iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 31/08/2026

You’re in the starter pack already 😂 (though maybe that doesn’t answer the question)

Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 31/08/2026

Break out of your echo chamber with 100% Darrens, the Darrens of Bluesky. A nice mix of humour, arts, and science (including dinosaurs). go.bsky.app/BqcjKPd

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 31/08/2026

Happy #Raygun documentary release eve, to those that celebrate 🦘

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 26/08/2026

Introducing: Whisper Map, the map that somewhat creepily whispers the name of all visible countries, volume weighted by proximity to screen centre. Sound ON! 🔊 whisper-map.netlify.app

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 17/08/2026

Like if you wanted “000” next to “001”? It would draw “000001” because there’s no way to know that “000” ended. You could make the ligatures like “000|” to terminate them, I suppose 🤔

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 16/08/2026

Anyway, I made a font with all the quadkeys as ligatures. So, here, I type "03032" to incrementally get to the quadkey showing Nova Scotia, and you could do the same for any location on Earth. First, it shows glyph "0", then the "03" ligature, and so on until the "03032" ligature. Pretty neat, huh?

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 16/08/2026

Unrelated, fonts can have things called ligatures, which can change a glyph based on groups of typed characters. It's how when you type "ae", some fonts group them automatically into "æ". You can also make longer ligatures if you want.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 16/08/2026

Yet another font thing. Remember quadkeys? They split map tiles into quadrants 0 (top left), 1 (top right), 2 (bottom left), 3 (bottom right), and add more digits as you zoom in. E.g., Nova Scotia falls in quadkey 03032 at zoom 5. #gischat #geography

Map showing quadkey 03032, which covers the province of Nova Scotia.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 15/08/2026

Still kinda obsessed with font images. Made a script that generates a jigsaw puzzle of shape N x M from any image. Not sure why I bothered with the jigsaw puzzle tabs, they don't really do anything. Video shows me typing A-Y (25 letters, 5x5) with the custom jigsaw font.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 15/08/2026

You can check out the actual font containing QR codes here: qr-wikipedia-font.netlify.app. Notice that the QR codes are literally html text, not images.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 14/08/2026

DYK you can embed pretty much any image directly in a font? Here I’ve made a font where each capital letter’s glyph is a QR code that leads to that letter’s Wikipedia page.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 12/08/2026

Completely unrelated to yesterday’s handmade dovetail, today I made some sturdy shop shelves held together with routered dovetail housings #woodworking

Four wooden boards laid parallel with two perpendicular boards clamped above, delineating a rectangular in which the router will run

A long wide dovetail groove has been routered across the four parallel boards

A complementarily dovetailed board has been fitted in the groove

The full shelf with a dovetail housing at each end

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 11/08/2026

Good improvement with attempt #2.

Hand holding two scrap pieces of wood dovetail joined together

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 11/08/2026

You know, happy in the sense that, technically, it fits together

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 11/08/2026

A little loose, but overall happy with first attempt at handmade dovetail #woodworking

Hand holding two pieces of wood, joined at the corner with a relatively loose dovetail joint

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 07/07/2026

Tomorrow: USMNT is back in World Cup

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 27/06/2026

Does anyone else think about the shape of the Netherlands?

A cursed map of the Netherlands with an eye and mouth superimposed, making it look like a face

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 27/06/2026

This happens more often than I thought I would (being dominated in a chess game, then winning with a surprise checkmate ending), and it’s teaching me bad life lessons. Maybe planning and consistent quality don’t matter that much if you can just figure it out in the end? 😅

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 16/06/2026

Another example of AI trying to kill me

AI chat: “how long after eating can you swim? You can swim immediately after eating. The idea of waiting 30 to 60 minutes is widely considered a myth.”

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 15/06/2026

This type of sneaky checkmate when you’re clearly losing makes chess so worthwhile

Chess win probability chart showing white clearly losing for most of the game and then a big spike at the end of the game.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 11/06/2026

Started playing chess online, and having a hard time finding a ranking low enough to find opponents who will make similar boneheaded moves as me

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 05/06/2026

Whoever invented half caff coffee is smart because it costs the same but I'm drinking 3x more. ☕

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 12/05/2026

Government: would it be ok to fill out the long form census? My partner: Ok?? I prefer it!

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 12/05/2026

I survived the Bermuda Triangle, twice. 😅

An image of an in-flight map showing the aircraft entering the Bermuda Triangle

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 11/05/2026

The next one will be probably be a congratulations about this important milestone, but I’d never know

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 28/04/2026

At some level, I know wrestling often reflects world events, but on another, I feel like some unnamed world leaders may just do things because they saw something in a wrestling match one time.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 28/04/2026

Oh. They directly talk about Trump’s Hulk-love (Hulk Hogan: Real American, ep. 2).

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 28/04/2026

In 1984, Hulk Hogan sucker punched, spat on, and ultimately defeated Iran’s Iron Sheik, ushering in the era of Hulkamania. I feel like this doesn’t have absolutely nothing to do with current US foreign policy.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 27/04/2026

You may want to bring that up with the cook, and it’s a matter of taste, but they are delicious

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 27/04/2026

If I ate the clam shell, I would have regrets

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 27/04/2026

Being the intellectual I am, I was watching the documentary, Hulk Hogan: Real American, and my favourite part so far is when Hogan starts morphing into the American patriot superhero character (e1, 39:30), and the dramatic soundtrack is... "God Save the King/Queen". 😵‍💫

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 23/04/2026

The province is making it very nearly impossible to reduce yard waste (i.e. fuel accumulation) through burning. My municipality is in moderate restriction and it’s raining. The only times it hasn’t been in moderate restriction, everything was too wet to burn.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 23/04/2026

Just following up on this important topic, this is an ice scraper, not a hoe.

Image from Big Mistakes where character Morgan holds several types of shovels, plus an ice scraper.

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 23/04/2026

I love that #ArcGIS does everything extra slow when you do it in an Enterprise GDB to make you feel like you're doing something important

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 19/04/2026

Following the schedule is optional and not much work each time (5 minute job), but prepping the mandolin would probably be tough

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 19/04/2026

There's a well defined schedule for oil maintenance: 1x per day for a week, 1x per week for a month, 1x per month for year, 1x per year after that. Anyway, I made an app for those reminders (axe-scheduler.netlify.app). Input parameters, generate a calendar file (.ics) for schedule X years out:

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Darren Wiens @darrenwiens.github.io · 19/04/2026

Getting my axe (Gransfors Bruk Outdoor Axe) onto a proper maintenance schedule. 1. original axe 2. sanded (120 & 180 grit) 3. touch up head (I very lightly sanded any blemishes, probably bad) 4. oiled head and handle with boiled linseed oil