iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Where’s this gadget been all my life??? Today I repaired three necklaces and set a new tiny crystal in a tiny nose stud that somehow lost its original gem. 10/10 best tool

Scene from my desk: magnifying glass attached to a weighted base with alligator clip arms attached to hold things right under the magnifying glass for ya. Wizardry!

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

“A decade” - hoo boy, the mental math I just did on when I got these at Goodwill and this embroidered tag’s font sure beg to differ

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

As I was going through some stickers tonight that are not ready to be stuck on something just yet, INSPIRATION - what if I put them in the weird photo frame?! And I am feeling like an absolute genius right now with my weird unused sticker collection collage.

My swirly rolled newspaper frame, now holding a hard-to-photograph holographic “Abortion Access Is the Future” astronaut sticker from our local abortion fund, a holographic sticker from my go-to local brewery, a sticker I bought from the merch table at a concert featuring the fantastic Rebecca Porter, and a smol sticker of Katie Aki’s Listening Lady holding a lantern.

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Around the same time I bought a matching picture frame and I can’t remember why. Was it a gift? Was it meant to decorate my office also? The thing is, it’s meant to hold an actual physical photo and like, who has those? (I mean, I do have some, but I wasn’t planning for one of those here.)

A small photo frame made of colorful rolled newspaper circles, with a strand of rolled paper beads attached to hang the frame somewhere

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Sometime around maybe 201(4? 5?) I was at Ten Thousand Villages and they had this thing labeled as a “charger” that was inexpensive, colorful yet subtle, basically everything I was looking for at the time to lift up my laptop stand just a tiiiny bit more and spiff up my office desk. I still have it!

A round mat made of circles of colorful rolled newspaper, with a big circle in the middle and many small circles surrounding, underneath the stand of an orange 2021 iMac. In the background there’s a pale brown and purple desk mat with moths.

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Yeppp, though on my first attempt it thought I was from Maine. I thought about about all my answers and realized I probably call them “sneakers” because everyone else does now but growing up I was more likely to say “tennis shoes” and that change was enough to get me back where I was born & raised.

Screenshot of my mydialect.us results - I talk like someone from Virginia, and my results match a typical resident 48% but the most-like-me parts of Virginia are the the central and southeastern bits and downwards into NC (where my dad has family so that tracks), then less like me north of me in Virginia or west of me. Somehow besides Virginia and NC, people talk most like me in Maine and New Mexico???

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Then about a year ago, I flipped it over to see if I could replace the crotchety dented chair wheels with softer new ones [nope, these wheels are soldered in place] - and lo and behold, it turns out my beloved old chair is a 1988 vintage Steelcase

Slightly blurry photo beneath my chair because it’s heavy and I didn’t feel like flipping it, showing a Steelcase label, a Year of 88, and other random facts I’d happily type up on request for chair nerds, let me know

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Maybe 20 years ago now (yikes), my tiny local tech company said “you can just take it” re: the beat-up orange-and-brown armless office chair I loved, and that’s been my computer chair ever since.

A kinda stained rust/terracotta desk chair made of some kind of cloth and brown plastic on the back, with a silver 5-wheeled base

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

So when I asked @emily.gorcen.ski “can I have this” as in have this weird busted yard cow that was posted on the neighborhood Buy Nothing group, she said “… … no…” but if it’s still in a driveway tomorrow does the internet think I can have it, y/n

A “weird large yard cow decor thing” as described by its owner - kinda brown and maybe rusty? Big eyelashes. I think some ears/horns/both are missing? It has a cowbell

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I spent the last day of my 3-day weekend doing a grout-patching job in our master bath to fix a settling-related crack. One of those tasks where if you do a really good job it looks exactly the same and you didn’t injure yourself, so instead I just took a photo of the Forbidden Chocolate Frosty.

A close-up of my mixed-up tiny container of linen-colored Polyblend grout, which looks very much like a slightly melted chocolate Frosty or perhaps a milkshake; you can tell it’s not because there’s a wooden stirrer in it and I’m wearing latex gloves, plus I don’t usually eat a Frosty in the bathroom but I won’t judge you if that’s your thing

A close-up shot of the back of my container of grout, which warns me that it will cause severe skin burns and I shouldn’t breathe the dust.

