iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Banks Peninsula Green candidate Craig Pauling absolutely tearing it up at Te Waipapa/ Diamond Harbour tonight. Young ACT candidate behind him seems totally stunned whereas as current MP is smirking as usual.

View from audience at community candidate meeting. A woman in a red top with grey hair had her back to the audience. A good looking Māori man is speaking at a podium. Behind home a young male candidate states blankly while a middle aged woman MP smirks

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I have no idea what sort of birds these are or why they do this murmuration thing. But it looks pretty cool and always seems to happen this time of year and this time of day.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Ignore the images, it's the sound I'm more interested. BirdNet suggests with high confidence that this is the call of a Tūī. They are rare around here and I'm not sure I'd recognise it. Can somebody more used to them confirm or deny? #aotearoabirds

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

We have up to 8 kererū visiting our heavily flowering tī kōuka at present. These two are something of outsiders and have been relegated to the waiting area, perching on some dead branches. #aotearoabirds

Two kererū sitting in a tī kōuka or cabbage tree. The birds are green and rusty red large pigeon-like with long necks and small heads. The trees has long spiky green leaves. They are perching on the end of dead branches. In the background is a harbour scene with a township, a cruise ship and the hill formed by an ancient volcano.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

And then I get the paper from the gate. I find it hard to believe people use “Wellness” unironically. I mean I like Robyn Malcolm and I know acting is a hard life but still…

Front page of The Press newspaper promoting some sort of Wellness” publication. Robyn Malcolm looking far younger than her age wearing what looks like a long green nightdress.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Man Papers Past has a bunch of weird grenade robberies though. (Press 1988)

Newspaper article with headline “Boy spent robbery money in hotel”. Article describes bank robbery by 15 year old in blind wig using fake grenade.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Water main burst and took sewerage with it. They are replacing water system here and the rickety old system has been damaged several times during that process. In this case it burst under an area recently dug up and patched.

Scene of blue ocean with very dramatic brown plume spreading from coast. Foreground is green scrub.

Large hole in road with brownish water spraying out of it. Home is surrounded by orange road cones.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

This little fluff ball was one of two that followed me for a surprisingly long time as I did a trapline in the wet bush this morning. At times they brushed gently against me. I know they only want the bugs I stir up but I like to imagine the are saying "thanks" as well.

Close up of a pīwakawaka sitting on a branch. It's a small two-tone brown bird with a litter brown underbelly and short black beak. It has a fan-like tail, large for its body, but in this photo the fan is almost complexly closed. Tail feathers are black with white outlines. The bird sits on a branch in a tangled bush with out of focus greenery in the background.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

I expect Minnesota’s premier news team is all over the troubling events there.

Black and white photo scene from the “Mary Tyler Moore” show. Two men have there arms around the shoulders of a woman. Both men wear 80s style suits and have serious looks on their faces. One is balding, the other swept back silver hair. The woman is younger, she had shoulder length brown hair. She is smiling and gesticulating. Another bald man sits at a desk partly out of frame on the right and looks up doubtfully.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Also - seems my language skills are pretty good as I got this when I tried to reply. Didn’t even know I could read Portuguese.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

The “Teleost” anchored in Whakaraupō/Lyttleton harbour for Christmas. For a mere 155000 Euro a week it could be yours.

White super yacht floating in a blue harbour. A bright white tank farm visible in the background. In the foreground is a scrub covered outcrop.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

From neighbourhood FB page. I have to admit Winston is some type of genius in this respect.

Fireworks going loud on Hackthorne at the neighbours and it’s not even fireworks night !!
No consideration to neighbourhood pets
🐶🐾

Looking forward to Winston Peters banning the sale of them to the public !!!

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

One of the world's great migrations - the seasonal return of the cruise ships to Whakaraupō/Lyttleton harbour.

Early morning image of a white cruise ship with a dark blue hull steaming into a very calm harbour. In the background is a steep sided green hillside, partly quarried. Above is a pale blue early morning sky.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Not what you want to see on you home camera when you are 25 min away from home and your young adult son is home alone. Couple of young guys, forced a window, ransacked the place, took cash, jewellery (including precious inherited pieces) and tools from the garage.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

My local MP seems to believe that the solution to environmental degradation is simply to threaten local democracy. To say there is any sort of "Blue Green" movement is farcical. I will actively campaign against her if she stands next year.

