iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Here are some ground-nesting very small bees that lived with me for about a month last year. I never got a solid ID.

Two bees wrestling(?!) on the leaf of a Violet plant.

Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Do you like protein and fiber and nutmeg? You should try Sweet Potato Breakfast. You bake a sweet potato the night before, let it cool right in the oven, peel it and cut it up, cover with nutmeg, maple syrup, plain yogurt, and chopped walnuts. It’s the descendant of pumpkin pie and parfait you need

Cut up sweet potatoes topped with yogurt, walnuts, nutmeg and maple syrup, in a metal container on my desk.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Article about James Dobson’s early-career ties with eugenicists. Many similarities between what he taught about discipline within the Christian Patriarchal White Family and ABA techniques used to “normalize” autistic kids. The child isn’t a person to be nurtured but a creature to be trained.

A book cover from 1970: “Dare to discipline: a psychologist offers urgent advice to parents and teachers” by Dr. James Dobson.

The cover is dominated by the title but there is a simple graphic of a scale or teeter totter, on one side is “love” on the other “control”.

Book price 1.95. “325,000 copies in print”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

I was gonna start planting the garden this weekend, but Utah has other ideas

A yard with a light covering of snow, though the flagstones are exposed. A hose that I did not put away is also visible and covered with snow.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

When I first joined someone helpfully posted this. You can make it remind you to post alt text. It’s super helpful.

The accessibility settings menu in Bluesky where you can toggle on “require alt text before posting”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

His very funny dig on JD Vance reminds me of why I ever enjoyed his writing in the first place. And then his very dumb thought experiment: “there’s nothing magically correct about the current level of government spending so why am I even worried?” reminds me why I stopped.

“Pope Francis says JD Vance is misusing the Catholic idea of ordo amoris. Part of me feels bad for Vance, because the Pope is in many ways a typical Boomer liberal, and Vance has optimized his entire life around not having to listen to typical Boomer liberals, and it seems harsh to nab him at the last second on a technicality like "you're Catholic and he's the Pope". But another part of me thinks this is only fair - you get credibility by citing Latin terms from the venerable Western tradition instead of normal English sentences like "I am a psychopath who doesn't care whether people outside my immediate family live or die", so the guardians of that tradition should have the right to police how you use the credibility you borrow from them. Still, it seems harsh. I recommend he try Anglicanism - almost as venerable, but strongly pro- heads of state doing psychopathic things without the Pope interfering.”

Probably this isn't true, and I shouldn't even say it because everyone else is already too doomy. You'd be surprised how many basically sane people I've heard expressing worries they'll being put in camps (not even illegal immigrants or some other at-risk group!), or that Elon Musk sending people emails asking them what they're doing is a form of fascism. I try to remind myself that if there had only ever been half as much government funding as there is now, I wouldn't be outraged and demand that we bring it up to exactly the
current level (and, once it was at the current level, become unoutraged and stop worrying).
The current level is a random compromise between people who wanted more and people who wanted less, with no particular moral significance. This thought process helps, but I think that even in that situation one could justify a few really good programs like PEPFAR on their own terms (ie if it didn't exist, I would be outraged until it did), and I still think that changing the size of government should be done through legal rather than illegal means, competently rather than incompetently, and honestly rather than lying about every single thing you do all the time. Whatever.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

HUMAN ARTISTS, use only one piece to convince people to follow you [ #ArtShare ]

An abstract acrylic on canvas painting. Yellow background covered in white, orange, and pink illegible text. The words are written on top of one another in various orientations and cannot be deciphered. Many of the letters are outlined in turquoise. In the foreground a flat and featureless dark blue 8-legged figure, reminiscent of a dendron or an or octopus.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Imagine saying “Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion” in the very same message where you literally use your vast wealth to try to coerce your employee to parrot your opinions. Good for Shipley for stepping down. Hope his replacement is as incompetent as Bezos deserves.

