based on, “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”, by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. Maybe your local library has it. It’s a terrific story, and her attitude is because her planet blew up, her dad saved their city, but it turned toxic & killed everyone but her.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 06/06/2026

Anbernic does make a bunch of units, but they also use a bunch of different chips, and a few OSes, too. This one’s an RG35XXPro, and it was like $50!

My Anbernic RG35XXPro, playing Super Mario 64.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 27/05/2026

I called it! 67% to 32% is a landslide.

Texas GOP US Senate Runoff Results (AP called it for Ken at 51% of votes counted)

Ken Paxton 524,354 (62.6%)
John Cornyn* 312,712 (37.4%)

*John is the incumbent.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 19/05/2026

Yup. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

A Vogue cover featuring the beautiful Lupita Nyong’o

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 08/05/2026

You can always tell when SCOTUS is full of crap about an issue by their hypocrisy and insistence on special treatments for white people only.

Qasim Rashid, Esq posted:
This SCOTUS rulings so ffar
*Universities using race criteria to counter historical racism in admissions is unconstitutional, BUT
*ICE fascists using race criteria to target people of color is constitutional, BUT
*State legislators using race criteria to counter historical voter suppression is unconstitutional,BUT
*Trump using race criteria to enact travel bans is constitutional

In short - race criteria that centers white people is constitutional, but race criteria otherwise is unconstitutional

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 24/04/2026

You have to go back to the Roman Empire to see it! He is terrific as Sejanus here.

Patrick Stewart as Sejanus in “I, Claudius”

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 24/04/2026

Here’s a good one from a red state!

A screenshot of an article on Politico’s website.

The headline reads “Poll: Talarico leads Cornyn and Paxton in general election matchups

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 17/04/2026

He really is astoundingly and obviously stupid. What does that say about people who think he's a genius?

Comic strip style - on the left, a photo of Marco Rubio trying to whisper in Trump's ear, on the right, a photo of Trump, each captioned.

First strip:
Staff: "Tell them they're coming seeking asylum."
Trump: "They're coming from insane asylums!"

Second strip:
Staff: "Tell them it's a small military incursion."
Trump: "It's a great military excursion!"

Third strip:
Staff: "Tell them the photo was doctored"
Trump: "I'm a doctor!"

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 17/04/2026

I thought Prime’s face turn was at the end of Dark Knights: Death Metal. Specifically this book.

Cover of “Dark Nights: Death Metal - The Secret Origin”, by Ivan Reis

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 16/04/2026

Do you know how delicious and high in caffeine Vietnamese Iced Coffee is?

A bottle of Lee’s Iced Vietnamese Coffee (cà phê sữa đá) Concentrate.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 14/04/2026

If you can find a decently-priced Hero Initiative Edition, it’s got so much extra material it’s definitely worth a few extra bucks!

Cover of the Hero Initiative Edition of JLA/Avengers by George Perez.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 11/04/2026

You’re right. The delays were reported by a different person.

Deb’s post:

I broke my pubic bone in a fall, and when I refused an NSAID because my nephrologist told me to, the resident in the ER decided I was a drug seeker and didn’t even order an X-ray until I got the president of the hospital board on the phone. I’ve never even had a beer and was 68 at the time.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 11/04/2026

The Amazing Digital Circus finale is going to be watchable two weeks before it will be on line, and I am excited!

Digital art showing Caine with 4 arms against a blue background, captioned “WHY DO YOU HUMANS TORMENT ME”. The lines become more pixelated toward the bottom of the piece.

Drawn by my son, pen name Simply Nullifed.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 10/04/2026

What about Dr. Leonard McCoy and Dr. Hank McCoy meeting up?

A page from a Star Trek/X-Ment crossover showing Beast, Storm, and Gambit in Dr. McCoy’s sickbay. Nurse Chapel calls to “Dr. McCoy”, and both Dr. Leonard McCoy and Dr. Hank (Beast) McCoy turn and ask “What?” in response!

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 09/04/2026

As a fan of Bierce’s original, I appreciate the creativity and effort - they clearly used Human Intelligence! My favorite definition:

Chain-of-Thought (n.) The sacred ritual of forcing the model to “think step by step” so it sounds slightly less like a confident moron. It adds latency and still fails, but at least the failure now comes with a numbered list and a humblebrag.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 03/04/2026

I once posted a pic of Stephen for a Doppleganger day, and my sister-in-law actually thought it was me. Can’t find that pic, but here’s a comparison

A photo of actor Stephen Root - not the photo which i used then.

