iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Most of the maple seeds have dropped now, replaced with the buds of fresh green leaves. So many robins. So many songbirds.

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 17/04/2025

"The more the [Mark Zuckerbergs, Jeff Bezoses, and Elon Musks of the world] control [the Internet] and the more they can limit user choice and options, the more power they have, but the less useful the internet is as an enabling tool."

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 16/04/2025

As we wait for a verdict that only impacts trans people, and in which no trans people were allowed to speak, I remind you of the last year in the Mail, Times, Telegraph and Guardian when it comes to trans people. None of these were written by trans people

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Sara Sanchez @bcbsara.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

The largest paying crowd in the history of Wrigley Field was the day Jackie Robinson made his debut. Wrigley is the only park left Jackie played a game in. Mike Ryoko was a kid at that ballpark that day and he wrote about it. Take a minute and read this today. press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago...

A newspaper clipping from Mike Ryoko part one:

Jackie's Debut a Unique Day
All that Saturday, the wise men of the neighborhood, who sat in chairs on the sidewalk outside the tavern, had talked about what it would do to baseball.
I hung around and listened because baseball was about the most important thing in the world, and if anything was going to ruin it, I was worried.
Most of the things they said, I didn't understand, although it all sounded terrible. But could one man bring such ruin?
They said he could and would. And the next day he was going to be in Wrigley Field for the first time, on the same diamond as Hack, Nicholson, Cavarretta, Schmitz, Pafko, and all my other idols.
I had to see Jackie Robinson, the man who was going to somehow wreck everything. So the next day, another kid and I started walking to the ballpark early.
We always walked to save the streetcar fare. It was five or six miles, but I felt about baseball the way Abe Lincoln felt about education.
Usually, we could get there just at noon, find a seat in the grandstand, and watch some batting practice. But not that Sunday, May 18, 1947.
By noon, Wrigley Field was almost filled. The crowd outside spilled off the sidewalk and into the streets. Scalpers were asking top dollar for box seats and getting it.

Part II:

I had never seen anything like it. Not just the size, although it was a new record, more than 47,000. But this was twenty-five years ago, and in 1947 few blacks were seen in the Loop, much less up on the white North Side at a Cub game.
That day, they came by the thousands, pouring off the northbound Ls and out of their cars.
They didn't wear baseball-game clothes. They had on church clothes and funeral clothes·suits, white shirts, ties, gleaming shoes, and straw hats. I've never seen so many straw hats.
As big as it was, the crowd was orderly. Almost unnaturally so. People didn't jostle each other.
The whites tried to look as if nothing unusual was happening, while the blacks tried to look casual and dignified. So everybody looked slightly ill at ease.
For most, it was probably the first time they had been that close to each other in such great numbers.
We managed to get in, scramble up a ramp, and find a place to stand behind the last row of grandstand seats. Then they shut the gates. No place remained to stand.
Robinson came up in the first inning. I remember the sound. It wasn't the shrill, teenage cry you now hear, or an excited gut roar. They applauded, long, rolling applause. A tall, middle-aged black man stood next to me, a smile of almost painful joy on his face, beating his palms together so hard they must have hurt.

Part III:

When Robinson stepped into the batter's box, it was as if someone had flicked a switch. The place went silent.
He swung at the first pitch and they erupted as if he had knocked it over the wall. But it was only a high foul that dropped into the box seats. I remember thinking it was strange that a foul could make that many people happy. When he struck out, the low moan was genuine.
I've forgotten most of the details of the game, other than that the Dodgers won and Robinson didn't get a hit or do anything special, although he was cheered on every swing and every routine play.
But two things happened I'll never forget. Robinson played first, and early in the game a Cub star hit a grounder and it was a close play.
Just before the Cub reached first, he swerved to his left. And as he got to the bag, he seemed to slam his foot down hard at Robinson's foot.
It was obvious to everyone that he was trying to run into him or spike him. Robinson took the throw and got clear at the last instant.
I was shocked. That Cub, a hometown boy, was my biggest hero. It was not only an unheroic stunt, but it seemed a rude thing to do in front of people who would cheer for a foul ball. I didn't understand why he had done it. It wasn't at all big league.
I didn't know that while the white fans were relatively polite, the Cubs and most other teams kept up a steady stream of racial abuse from the dugout. I thought that all they did down there was talk about how good Wheaties are.