Extract from a latter from Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink:

The ‘nitrate emergency’ declared by Ecan is a farce and another example of why we urgently need to reform local body structures.

Best wishes,

Vanessa Weenink

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Cleaning out some old stuff. For some reason peeled this off a mailbox in Victoria B.C. in 1982. Didn't think much about the KKK in the 80s and certainly not in Canada but I guess they were around.

A small slip of wrinkled white paper. In Black Gothic text it reads "Invisible Empire" and "Knights of the Klu Klux Klan". In large red text: "You have been visited by the Ku Klux Klan". There is an ornate cross on with a red circle background and what looks like a drop of blood in the centre. There is an address listed to write to for more information but it's very faint (appears to be a PO Box in British Columbia)

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

As much as I like the idea of a woman on late night tv I’m having some trouble warming to the new Kimmel.

North Korean news reader. An elderly woman in a pink kimono with a black sash belt sits at a reddish desktop. Her hands are clasped. Behind her is a projection of a scene looming down a large urban river with Bridget’s across it and buildings on each bank.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Delivering flyers for a mayoral candidate on Friday and I came across this grass maintenance device on the grassy centre of a cul-de-sac in suburban Cashmere. Seemed pleased to see me.

Small lamb in metal pen covered with a blue tarpaulin on a large patch of grass. Mature trees are visible in the background.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I remember that film upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en...

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Just finished this excellent book, available as an audiobook from @christchurchlib.bsky.social I don't think I've ever read a clearer explanation of the possibilities from the cheapest electricity ever known and the madness of continuing to prop up fossil fuels.

The book cover for "Here Comes the Sun" by Bill McKibben. The subtitle, in white text near the top reads "A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilisation". The lower third of the cover is two rows of photovoltaic panels slanting away from the viewer. Above them a diffuse sunburst that is centered behind the title text.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

This head height web is practically invisible but fortunately a hatching of lake flies overnight finally stops me running into it each morning.

A scene over a green suburban valley with some low cloud at the base of a blue sky. In the foreground dozens of small black flies are immobilised in an invisible spiderweb.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Imagine being so well known that you actually have your own news category.

Purple sub head that reads “David Gilmour”. Main headline reads “Pink Floyd guitarist ordered to tear down ‘overbearing’ garden shed”. There is a small image of a dark green shed with a white door.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Foggy Whakaraupō. Somewhere out there the vehicle carrier “Palmela” is mournfully blowing its horn every 30 seconds trying to find the tugs and the wharf.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

And as a result the maps looks like they are drawn relatively uniformly, especially compared to the most torturous ones seen in the US.

Electorate boundary map of Te Ika-a-Māui/North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Light grey terrain map of the country with electorate boundaries shown in purple.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Rat monitoring on the lower Ōpāwaho/Heathcote river. 9/12 pads show signs of many rat visits and in some cases they have shredded the pad to get the last traces of peanut butter. Large and hungry rats I presume.

Photo of rat monitoring ink pad. It is a white rectangle of cardboard, the middle third of which covered in black ink. Where the pad has been baited with peanut butter it has been torn by hungry rats trying to get the last traces. There are large rat footprints visible where they have tracked the ink onto the white parts. The pad is sitting on a rough green grass background with a couple of tī kōlokua leaves visible as well.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Everytime I see chronic dufus Don Brash making a complete dick of himself with Hobson's Pledge I think of what his father, Alan, would have this total waste of energy.

