iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I would spend hours typing in a complicated program just to watch a pixelated helicopter move across the screen.

Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Ep. 133: Hard to Forget. My latest terrain creation for @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social in which Best Wishes finally comes face-to-face with Harkuun, the Living Memory. #BlackwaterDnD #DnD5e #DungeonsandDragons #miniatures

A dramatic tabletop miniature scene depicts adventurers confronting a towering, axe-wielding construct atop a carved stone staircase. Blue-purple cavern lighting and glowing orange fires illuminate rocky ruins, crystals, and a shadowy monster looming in the background trapped behind a portal. 1/4

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It’s finally getting cool enough to bust out my socks.

A pair of feet with socks on. The socks have a caption that reads: “Dragons and wizards and shit.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I got a few shots of the partial lunar eclipse tonight.

A partial lunar eclipse with trees in the foreground.

A partial lunar eclipse with clouds in the foreground.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

A little creation I whipped up for my D&D players. This colossal gibbering mouther opens up to reveal three playable levels. It was a beast to make! Primarily foam and papier-mâché. #DnD5e #DungeonsandDragons #TTRPG

A handsome man stands next to a three-foot tall monster with many yellow eyes, snarling mouths, gangly arms, and other protrusions.

A three-foot tall gibbering mouther, a monster with many yellow eyes, snarling mouths, gangly arms, and other protrusions.

A peak inside one mouth of the gibbering mouther revealing small versions inside.

A miniature display showing heroes battling against ooze creatures as a gibbering mouther descends a bridge that looks like a tongue surrounded by human teeth.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Happy birthday to the universe! 17th-century German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler dated creation to April 27, 4977 BC, by reverse-engineering biblical chronology, historical dates and planetary math. Wrong birthday, but impressive spreadsheet energy. #HistSci

A photoshopped image showing 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler superimposed on a diagram of our solar system.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

My talented friend is available for commissions. #TTRPG #DungeonsandDragons #DnD5e #Art www.fiverr.com/auzins/draw-...

A D&D portrait of a young tabaxi artificer and orc monk.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Ep. 117 - Harmful Exchange. My latest D&D terrain creation for @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social The party confronts the evil wizard Eliban, his arcane obelisks, and a legion of ghouls in the city of Yorin. Watch it in action here: youtu.be/pWV6P0TDGwM?... #BlackwaterDnD #DnD5e #DungeonsandDragons #TTRPG

A D&D diorama showing a black tower surrounded by four glowing obelisks that have crushed surrounding structures. A central plaza with autumn-colored trees is being overrun with ghouls. An elvish wizard and huitjin devil look on. 1/4

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming — until oil prices spike.

A fake newspaper cover of Weekly World News. It shows a tentacled beast looming over oil tankers with the headline: CTHULHU AGREES TO HELP! USA Makes Pact With Beast To Protect Strait Of Hormuz

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

My latest miniature terrain creation for @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social Our heroes travelled into the sinister Castle Voraz to rescue a lich and escape the Famished Lands. Watch it in action here: youtu.be/xXSmILAyyhc?... #BlackwaterDnD #miniatures #terrain #dungeonsanddragons #wargaming #DnD5e #TTRPG

A D&D terrain diorama depicting a dark fortress with gold ornaments and bone-lined stairs. Tentacles emerge from the roof and a bottomless pit sits beneath a lich hovering above wrapped in chains. Piles of corpses surround the pit and green smoke emanates from them. A huge creature made from corpses, a bone snake, two flying wraiths bearing scythes, and a ghoul wielding a bloody cleaver are scattered across the scene. 1/4

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

New job! I’m thrilled to be starting as a Senior Writer and Editor at CBC News. Today’s my first day in the Vancouver office.

A man with glasses, beard, and a suit stands in front of CBC Headquarters in Vancouver.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Also I loved this little nod to TNG and Lower Decks. Apparently, this exocomp is named Almond Basket.

The exocomp robot Almond Basket from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a lot of fun. These two are thoroughly enjoying themselves chewing up the scenery.

Paul Giammati, as the villain Nus Braka, looms over Holly Hunter’s Captain Nahla Ake in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

If you haven’t seen #Andor yet, I highly recommend it. Make it your nerdy escapism while also paying attention to themes that remain relevant today.

