iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I will grant that I'm in a unique position of being able to take the time to research more slowly. I don't have a manager requiring/encouraging me to use AI. So, for now, I don't feel like I need it to do the things that I still want to do *and* that I feel are beneficial to the overall process

Part of what I enjoy about resource is the incidental finds along the way! A weird article about Utah celery sales! Ads for suppositories that contained opium (but that wasn't why the FDA fined them)! and I'd miss all of those if the AI was doing the search for me.

If I had AI surfacing all of these articles and resources, yes, I would produce more, and I'd produce it faster. But I don't know that I would necessarily produce it *better* and I don't think I would have as much fun doing it.

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My research (on various topics) has, unintentionally and for various reasons, taken an extremely long time. However, this slow review of references has given plenty of percolation time that ultimately shifts the directions of those projects for the better.

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And yet! I've been slowly gleaning insights that I want to explore further in my research. I jot notes down about further avenues of study. I solidify theories I'd had going into this project. I might not be fully analyzing, but my brain is still processing things anyways.

As a current example: I'm collecting newspaper articles with mentions of someone. At this point, I'm not taking notes on these articles, just putting the citation, a few tags, and PDF into Zotero to review later. I'm not even fully reading most of these articles! Only double checking it's the person

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Not that I *have* to have an opinion on everything, but I think my stance on using AI for research is that I don't want to because I think the time doing "busy work" is actually incredibly valuable.

el @elcall.info · 01/10/2026

From the Ogden Examiner, Jan 24 1913, reasons why you need a telephone newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3...

Newspaper ad, titled "Three Reasons Why You Need a Telephone."
"1. In case of fire you can call the department at once.
"2. In case of sickness you can get a doctor at once.
"3. In case of robbery you can get the police."
Bottom text identifies the ad from "The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company"

el @elcall.info · 25/09/2026

This was a fascinating read!

el @elcall.info · 25/09/2026

In 1943, Utahns were gifting celery...so much so, that they apparently had a celery committee in the Chamber of commerce??

Article from Deseret News, 1943-11-13:
"Celery Shipping Dates Announced
"Utahns Urged to Send Out Gifts Early
"If the Pilgrims had known about Utah celery it would probably have had its present place of honor next to the furkey on that first Thanksgiving Day.
"But due to 'circumstances beyond their control' they were In ignorance of this crisp and toothsome delicacy and Utahns have for years done their best to make up to the later settlers of the eastern regions for this original misfortune.
"It began when individifais began sending clumps of the flavorsome Utah celery to their own relatives in other parts of the country where that vegetable grew with considerably less tenderness.
"The practice became so gener al that about ten years ago the Chamber of Commerce made a project of the distribution of Utah celery, organizing a cooperative effort between the merchants, who used special boxes for packing the stalks, the Railway Express Company for transportation of it, and the individuals making the purchases for gift offerings at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"Dates for mailing to various parts of the country are publlshed every year for the convenience of senders in order that the celery may arrive fresh and crisp for the feast day tables all over the land. The mailing time is known as celery week and the 1943 edition of the week opens Monday.
"This year, the Chamber Commerce celery committee secretary F. J. Savage, urges earlier sending due to crowded transportation facilities and also to special refrigerator cars that will leave periodically. Mr. Savage gives the following dates:
"For points east of Chicago mail celery in Utah no later than Tuesday, Nov. 16.
"For points in midwestern United States, Nov 20 is the deadline for safety's sake and assurance of the celery's arrival by Thanksgiving Day.
"Shipments for California aiso should go on Nov. 20, Mr. Savage recommended."

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el @elcall.info · 22/09/2026

One of my high school friends regularly wore shorts to school through the winter in central MN. Pants were worn only when the temp was below zero

We also have Wrong Party!

Tbf if I suddenly came into a *lot* of money I do think I'd consider funding a journalism network of some sort.

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And then I realized I was just reinventing magazines/news

I've been listening to some YouTube commentary videos and at some point last night I thought "a lot of these people are covering the same topics. It'd be so much more effective if there was a network or something where they could work together to produce coverage and share research"

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Might come back to this with more that I come across later because woof these are rough

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- another Disney-ish animation of a woman getting (reasonably imo) frustrated that her partner isn't giving her attention. Gonna be honest I don't know what this one is for because I had things to do and I needed to skip

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- a realistic looking old woman on a cruise ship giving us poors the advice wealthy people know, which is to never start an introduction with your name. They cut to a woman not following this advice and showing how poorly it goes.

