iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Remember my jobs program of "CFPB hires 10,000 people and puts one in every fast-food franchise and car dealership"? Let's add another few thousand to look at every MLM. Start in Ada.

From Wikipedia: Amway Headquarters in Ada, Michigan

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Book 80 of 2026: "She's a Doll" by @barbaratruelove.bsky.social. The book club has once again hit it out of the park. A deliciously horrific ghost/revenge story. Cannot recommend it highly enough. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

The cover of "She's a Doll" by Barbara Truelove, bestselling author of "Of Monsters and Mainframes". A severed porcelain doll's arm lies on a field of pink, the shreds of a sleeve hanging off one end, a spider sitting on the sleeve. The doll's hand gives a shaka sign, with a tag hanging off the pinky. The tag has the crossed-out words "girl", "victim", "ghost", and "killer" above the not-crossed-out "doll". Price tags descend from $19.95 to $1.00.

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Book 79 of 2026: "HellSans" by @everdundas.bsky.social. I thought this was horror, but it's not too much (despite lots of blood and vomit (no, really, sooo much blood and vomit)). It's good, though. A little long, but also deeply meta in all the right ways. A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

The cover of "HellSans" by Ever Dundas. The title is in big letters on two lines, with "HE" and "SA" in a sans-serif typeface, and "LL" and "NS" have serifs forming out of the fragmented corners of the letters. In the top curve of each S, women's faces look at each other.
The blurb is from Joanne Harris, author of "Chocolat": "This terrific book; a dark and clever sci-fi social satire."

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Hey Tom Barrett, you can claim you’re not licking Trump’s feet whenever he says “Iran” but we can see your voting record.

Voting Record

Iran

Bill Date Position
Second House Iran War Powers Resolution (H.Con.Res. 40)
Concurrent resolution directing the President under the War Powers Resolution to remove US forces from hostilities with Iran. Failed 213-214 in the House, the closest margin of any war powers vote.
Apr 16, 2026 Nay
Iran State Sponsor of Terrorism Resolution (H.Res. 1099)
Reaffirmed Iran as the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Mar 5, 2026 Yea
House Iran War Powers Resolution (H.Con.Res. 38)
Would direct the President to remove US forces from unauthorized hostilities in Iran.
Mar 5, 2026 Nay
Iran Regime Change Resolution (H.Res. 166)
Non-binding resolution expressing support for regime change in Iran, condemning the Iranian government's terrorism, proxy activities, and human rights abuses. Referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
N/A Cosponsor
Israel-Iran Nuclear Strikes Support Resolution (H.Res. 521)
Non-binding resolution expressing support for Israel's June 13, 2025 preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities and for continued Israeli military action against Iran.
N/A Cosponsor

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Guy on Jeopardy’s anecdote was about a time he was way up northwest.

Man pointing on his hand to indicate a point in far NW Alaska.

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Book 78 of 2026: “A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #2) Similar enough to but different enough from TLWtaSAP to stand on its own while building the galaxy even further. Just a fantastic series so far. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers. Two humanoid figures stand in silhouette at bottom left, looking up at a huge planet and star beyond it.

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It isn’t bad yet, but if I can save a few trips to the front door, it’ll be worth it.

A sheet of paper with “Everyone in this house has already voted.” printed on it, taped above a doorbell.

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Book 77 of 2026: "Kiss Slay Replay" by @rachelharrison.bsky.social. I am biased toward time-loop stories and genre-smashing, so I may be unable to judge this fairly. But I think it's a great time-loop genre-smashed story. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

The cover of "Kiss Slay Replay" by Rachel Harrison. The title is printed on a wedding cake with a knife stuck in the middle tier and blood dripping from the wound. The image is echoed three times to drive home that this is, as noted, A Time Loop Novel.
The blurb at bottom is "Harrison's feminist horror novels are some of the most original and entertaining out there." from the New York Times.

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Book 76 of 2026: “Delta” (The Apex Cycle 2) by @mtzimny.bsky.social. A little too YA in the middle, and could probably have been two 300-page books, but it hit hard enough that I’ll round up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Delta” by M.T. Zimny. Two people stand on a street, skyscrapers all around them, watching a huge wave bearing down on them.

