iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm getting great mileage out of this awesome 3D printed knocker @mandicreally.com shared a few years ago. A bit of neon filament and a blacklight really make my porch stand out during #SpookySeason.

A 3D-printed door knocker shaped like a grotesque (I'd say "gargoyle" but those technically only refer to water spouts), with an oak backing, affixed to my dark red-brown door. The stone-like filament of the head and knocker are purple under a blacklight, and the creature's eyes, teeth, and horns fluoresce in neon yellow-green.

260

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yup. I went to figure out why my doorbell wasn't getting power and discovered the transformer was a burnt-out husk. Sadly, it was caused by a short somewhere deep in the walls, so I still need a battery-powered button, but at least I've removed the fire risk.

Two halves of a doorbell transformer, opened up to show the insides are have basically been turned to charcoal because of a wire short.

0280

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I actually remembered #Caturday while it's still the correct day! Anyway, glad to see my woodworking projects get appreciated by more family members when the wool cat nest/cave in the background is usually the favorite spot.

A mostly-white harlequin tabby cat luxuriating in a sunbeam on a bench made of a live edge slab of padauk, which is a deep red-brown wood with a stripe of lighter oak-colored "sapwood" on the right side.

080

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

That's a big problem trying to sell to people who are often makers themselves. Either it's something people can make themselves, or in order to charge a reasonable amount for time/effort would put the price out of reach of the 99%. I mostly trade these days e.g. I don't nalbind but my friend does:

Cropped photo of someone in a viking-esque tunic doing nalbinding with reddish yarn. The person's face is cropped out of the photo, but you can see they are holding up the large a white bone needle used in the craft.

The nalbinding is being sewn (knotted?) onto wooden frames that will become the top/opening portions of a pouch based on an archeological find from Hedeby, which is now in modern-day Germany.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The "easy" parts are all done. Now comes the fun part: carving away wood until the lyre appears! Honestly, this is really fiddly and a lot of work, but I get to use some of my favorite kinds of tools and it's both relaxing/therapeutic and pretty decent exercise.

An Anglo-Saxon lyre (rough approximation of the one found at Trossingen) in the process of being made. The lyre has a walnut soundboard with a body of even darker wood, with the top of the yolk in lighter wood, and a small piece of maple burl at the "button" (or where a button would be on a modern instrument). The lyre has been cut and glued into its rough final shape (with blue tape keeping dust out of the sound holes) and there are pencil marks showing its final form. In the background, you can see my parts of my workbench with an assortment of tools.

030

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Finished up a small project this weekend. I splurged on these "new old stock" Japanese gouges a few months ago, and needed something better than the cardboard box they arrived in. Not quite done yet, but the oil finish needs to cure before I can add foam/felt. Yes, I 3d printed the blade covers 😉

An open cedar box sitting on my workbench. The box contains a set of 6 "sotomaru nomi" (Japanese incannel gouges / round chisels). Surrounding the box, you can see various other parts and tools I was using to make the box, and to the right side you can see part of the original cardboard and styrofoam box the chisels came in.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This is what I get when I view some of the lists I'm subscribed to. The link then goes to a post that has an image explaining the list contents and what it used to be (can't quote post): bsky.app/profile/skyw...

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

They wrote back. What a cop-out. Looks like I need to check out the new password vault from @proton.me. Annoyingly, my 1P annual subscription just renewed a few months ago. I guess that'll help because it'll take months to help migrate my parents to a new tool.

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your questions and concerns about our decision to become a corporate patron of the Omacom Foundation. We value the relationship we have with you, and we want to respond thoughtfully and openly about the purpose of this commitment and how we're approaching it at 1Password.

At 1Password, we support developer and open-source communities because they're an important part of the ecosystem our customers rely on. We have a long history of supporting open source projects, including the Linux, Rails, and Rust Foundations. We chose to support Omarchy because it is a growing Linux environment that developers use and value, and because 1Password already had a meaningful presence in that community.

Contributing to the Omacom Foundation is intended to support hosting infrastructure and provides stable, long-term funding for the upstream open-source projects and maintainers on which Omarchy depends.

We recognize that Omarchy is closely associated with its founder, and that raises questions about what our support means. Our contribution is made to the Omacom Foundation, not to an individual, and is not an endorsement of any individual's personal or political views. 1Password does not endorse hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views.

