iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Generative AI: there is a car rental Company called Sixt and their horrifying horse spokesman is enough that I would never ever consider using them. Nightmare fuel.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

In “honor” of the extremely lowbrow Lizzie Borden thing on Netflix (by the way, do you know she was found not guilty?) I bring you a sublime take on the same story, one that works only because of the supreme genius of Angela Carter. I urge you to read it. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...

lrb.co.uk

Angela Carter · Story: ‘Mise-en-Scène for a Parricide’

Hot, hot, hot . . . very early in the morning, before the factory whistle, but, even at this hour, everything shimmers...

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Recently, as music and books and so much else awaken memories I finally understand Billy Pilgrim becoming unstuck in time. Some things have me sitting in my friend Geff’s truck or listening to music in an apartment as long lost as the relationship that put me there. So it goes.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Missing my sweet dog badly tonight. Here’s a pop art piece I did of her… @austinpetsalive.bsky.social would list her as a Carolina Dog now, but in 2011 she was a Lab mix… we Never tested but it’s likely there was zero lab in this sweet difficult and utterly loved girl.

Carolina dog/mix in
Pop art style with dog thinking “they must never learn my secret… I’m not really a *choke* Lab mix!”

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I experienced this very thing this morning… I told the bot that I felt it was intentionally keeping me from the help I needed and it clearly couldn’t provide, which actually got me to a human. I doubt this is the norm.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Was the remit for the first-ever World Cup halftime show “hugely cringe”? Nailed it.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

All the years of joy and love and laughter has a bill that comes due. Broken hearted to say goodbye to Riley… so many laughs and adventures.

Riley the dog, always a smile, wearing a favorite bandana.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

You will discover how much you care, And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

If the desired effect is to match the National Mall reflecting pool color to the background of the star field color on our flag, this may be the easier solution.

American flag with algae green behind the stars.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

When someone says something like “we have two beautiful children” I have to fight the urge to ask how many ugly kids they have.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Listening to Buddy Holly and especially the sadly sparse Greenwich Village recordings and realizing he’s only scratched the surface of his brilliance. How much more would he have changed music?

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Audience reviews for Amadeus in Starz are massively lower than critic reviews. It’s a parade of “show us you’re a racist while pretending you’re not racist.”

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

With my mood issues, comic strips are a lifeline. I recommend everything ever from @badmachinery.com, @danschkade.bsky.social does a remarkable Flash Gordon, Will Henry’s Wallace the Brave is a gem and @danacorn.bsky.social’s excellent Phoebe and her Unicorn is sadly Sunday only online right now.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I really question why @theguardian.com gave any air to anything Rob Schneider says. He was always a nobody and the constant need for content doesn’t mean giving voice to the addled thoughts of a washed up never-was.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Streaming with ads means the same commercials again and again. I’m dreaming of destroying Limu Emu and Doug and burying them in the hole I dug for the Liberty Biberty guy.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

A completely heartfelt wish that Noem gets all that’s coming to her now that she’s been shoved out and into a bullshit new initiative for people who have become inconvenient.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Typography matters. That shape that may look like something other than a pod. That D that with the font verging on being another O. Both the wife and I immediately misread this. Either we are hugely juvenile or someone surely should have flagged this.

Packaging with “form into pod shape” next to a graphic th looks like either a pod or a poo.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

He showed you who he was. In spades. If you voted for him, good luck wiping the blood off your hands.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Golden retrievers appear in drug ads just as they get to the side effects. Because Goldens distract you from the bad stuff. Goldens are an unqualified good and deserve better.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I think @badmachinery.com nailed our current situation with this insight.