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Gopuff & I had an off-and-on run since COVID lockdown because complying w/ Virginia alcohol laws re: delivery in 2020 was not for the weak & they carried some exclusive/import treats I couldn’t get elsewhere. Like the lactose-free raspberry churro boba ice cream pint I still dream about. Alas 👋🏻

Text message ad from Gopuff about their new AI shopping tool co-developed with SpaceXAI /Grok

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

I love Jordan Peele’s Nope more each time I watch it, and I want the Cactus ICEE

A phone photo of a paused streaming session of Nope (2022) on a laptop. The caption on the screen says: “[recording slows, stops] the Star Lasso Experience”. A small seated audience is slightly out of focus behind a stand of four highly branded ICEE machines: CACTUS, WATERMELON, SKY BERRY, CACTUS. When there’s two ICEE machines with the same flavor you know it’s serious.

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

A photo to expand on Emily’s photo in more detail, showing the full display of one of the many amazing sets of furniture at the Czech Cubism exhibition. All the textiles (some reproduced, some original) in this museum were just fantastic to the point where I need a deep dive on just those.

The same couch Emily’s post describes but shown to the bottom right of frame rather than center; to its left, a matching upholstered chair, arms and legs angled. Above, an abstract and oddly angled chandelier made of a golden metal, reminiscent of origami shapes almost, draped in little shiny crystals. Behind the chair, an exhibition poster (I think?) (it’s written in Czech and I haven’t translated it yet) featuring beautiful angled shapes and leafy textures in black and red. Behind the couch is a beautiful reproduction of some textile work that I didn’t catch details on, red and gold over black, mostly swirly and botanical, in beautiful contrast to all the big bold crystalline angles of the furniture.

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Because for me spooky season is year-round and my birthday (last Thurs) is once a year, I bought myself a ridiculously expensive Hedley & Bennett apron designed as a collab with one of my favorite horror franchises, Nightmare on Elm Street. I love it SO much. Time to bake some brownies in style 😎🔪

The top front pocket (white with blood splatters) of an olive green apron with a tan leather neck strap, folded and resting on a brown granite kitchen counter, and the tag from the apron showing it is A Nightmare on Elm Street collaboration

A close-up of the bottom right of the apron, showing signatures red stripes from Freddy’s sweater overlaid on the olive apron material, and a printed decoration of Freddy’s glove knives ripping through the apron against spatters of blood

A very normal selfie of a very normal woman with short hair and cat-eye tortoiseshell glasses in her kitchen, with a cutting board in a drying rack behind her and a plant peeking out next to a window, giving a dorky thumbs-up about the awesome apron she’s wearing. (The woman is me.)

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Having a lovely day off finally seeing “Him” at Violet Crown on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall (what a movie, A+), then spotting some Steve Keene in the background on ESPN while getting a late lunch

A screenshot of a TV in a dim bar showing ESPN; a commentator is speaking from what I’m guessing is a home office, and at the middle left of our view is about 1/3-2/3 of a painting by Steve Keene, not sure if an original copy or a print, as featured on Pavement’s album cover (apologies to the commentator for capturing mid-blink)

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Oh, and tonight I finally let myself buy a better clear bag for concerts than the cassette tape one I bought in 2017 for a Halloween costume that is extremely fragile and uncomfortable to wear - out here solving some heckin’ PROBLEMS

Screenshot of my Amazon purchase in October 2017 of a Circus NY by Sam Edelman “Viviana” clutch - it’s a hard-shell acrylic clear cassette tape shape with black tape reels, a gold clutch to fasten, a gold hinge at the bottom, and a very uncomfortable gold chain shoulder strap

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I just learned that Sims 4 bundled “nectar” [wine] making into their horse ranch expansion, and I am livid - if I wanted to experience wine and horses I can drive 20min in the real world, I am *trying* to build a horseless basement fantasy brewcave and hacker/maker lab okay

I honestly can’t remember which Hyperbole and a Half comic about dogs this is from but I still have the image on my phone and it embodies my feelings

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

My personal four out of our seven records today that I snagged before I dragged myself away from the bins (do not take me to a record store, I have no impulse control there)

Four vinyl records spread out on a counter 2x2. From top left, clockwise: Kings of Convenience, “Riot on an Empty Street”; Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, “City of Gold”; Songs: Ohia, “Travels In Constants”; Digable Planets, “Blowout Comb”

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

That spider is about to take wildcrafting to the real next level

Photo of the cover of the book The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar, shown upright in front of the bar book nook in my home

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

My wife really messed up with this one because I remembered that I need someone to finally pick me up the sandwich I’ve been wanting to try called the Cuban Pickle Crisis (but with no dijonnaise because I don’t do mayo) (asking someone to take mayo off gives me anxiety so I make her do it)

A screenshot of an Instagram post from Ivy Provisions, a little shop in Charlottesville, showing and describing the Cuban Pickle Crisis sandwich: smoked pork, ham, Swiss, pickle relish dijonnaise 🤢, pickles, and spicy pickle potato chips on sourdough

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Had the best time this weekend at our beloved for-charity CLAW event benefiting the new local Queer Therapy Fund and used my silly tech salary to win a She-Ra action figure from the charity auction - as a kid I had a She-Ra lunchbox but did not have a sick action figure so they really had my number.