Senator Dasi Oran says, “They don’t even bother to lie badly anymore.” To which Senator Mon Mothma replies, “I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong says Wednesday’s deadly shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis proves that immigration officers are terrorizing communities, not making them safer. www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

A photo of a concerned woman with a headline that reads, “Minneapolis ICE shooting ‘diabolical and unacceptable’ says civil rights lawyer”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

David Brooks headlines between 2020 and 2025. Hard to say whether this is tragedy or farce.

David Brooks headlines:

No, Not Sanders, Not Ever

Maybe Bernie Sanders Is Right

I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING

AMERICA NEEDS A MASS MOVEMENT-NOW

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

“Yet according to recent estimates, generative AI now accounts for roughly 40 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. In other words, if the AI spending boom falls apart, it could take down the entire economy with it.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Just saw #OneBattleAfterAnother. I loved this movie! It’s as if The Dude was reactivated in Trump’s America. One part manifesto, two parts the importance of found family. Hilarious, thrilling, and very touching. I look forward to seeing it again.

Poster from One Battle After Another showing Leonardo DiCaprio in a bathrobe holding a rifle and framed by members of the resistance and Sean Penn as the military goon set on destroying him.

Title that says “One Battle After Another”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I will admit that my own theory of political change has been informed by historical examples where direct action operated in-person to interrupt the status quo. This makes a persuasive case that Internet politics needs to be taken seriously.

Citarella noted that he's been warning, for more than half a decade, that too many people remain under the mistaken impression that "what happens or the internet isn't real." He added that "the professional commentary class" has been particularly insulated from the power of digital discourse, because "they pay attention to the legacy sources of information, and they're just not having the same media-environment experience as most people in the country.

What is needed, Citarella's strategy suggests, is an understanding of a kind of post-internet politics, where, like it or not, online life is embraced as part and parcel of how modern belief systems are formed.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

This AP photo shows the truck that rammed into a Mormon church in Grand Blanc, Michigan before a gunman opened fire. The truck is draped in American flags. If it carried the flag of any other country, the coverage would scream “terrorism.” Instead, the narrative is: motive unknown.

A fireman carries a fire hose while, behind them, a truck with American flags is seen crashed into a Mormon church.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

The Heritage Foundation lied in order to frame the disproportionate victims of gun violence as the perpetrators. www.wired.com/story/herita...

The larger pattern, researchers say, points in the opposite direction: White supremacist, anti-government, and misogynist beliefs account for the lion’s share of ideologically motivated gun violence. Targeting “transgender ideology” as a terrorism category, they warn, confuses identity with ideology, risks licensing violence against anyone who defies gender norms, and shifts attention away from the real drivers of schoolyard violence.

“There are no legitimate studies that suggest that a majority of school shootings since 2015 involve trangender people,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas and R.G. Cravens of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project in an email. “Trans people are far more likely to be victimized by gun violence than to perpetrate it.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Fantastic! I recently posted this photo of Curtis Evans, of Evanston, IL, a former Marine, outside of an ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 19, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Photo of a man, a former marine, holding an American flag surrounded by gas while protesting an ICE facility. A protest sign on the ground reads, “Every ICE agent will be held to account.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

This is an excellent photograph. Credit and Caption: Curtis Evans, of Evanston, Illinois, a former Marine, carries a U.S. flag through gas deployed by federal officers as they clear protesters from the entrance of the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 19, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Curtis Evans, of Evanston, a former Marine, carries a U.S. flag through gas deployed by federal officers as they clear protesters from the entrance of the ICE facility in Broadview on Sept. 19, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

February 6, 1939. A headline pulled straight out of today’s news.

Newspaper article: Goebbels Ends Careers of Five Actors Who Made "Cracks" About Nazi Rule

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Here is my latest miniature set for @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social. The party journeyed to a stronghold in The Divide that was under siege by ghouls. Check it out in action here: youtu.be/YM3b7ZPGFPc?... #BlackwaterDnD #miniatures #miniaturepainting #terrain #dungeonsanddragons #wargaming #DnD5e #TTRPG

A miniature set showing a keep protected by a wooden barricade that has been breached. A dozen ghouls have breached the gates and are wandering around aimlessly as a boat attached to a hot air balloon approaches from the left. 1/4

BlackwaterDnD players Adam Lucas and Jess Lupini at the gaming table as the mini set of a keep under siege by ghouls sits in front of them. Both are smiling and enjoying playing a game with good friends.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

My music tastes are eclectic. Let’s do this!