I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We'll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader's doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.
I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion - and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn't "hell yes," then it had to be "no." After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won't be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We'll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.
I'm confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I'm excited for us together to fill that void.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I’ve got this nebulous sense that things can go very wrong when folks who have been fighting establishment injustice suddenly become absorbed into the establishment. They are still looking for a fight, but now they are aimed towards marginalized groups. (Gotta flesh it out much more!)

For some suffragettes, that lurch came thanks to the onset of the first world war. When Pankhurst ordered her followers to stop bombing the British state and start helping to arm it for the war effort, it left some of the most radicalized to fall into “a feminist-fascist estuary formed in the crater generated by Mrs Pankhurst’s pivot from law-breaking insurgency to conformist cheerleading”.

Betrayed and disillusioned, these suffragettes lost faith in the democratic system and found a new hero to worship in Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists. “How do we make sense of that?” Lewis asks.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

It’s got to be pretty confusing for those guys that they were able to achieve moderate cool for relatively little money at the beginning of their careers, and now, no matter how much they spend it’s just cringe. Tiny violins for them.

Arguably the world’s tiniest violin, played by a Tardigrade.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Wow, look at his website. www.damonhininger.com

A portrait of Damon Hininger and his family on a tree-lined lane. Text: “Believer. Husband. Father. Servant Leader. Tennessee Conservative.”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

How does the narrative that “actually the economy is just fine” cope with the rise in homelessness?

Graph from the US department of housing and urban development 2023 annual homelessness report to congress. It shows an increase in number of people experiencing homelessness every year, from 173,268 in 2015 to 256,610 in 2023.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Ok: here are some pumpkin seeds that made a cool spiral pattern on the surface of the water.

pumpkin seeds in a metal bowl that made a cool spiral pattern on the surface of the water

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

“It is a dead end ahead of you. Don’t be alone and find your friends.” A little on-the-nose random fortune from a shaved ice place but ok!

A fortune cabinet (I don’t know the right name). You pick a random red stick and it has a drawer number with a paper fortune inside.

Fortune #72 from Xing Fu Tang, a Taiwanese shaved ice and boba restaurant. It reads “It is a dead end ahead of you. Don’t be alone and find your friends.”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy: Yeah, this is accurate AF

A red Volkswagen Bug, probably from the 1970s with a license plate “FEATURE”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

I never pass up the opportunity to share this gem from the late great James Scott. He calls it Anarchist Calisthenics, but call it something else of the A word bugs you. harpers.org/archive/2012...

As a way of justifying my conduct to myself, I began to rehearse a little discourse that I imagined delivering in perfect German. It went something like this: “You know, you and especially your grandparents could have used more of a spirit of lawbreaking. One day you will be called on to break a big law in the name of justice and rationality. Everything will depend on it. You have to be ready. How are you going to prepare for that day when it really matters? You have to stay ‘in shape’ so that when the big day comes you will be ready. What you need is anarchist calisthenics. Every day or so break some trivial law that makes no sense, even if it’s only jaywalking. Use your own head to judge whether a law is just or reasonable. That way, you’ll keep trim—and when the big day comes, you’ll be ready.”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Never realized the green-green of my dreams was 7-up green. It makes sense. But. Well.

A can of 7-up in front of my wall that I painted the greenest green I could imagine. They are basically the same color.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Time to eliminate the soft-spot I have harbored for Target

Bashir/Garak meme:

Bashir: “which corporations are my friend?”
Garak: “my dear doctor, all corporations are your enemy.”
Bashir: “even the ones with good aesthetics?”
Garak: “especially the ones with good aesthetics!”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Kinda reminds me of the Minor Threat Sheep. Perhaps one of us should start a punk band with this renaissance sheep (who absolutely isn’t the worst) as a logo.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Probably Bluesky isn’t ready for my favorite meme I’ve ever made. Everyone in my life assures me it is way too niche. And to them I say: “you’re missing out by not thinking more about the history of early life, it’s super weird and cool!”

Top panel: Cyanobacteria, which produce energy through photosynthesis and release oxygen as a waste product. Bottom panel: a smoke stack representing the burning of fossil fuels which releases carbon dioxide as a waste product. Middle text “If I had a nickel for every time a species discovered a cheap energy source and ended up causing a climate catastrophe, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t much but it’s weird that it happened twice.”