Panels from Giant Days by John Allison. A discussion of how people who are very sure of themselves, even when wrong, always seem to be in charge.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I don’t see controversy in blocking words here to avoid awful things. I follow the news. I see nothing here I don’t know. I don’t see controversy in blocking people who feel the need to argue the point, either. I am really and truly struggling to get through my days. It’s block or leave Bluesky

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

To remind myself that this is just a pause and not the end, I looked to Project Semicolon and got a tattoo. Being me, I turned it into a dog, because if I’m doing something permanent it needs to have my personality. #projectsemicolon

Wrist tattoo of a semicolon that is also a graphical dog

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Okay, at 59 I got a tattoo. Never saw that coming. More soon, it’s a story with a lot to deal with but I cannot believe live done this. But I love it.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

I’ve done two rounds of Dog a Day in 2008 and 2020. I don’t see me, in my current mindset, taking it on in 2026 but who knows? So, a quick sketch of Riley in Churchill mode, jowly and sleeping with her head up.

Old dog wearing a pink bandana sleeping with her head up.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Avatar (the Cameron one) for me is like Huey Lewis and the News. Competent but does anyone actually connect emotionally on a deep level? Both leave me cold, ultimately. They are the Wonder Breads of their niches.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Really. Government buildings should be named for the deceased. I’d be far happier to see that name going up If this simple rule was followed.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

We only order things when we want some free pet photos.

Dog in front of Christmas tree stares down delivery person

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

I wish I believed in hell. Because I read something today that would surely mean the writer would writhe there eternally.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Wondering if it will again be possible to see The Sure Thing again now. I saw it opening night in the theater and loved it (never had patience for teen sex comedies.. this was a remedy for those). Made me a lifetime John Cusack fan and cemented my love for Reiner as a director.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

11 to 5 today at Dragon’s Lair Austin, come see me and other local artists for the best geek gifts for your holiday shopping.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

It’s now hard to watch Rudolph because Santa is so terrible. Banishing misfit toys and making it clear that no “different” reindeer stands a chance in his outfit (until he actually needs them).

Misfit toys holding protest signs “Santa Muzzles Misfits” and “Close the Misfit Island Gulag.”

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Rereading the Watch books from Discworld and remembering why they should be even more widely read…

“Down there,” he said, “are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no."

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

What perfect album came out the year you turned 16? (I think I win this one)

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

As a lifelong SF fan, I understand that there is Heinlein before and after Stranger in a Strange Land. And finally, I’m hoping that people who use the word Grok and aren’t far right loonies will stop. Musk has finally poisoned an already cringey term.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

One of my favorite photos, my wife and dog, the cornerstones of my heart, both in a state of pure delight on the beach at #sanibel

My wife laughing in delight at the antics of our dog on the beach

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

One positive to getting a senior dog out before sunrise is meeting your more reclusive neighbors. This little guy was very interested in us this morning at 5. #urbanfox

Urban fox stares straight into the camera.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Today's mystery... II have the lyrics of a song running through my head. I have no idea how I know it, and no feeling of familiarity with the original. "I Saw Linda Yesterday"made number 14 on the charts three years before my birth. And to my ears sounds like a blatant Runaround Sue knockoff.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Homicide instigated by leaf-blower noise… would any jury convict? Purely hypothetical of course. For now.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Just pick pencil and blender sketch of my lovely muse Riley. I don’t draw for fun the way I should, time to fix that. #dogart #art

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

My assistant Teddy spends the autumn evenings with ghost stories and my Quoth the Raven lantern. You can join him by getting your own lantern today (and Teddy is happy to provide a reading list).

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Is it resolved? It feels so uncertain, so raw, so just wrong right now. I have lost a lot of trust in Disney and I did cancel Hulu. Not sure if I’ll renew now, I just feel like more needs doing to restore my trust.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

So yeah, canceled Hulu. Hoping my drop in the bucket is part of a very large bucket. Also canceled Marvel Unlimited though I just signed up for an annual and have it for quite a while… I can’t find a way to request a prorated immediate cancellation.

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

My wife does tea parties and tea blending events… so I took it on myself to come up with a seasonal blend for her to create. I actually get hives when I hear anything written by Stephen Schwartz, but I live for the bad pun. #art #procreate

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Erik Squarebear @erik-squarebear.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

It’s been a while since I’ve flllowed mainstream comics so I bought myself a year of Marvel Unlimited to revel in some Kirby and Simonson and Ditko and have realized that I really ignored the 90s mainstream scene while it was happening and I now see I missed nothing good.

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