iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

clarity: this was an online renewal of a passport that was already correct, but given the everything, & also that it required filling out an online form that would time out, i am still amazed it worked.

060

update on an earlier thing: actually got my new passport yesterday…& it’s correct!!! i am beyond relieved. also kind of flabbergasted bc it took less than a week.

1110

an urban forest is still a forest. energy flyin’ around & all that.

020

i feel you may be the one to ask, @chicagotree.bsky.social—do you know if anyone’s mapped the locations of local little free libraries? or have any idea who might know?

131

Grackle Review @gracklereview.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

aw, i’m just an everyday sort of jay, no big deal. but i *do* support your ideas!

111

Reposted by Jay Besemer

We're looking for help! Right now, the EIC is the only one here and we're hoping to change that. If you have a love for literature or the visual arts, maybe you'd want to team up to make something cool? Experience comes in many forms - first timers are welcome! Hit us up if you have any questions 🐦

Monochrome purple poster titled Grackle Review

We are looking for: web designer, poetry editor, art editor, prose / CNF editor

Send your CV and cover letter to thegracklereview@gmail.com

043

stayed the same. i felt it as an affirmation/confirmation of commitment to this practice, & to the liberation of all beings…that’s buddhist talk that also makes sense to me in other relevant framings of my life’s efforts. i wonder if they’ll feel something similar.

i have a little role in the ceremony—i get to ring a bell as we all enter the zendo in a procession, which of course my inner toddler *loves*. but i’m also stoked because my own ceremony is so recent i recall the physical feeling of its unfolding, the way things perceptibly shifted afterwards, yet

as a religion, so i feel awkward using a heavily religious term like “ordination” to characterize the ceremony. i referred to it as “receiving the precepts” when i posted about my own ceremony. but other practitioners may experience it/feel it differently. in any case, i am so stoked for monday!

this morning we had the rehearsal for the zaike tokudo ceremony for two of my dharma sibs, which will be monday night. it’s a kind of lay ordination given in soto zen, & it’s the ceremony i had last december. i’m not super comfortable with calling it a lay ordination; i don’t experience zen buddhism

it would’ve been funner if he’d had a chance to say “embointment”

walls are not meant to be puffy! 😬

there’s got to be a story behind this lesser-known, indoor henge.

it’s inevitable, isn’t it? 😹🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

they’re sort of the capybara of the birdverse

blue jay, of course. also great blue heron (“local pterodactyl”), house sparrow, nuthatch & great potoo.

hey then happy in a couple of days birthday! well, not to push you to feel any one way; i get ambivalent about celebration, but i’m glad as hell to know you💚

i’ve lived here over 25 years & i’m only just getting a sense of the full world in this city.

040

so excited about this new edition! (also i relate to the tale of the previous editions of the book…so familiar🤦‍♂️) can’t wait for my copy!

011

this is so awesome! congratulations!!💚💚

definitely [cat squats in litterbox]

said to yourself or said by someone else? bc if the latter…[cat digging in litterbox]

100

furthermore: you do not owe anyone access to your body, regardless of who they are. nor do they owe you access to theirs. full stop.

030

& rightly so. thanks for the reporting on this—i suspect that the experience of engaging the survey was a lot less dispassionate than the presentation of its content & context!

030

we need to keep acknowledging (over & over!) & stating publicly that nobody is exempt from being—or being targeted by—a sexual predator or other abuser. centering _all_ survivors does not mean diverting attention from the ones who fit the “image”; it means facing the full scale of the harm done.

050

a survivor has a greater chance of becoming an assailant when there is no room, path or support for their lived experience—when recognition of their experience is refused, when gaslighting & shaming is added to other violence because nobody wants to face the implications of taking them seriously.

130

my main abuser was not of the expected gender or relationship role. i am not a normative survivor. consequently, i have found very little space for my own experience to be reflected or supported even in activist/movement communities. i can confirm: this worsens the harm & the silencing.

(please no reposts) the backlash against csa/sa/rape survivors is entrenched, systemic & unconscionable. it’s hard enough to seek justice/care/support when you fit the normative survivor profile, & when the predator you’re naming fits the expected gender for an assailant. if not, it’s even worse.

160

i love this book & often re-read it around seasonal changes

040

couple days ago i made up a dish involving a carmelized garlic & tomato sauce (as in both were carmelized) that worked out so well i decided to really do it up as a highly concentrated paste to use for a base. did that tonight & i think it may be a new house “thing.” i see so many options!🍅🧄🫙

020

honestly i can’t remember. mostly they come in thru my website contact form these days but i seem to recall, in the hazy past (anything before last year lol), i got one or two. right now my problem is politicians. totally different scam.

it’s unusual for me to post about specific zen stuff. i don’t talk about it as a flex; it’s more about hello, i’m alive, & i do this. maybe it’s good to talk about it sometimes. about zen, but also about the other stuff i do. i’m slow to realize just how action-oriented i can be!

030

so far today i sat zazen as usual, chanted the daihishin dharani for jon mc kinsey, went on a walk in the rain to aid in opening some possibilities in a decision-making situation i’m in. saw maple leaves turning, saw the intensive & extensive damage riot fest caused to our beloved neighborhood park.

solidarity with you, si, & also strong, strong mug approval✊