Part IV:

Late in the game, Robinson was up again, and he hit another foul ball. This time it came into the stands low and fast, in our direction. Somebody in the seats grabbed for it, but it caromed off his hand and kept coming. There was a flurry of arms as the ball kept bouncing, and suddenly it was between me and my pal. We both grabbed. I had a baseball.
The two of us stood there examining it and chortling. A genuine major-league baseball that had actually been gripped and thrown by a Cub pitcher, hit by a Dodger batter. What a possession.
Then I heard the voice say: "Would you consider selling that?"
It was the black man who had applauded so fiercely.
I mumbled something. I didn't want to sell it.
"I'll give you ten dollars for it," he said.
Ten dollars. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what ten dollars could buy because I'd never had that much money. But I knew that a lot of men in the neighborhood considered sixty dollars a week to be good pay.
I handed it to him, and he paid me with ten $1 bills.
When I left the ball park, with that much money in my pocket, I was sure that Jackie Robinson wasn't bad for the game.
Since then, I've regretted a few times that I didn't keep the ball. Or that I hadn't given it to him free. I didn't know, then, how hard he probably had to work for that ten dollars.
But Tuesday I was glad I had sold it to him. And if that man is still around, and has that baseball, I'm sure he thinks it was worth every cent.

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 15/04/2025

HAPPY TAX DAY! How much would you spend on a year of tornado warnings? The average US taxpayer spends only $4 a year to help fund the NWS. It’s a smart investment—every $1 invested in NWS yields approx. $73 in social benefits. 🌪️❄️ Support science. Support the NWS. Stay tuned for more this #TaxDay

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Why does this remind me of the Outer Worlds posters?

Poster from the video game, “Outer Wilds” saying, “Halcyon: why stay earthbound when prosperity awaits in the stars?
“Come to Halcyon, the only colony on the edge of the frontier that is owned and operated by distinguished corporations!”

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

it doesn't matter at all, but the fact that the people they've abducted a bunch of very gentle and extremely innocent people helps demonstrate how hollow their pretexts are. they're lying about our students, friends, neighbors, & family, calling them all threats, and we can refute the lies easily

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Glanced outside just in time to see an ephemeral dance of pink maple seeds twirling their way towards the ground.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13/04/2025

Perhaps the most exciting thing happening in the world right now: solar power reliably doubling its deployment every three years. My question for you, looking at this chart, is simple: what do you think is going to happen next?

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Ahhhh yes, my old pal, hyperfixation #BluePrince

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Correction: 5 disks. Real ones remember hitting certain areas of the map and having to insert a new CD and wait 5 min while it loaded.

An original set of 5 CDs for the computer game, Riven.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

When I was a kid, I played HOURS of Myst and Riven (back when it came on a whole 7-disk set, no less). Blue Prince is scratching that exact itch.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Hey friend, don’t forget to do your physical therapy. Stay strong and mobile and ready to fight!

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HAD @havehashad.com · 12/04/2025

open in JUST under an hour. link will be live AT noon ET. I imagine call will be full and closed and the link dead within minutes... if that long. see y'all soon! havehashad.submittable.com/submit/32513...

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Becky Chambers is my auto-buy. But also Megan Giddings, Kevin Wilson, Han Kang. Do graphic novelists count? If so, Tillie Walden.

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Autofocus Books @autofocusbooks.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

For the first time in 18+ months, we (finally) have a call for open submissions again (for one month)! autofocuslit.submittable.com/submit

Autofocus Books is now open for book subs! Send your manuscripts in the forms that we publish up to 80,000 words. The majority of books we’ve published have been 15,000 to 40,000 words, but we also publish shorter and longer books, so send what you’ve got if it’s artful and autobiographical. Any questions, you can reply to this post. Deadline: Sun May 11 before midnight ET. Find the Submittable link at autofocusbooks.com.

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HAD @havehashad.com · 10/04/2025

SECRET SUBMISSION CALL!! By which we me mean... a "SECRETS" themed submission call. In ~48 hours. Saturday, 4/12, 12pm (noon) ET. Sub call capped at 150 submissions. Guest editors? Team hex (Kate, Danny, Joe)!

Submissions call! Theme: Tell us a secret 🤫! We’re asking for your secrets, broadly interpreted: A death-bed confession? An impossible craving? A hidden room in the count’s sprawling manse? The moonbase beneath the moonbase? The true identity of your friend’s cool mom? The real reason the dinosaurs disappeared? Did you know that the doorway to hell is located under an abandoned Shell station in Lima, Ohio? Did you know Miss Piggy was a secret agent? Did you know Lyndon B. Johnson could astral project at will?

🤫 Short fiction, short nonfiction, or non-lineated prose poems only (two max, please).

🤫 500 words or fewer total.

🤫 Shorter’s often better. Sometimes not.

Thank you for trusting us 😈

hex (Kate, Danny, Joe)

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

This article was the first I’d heard about this game and I bought it the second it came out this morning. It sounds that good.