A photo of me, also not the original photo I used then.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 01/04/2026

Our nation's health infrastructure is being sold off for parts by the greediest MFers you will ever find - human life takes a backseat to profits!

Post (Twitter?) from Felix Prehn (@felixprehn)

Private equity firms bought 500 hospitals. Death rates in their ERs went up 13%. They fired 12% of the staff, then paid themselves billions in dividends.

A Harvard study just confirmed what doctors already knew: people are dying so investors can hit quarterly targets.

Exactly what happens: A PE firm buys a hospital using debt. That debt gets places on the hospital's balance sheet, not the firm's. Now the hospital owes hundresds of millions it never borrowed. To service that debt, the hospital cuts costs. Costs mean nurses.

The Numbers from the Harvard/UofChicago study are horrifying. After PE acquisition, emergency department salary spending dropped 18.2%. ICU salary spending dropped 15.9%. Hospital-wide employees were cut 11.6%. emergency deaths rose 13%, seven add'l deaths per 10,000 visits.

A separate study found patients undergoing surgery at PE-acquired hospitals had 17% higher odds of dying within 90 days.

Steward Health Care, owned by Cerberus Capital, filed bankruptcy with $9 billion in debt after closing hospitals across MA. 8 hospitals seving 2 million people nearly disappeared because a PE fund extracted more cash than the system could survive.

The PE industry has poured over $1 trillion into healthcare. They operate 25% of ER's nationwide. This isn't going away.

The rest of it discusses how the non-PE hospitals are benefitting from PE hospital closures and that outpatient surgical centers are pulling profitable procedures out of hospitals entirely, and the loss of those high margin surgeries is hastening the PE hospitals death spiral.

Felix's TLDR: (a private equity firm bought your local hospital. borrowed $500 million in the hospital's name. fired 12% of the nurses. emergency rooms deaths rose 13%. then they paid themselves dividends. nobody went to prison. they're currently buying another hospital.)

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 27/03/2026

That reference will be lost on so many people!

A still of Richard Nixon from the TV show “Laugh-In” in 1968, with the caption “Sock it to me?”, which is the line he delivered on the show… badly.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 20/03/2026

Nice - that one has a great keyboard! My friend’s PET had the weird keyboard like this one.

Commodore PET computer, with the weird keyboard.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 19/02/2026

Marvel and Oreo announce the 4th of 4 packages of Marvel Legend Oreos, and it's a doozy!

The package for a new Oreo-Marvel collaboration: Stuff of Doom Oreos, with color-changing cream, and a big Dr. Doom behind the image of the cookie, green energy coruscating from his gauntlets.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 14/02/2026

It’s nightmare fuel! www.commondreams.org/news/israel-...

The investigation found that the fuel typically used in Israeli thermobaric weapons was tritonal, a mixture consisting of 80% TNT and 20% aluminum powder often found in US-manufactured weapons such as the Mark 84 aircraft bomb.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 13/02/2026

the last two panels reminded me of the tower scene in ST Season 5...

From Stranger Things, Season 5 - Steve Harrington (played by Joe Keery) has slipped and fallen off a radio tower. A moment later, his hand is caught by Jonathan Byers (played by Charlie Heaton), his rival for Nancy's affection, who pulls him up safely.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 13/02/2026

Right here is a perfect example of waste, fraud and abuse!

$The Minnesota ICE operation ended up with 4,000 detained. At a cost of roughly $70k per detainee, taxpayers spent $280,000,000 for this operation. Of those 4,000 detainees, only 560 had criminal records and most of those were for minor infractions, like running a stop sign or speeding. Of the 560, maybe 30 were accused of violent crimes or dealing drugs. So, how do you feel about wasting $280 million dollars and 2 American lives to capture 30 criminals?$

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 06/02/2026

That does track! 42.43499° N, 83.98446° W

A screenshot of Apple Maps, showing the unincorporated community of Hell, MI.

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 05/02/2026

Kids are only allowed to express opinions approved by Greg Abbott, apparently! Fuck Greg Abbott! The children are the future, and they’re tired of the never-ending hypocrisy and bigotry from the right!

A protest by kids in Kyle, TX, on February 4, 2026.

My wife took this, and we are PROUD that our kids are willing to get in a little good trouble to protest injustice!

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Darren Shea @darrenshea.me · 04/02/2026

Nice! I just got a Tele on my last birthday, too! Have fun!

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