Music Ask
1. A song you like with a color in the title
2. A song you like with a number in the title
3. A song that reminds you of summertime
4. A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about
5. A song that needs to be played LOUD
6. A song that makes you want to dance
7. A song to drive to
8. A song about drugs or alcohol
9. A song that makes you happy
10. A song that makes you sad
11. A song that you never get tired of
12. A song from your preteen years
13. One of your favorite 80's songs
14. A song that you would love played at your wedding
15. A song that is a cover by another artist
16. One of your favorite classical songs
17. A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke
18. A song from the year that you were born
19. A song that makes you think about life
20. A song that has many meanings to you
21. A favorite song with a person's name in the title
22. A song that moves you forward
23. A song that you think everybody should listen to
24. A song by a band you wish were still together
25. A song by an artist no longer living
26. A song that makes you want to fall in love
27. A song that breaks your heart
28. A song by an artist with a voice that you love
29. A song that you remember from your childhood
30. A song that reminds you of yourself

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

The UK Online Safety Act of 2023 makes it a crime to send online messages about harming someone—even if you weren’t serious—if you were “reckless as to whether an individual encountering the message would fear that the threat would be carried out (whether or not by the person sending the message).”

Text from UK Online Safety Act of 2023:

181
Threatening communications offence
(1) A person commits an offence if-(a)
(c)
the person sends a message (see section 182),
(b) the message conveys a threat of death or serious harm, and
at the time of sending it, the person—
(i) intended an individual encountering the message to fear that the threat would be carried out (whether or not by the person sending the message), or
ii) was reckless as to whether an individual encountering the message would fear that the threat would
be carried out (whether or not by the person sending the message).
(2) "Serious harm" means—
(a)
serious injury amounting to grievous bodily harm within the meaning of the Offences against the Person Act
1861,
(b) rape,
(c)
assault by penetration within the meaning of section 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or
(d) serious financial loss.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Things aren’t golden in Canada either. In Alberta (Canada’s Texas) they just banned over 200 books, including The Handmaid’s Tale. @margaretatwood.bsky.social had thoughts. www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/art...

Margaret E Atwood @MargaretAtwood

Here's a piece of literature by me, suitable for seventeen-year-olds in Alberta schools, unlike -- we are told -- The Handmaid's Tale. (Sorry, kids; your Minister of Education thinks you are stupid babies.)

John and Mary were both very, very good children. They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits. They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex. Although they claimed to be Christian, they paid no attention to what Jesus actually said about the poor and the Good Samaritan and forgiving your enemies and such; instead, they practised selfish rapacious capitalism, because they worshipped Ayn Rand. (Though they ignored the scene in The Fountainhead where "welcomed rape" is advocated, because who wants to dwell, and also that would have involved sex and would de facto be pornographic. Well, it kind of is, eh?) Oh, and they never died, because who wants to dwell on, you know, death and corpses and yuk? So they lived happily ever after. But while they were doing that The Handmaid's Tale came true and Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job. The end.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Happy #SkynetDay to those who celebrate! Ah, the good old days when all we had to worry about was AI destroying civilization as we know it, oh wait…

Two screenshots from Terminator 2: Judgement Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Part 1. Schwarzenegger as the T-1000 cyborg looks at the road as he’s driving and says: Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate.

Part 2. Schwarzenegger as the T-1000 cyborg looks to the camera and says: It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Want to know how I made my rainforest temple terrain? I have a full tutorial available at the @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social Patreon page! www.patreon.com/posts/temple... #BlackwaterDnD #miniatures #miniaturepainting #terrain #dungeonsanddragons #wargaming #DnD5e #TTRPG

Miniature set for Dungeons & Dragons depicting an overgrown temple in the rainforest. Yuan-ti soldiers cross ramshackle wooden bridges over pools of acid while a purple worm emerges in the background.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

My “sophisticated” photography studio.