The patronage is also separate from product decisions. It includes no requirements or guarantees related to product placement, exclusivity, endorsement, or roadmap influence.

We understand that this explanation may not change how you feel about our decision. We take all feedback seriously and share it with the appropriate teams.

Our commitment to the security and privacy of our customers remains unchanged.

We're grateful for the trust you place in 1Password.

Hugues Mackay
Director, Customer Support

010

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This will be my 4th lyre (though it's the second one I started). It's based on the one from Trossingen, though I started the shape years ago before I knew what I was doing and it's far from accurate. Still a lot of shaping/voicing left for the soundboard before I can start on the "real" shape.

Pieces of mostly dark wood roughly in the shape of an Anglo Saxon 6-string lyre based on the 6th century find from Trossingen. The pieces are stacked roughly to display them on my workbench and are surrounded by wood shavings from the two nearby large and small hand planes.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

My wife introduced me to her art when the exhibit came through Seattle. Amazing and thought-provoking. But it’s also worth remembering her faults.

Photo from inside a Yayoi Kusama exhibit: an infinity of dim yellow lanterns hanging in darkness.

011

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It's too shiny (and too messy of a room behind it) to get a good pic of the whole bench, so here's the most interesting part of it. Ebony is such a dark wood that you can't see the border between it and the black epoxy, even in my original high-res photo. More info in alt text.

Photo of one end of a live edge bench seat made from padauk (pa-DOOK), which is a vibrant red-brown wood. The light colored sapwood along the bottom of the photo is spalted, showing dark lines where fungus attacked the tree. Along the top of the photo, you can see a crack in the wood that has been filled with black epoxy and fitted with two "bow tie" stabilizers made of ebony. There is virtually no difference in color between the ebony and epoxy.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I bought a packet of fuzzy bear sunflower seeds a few years ago but none have ever turned out particularly impressive. This year, I finally managed to get one that lives up to the image on the packet.

A bright yellow "fuzzy bear" sunflower. A hoverfly to the lower right of the flower decided to photobomb just as I was taking the picture.

030

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Even the largest/earliest ones are still rock hard (I've never grown Romas before, so I hope this slow ripening is normal) but the color on these Midnight Romas is just fantastic. Some are slightly purple but a bunch are nearly black even in bright sunlight.

Photo of some of my Midnight Roma tomatoes (from row7 seeds) on the vine. They are shiny and a dark purple that is almost black. A couple smaller ones have a slight greenish tint near the tip.

330

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Can confirm. Have had these pot sherds sitting on a shelf for decades and have yet to find any practical use for them (for that matter, no impractical use, either).

Photo looking into a plastic bag with pot sherds. Some contain green and yellow-green glaze that identifies them as being from the Mamluk era.

Note: I was on a dig in Israel when I found these but they were NOT taken from an actual dig site, nor are they historically relevant/important/valuable. These were literally picked out of the gravel from nearby roads.

010

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I think there's a word for when someone isn't a zionist but just hates Jews… Figured I'd try to find that post and report it for antisemitism but good block lists and labelers have already caught on to them.

1210

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Mine are in a drawer because I like to keep them out of the light and still need to make the cabinet for them. The other half of them are scattered around other cupboards, plus the big bulk refill jars out in the garage.

Photo of a drawer full of a bit over 30 jars containing spices (and one bag of ajwain seeds). You mostly see the tops of the metal lids on short 4oz mason jars.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I was considering walnut but the prices are so high (even with a hefty friend/family discount through a local hardwood supplier/mill, padauk was half the cost). For a table, I like that it's so hard (even if the slab top is over 200 lbs), and padauk is just a fun word. Pic from a previous dye test:

A silk scarf dyed using padauk sawdust and copper sulfate mordant, which resulted in a deep maroon-red color.

The scene shows a wooded background, and the scarf is hanging on a line to dry with next to a darker near-black piece of fabric (I forget what was used to dye that one).

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

As promised, here's the completed dining table ready for me to make a bench from the rest of the slab, and waiting or the Amish chairs because I don't have time/skill to make chairs. Wife seems pleased with it as an anniversary present (she also helped a lot). More details in alt text.