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If you see this we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation

Amanda (a brown-haired white woman with glasses) says "Oh my goodness! That would never have OCCURRED to me! And yet... given the body of EVIDENCE... It's so LOGICAL! So flawlessly LOGICAL!"
Lex Luthor (a bald white man in a suit, sitting in a chair) replies "Logical? Is it? To a MACHINE, perhaps. Yes... a SOULLESS machine might make that deduction. But not LEX LUTHOR! I know BETTER! I know that no man with the POWER of SUPERMAN would ever pretend to be a mere HUMAN!"
He stands too close to Amanda, his fists raised. "Such power is to be CONSTANTLY EXPLOITED. Such power is to be USED!!"
"But... but if the data was RELIABLE..."
"You have FAILED ME, Amanda. This conclusion is utterly USELESS. Remove it from my computers AT ONCE! And then, remove YOURSELF!"
He walks away as she leans on the computer terminal. He says "I have no place in my organization for people who cannot see the OBVIOUS!"

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Book 75 of 2026: “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America” by @kevinmkruse.bsky.social. Solid, well-written, and prescient look from 2015 at how millionaires advanced right-wing policies while breaking the very idea of separation of church and state. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “One Nation Under God” by Kevin M. Kruse. A figure facing away from us raises his hands before a blurry crowd.

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Book 74 of 2026: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me” by @djangowexler.bsky.social. Nailed the landing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me” by Django Wexler. An orange castle tower fills most of the cover behind the title. A sinister armored figure with a skull-topped staff and skull-buckled belt stands atop the tower. A dragon and wizard are at our bottom left. A rock with a sword and arrow stuck in it, and crystals growing next to it, is at our bottom right.

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I’m so Commentariat-pilled that my first thought was “Huh, a Protect Trans Kids University plate!”

A Michigan license plate on a white Nissan Quattro that says “TKULORD”.

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Book 73 of 2026: “Red Star Hustle” by Sam J. Miller. An intriguing far-future space opera that doesn’t overstay its welcome nor overbuild its world (which are, I think, my main problems with the genre). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Red Star Hustle” by Sam J. Miller. A vaguely cyberpunky building front with random glyphs of graffiti. A figure in purple strides (runs?) past an open door spilling pink-purple light into the street.

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We bought right here, and I'd feel worse about it if the woman we bought from hadn't said "I'm glad I'm leaving now that all the Blacks are moving in." at the signing.

The FRED All-Transactions Home Price Index for Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, MI (MSAD)
A blue line slowly tracks upward from the 1970s to 2005, at which point it goes down pretty quick until rebounding in 2011/2012.
One line in particular: "Q1 2010 116.50" is highlighted, near the very bottom of that post-2005 dip.

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Book 72 of 2026: “This Will Be Interesting” by “E.B. Asher” (This Will Be #2). Another well-done story in a genre that is not *quite* my bag. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “This Will Be Interesting” by E.B. Asher. A scroll with the title weaves around a quill beneath a crown, ship, snail, mask, dagger, circus tent, and three couples in silhouette.
The blurb is by Sarah Beth Durst, bestselling author of “The Spellshop”, on “This Will Be Fun”: “Witty, romantic, and addictively fun!”

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Book 71 of 2026: “Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus. In these minutes after finishing, I’m not sure whether this is a great book. It’s definitely a good one. It might be great. But the fact that I think it might be means I’ll round it up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus. Clouds, or fog, or explosions? in concentric circles… I don’t know, it’s weird. The blurb is “This novel leaves me breathless.” by Stephen Graham Jones. A gold circle notes that the book won a Pulitzer; a white circle notes that the book was one of the NYT’s best of 2025.

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Yeah, it's supposed to be for 10, but it's really just a two-handed game, because everyone on one team is playing to the same end.

A rulesheet for The Campaign For North Africa, labeled "Charts & Tables Common to Both Players".

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Pulled up to a local restaurant I’ve never been to before. Looked at the signs. Pulled back out.

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Another new rotation. One definite short-chapter culprit in the last batch.

A stack of books that I’m currently reading.
“Crimson Shore” by Preston & Child
“One Nation Under God” by Kevin Kruse
A double book of “Red Star Hustle” by Sam J. Miller and “Apprehension” by Mary Robinette Kowal
“Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus
“A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers
“Kiss Slay Replay” by Rachel Harrison
“HellSans” by Ever Dundas
“Delta” by M.T. Zimny
“Not Till We Are Lost” by Dennis E. Taylor

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It is a rare thing when seeing a misused word makes me this happy.

From one of Trump's rants on Truth Social:
Time is our Enemy! The Board, comprised [sic] of some of the most prominent and respected people in our Nation, is

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Book 70 of 2026: “Assistant to the Villain” by @hannahnicolemae.bsky.social. The very definition of a thing that isn’t really my bag—we get it, they’re both pining—but is fun enough that I barely noticed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Assistant to the Villain” by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. A gold castle at the bottom, a gold frog at the top holding a sign saying “Halp!” It’s very standard-fantasy.