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High Priestess, Low Patience @cheriepriest.com · 08/04/2025

I’d rather burn my face with a road flare

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Your worst stories are good and worthy. Your unsellable books rejected by every agent are good and worthy. You have more creativity in your pinky than every single power monger trying their damndest to steer this country into the new dark ages.

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Hannah Grieco @writesloud.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

DC friends: free workshop this month! A panel and series of workshops about the how/why/when of writing about caregiving. If you care for children, aging parents, a sibling, or even through your work: we'd love to write with you. ♥️ writer.org/event/caregi...

writer.org

Caregiving Through a Literary Lens - The Writer's Center

The Writer’s Center presents a FREE symposium addressing the subject of caregiving (including parenting, eldercare, and other ways we give care to the world) in literature and popular culture, offerin...

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Bull City Press @bullcitypress.com · 05/04/2025

Each year INCH publishes four issues: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and a fourth highlighting an NC author (any of the three genres). Submissions are open until April 15! #Submissions www.readinch.com

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

It’s the cutover to the ellipsis for me 🤣

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

In theory, the outlet should be made so that only specially designed plugs can fit into it, keeping the data secure. But if you have a particularly lazy or inept outlet builder, then they’ll build something standard that any old plug can fit into.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

This is the analogy I use most often. It’s not perfect, but it helps: if you think of data like electricity, then an API is like an outlet. You can plug other programs into it and they will power up with your data.

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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die. Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

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Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Suggestions for interim actions: ✅Make/distribute flyers + stickers to spread info offline ✅Volunteer time or money for mutual aid--food banks, libraries, legal aid, whatever! ✅Check in on ppl, esp. elderly, disabled, immigrants, trans folks + new parents ✅Start a garden ✅Call your reps ✅Make art!

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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

More on that 3.5% number:

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Check your name, your friends, your family, and your neighbors: thegriffinlist.com And please spread the word across North Carolina.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

During the pandy, I had lost all sense of myself as an artist, but I’ve realized lately that creating for the sake of creating is worthwhile resistance. These people only know how to destroy things. We don’t need to make it easy for them by devaluing ourselves.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

I put a plot twist in these 14k words that I deeply do not remember writing and wow, I’m not the worst writer ever!

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Nicki Washington, Ph.D. @drnickiw.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

If you are an NC resident and voted in November, please check if your name or the names of any family areone of the 60K votes being challenged. If so, confirm ASAP with your Board of Elections. You only have two weeks. The website to check linked in the reply. www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

newsobserver.com

NC Court of Appeals gives over 60,000 challenged voters 15 days to prove eligibility

The majority wrote that, even though they have the authority to completely throw out the contested ballots, they decided to instead mandate a cure period for most of the challenged voters.

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Florida Freedom to Read Project @flfreedomread.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Judy Blume…spoke against the bills…saying book bans hurt students. Adults are afraid, she added, that books will prompt too many questions or make children change. “Books don’t make kids become anybody else. Books make kids think.” www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/04/05/f...

orlandosentinel.com

Florida GOP looks to make it easier to challenge books on school shelves

Their proposals mean schools could not consider whether books had “serious” artistic, literary, political or scientific value — only whether they depicted “sexual conduct.&#…

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

The irony being that Nintendo fans were already up in arms about the Switch 2 price.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Great timing for mobilizing Nintendo’s fanbase.

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

“must have logged at least 50 hours of gameplay” 🤣🤣🤣

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Before he left for school this morning, my kid asked me how many switch 2’s I was going to buy and I scoffed. The nerve! I am not made of money! We will have one! (ish)

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Honestly been waiting for an open world Donkey Kong since 64 was the greatest most buggy DK game ever made

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Lauren Dostal @doslauren.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Nintendo’s new business model is “when the world is burning, we’re here to distract you” and honestly, they’ve got me.

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HAD @havehashad.com · 31/03/2025

so great to get to meet Anna Vangala Jones at AWP this week. one of my fave writers I've gotten to publish across journals. and now to get to pub a new absolute banger! "I do think of my favorite stranger sometimes and my undeclared love for him from afar." www.havehashad.com/9gfin

havehashad.com

The Haunted House of Things Left Unsaid by Anna Vangala Jones

Everyone’s heard the rumors that when you die, they take you into a house you’ve never seen before—real dilapidated and creepy for added effect maybe—and in each room, they make you watch people from…

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Split/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 31/03/2025

Tomorrow is OPENING DAY for our Open Prose Chapbook reading period, so put those last touches on your 60-100pg darlings...

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Catherine Rockwood @martin65.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

thinking about this in relation to archival technology and infrastructure. If you haven't been to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, you might not know just how carefully it is built -- in a challenging location and terrain. 1/?

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Jami Attenberg @jamiattenberg.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

I’d rather be writing through it than not.

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Two kids braver than two of the biggest and richest law firms in the U.S.

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