iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 29/09/2026

Well it took two days and breaking out the Excel file, but I finally solved this Sunday's crypto and... Um...

A grid reproducing the Sunday cryptogram, with the unscrambled text over the encoded text reading "If a barber gave fifty-five complete haircuts in only six hours, might he collapse from shear exhausion?"

But there were line breaks inserted into the middle of the words "haircuts", "hours", and "collapse" that made the puzzle extremely difficult to solve.

000

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 16/09/2026

Breaking: Pikachu will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

Pikachu sits on Ed Sheeran while he sleeps.

010

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 13/09/2026

I was going to do something but

050

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 13/09/2026

Probably source of confusion:

Screenshot article depicts seal of CIA from April 13 2016 and article dated September 12 2026.

020

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 09/08/2026

I'm not sure if this is accurate, but this app says our delivery guy is currently driving through a nearby building. Big if true.

GPS type view of a red white and blue styled car icon passing through some buildings along the side of the road.

010

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 03/08/2026

PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN #33 (Paul Jenkins' Mets issue) is one of the best!

Young Peter Parker, just conked by a baseball, next to his Uncle Ben at a crowded Mets game.

000

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 03/08/2026

2026 is broken. This is Microsoft, telling me that I have to press and hold a button over and over again, to prove I'm human and confirm my kid's MS Family account. This is on the Edge browser, after the previous step failed on DDG. "You might need a few more tries." Riiiight.

The on screen display says "Let's prove your human" with an inscrutable image, the instructions "Press and hold the button." a button that says "Press and hold" next to an accessibility button that doesn't work, and more text that says "Keep going. You might need a few more tries."

030

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 18/07/2026

I don't know if this counts:

Street corner in the UK, a sort of beige building with a little (empty) café space out front. Street sign posted to the building labeled "Wild Streer WC2."

020

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 13/07/2026

Portrait of a kitten deciding whether to pee in our little plastic bin:

Brown and grey stripey kitten considers whether to pee in the clear plastic bin she's sitting in.

120

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 07/07/2026

We have a litter box in the downstairs bathroom and I accidentally walked in on my cat, apologized, and left. Cat came out, like, I have never been so embarrassed...

031

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 07/07/2026

You don't know what Paramount will do:

060

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 07/07/2026

I hear this set to the 80s theme music:

1145

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 01/07/2026

Opponent is being cagey about what word this is. I am suspicious.

A Scrabble board with the word "V-blank-blank-a-y" stretching to the triple word acore.

100

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 25/06/2026

What are my cats doing and how can I make it stop?

Two cats weirdly lined up in hallway. One behind has glowy eyes.

Two cats weirdly lined up in hallway. Now both their eyes are glowing.

020

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 23/06/2026

True story: I attended a Dr Who/Blake 7 convention as a little kid in the mid-80s and I askeld Paul Darrow who was shooting who during the end credits of the final episode. He answered with a rhetorical swagger that invited a thunderous applause from the crowd:

Fake Blake 7 title card says "What Do You Think? by Paul Darrow." White text against a stylized blue arrowhead against a background of stars and planets.

1110

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 21/06/2026

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I hope you liked your life.

A photo of two black and white photos: One of the man in his late teens or early 20s, in a short-sleeved collared shirt, pen in pocket, and shorts, sitting on a white bench, wrapped around a redwood. He's smiling, hopefully, maybe squinting slightly in the sunlight. The other is a class photo from late elementary or junior high. His hair is parted to one side and he smiles awkwardly.

030

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 21/06/2026

He quit smoking a few years before he died. Too late. If he’d lived another year, he could have held his grandkid. I could have used his advice. I’m not sure it would have been good advice. But I still would have liked it.

The same man. A candid shot. In his 50s or 60s. In a short-sleeved collared shirt. By the water. Sitting. Thinking. The sunlight comes from behind. He looks into the distance, not towards the water, but to some activity ahead of him. I don't know what he's thinking.

110

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 21/06/2026

He had an impish sense of humor that came out infrequently enough that it always caught us by surprise. After he retired, he grew a big Gandalf beard.

The same man, years later, hair white, with a weird white beard, his cheeks beginning to hollow, in a striped short-sleeved collared shirt, a brick mantle and some photos out of focus behind him. His expression is inscrutable.

110

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 21/06/2026

My dad died in 2014. He was a quiet man. A dreamer, I think. He worked long hours and didn’t get paid very much. When he came home, he sat quietly and watched TV. Sometimes he’d wave us over, and we’d play cards.

A picture of my dad as I mostly remember him, from the 80s or 90s I think, looking up at him, maybe he's on the stairs, with a closed-mouth smile and smiling eyes, like he's barely managing to suppress a laugh, a White man in his 40s or 50s, with a receding hairline and silvering hair, a collared shirt, the lightest blue, with a pen in the pocket, a silver and red striped tie and dark blue slacks.

130

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 19/06/2026

Our Chaos Goblin has torn open the bottom of our couch and made a hammock for herself.

View through a tear in the underside of a couch to a brown and gray stripey cat sleeping on the bowing fabric.

130

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 14/06/2026

Possibly one of these cats has exceeded the size for this cat tree?

Two brown and gray stripey cats in a beige cat tree. The one in the top basket has smashed it flat and her whole body is sort of drooping out towards the cat in the lower basket, who seems mildly alarmed.

020

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 06/06/2026

If a dragon isn't wearing purple pants WHY EVEN?!?

A green dragon kaiju in purple underwear looks aghast.

100

Drew Melbourne @drewmelbourne.com · 01/06/2026

If my cat sleeps all day and wakes me up in the middle of the night for food, am I morally allowed to follow her around all day with an airhorn? Asking for whoever is plausibly distinct enough from me that I won't face any consequences for m-- Um. For THEIR actions.