iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Should have gone to bed but locked in finishing #marvelcrisisprotocol version of Green Goblin for the boys. Some day I'll learn how to photograph these things. #40k #mini

Green Goblin mini of a grinning Goblin double fisting pumpkin bombs escaping on a glider

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One for grad school but I'm reminded of a Hans Moleman joke: I'll take the saddest, most frustrating book about Native American treatymaking you have. No, that's too sad

Pen and Ink Witchcraft by Colin G. Calloway

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Honestly think I've never done a better #miniature coloring and highlight job than on this #marvelcrisisprotocol version of Hulk! Was very fun, plus a good reason to buy bright green and deep purple!

The Immortal Hulk jumping off of some vague rubble about to - get this - Hulk smash with both hands. He looks very strong.

The Hulk's back muscles and more of the vague rubble with some smoke plumes that... Didn't turn out!

A slightly 3/4 frame of the Hulk and you can really see his serratus anterior, one of the muscles I feel smart for knowing about

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I'm beginning to think this "Chaos Daemon" character is up to no good... Pretty great, gross stuff! Pretty neat!

Paperback copy of Fulgrim by Graham McNeill

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Repeating but 1 year in, 2 years in, and 4 years into this hobby! I got a lot more practice in the first two years but that's life baby

Lord Discordant on Helstalker in dark red with no base decorations. Pretty good for one year in imo

Venomcrawler on concrete for two years in actual Word Bearers colors

The Forgefiend which I hope we can all agree shows a steady improvement in skill

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Bought this one to celebrate being done teaching for the year and finished the day before I went back to work. Summer was crazy okay #warhammer #40k #worbearers

A Word Bearers Forgefiend on a muddy base done... Pretty good?

The same Forgefiend from an alternate angle with clearer understandings of its shortcomings

A piece of interest is because of some gluing gone wrong I had to had it balance on something so I kitbashed an Ultramarine something in the mud for it to be stomping on

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

From a pamphlet from 1836 that blames abolitionists for the rising tension over slavery; "So much for the tolerant left!"

"It is not by argument; that the abolitionists have produced the present unhappy excitement. Argument; has not; been the characteristic of their publications. Denunciations of slaveholding as man-stealing, robbery, piracy, and worse than murder; con- sequent vituperation of slaveholders as knowingly guilty of the worst of crimes; passionate appeals to the feelings of the in- habitants of the northern states; gross exaggerations of the moral and physical condition of the slaves, have formed the staple of their addresses to the public. We do not; mean to say that there has been no calm and Christian discussion of the subject. We mean merely to state what has, to the best of our knowledge, been the predominant character of the anti-slavery publications."

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

You simply love to see it. @kleinman.bsky.social have you heard about this yet?

Daily Iowan (University of Iowa's newspaper) reporting that the conservative make work program Center for Intellectual Freedom) is on hold until 2028.

Roast Beef from Achewood saying Oh hee hee hee! in rapturous glee

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Mixing the two hobbies I should spend more time doing with a surprisingly character-rich take on a very dumb (complimentary) setting. Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter.

Paper back cover of Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter in front of a Word Bearers zealot mini and a huge Titan (both very relevant to the story hilariously)

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

My decades based Solar Auxilia project continues! These heckin minis are totes the 2010th Legion command squad, colored in the traditional Millennial Grey. #warhammer #minipainting

The 5 solar auxilia figures in millennial grey, light blue, and off-white. They have a banner that reads "LOL" and "MM" for 2000, though I should add an X for 2010. Pretend I did that

A detail picture of two figures. One is the radar guy and I tried to color a glow from the radar handset and didn't do awful. The other is the banner guy previously mentioned.

The other three in detail including the main guy and two, uh, other guys. I tried to make it look like they were on laminate flooring but it looks more like cobblestone :(

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Airport delays aren't all bad! A Central California noir (that old genre) with characters you really might know (for good or for ill). Get Lost by Justin Halpern!

The hardcover edition of Get Lost by Justin Halpern in front of the airport tarmac that my last picture was in front of thanks to forgetting to have pilots (...?)