A dining table made from a live edge slab of padauk (pah-DOOK) with a black metal base. There are 3 white wooden chairs around the table. In the background you can see the dark blue walls of my dining room, along with part of a large cat tree and running wheel, a wool cat nest on the floor, and a couple green cat beds suction cupped to a sliding glass door.

Padauk is a brick red wood about twice as hard as maple. Like bricks, it will age from the lighter red it is now to a darker red-brown as it ages. This table includes the lighter-colored sapwood that is about the same color as my oak flooring. The sapwood on this particular slab is "spalted" which means that it was partially rotten and includes discolorations and black lines from fungus that attacked the tree after it was cut.

The base is the "tulipe" model from Flowyline Design. I can't get a good photo of it , so you can look it up on their website to see how cool it is.

220

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Old skill practiced. New skill unlocked (yes, power carving is exactly as fun as it looks … except for the sore back from bending over).

A curved kiridashi knife (in gold 3d printed sheath), a round green mallet, and a bow tie shaped piece of dark padauk (with other mess in the background) all sitting on top of a large slab of padauk where you can see the start of a chiselled out place for the bow tie to be inserted. Black smudges in this area are from epoxy used to fill the crack I don't want to spread.

Yellow angle grinder with a carving attachment sitting on a live edge slab of padauk (red heartwood, yellowish sapwood with a lot of spalting). If you look closely, you can see where a bit of power carving has been started.

040

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

🎶 #ResinTime, resin time, do do do do, resin time! 🎶 Don't worry, it's just filling a few cracks and stabilizing some punky wood. I wouldn't ruin these slabs with a river.

A large tble-sized slab of padauk (pa-DOOK) with a smaller bench-sized slab on top of it with some plastic tarp in between them. The edges of the slabs are taped up with red tape, and you can see clear epoxy painted onto the edges of the large slab, and a pool of black resin on a section of the smaller slab. A small torch rests on the smaller slab. The rest of my shop/tools in the background are a jumbled mess to make room for these large slabs.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Younger me did a lot of cool things. Not only did I get to meet Thor Heyerdahl, one of humanity's greatest explorers, but I spent a few weeks in 1999 working with him on an archeological dig. Pirámides de Güímar turned out to be of little historical significance but are still a wonderful site.

Me (far right) and 11 other archaeologists, along with the great explorer Thor Heyerdahl in a white shirt holding up the Explorer's Club flag. In the background, you can see the Pirámides de Güímar in the Canary Islands.

120

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

My wife suggested that her anniversary present to me could be her helping me build a dining table. A cousin works for a specialty wood dealer and got me a great deal on a slab that will be table, bench, and probably a nightstand for my kid. Today's delivery was the fancy base from Flowyline Design.

Section of a slab of padauk, freshly flattened. Padauk is a reddish-orange wood, though it will turn a nice red-brown over time.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

My first perfect #smush. Though the nerd in me takes offense that "foo" wasn't allowed. Why hasn't @merriam-webster.com added this very culturally-important word to the dictionary‽ (aside from its interesting but unrelated-to-software Scottish usage)

Screenshot from hankgreen.com/smush showing 912 points and a perfect game that used all letters.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Of course she did… I really don't like the whole "white guy with a military background" (too reminiscent of Platner) about Adam Arafat, but @marilynstrickland.bsky.social continuing to vote for these right-wing agendas has pretty much guaranteed him my vote in the primary.

TrackAIPAC image for Marilyn Strickland, Democratic US Rep from WA-10: $362,825

271

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Mine are slow this year due to a cool/wet start to the summer. The vines are finally starting to take off, and there are lots of unripe ones. Looking forward to seeing what these "midnight Roma" will be like.

Close-up photo of a very purple (but not ripe) tomato.

Another not ripe tomato, even darker purple than the other photo. You can also see a tiny still-green tomato off to one side.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Guess who just bounced happily past the one open window right as I was trying to go to sleep last night! Must have been startled by my sprinklers because that's the worst I've ever smelled one, and the house still smells a bit in the morning even with all bathroom fans venting overnight.

011

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

@protopasta.bsky.social you've outdone yourselves on this glow in the dark stuff. So much glow (even in daylight when charged with my UV Beast light), and the non-glowing colors are excellent. Any thoughts on if they're safe for 0.4mm nozzle or should I stick with 0.6?