A makeshift lighting studio for a miniature D&D set. USB lights have napkins draped over them as diffusers while pieces of black cardboard block the light from reflecting on the flatscreen TV used as a panorama backdrop.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Trying out a new lighting setup for my #BlackwaterDnD mini sets. Here’s the results for my rainforest temple.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Here is my latest miniature set for @blackwaterdnd.bsky.social. The party journeyed into The Divide, a region overrun with ghouls and the undead. Check it out in action here: youtu.be/VOxiRA3cndE?... #BlackwaterDnD #wargaming #miniatures #miniaturepainting #terrain #dungeonsanddragons #DnD5e #TTRPG

A miniature set of blackened stone and ruined buildings. Two corpses hang from a dead tree and an ominous statue of a skeletal mouth has been carved into the mountain. Ghouls and undead charge out from a ruined temple. 1/4

Dungeon Master Tim Carlson strikes a pose in front of a set depicting The Divide. 3/4

Players Adam Lucas and Jess Lupini plan what to do as their characters are attacked by ghouls. 4/4

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

“Access to a PhD-level expert in your pocket.” Prompt: Create an accurate anatomical diagram of a great white shark with clear labels of all major organs. How did it do @whysharksmatter.bsky.social?

ChatGPT-5 prompt: Create an accurate anatomical diagram of a great white shark with clear labels of all major organs.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

“Access to a PhD-level expert in your pocket.” Few are aware of the enmity between the Russian Empire and the Aust Blan Empire in 1848. Or the brief period during which Belgium controlled Spain.

ChatGPT-5 prompt: “Show me a map of Europe in 1848. Label each country at the time.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

“Show me a diagram of all Canadian Prime Ministers, with their names and years in office listed under each of their photographs.” Nailed it!

Incorrect diagram of Canadian Prime Ministers created by ChatGPT-5.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

The $500 billion valuation is totally worth it to have “access to a PhD-level expert in your pocket.” The prompt: “Show me a diagram of all Canadian Prime Ministers, with their names and years in office listed under each of their photographs.” As if you know the real answer!

Incorrect list of Canadian Prime Ministers created by ChatGPT-5.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

But did you ask it to “think hard”? This was my result. Better but still laughable. Trump has been present since 1777. I mean, it does feel that way.

ChatGPT-5 result for the prompt: “Think hard. Show me a diagram of the US presidents since FDR, with their names and years in office under their photos.”

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Interesting to note that this is also how Rome fell. Increasingly extractive policies with vassal states led to them removing their support, further weakening the Empire.

Another novel feature of the deals that the Trump Administration has made is that, under duress, Japan and the E.U. pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. Evidently, Trump is using the same playbook with which he bullied universities and law firms by threatening to withhold federal funding and contracts. There is also a historical analogy. The new Trumpian trade regime, featuring tribute transfers to the hegemon as well as high tariff walls, resembles the extractive economic policies of the Ming dynasty more than the open trade order to which American Presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama pledged fealty. "In Europe, we still have the habit of thinking of the U.S. as a friend and ally," Riekeles quipped.

Trump is helping many non-Americans to break this habit. At home, meanwhile, he is resorting to the actions of a petty dictator by attacking the independent central bank and firing an economic scorekeeper. If he persists with this strategy, it will further undermine the credibility and strength of the U.S. economy, but it surely won't enable him to disguise the consequences of his policies. They are already becoming clearer.

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Eric Michael Johnson @ericmjohnson.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

These techno-utopians are completely out of touch with reality. In a world where half the global population struggles to survive on less than $2 per day, this doofus thinks Artificial Intelligence will create magical abundance and give everyone the freedom to work one day per week.

Katie Drummond: I want to make sure I understand. Your premise here is that Al will be this transformational technology that will extend our lifespan in some way, and there is not an ideology that supports mankind at that moment?

Brian Johnson: I'm saying nobody knows what's going to happen. All we know is that Al is improving at a rate that is unfathomable to our minds. Now, that doesn't stop humans from saying, "I will explain to you what's going to happen. It's going to make the world an abundant place, and we humans are going to be able to do whatever we want, and we're going to have one day a week where we work."

Katie Drummond: To be clear, I think that's a very utopian and very unlikely scenario.

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