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

In a quick trip to a Seattle book store I snagged a book I missed when I read Vonnegut last year-- THE Vonnegut! Very funny and full of "woof." heavy statements. Also snagged this quote that means a lot as a dad!

A paperback copy of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut in front of a airport tarmac.

"I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that."

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

It's amazing what I can do without interruptions or literally any other entertainment options! Read this entirely on the plane to the PNW and liked it. Basically the toxic masculinity version of Jane Austen 'just people going to each others' houses' though.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway in front of a copse of large skinny pines with what you'll have to believe me is a mountain beyond that. While I've got you in the alt text can you believe Hemingway wrote this immediately after taking basically the exact same trip with the exact same people and then was like "check out these assholes and drunks I hate"

Also also it's like the Great Gatsby (guy who has read two books voice) but from the perspective of Tom and Daisy and I mean that with pride as clearly they suck

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Another mini for the other boy, this time he picked out the model and the colors but I did it all since 3 year olds aren't known for their fine motor skills

Pretty big standard dwarven warrior with axe and shield, a big red beard and overexposed light in the helm but whattaya gonna do I'm a mini painter not a photographer

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Okay so a nesting doll of analogy here but: This is nothing like Catch-22 but like Kurt Vonnegut wrote Asteroid City. Joseph Heller writes about an author with nothing to write, struggling through multiple failed starts and ruminating on aging and writing and creation and it's all very good.

Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man, by Joseph Heller in the classic Catch-22 art style

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Back to the fiction. Liked this one too but it felt time-LY while the other one felt time-LESS. Stories to smoke cigarettes to.

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Now HERE is some theory folks. Read the teaching focused one and it was good but a list of actions. This went far deeper and taught me a heck of a lot more! Unfortunately still looking for that "if-then" book of strategy.

The cover of Doug Lemov's Coach's Guide to Teaching

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

First mini after soccer is the $8 one I bought to do with my son. Got the details done myself but he helped a pretty significant amount! He picked the model and the color scheme!

A 4.5 year old boy paints the belly of a monster yellow as his dad holds the mini. But then who was phone?

A close up view artfully obscuring the boy's face as he focuses on painting the same mini

A monstrous ground sloth (according to the box). It has metal claws cause that's what the boy chose to color them.

It's giving "knock off Skaven" but in a less perjorative way than that sounds

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

More of a collection of handouts than any actual theory but hey sometimes you need a collection of handouts especially when you coach JV and 75% of the way through you realize your new center mid thinks "carry" means "pass it" (a true story she has no explanation for)

A paperback copy of Soccer IQ by Dan Blank

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Right on its heels is @lukeoneil47.bsky.social's pandemic work and I know I'd didn't get ALL of it thanks to kids etc but it immediately changes your brain monologue and the last two... I don't know if he saved the last two for the last two but got damn the last two stories are something else

The paperback copy of "A Creature Wanting Form" by Luke O'Neil on an orange table and this is special to the alt text it's really good and challenging and since I have more characters I'll tell you that I love that some stories are analogies and some stories are satire and some are lyrical and some are "just thinkin' bout stuff" and it's up to you to tell the difference

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Back after a soccer season was a re-read and one that was much longer than I remembered. LOTTA reverie in this one, but still very much worth it. Is there anyone for whom the critics are exactly right but you still love anyway? For me that's Hemingway.

A paperback copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Okay falling behind the pace but grad school gave me an excuse to read Heart of Darkness and it was pretty good. Better than the movie and probably quicker

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and it's a large print edition because I'm getting old (and didn't want to wait for the normal edition)

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Out walking a wagon in circles around my yard in the rain...

Stu the dad from Rugrats saying "Because I've lost control of my life" about giving in to children's demands

An artfully hidden face picture of my child in a wagon in the rain and a rain coat

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Well shit now I have to find a new series. Really stuck the landing plot wise and thematically. Highly recommend it!

The paperback cover of "World of Trouble" by Ben H Winters, the third book in The Last Policeman series. It's a guy with a comet, which, again, is a scene that does not happen in the book.