Look up The Great Oxygen Event for more info but basically early life evolved in a low-oxygen (reducing) environment. Once oxygen-producing photosynthesis was developed, oxygen started to accumulate. For a lot of early life forms, oxygen is toxic so they either went extinct or only remain in now somewhat-rare low-oxygen environments like under layers of mud.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

My all time favorite maybe. Elizabeth Bishop: The Filling Station “Somebody loves us all.”

Oh, but it is dirty!
—this little filling station,
oil-soaked, oil-permeated
to a disturbing, over-all
black translucency.
Be careful with that match!

Father wears a dirty,
oil-soaked monkey suit
that cuts him under the arms,
and several quick and saucy
and greasy sons assist him
(it’s a family filling station),
all quite thoroughly dirty.

Do they live in the station?
It has a cement porch
behind the pumps, and on it
a set of crushed and grease-
impregnated wickerwork;
on the wicker sofa
a dirty dog, quite comfy.

Some comic books provide
the only note of color—
of certain color. They lie
upon a big dim doily
draping a taboret
(part of the set), beside
a big hirsute begonia.

Why the extraneous plant?
Why the taboret?
Why, oh why, the doily?
(Embroidered in daisy stitch
with marguerites, I think,
and heavy with gray crochet.)

Somebody embroidered the doily.
Somebody waters the plant,
or oils it, maybe. Somebody
arranges the rows of cans
so that they softly say:
esso—so—so—so
to high-strung automobiles.
Somebody loves us all.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Truly extremely tired of the remakes!

A headline from today (1/9/25): “China: New virus outbreak could spread globally”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Small beauty in ordinary places is maybe the best kind. The water in the gutter of the parking lot froze and formed these cool concentric ice patterns. It also made a really satisfying “thonk” when I gently tapped it with my shoe, but I didn’t get a recording of that.

Water that has frozen in a street gutter in pretty concentric patterns.

Another photo of frozen water in the gutter.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

“Libertarian themed rap music”! The work of a true meritocrat.

“While in college, he performed Eminem covers and libertarian-themed rap music under the stage name and alter ego ‘Da Vek’”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Somehow I missed this. It’s quite funny when your own personal bullshit machine calls you a big spreader of misinformation.

Headline: “Even Musk’s Grok knows: X’s AI system named Elon as one of the biggest pushers of misinformation on the platform. Tesla billionaire has lauded artificial intelligence system Grok’s success, up-to-date information. Julia Musto. Tuesday 12 November.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-grok-twitter-ai-misinformation-b2645906.html

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Pretty happy with my little found-object collage

A pamphlet that I found on the ground in Las Vegas reading “where is god when I’m hurting?” Held to the wall with a round sticker that says “lower your standards”.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

‘“Value based care” that focuses on keeping patients healthy rather than treating them when they are sick unlocks a situation where the family doesn’t have to make decisions on their own . . . ‘ Was he literally just stealing lines from some movie villain here?

“At an investor meeting last year, he outlined UnitedHealth's shift to "value-based care," paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy, rather than focusing on treating them when they get sick.

"Health care should be easier for people," Thompson said at the time. "We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the … family doesn't have to make the decisions on their own."

In 2023, Thompson earned total compensation of $10.2 million, according to a disclosure by UnitedHealth Group.”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Our descendants are not gonna think kindly of this shit when they’re struggling to survive in the world the ruling class has left for them.

A package of “Miracle Rice. Plant based rice style” “5 calories per serving” “Keto and paleo friendly”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

I guess since I like dark mode my whole phone is goth now?

An iPhone screen where the backgrounds of most of the app icons are black rather than their former white-background look.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

It is a truth universally acknowledged that caprines like to stick their faces through the fence?