The “Is this a pigeon?” meme template (where the joke is that it’s a person looking at what’s clearly a butterfly), which I filled out with a label over the human figure saying “Me at the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers charity auction for the Queer Therapy Fund”, the butterfly has been replaced by a 40th anniversary edition She-Ra action figure set, and the joke caption question is: “Is this therapy?”

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

“Us” by Jordan Peele is a 4th of July movie, change my mind

A still from the movie “Us” that shows a grainy TV advertisement for the Hands Across America fundraising event

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

I definitely still have a college cafeteria fork that was bendable into a bracelet from my days doing UVA’s Young Writer’s Workshop in the early 2000s - sorry we got a bit too creative, UVA can bill me

A fork is bent in half gently into a bracelet, and I’m wearing it on my wrist, it looks exactly as described

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

The web design firm I worked at 2006-2012 got TONS of actual sent-in-the-mail paper-based font marketing catalogs and I took home a few that were going to be thrown out anyway, and one day in 2015 or 2016 I chopped one up to illustrate my biographical headers and recreate a 1980s owl robot toy

A screenshot from my personal website where I hand-collaged a depiction of a toy robot owl from Tomy in the 1980s named Hootbot (or Foocrow, depending on where it was marketed) and I left a tiny bit of glare on the top left of the collage because it was a real glossy paper thing I made - Hootbot is overall white or off-white depending on toy condition - it has big red eyes that light up, a green face-patch around the eyes, an orange beak, black feet talons, black plastic pieces connecting the wings to the body, and some black vents in the neck that either assist with its mechanical whistle sound (a "hoot") or otherwise keep it from overheating while running, unclear. My personal depiction is more obviously a collage made from other images involving various textures and shades, especially a lot of graph-paper elements for the white wings and more elaborate textured white illustration for the body that I'm not sure how to describe aside from it's giving mechanical, paisley, and maybe a wine glass; otherwise, I went for accuracy

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

On paper this was my ideal chili crisp, but it has no heat! The crunch is so good, peanuts and sunflower and sesame and pumpkin seeds… Torn between dumping in hot pepper flakes or just cutting it with Lao Gan Ma as I empty the jar

A jar of Tia Lupita Savory Peanut Salsa Macha Mexican Chili Crunch

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Dating myself in an incredibly precise way, my dad tried really hard to get our local video rental store to save a promotional Titus film poster for me but I’m certain they only had one and I imagine one of the other cinema nerds in Charlottesville bargained harder

A promotional image for the film Titus by Julie Taymor, showing Anthony Hopkins in a weird stylized general helmet and clay/facepaint

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

On that note, my birb is encouraging me to go to bed

A screenshot of the Finch self-care app. An orange birb lady with orange cat-eye glasses is sleeping while still sitting upright on a bed in a little hotel-themed bedroom and is dreaming about a chipmunk (?) while a pet owl wearing a top hat and steampunk goggles also snoozes

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I also don’t mind driving 1hr to Richmond to pay an amazing skilled worker to do my ink fingerprinting instead of staffing CPD

A screenshot of the Charlottesville City polite website: “Due to staffing, CPD will no longer be providing fingerprinting services to the public. It is our hope to offer this service again once staffing needs are met. We appreciate your understanding.”

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I just made risotto for the first time while listening to horror movies, and I put in probably too much Swiss chard and some wild boar sausage that was Reduced for Quick Sale. It looks like goop and tastes divine! (I loved wild boar when I ate it in Europe. No, not the same. But good.)

It is a yellow Fiesta bowl with a spoon in it and the food on the lefthand side looks like some kind of weird spinach oatmeal. The righthand side has some leftover black-eyed pea cold salad with orange cherry tomatoes and herbs

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Christine Bryant-Ryback @hootbot.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

The Alamo Drafthouse Queer Theory series is so good that I sometimes have to steal an extra order card to write down citations for later. Today I wrote a note to follow up on this: sunypress.edu/Books/T/Toni...