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Punted on the basing and the lil spot to put a design on the shield but happy with this #40k squad of Dads Who are Over It #miniatures #warhammer

Three Bullgryn in burgundy armor and blue jeans

The head Bullgryn who has a salt and pepper mustache as if to make grumphing noises when he gets out of an easy chair to break his foot off in a xeno's ass

A shirtless Bullgryn with a mask but unfortunate nipples and crazy eyes as if to say "I saw you miss the hooking call against my son out there on the ice today, bub"

The barbarian beard and big teeth Bullgryn who seems to suggest that this mosh pit is not moshing enough and he will take matters into his own hands

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Gonna need history to stop doing this to me. (From a 1999 article about women's role in opposing the Indian Removal Act)

Our citizens have been accustomed to see offenders against the laws arrested by civil officers, acting in obedience to the warrant of a civil magistrate; but now see armed soldiers, without any civil precept, scouring the country, arresting whom they please, detaining them as long as they please, and releasing them when and where they please. They see those who make no attempt to resist or escape, loaded with irons, forced to travel great distances on foot, vilified, reproached, and threatened by their captors. Such scenes as these are strange and unexpected in this country.

Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition: The Struggle against Indian Removal in the 1830s

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Apparently sequel year here but this one continues to grow on me! From the "What would happen as a comet gets closer to wiping out the planet" series. More a wild goose chase than a who-dun-it but good fun. Getting increasingly worried about losing the grounded charm of the initial premise though.

The cover of Countdown City by Ben H Winters. It features an outline of a man running with his frame filled with a burning city and a helicopter. Once again, a scene that did not happen in the book.

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Started these guys and don't love the decision to go all beige so tried to start throwing in some wild accessories and experiments with basing props! #warhammer #necromunda #20stunningpics

The whole crowd of 10 Ash Waste Nomads from Necromunda. They have a vague Fremen vibe and are all sandy beige

A zoom up of four with a wide range of brightly colored accessories and bright green helmet eyes

A selection of three with accessories on the base ranging from pre-made tuft grass, rocks (made out of the excess plastic sprues), and a log (made out of a pencil shard)

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Okay so the second one is still the best, and the first one is the worst. And yet, it would have been better to stick to the "What would someone who could see the future do in 250CE to bring the Renaissance ASAP" theme instead.

A paperback cover of Asimov's Second Foundation (which is the third Foundation book?) sits on a coffee table. It features that classic of midcentury sci-fi: an illustration that has nothing to do with the story within

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Finn: aka Finnegan, Finn Diesel, Finn The Dog, Finners, Bubbus, Brubbas, Bubba Boots, Groober Boots, Big Guy

A mostly pit bull (very handsome) wrapped in a blanket as if in a kingly robe

The same dog at sunset with a big green donut toy

An old man version of that dog laying on a couch

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Yearly mini thread! Bought this to display on the younger boy's new shelf in his big big room; completed it all in one night (please don't say you can tell) #minipainting #warhammer

A Marvel Crisis Protocol mini of Star Lord launching from his base on one of those rocket boots. It contains the good parts of Chris Pratt's je ne sais quois without the Jesus stuff

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Down to a pace of only a hundred some books but oh well. The next Foundation book (but not the Second Foundation, which is the third book...) was WAY better than the first because it has an actual plot and stakes and yadda yadda. A rare book that is better for knowing the twist at the end, I think!

A library copy of Asimov's Foundation and Empire with a math textbook quality illustration on the front of it

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

2026 book thread! At this pace I'm going to read 365 books! I thought I'd read this in elementary school and kept waiting for the weird clown guy I remembered to show up. Turns out not only did I read a book far beyond my powers but read the sequel without knowing it. Overall pretty good I guess.

A paperback cover of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" held by a hand. Sorry ladies, he's married.