A stack of 3 spools of glowing 3d printer filament. When not glowing, they should be (top to bottom) green, blue, and rainbow, but they charged so well that they're just glowing yellow-green even in daylight.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I know they grow in BC but the interwebs say your harsher winters are too much for either Sequoia or coastal. They have about 1/3 acre and the trees are planted at the border to block views of the neighbors. This pic was from 2021. Right-side trees are larger because of an old/buried nurse log.

Photo a bunch of trees, roughly from left to right: birch, dawn redwood, coastal redwood, birch, much larger dawn redwood, and two coastal redwoods.

At the base of the trees you can see small bushes, including some red blooming rhododendrons, a bench, and a couple chairs.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I "love" how my AirGradient outdoor monitor shows exactly when my neighbors start lighting off fireworks, which corresponds to when it's time to close all the windows.

Cropped screenshot showing a Home Assistant dashboard rendering of colored graphs of air quality:

NowCast: Unhealthy (red)

A gauge with an arrow pointing just above orange into the red, labeled with the current NowCast AQI of 153

Below this there are 3 separate graphs/numbers reading:
PM1: 142 μg/m³
PM2.5: 225.14 μg/m³
PM10: 262 μg/m³

010

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

You put it into the printer, and out come whistles to give away! Bonus when the filament comes in a reusable bag for easy transport. P.S. For those printing in multicolor coextrusions, it's worth the extra print time to add a little pizzaz with octogram spiral top/bottom infill pattern.

Photo of zoomed in on portions of 3 bags of 3d-printed whistles in a variety of colors.

030

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I went to a 4th fireworks show in DC in 1999 during a 90° heatwave that was also incredibly humid. The whole experience was miserable and we ran out of water even being allowed to bring as much as we wanted, culminating in the whole crowd getting covered in hot ash/debris from exploded fireworks.

The lawn packed full of people at dusk around the Washington Monument (covered in scaffolding in 1999) waiting for the fireworks display to start.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I rarely pay attention to sports (I actually have a pretty robust mute list to avoid them) but I heard Mexico won their world cup game yesterday and thought people might like to see something from the last time they hosted the event. This was regular currency, not a collectible. I kept it anyway.

010

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I was given this 6in thick cookie a few years ago, eventually managed to cut it in half, and today I got both halves flattened to about 6cm thick. But … what do I make with them? If I add epoxy (overdone but kind of my only option here) I could get a nice desk or small table. #woodworking

Photo of two light colored maple burl "cookies" (trunk cross section) photoshopped onto a black background.

The same two pieces of burl, this time cut in half and arranged with the straight edge of each half along one edge of a rectangle, in one possible orientation for a table/desk top.

100

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I don’t know what people mean about a “no touch zone” on cats.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

My favorite type of house plant. Two of mine are blooming right now.

Photo of two different hoyas blooming:

above: Hoya 'Sunrise' with red-highlighted green leaves and white flowers that look more like the usual hoya flowers but the petals curl completely backwards.

below: Hoya occultata with thin dark green leaves and flowers with 5 yellow points that almost look more like blueberry/Ericaceae family flowers than those from other hoyas.

130

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

The design itself would be easy (literally 30s for this) but the time would go into figuring out the specifics for something a friction fit (fractions of mm make a difference), and material type (flexibility to fit over the post, UV resistance for outdoor use, etc).

CAD rendering of what is basically a tube that only goes 3/4 of the way around.

110

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

New @protopasta.bsky.social Endless Exploration HT-PETG filament (with carbon/glass fiber additives) just showed up … but what to print with it!? The new spools look nice, though I still prefer "refill" or all-cardboard ones for reduced plastic waste.

4 cardboard boxes of Protopasta filament sitting on the print bed of my Prusa XL printer.

130

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

When woodworking meets gardening. Time to empty the dust collector so I can switch from solid wood to less garden-friendly plywood. (yes, I'm aware I need to supplement nitrogen as this stuff breaks down, plus the tomatoes have pretty deep roots)

Small tomato plants in raised beds, with a fresh layer of sawdust mulch.

040

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I was supposed to do woodworking today, but instead here's my small #GardenSky contribution. It's always a bit sad when tomatoes go from 18in to 6in when you plant them deep, but they recover quickly. Remembered to get my wife's basil varieties in, too.

