iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 10h

Yay! I'm doing Stuff(TM)! But also, I have a habit of lots and lots of downtime, so my endurance for Stuff(TM) is limited. But but but! It's like I'm a real person again, which is just nice.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

This is a totally different cat that is also black.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Most of my cats have adventures outside, but not Carl the Cat. He was born here, and he stays here.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I started with one cat. Then I got my cat a cat. Then my cat's cat had kittens (big surprise) Then a stray cat came along, and it was a lost cause already. I now have five cats.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

The latest adventures of Carl the Cat: There are none! He is a fat cat that does not go outside or have adventures. Here's a pic, though. Isn't he the cutest?

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

This is Carl the Cat. He is a fat cat, and does not go outside. His name is not Carl. It is Carl the Cat.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Batcat likes to spread his wings when he gets belly rubs.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Hey - would you like an account at Heretic's Asylum? The generic form of bluesky should be decentralized, but it's unclear if that will happen in practice, as forming a community of peers is harder than techies often think it is. I'm trying my darndest to be one of those peer-like entities.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

There is always an algorithm. The only question is whether or not it annoys you.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Hey Lena! @notaterrornerd.bsky.social you actually interact with me sometimes, to the extent that I feel like you're my friend. Can I get a like on this threaded summary of my life?

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Anyway: now, I'm under a commitment, but i have a precious dose of Prozac keeping me from offing myself due to life without fun being no fun at all.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

It was fun, though. I'll miss the good old days of thinking that my slightest misspoke word would be broadcast to legions of decionmakers depending on my analysis. I say that in sarcastic terms, but I'm also kind of serious about it.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I still don't know if i was being watched without my permission, or if I was doing some strange form of custom-format but still-effective prayer. Or maybe I'm just a nutcase. I know which one my mother believes.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Now, I have an obscure Bluesky account, which is totally different.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Once upon a time, I did a very insane thing and posted into a void that nobody else had permission to access. Somehow those posts still had effects, in that my Totally Original Observations became more commonplace soon after.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

See also: 6.004 (computation structures), the best class in MIT's course 6 curriculum, which i will re-watch after I'm done with 8.02 (electricity and magnetism)

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

So, bluesky is still generating my feed, despite the fact that I'm hosting my own posts. AND IT'S NOT GIVING INFINITE SCROLL! I get **repeated** posts if I scroll past my measly short subscription list, and I want more social media in my social media. This has been Olivia Complains About Stuff.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

New experiment: be blatantly arrogant about how smart I am, crack the occasional joke, and don't tell anyone when I'm doing one or the other.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I'm taking 8.01 (introduction to physics) for the third time. See, it sounds bad, unless you know the second time was as a TA and this third time is mostly for fun, because I have fond memories of the class.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Maybe I should start my own threads instead of hanging out in comments sections. But nobody reads my stuff, so that's actually a terrible plan.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

See OP and the quote P. As it stands, I don't know who this thread's OP was trying to insult, BTW. I feel like either character could be accused of jumping to conclusions.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

In other news, I assert that Bluesky specifically (and social media in general) is competitive humor, complete with insults, but not exclusively insults.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I'm describing Taboo. The game exists. It's called Taboo, by Hasbro. It's funny because I was doing the thing while describing the thing, while also describing other things in the same way. The fact that my explanation is itself an example of the thing I'm explaining is what tech nerds call "meta".

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

In terms of intellectual exercise, it can be fun to describe something without using any of the obvious words associated with that thing. Someone should make a party game out of that with cards listing target words and forbidden words.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Other times, I will compete with other people based on an arbitrary measure of goodness in order to both focus attention on one measure and compare myself with others.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Sometimes it's fun to do the same thing over and over as fast as you can for as long as you can.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

"Choose the *best* answer" mc questions for subjective definitions of "best"

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

Interestingly, subtle true/false questions is suddenly the new gold standard. AI will have an answer. The question is: is it true?

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I think that the point is valid, though, that intellectual exercise will be more for pleasure and fitness than raw output, which IS different, at least for those who spent a lot of time producing lots of intellectual work. To have it be a hobby again is a big deal.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

We invented video textbooks about a decade ago. That's a little bit different than print textbooks. I think the new invention is going to be more like riddles with an answer key, in that you will check your answers with ~~science~~ AI instead of your own judgement.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 07/10/2026

I like to lift heavy things in a variety of directions.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 06/10/2026

Ah yes, sneak attack the sneaky attackers.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 06/10/2026

Half of education is the social element. Spend time hyping it up, give the goodies, run through a few examples, and then let them congratulate themselves on their transformative new skills.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 04/10/2026

My most recent project idea is small enough and grounded enough that I might actually follow through with it!

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

It's 2-something a.m. and I should be asleep, but the caffeine in my system and the time of day are competing for my circadian rhythm. In other news: yay! I have a circadian rhythm! I had my doubts....

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

atproto becomes a legal definition of the social internet, and its policies basically become law for a whole category of online internaction

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

Last tagging of a famous person: @pfrazee.com I tagged you before with a different thought, and I hope that I am not getting annoying, but I think atproto is the founding protocol of a whole layer of the internet, which instead of calling it an "identity" layer, should be the "social" layer.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

@petersagal.bsky.social is also famous, and NPR nerds like words. Any chance we can start sneaking these definitions into public usage? No need for attribution or anything. I just want to be able to speak coherently about privacy levels.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

I made some words! Unfortunately, I am not famous. @nationalsecuritylaw.org is famous-ish, or at least more famous than I am. Perhaps s/he might think my words are worth using?

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 30/09/2026

Hey - I have the digitaldebrief.com domain as well, and just wrote a proposal for "public", "private", and "social" internet, to distinguish the "dark web" from the private internet, as the dark web is only private on the network layer. digitaldebrief.com/articles/dar...

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 28/09/2026

I knew I was smart. I even knew I was very smart. Also: privileged. I just didn't fully realize what most of the population has to deal with, when things are already confusing, and you have not been spoon-fed highly filtered quality content since birth.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 26/09/2026

Gold stars are surprisingly effective, even for grown-ups, and I'm happy to award gold stars for worthy self-care such as: eating food.

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Olivia LaHmmm @dd-olive.hereticsasylum.com · 26/09/2026

Sex is great, but have you ever had a fantastic shit after drinking kambucha?

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