Pearl Jam’s Vs album cover, showing a black and white photo of a sheep (I think) sticking its face though a wire fence. Extremely reminiscent of the OP’s photo.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Before his workout tapes, Richard Simmons had a diet board game. I’m not totally clear on the mechanics but it’s gotta be high on the list of “worst board games of all time”

“Deal-A-Meal” game cards laid out in piles by color. Categories include “starch”, “protein”, “dairy”, “vegetable”, “fruit” and “fat”. There are also “freebie” and “joker” cards. Game box says: “Richard Simmons Deal-A-Meal. Set of deal a meal food cards. 1 deal a meal card wallet. 32 full color menu cards for breakfast lunch dinner and snack, instructions.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I found one, or maybe this is a parody? Truly coming here from not-xitter is socially disorienting.

A blocked user “rhinohog” who says “communists aren’t people . . .” And “I wild each it . . .” [??????] and “you know how you lefties littered Twitter with communist nonsense, censored it and had any debate removed? We are coming for your pathetic echo chamber . . . “

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Lefty nonsense breakfast: homemade pickles and almonds.

A sadly non photogenic divided Tupperware container: one side filled with vertically sliced pickles, one side filled with raw almonds.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

So I just used “imagine” in a chat with a friend, and Meta AI pops up offering to imagine things for me. It’s just getting laughably dystopian. I can imagine things for myself thanks!

Screencap from messenger that was prompted by me typing “I can imagine” in a conversation

“imagine: Describe an image for Meta AI to generate”
“imagine yourself: Create an AI image of yourself”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a society in possession of coherence, must be in want of an Übermensch.

“Every coherent society has a social ideal—an image of what the superior person looks like.” The first line from an Atlantic article by David Brooks titled “How the Ivy League Broke America. (Sub) The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.”

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Call me old-fashioned, but I quite like menstrual art.

A painting of Trump, teeth bared, lips flared, hair there. Title: “Whatever (bloody Trump)” menstrual blood on canvas, applied with fingers, tampon, and brush, 11.5x13.5 inches, by Sara Levy

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

It brings me a smidgen of joy to think that most babies in the US, including babies who turn out to be trans, and the babies of reactionary parents, get wrapped in this standard hospital receiving blanket which looks an awful lot like the trans flag 🏳️‍⚧️

A cotton hospital newborn receiving blanket, featuring blue and pink stripes on a white background.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

This person should probably be venerated as some kind of saint. Can’t find further info on what happened to him later.

Take for example the Very Reverend Lelli Maull (AKA Lesley Maull), who supplemented his COUM activities by burgling churches and policemen’s houses. Tutti had known Maull since she was three years old, and he remains a constant source of friendship and inspiration for her. Back in the early 1970s COUM produced a business card for him with the text: “Jesus said: this is my only commandment. That you love one another as I have loved you.” Maull, dressed in his stolen priest’s outfit, used to hand out the cards to people in the street. More than just a compulsive burglar and impersonator of priests, Maull also played guitar for COUM.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

I also don’t think we talk enough about how the “if you really want this you’ll be happy to work 60+ hours a week, pull all-nighters etc” attitude is pervasive in trainings for many high-status professions and mimics the tactics that cults use to break people. It fosters compliance not excellence.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

Satisfying self-organization of pumpkin seeds on the surface of water:

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

I’m obsessed with how bland the Secret Forbidden Homophobic Meatloaf is. Like a parody of white people not seasoning their food.

A story about a homophobic mom’s secret meatloaf recipe. 4-6 lbs of beef or turkey, 1 pack onion soup mix, 1 Tbs Spicy Mustard, 1 Tbs ketchup, 1 Tbs BBQ sauce, 1 Tbs steak sauce, 1 egg form into a loaf and bake 2-2.5 hours.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

Sorry. Not sorry. 1982: I know a banger album:

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

My fingernails *after* I scrubbed them with a brush. I should have worn gloves. But I wanted to feel the potatoes.

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Un Valid @everythingnothing.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

My great -grandpa was a tenant farmer. Before he died, my grandpa told me that one time they decided to grow potatoes, and digging them up was the worst. This year I grew potatoes for the first time. A 1x5 foot plot was a fun scavenger hunt but I would not like to do a whole field!

A box full of dirty purple, red, and white potatoes.

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