Photo of my garden. 5 light green Epic Gardening raised beds with brick paths between them. Two long/narrow ones along the yellow wall of my house. Three larger rectangular ones on the right near a cedar fence with some light brown trellis hanging from it.

There is a large rosemary plant in one of the beds on the left, along with lots of small pea plants. The beds on the right have just-planted tomatoes and basil.

080

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I'm about a year overdue on building my kid a new bed but I finally have everything glued together. This headboard came out fantastic and will probably be the fanciest furniture in the house. There's still some touchup left, and a bunch of coats of finish, but the end is within sight.

Photo of a bare headboard for a bed in my shop. The main parts of the frame are black/ebonized ash and there is a large veneer panel of "waterfall bubinga" which is a reddish-brown wood with an incredible amount of texture/figure.

130

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Any #woodworking or antique tool bluesky users want to guess at what this is? It's clearly a hand-forged adze (and I doubt the handle is original) but I've never seen one with such a flat and oval-shaped blade.

Photo of the underside of an oval-shaped blade on an antique adze.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

It's always a fun weekend at my semi-annual viking reenactment campout but even more so when our pro fire performer friend shows up after a few years away. New friends welcomed, music played, (often non-alcoholic) beers quaffed, (only the appropriate) things burned.

Night shot of a fire spinner on her knees in the grass facing away from the camera while she holds a circle of fire sin her hands (so close to her face!)

020

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Just because I'm making a fume hood for my wife's new Eufymake UV printer (and existing resin 3d printer) with scraps and 3d printed vents doesn't mean I can't sneak in a bit of "real" woodworking. There is just something so satisfying about a good hand plane.

Close up photo of a shooting plane with a bunch of whispy wood shavings. A shooting plane is a specialized hand plane that runs horizontally in a slot (on a "shooting board") to precisely trim the ends off of small boards. This particular plane is blackened metal with brass fittings.

020

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Well, it's surprisingly difficult to show how purple the sprouts are from the Midnight Roma (row 7 seeds) sprouts in the foreground when the lights turn everything pink. I usually only grow Red Torch (johnnys) but decide to add some variety this year. #gardensky

Photo of a bunch of tiny tomato plants in 3in pots, under pink grow lights.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

A1C and glucose tests can't differentiate early stages of type 1 which may look like pre type 2. These are very different diseases and many treatments for type 2 can actually accelerate the progression of type 1 (which usually progresses slower in adults than in kids) leading to more complications.

Chart from TrialNet type 1 diabetes study showing the onset of the disease. Clinical diagnosis doesn't usually happen until stage 3 (> 2 autoantibodies detected) but stage 2 (abnormal blood sugar) is often misdiagnosed as type 2 in adults and many people are never tested for antibodies to correct the diagnosis.

120

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Winning signs of the day from my 400+ strong suburban #NoKings protest.

A protestor holding up signs that say:

Flip us off if you support a pedophile

Don’t wave if you support a pedophile

010

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Ever late for #Caturday, here is my kid's orange tabby who refuses to use his water bowl … or the other glass of water we keep near it. Humans eat at the counter, thus so should he.

0131

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Other brands are also far more drinkable straight. This stuff has been sitting around since you still had to buy it at a liquor store in WA, and I remember it being far less harsh. Still not for drinking, though, just for sterilizing things where you don’t want a toxic option like IPA.

Photo of a hand holding a clear glass bottle with a silver label that says: clear, spring, grain alcohol, 190 proof.

100

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

I heard a crash and then some meowing in the cupboard where we keep cat treats. I opened the door to this very happy orange boy. Whoever said they only share a single brain cell never met ours, who just graduated from opening doors to cupboards. He's really unhappy now that I zip tied it closed.

A very happy orange tabby cat who managed to get into a cupboard full of cat foods and treats.

000

Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Please … content labels here work great and make sure traumatic videos don't just automatically start playing for people. Alt text is also good, since it will also be scanned to hide posts that people with PTSD might not want to experience.

Screenshot of the web view of the Blue Sky content labeler: Text reads as follows:

Add a content warning:
Please add a any content warning labels that are applicable for the media you are posting.

Adult content, with 3 checkboxes: Suggestive, Nudity, Adult.

Other, with 1 checkbox: Graphic Media.

190