Extract from Wikipedia Article:

Alan Brash died on 24 August 2002. The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa summed up the life of The Very Rev Alan Anderson Brash as follows: A concern for justice for all people; a conviction that the Church should never forget that it is called to serve the poor of the world; an unwavering commitment to pacifism and the search for peace; and a life-long commitment to ecumenism and the unity of the Church were the hallmarks of Alan Brash's life. He saw these as challenges that should confront all who confess to follow Jesus Christ and he was absolute and fearless in his resolve to walk in that way.[

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Sara Templeton at her mayoral campaign launch on Friday. Extremely inspiring, even for somebody pretty much already convinced. "For our city. For our people. For our future"

Mayoral candidate Sara Templeton delivering a speech at her launch on Friday. Sara has curly dark hair and is wearing a blue top, standing at a podium with the edge of her purple campaign poster just visible. Behind her is a screen with her "For Our CIty. Four Our People. For Our Future" statement displayed in the center of it. There's a projected outlines of a leafless tree below the screen. The backs of the heads of two audience members are visible on the left and right of the picture.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Thanks to a Parents Centre ante-natal class I've known Sara for more than 20 years. Over that time I've been impressed with her as an amazing educator, businessperson, parent and recently councillor. I'm proud to display a billboard to support her quest to become mayor of Ōtautahi/Christchurch

Political hoarding for Sara Templeton's campaign for Mayor of Christchurch. The background is two shades of purple. In the middle it reads "SARA TEMPLETON FOR MAYOR" in white text with a large purple tickmark besides the word SARA. Smaller text reads "For our city", "For our People, "For our Future". Sara is pictured on the right. She is a Pakeha woman with dark hear. She is smiling in a friendly way. She is wearing a dark jacket, a reddish-purple top and a necklace that features various colored spheres. There are small authorisation and website statements in white text. The hoarding is mounted on a wooden frame in front of a green native plant hedge that is untidily trimmed at the top.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Drop a bad guy you actually love

Actor Martin Landau from “North by Northwest”. A white man in his 30s looking right at the camera with a slightly evil look on his face, seen from the waist up. He has dark hair and eyebrows and blue eyes. He’s wearing a white shirt, grey tie and grey suit, all late 50s fashion. A dark, wooden framed window is visible behind him.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Other countries have sensible social conventions and publicity campaigns to amplify them.

Japanese train etiquette sign. Labeled "Train Manner". Three panels with yellow backgrounds and blue text. The first shows a cartoon figure with lots of baggage spread out and reads "Please be careful not to let your belongings nother other passengers". The second shows a cartoon figure of a woman making a loud phone call and reads "Please set your mobile phone to silent mode and refrain from talking on the phone". The third shows a young person messily eating a fast food meal and reads "Please be considerate of others around you when eating and drinking on the train". All panels include Japanese, Korean and Chinese text.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I’m sorted though because I’m not a Shepard.

Sunrise scene over very calm harbour framed by dark hills and silhouettes of trees. Some pink tinged clouds are visible in a light blue sky.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Nearly. Every. Single. Night. This mother and juvenile possum have learned how to safely set off the possum trap. Lone male who typically showed up when they didn't, not so lucky.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

First ever community planting session at Cracroft reserve in Cashmere. An experiment to see what will thrive in this rocky site overun with lucerne trees.

A group of people busy planting on a hillside in a space cleared amongst green lucerne trees. Cloud covered sky and a brief view of the sea is visible in the background.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Here it is, might be in libraries. Fascinating how they had very hard times in the 80s and were selling diesel out of the machinery to get by. One of my favourite ski fields in Te Waipounamu. There's a potted history on the website: mtdobson.co.nz/about-us/

Photo of paperback book entitled "Mount Dobson, Against the Odds". Subtext reads "His dogged determination and achievements in the hills beyond Fairlie, are something of a legend in the district". Author is shown as Jan Danrell. Image is of a snow covered mountain peaks with an elderly man dressed in black winter clothing sitting on a black snowmobile.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

No wish to shame any neighbours who have an interest in collecting modest-value cars. But I can't help thinking of the effort required to drive that Outback at the top of the driveway. At times 8 cars have to be moved first.

Steep suburban driveway with 8 modest-value cars of various colurs (grey, white, red and black) packed up it.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Nearly 30 years ago my Dad carefully printed out six years of email correspondence with me when I lived in the US. Unfortunately due to an upcoming move I have to downsize so I'm only keeping a sample. Much of it was pretty routine and likely didn't even need to be reported at the time.