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

As per my initial statement, my 13 books were blown out by over 10 times by @suuusanj.bsky.social but still the most books I've read in a year since having kids! Final list:

A ranking of the books I read by time and by favorites. There are thirteen books and this is the order chronologically:

Blood in the Machine, Brian Merchant
Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut
Hell is a World Without You, Jason Kirk
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemmingway
The Revolution from Within: Cuba 1959-1980. Edited by Michael J Bustamante and Jennifer L Lambe
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Time Shelter, Georgi Gospodinov
The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman
Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
How to Watch Soccer, Ruud Gullit
Last Policeman, Ben H. Winters

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Everyone's been there: You wake up at 4am one morning and can't stop thinking "how would people actually react to a sure-thing comet" and then @icfasntw.bsky.social says that someone already wrote that book and then you read it and it's the best possible idea for how to set a story in that world

A disappointingly low budget paperback cover for the book The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Just completed the second attempt at the kids' trampoline in the basement

The last line from There Will be Blood where he says "I'm finished!" after murdering the (excellent) Paul Dano. This represents that I am mad about my task and that finishing it is only a cruel termination of activity and not any sense of accomplishment

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

My kid got a moon rover toy and honestly I'm gonna count it as an excuse to start a Votann army

A cool astronaut rover with white plastic and green plastic wheels, and a big clear cockpit window

A Votann rover thing that looks a lot like the toy and I feel like I'm seeing double! Four rovers!

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

When the man he was supposed to kill yet saved refers to him by his chosen name, the only 3D person to do so in the whole movie

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

My kingdom for a book that is just "Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each system of play" (which this book sometimes did) without devolving into "here is a list of famous players" (which this book always did)

The book How to Watch Soccer by Ruud Gullit which is orange with his picture on the front

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

What about getting my library to buy it instead?

An email confirming that the Iowa City Public Library is buying Luke's book "We Had it Coming"

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett is not my first Discworld and it certainly won't be the last but I'm REALLY going to need books to stop being about the horrors du jour "Hey what if I wrote a book about big tech and private equity?" Terry it is 2004 please stop doing this to us in the present

A gorgeous hardcover of Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

like if the fight against AI was launched by The Chive

Simpsons Frogurt/Cursed doll meme but about re-launching Hooters

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

The beginning of my 80s Legion, this Aethon Heavy Sentinel is popping his polo collar and taking down some heretics. Too bad the muddy ground is gonna ruin his paint job, cause he's taking this to a Whitesnake concert right after! #warhammer #30k #solarauxilia

A big enclosed stompy mech colored to try to evoke cocaine chic, Star Trek TNG carpeting, and Miami as the center of the universe

The mech from the reverse side with an iron colored skeleton but magenta and mint green highlights alongside the type of gold edging you might find in those glass block walls they put in both high price homes and also Burger King

The big mech from the back and of note is the work done to make it look like the foot of the mech has squished down into the mud of the base and if you don't think it's good please leave me alone because I'm proud of it 🥲

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

A book I ironically ditched in college for being too "kids these days" (it's anything but), I'm wondering now if Amusing Ourselves to Death needs an update in the form of the Age of Algorithms. Not very happy about how prescient it was about education rolling over in the face of new technology.

A paperback copy of Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman features two people in yellow suits with TV sets for heads

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

:/ From Gangsters of Capitalism by Johnathan M Katz

A quote from Gangsters of Capitalism (a book about Smedly Butler) which discusses how the turn of the century was obsessed with manliness due to changing mores and technological innovation, and so turns to war to churn some up.

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

A good book that's only fault is being a descendent of a different canon than I'm used to, The Memory Police gets at a lot of uncomfortable truths about "guess I gotta unload the dishwasher" thoughts in these Unprecedented Times™ eras

The hard cover of The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa which features a mugshot kind of picture of a woman sketched over roughly in places

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Your Friend and Mine @dickimaa.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Started these #warhammer Tempestus Aquilons #killteam guys way back in March and just let it get away from me. Kind of a mad dash for the last couple but if you can't tell which those are I guess I win!

A wide two ranks Tempestus Aquilons painted in forest green armor and mud brown undershirts with golden highlights. They have jetpacks. They're better painted than I remember them being.

A close up of two minis, one with a glowing pulse rifle and one with a power sword and kinky beret

A "cover of my mixtape" arrangement of three minis each disconcertingly looking at the camera. One is lifting off in a jetpack pose, one has a gun AND a knife (in this economy?!) and the last has a sniper rifle

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