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I don't have screenshots of the other ones, but they included: - an extended Frozen-style animation while an AI song plays about how her ex husband left her because she let herself go, and now she's on a supplement and looks decades younger and he regrets leaving her

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I've been listening to anti-MLM YouTube videos like podcasts lately, and since I don't pay for premium I get ads. Most are unhinged. Obviously, I usually skip as soon as I can but some of them baffled me so much I keep watching. All of the following are AI generated (so details change constantly)

AI-generated image from a YouTube ad of a buff skeleton wearing a grass skirt against a desolate wasteland. The on screen caption says "both call themselves seed vaults." The ad below the video says this is for "Seeds for a Self-Reliant Future" from gardenspulse.com

AI-generated image from a YouTube ad of a buff skeleton wearing a grass skirt against a lush gardenscape. The on screen caption says "only one actually is something real." The ad below the video says this is for "Seeds for a Self-Reliant Future" from gardenspulse.com

AI-generated image from a YouTube ad of a buff skeleton wearing a grass skirt in a grocery store. The on screen caption says "I started looking for seeds when I realized what's happening right now" The ad below the video says this is for "Seeds for a Self-Reliant Future" from gardenspulse.com

AI-generated image from a YouTube ad of a buff skeleton wearing a grass skirt in a field of some sort with a rocket taking off in the background. The on screen caption says "a one point five trillion dollar military budget is being pushed." The ad below the video says this is for "Seeds for a Self-Reliant Future" from gardenspulse.com

el @elcall.info · 10/09/2026

You're right! It is not! We are merely responsible for replacing burned out bulbs

el @elcall.info · 10/09/2026

(at $5/bulb and $90/hr labor, which is....a choice.)

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el @elcall.info · 10/09/2026

it's security deposit time (fighting to get it back rn) and the most baffling thing they're claiming is that we're responsible for making sure the temperature color of the lightbulbs should match (even on bulbs that were there since we moved in) so they're charging us for 7 replaced bulbs

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el @elcall.info · 07/09/2026

Took @sarahjwh.bsky.social's idea for a ring dish in the kitchen and I love it

A mostly white ring dish with antler-like protrusions, as well flowers with gold accents. Two rings are resting in the dish where the bottom is painted a light turquoise.

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el @elcall.info · 30/08/2026

Given that I believe conference talks have to be turned in in advance for translation, I would bet that almost none of them will be talking about non-pilot experiences

el @elcall.info · 23/08/2026

Without context, my best guess is "point of sale"

el @elcall.info · 23/08/2026

I don't want to have to be an expert in everything!! Even if I was, I want to be able to trust that people are going to do good work/give me quality products (or at very least have some avenue if they don't)

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el @elcall.info · 23/08/2026

I'm pretty solidly on the "please we need more regulations and more enforcement of said regulations" train right now, and it's not even just because of food safety stuff

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el @elcall.info · 22/08/2026

I never want to finish a basement again

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All I can think about is the $4 standard celery stalk

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(and then there's the sub reason of only being able to find the non-explicit versions of songs on streaming, which I like having on hand for kids being in the room/car when it's playing)

I don't really want to use Spotify, but it's going to be a massive hassle to research alternatives and get off of it, not to mention the start up cost of buying the music I like

That's me! I've been using it for nearly 15 years, and I haven't been able to take the time to get off of it because it's such a staple of my routine to use it (either for music I already know I like, occasionally looking for new artists, or for podcasts)

el @elcall.info · 19/08/2026

Yellow was a standard color when I was going to school, alongside red and green, so those had to be the defaults. Purple was also rare, so it also got to be a special subject folder

el @elcall.info · 19/08/2026

Yellow is English! Blue is the side subjects like Econ or gov!

el @elcall.info · 18/08/2026

I grew up in MN where we always started school after Labor Day, so it has been baffling to me to get used to sending my kid to school in the middle of August. Like, what do you mean school is now? You have summer left!

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el @elcall.info · 18/08/2026

Wasn't it...like...a dollar??? In the before times?

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el @elcall.info · 15/08/2026

Does it count if you're a writer mother who bottle fed?

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el @elcall.info · 13/08/2026

Honestly this one feels fair (their suit against Dehlin does not)

Dani Donovan 👩🏻‍🎨 ADHD Comics @danidonovan.com · 13/08/2026

Reposted by el

oh nooooo, looks like i gotta create a new system to help me do my work instead of doing my actual work

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Exactly! Sometimes people have more than just citations (such as commentary) in the notes, and I don't want to have to keep doing that work for every sentence

I already hate flipping to the back of the book to see if it's a source or if it's an extra comment. Having to do the brainwork of figuring out which text has a note? Nah.

I think they're trying to make it less intimidating for the general public to pick up??? But idk as a researcher I hate it so much

Oh, you're right! My brain is not fully processing things today 😅

Yeah! The other one that did this (a Neal A. Maxwell biography) did at least have page numbers!