A stack of paper at least 200mm high sits on slightly worn cream colured corner desk. A green cutting pad is also visible on the desk. The walls visible in the background a very light tea color.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

I've just finished these three "big" books and here's a short thread with some thoughts. They have some things in common IMO: - They all could have been long essays instead of books - They all do a better job of describing the problems than the solutions 1/4

Book cover for "Abundance" by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Subtitle in blue text is "How we build a better future". The image on the book is of a half earch globe. The bottom half is a conventional planetary representation. The top is a futuristic scene showing sky scapers among green fields and solar panels.

Book cover for "Less is More" by Jason Hickel. Background is bright green and there are white vertical between the words "Less" and "More". Subtitle, in white text, is "How Degrowth Will Save The World"

Book cover for "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. Background is white and "Big Things" is in orange. Subtitle is "The Surprising Factors Behind every Successful Project, from Home Rennovation to Space Exploration".

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

My long time friend Katrina had a small role in yesterday's episode of "The Gilded Age". It's a reminder of how much work goes into even a single line of a show like this. It was a week's work, including travel to Rhode Island and three fittings for a purpose built costume and wig.

Photograph showing TV sceen displaying a frame from "The Gilded Age". FIve women in Victorian dress are shown on the balcony of a large white house. In the top right the title of the show is visible in golden letters. Icons for control of the program are overlaid.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Chlöe in Ōtautahi today for the Green Budget Roadshow. "If you don't do politics, politics will do you"

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

If you're seeing this, drop an old pic of yourself that you still like/love.

Couple in their 30s. Pakeha Man, on the right is looking directly into the camera, his lips pursed into a slight smile. He has short dark head and moderately intensely blue eyes. He is wearing a black shirt with patches of blue stripes. The woman on the left is smiling and leaning her head back on the man's shoulder and is looking at the camera through slightly closed eyes. There is some sort of red strand of red festive lights zig-zagging between two upright metal poles in background which is otherwise black. The couple look like they are in love and also slightly, if not totally drunk.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Yeah good point. Geographical bias for sure. I live on the hills in Ōtautahi and apart from some near the botanic gardens, they aren't as many in the flat of the city as there presumably should be.

Map of the Christchurch showing Kererū observations from iNaturalist as blue circles. They are heavily clustered in the hill regions and around the harbour.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Just found this photo when looking for something else. We did try to stop if, I'm in the very front in a black jacket. "EDUCORP?" Yeah, in some ways we did end up with that.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

The cat decided to expel some bedding in the night and might be sending a message.

Image of an enclosed cat bed made out of grey felt, fashioned to resemble a shark's mouth. It has black eyes on either side of he hear and a row of sharp white teeth also made of felt. It sits on a grey carpet in a corner with cream coloured walls. A red blanket is visible in the mouth of a bed and a dark maroon scarf has been dragged out to give the impression of a tongue poking out.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Actually I have more encouraging analysis. I've done the quiz. Magpie brain for the win! But I did notice that your question was the only one that involved written media. And those wrong answers in it that scored highly were known from TV.....

Screen shot from final results page of the Stuff "Nostalgia" quiz. There is a photo of a group of African-American rappers in front of a heavily tagged wall. The score is 15/15. Text, black on a light purple background, reads "Perfecrt score. Hip hop hooray.. ho... hey.. ho" which is presumably some pop-culture reference I would not have got in the quiz.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

RNZ giving us some clues as to the new Amerika Partie policies with their choice of photo.

Headline which reads “Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party”. Photo below is of Musk in a dark suit giving what looks very much like a Nazi Salute.

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Quentin McDonald @dqmcd.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Hah, just this minute unwrapped this chonky fellow. More genius from @pepperraccoon.com

Enamelled pin in the shape of a stamp featuting a very satisfied looking stylised Kererū. The pin is rectangular and has godl scalloped edge. The bird is rendered in purple, green and white on a purple background. The pin is mounted on a larger rectangular piece of brown cardboard. Above the pin it reads "Pepper Raccoon" in fun red text. Below is a green box like an airmail sticker which reads "PAR AVIAN - Enamal Pin Series"

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