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Book 69 (nice) of 2026: “Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher” (Not a Detective #2) by @katiefliesaway.com. One of the few straight-up mystery series I still enjoy. Siegel has a deft touch with young people who are as amusing as they think they are and a great grasp of mystery plotting. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher” by Katie Siegel. A young brunette woman’s face is one-third covered by the title and green background. She is looking up and to our left.
The blurb from the New York Times Book Review: “Charlotte is a delight.”

Despite its position as #69 of the year, it’s non-spicy, just for the record.

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That was, by any standard, his worst season, and yet.

Ryan Day’s head coaching tenure at Ohio State. He’s never lost more than two games and won the national title in the only season he finished lower than 2nd in the B1G.

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Book 68 of 2026: “The Real All-Americans” by Sally Jenkins. Nominally the story of a 1912 football game between Carlisle Industrial Indian School and the U.S. Military Academy, it’s really a history of the former through the lens of its football program… kinda? See alt text for more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “The Real All Americans” by Sally Henkins. A black-and-white picture of old-time American gridiron football players in a scrum. The subtitle, which takes up the bottom third: “IN 1912, A NATIVE AMERICAN FOOTBALL TEAM, LED BY JIM THORPE AND COACH "POP" WARNER, DEFEATED THE U.S.
MILITARY ACADEMY ON THE FIELDS OF WEST POINT. THE ASTONISHING WINNING STREAK OF THE CARLISLE INDIANS, INCLUDING VICTORIES AGAINST HARVARD AND PENN, CHANGED AMERICAN FOOTBALL INTO THE GAME IT IS TODAY.”

And the blurb is, amazingly, “The most fascinating piece of sports history ever written!” by FUCKING LANCE ARMSTRONG.

I so desperately wanted this book to be better. It starts well, laying the groundwork for why the Carlisle School existed and how hodgepodge the whole endeavor was. But at the same time, what eventually became American football was also laying the groundwork for existing and a hugely hodgepodge endeavor, and this book gives you nine of that. “Why was the forward pass innovative?” would seem to be an important part of this book, but it is elided, along with nearly every other development of the game in this time period. We’re told that Warner (along with many Native players and coaches, who are much less fleshed out except for Jim Thorpe) innovated, but it’s a surface-level description throughout. I don’t recall a single mention of the changes in scoring happening in this time, one of the most basic things I would think needed to be highlighted.

A good history of the era, but I was sold a much more sports-oriented book than I got.

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Book 67 of 2026: “A City on Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. A fascinating in-depth look at all the ways space colonization can (will) go wrong. As a child of the Exploration Interregnum, this book was psychically agonizing but incredibly necessary. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. A multilevel city lies underneath a red landscape. The city has trees, a lake, three labeled silos, and a building labeled “Cricket Ranch”. A shaft leads from the city to a geodesic dome above the surface. The blurb is from Andy Weir: “Scientific, educational, and fun as hell.”

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Book 66 of 2026: “Satisfaction Guaranteed” by Micheline Maynard. An interesting look at Zingerman’s, a Michigan institution, but it tries to straddle the line between balanced history and rah-rah business how-to book, ending up shortchanging each. The pandemic portion is worth a read, though. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman’s Built a Corner Deli Into a Global Food Community” by Micheline Maynard. A red brick building, with “Zingerman’s Delicatessen “ on a black sign above the front door and windows.

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Book 65 of 2026: “Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead” by “K.J. Parker” (Tom Holt). Another of Parker’s infinitely competent heroes in a stopwatch-precise plot, but at least this time he’s caught up in someone else’s plot as well. Fun and propulsive, but the seams are definitely showing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead” by K.J. Parker (Tom Holy). A Gothic arch surrounds a goblet with a skull’s face above the title, while below the title is a red beast in the style of a medieval tapestry.

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Book 64 of 2026: “A Wolf in My Beard” by Chris Wallace and Adam Stemple. Fun parody fantasy, but needs to get a new joke if it continues (after a fairly abrupt ending). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The cover of “Wolf in My Beard” by Chris Wallace and Adam Stemple. A large anthropomorphic wolf stands behind a bearded dwarf holding his axe high. A scroll below them reads “Being a most ACCURATE and TRUTHFUL account of the travels and travails over many years and leagues of PORTIC THE BOLD & HORNBURRI HUNTFELL, dwarf; as drawn from their Letters, Journals & sundry other writings”

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Etrigan (unrelated, but also spooky) ✌️🏈