iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13h

In just over an hour, my daughter's partner's band will play the biggest gig of their career, supporting #QueensOfTheStoneAge in Reykjavik. 5,500 people in the audience. He sent us this picture from the soundcheck.

A very large hall, with a capacious standing area followed by banks of tiered seating towards the back.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

We had heavy rain last night. The Kelvin responded, so swollen its waters reached the lower branches of the riparian woods along its banks. Still, a nice lunchtime #bike ride.

A river, its waters stained brown by sediment washed in by overnight rain, flows through a valley lined by trees just beginning to turn.

The riverbanks are densely wooded, and the swollen stream is as high as the lowest branches of the overhanging trees.

The sky is mostly blue, with fluffy white clouds, though it's not a sunny scene.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

My wife made this wee coffee cup for me. She thinks it’s crap. I love it.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

#Dinner tonight was spiced roast duck with watercress, orange and mint.

A white plate shot from above with lots of green salad and sliced orange and a duck breast on top.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026

Apparently, this garbage counts as "customer support" now. #enshittification

Your Virgin Media Mail account is currently unavailable
This is either because your Virgin Media Mail account is locked, or because you don’t have an active account with us anymore.

For more information on how to unlock your Virgin Media Mail account, head to our help page on managing your Virgin Media O2 ID.

[link]Help to manage your Virgin Media O2 ID[/link]

Manage your Virgin Media O2 ID

You’ll use your Virgin Media O2 ID to sign in to Virgin Media and O2 online services instead of using separate Virgin Media sign in and O2 sign in details. If you need help understanding or managing your Virgin Media O2 ID, read our frequently asked questions below to find out more.

Then a bunch of FAQS (i.e marketing inserted into documentation) self-help crap that basically says, hey, this is your problem, not ours.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026

Dinner tonight was courgette (zucchini) with peach, stracciatella and a roast almonds and rosemary dressing. It was, if I say so myself, rather lovely. #food #recipe

A white plate with grilled courgettes, slices of peach and melting white cheese.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

RE: studio8502.ca/@mos_8502/11711236930… People who wilfully destroy books have a questionable (at best) history. Photo by Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14597 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c…

Black and white photo from the 1930s of a crowd of people throwing Nazi salutes beside a giant bonfire of books.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

Have some photos. Of #flowers Just because they're pretty.

An orange day-lili flower. A beautiful 6-sided flower with fuscha petals and a gold centre.

Corocosmia. A bright red/yellow flower amidst a sea of green foliage/

I think this is a tirgividis pavavonia, and I have no idea how it is in my garden.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

Tonight’s dinner: a mushroom and vegetable #pho

A bowl of soup full of colourful vegans topped with handfuls of herbs and spring onions.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026

This is vegetation that has overtaken an abandoned railway line not far from where I live. I'd love for there to be a study of this habitat. Nobody planted this, or managed it. Thought about it. Gave a fuck about it. My best guess is that this line was […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Looking down into a former railway cutting, now filled with green life.Trees, ferns, growth everywhere.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026

I love this wee bridge in the Garscube Estate over the River Kelvin. Think it dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. It's just so pretty. And the view upstream is lovely too. This is taken from the #Glasgow side of the river. The opposite bank is East Dunbartonshire.

A small, delicate blond sandstone bridge over a fairly placid river. The riverbanks are covered in mix of tree species.

Looking upstreaam from the bridge. It is a fairly overcast, dull day. The sky is a sullen grey and the river sluggish. But the trees lining the riverbank are lush and in full leaf, their branches drooping all the way down to the water's edge, as if stooping to drink.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

Yeah, there is, but it's tiny. It's almost all cartilage. (I had my 'nose' 'broken' by a Swingball [remember that?] bat in the 80s. It took them two goes to reset it.) @sarajw

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2026

If I were Duncan, I'd be worried. Those hens have the steely-eyed stare of Sans-culottes.

An egg box labelled Kilduncan free range eggs. There is a picture of 3 rather fierce looking hens, and the best before date is 14 July.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2026

The Mathematics & Statistics building at the University of Glasgow. #Glasgow #architecture

The building is blackboard-coloured and has mathematical formulae squiggled over it. There is an entrance to a building site with someone in hi-viz in the foreground.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2026

I was at the #antiFascist rally in #Glasgow earlier today. Couldn't stay long because I have an ataxia that makes standing for long periods untenable. But wanted to add my voice. Fuck fascism.

A crowd of hundreds of people, mostly with their backs to the camera, many waving banners and flags. In the background there is a an avenue of trees leading to a stone arch.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

Just finished cutting the grass. Sat down for a breather and this little robin decided to perch on my toe.

Looking down the length of my denim clad right leg where there is a tiny brown bird perched on my big toe. My shoes have been kicked off and I have black socks on my feet.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/07/2026

Your occasional reminder that in #Scotland, electricity production has been #carbonfree for a while now. Yet people in the north of Scotland still pay more than those in the south of England for the same service. www.extraordinaryfacility.com/carbo…

Screenshot from the website noted above showing the carbon intensity of electricity production in northern Scotland at 0, and 2g/kWh in southern Scotland.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

Zuzz it all up with a handheld blender. Or use a food processor. Or just chop everything really finely by hand. You'll end up with a vivid green sludge which is absolutely delicious.

Very vivid green sauce made as described earlier.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

Herbs. Lots of them. I used fistfuls of parsley, mint and basil, but use whatever you have / like. You will need much more than you think.

Green leaves of herbs drying in a sieve,

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2026

RE: mastodon.org.uk/@mkwadee/1168507356… And you can buy 1MWh of electricity for 21p. Not a typo. £0.21 for enough electricity to run your house for 400 years.

Screenshot from grid.iamkate.com showing the spot price for electricity is £0.21, among other stats

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

And here was tonight’s dinner: pasta, pesto, peas. That’s it. That’s the recipe. I just chucked the peas in with the pasta for the last couple of minutes to soften them. #GlutenFree

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

I love podding peas. The quiet, almost meditative state you get into. The repetitious repetition. The soft pop - sometimes a puh or a pff - as you pop a pod. In fact I’ll give that to the Pea Marketing Board for free: “Poppa podda peas today” It’s so hard […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

My pea-podding workflow: unpodded peas => a bowl of peas and a compostable bag of discarded pods.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/06/2026

This wee cat often comes into our garden. She is gorgeous. I say she. We have no idea of its sex.

A silver and black leopard print cat, sat on our garden chair.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

Couple of #trans rockets firing off from East Lothian.

Double rainbow across the Firth of Forth

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

From my daughter, today. She's a marine biologist working on a project studying orca behaviour. They are on Heimaey (pronounced hame-aye), the largest and only inhabited island on the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. She's the one […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A group of 4 people with their backs to the camera look out to sea from a grassy clifftop. Two are standing, two seated. The person on the left is looking through a camera on a tripod.

Three of the fires have long lenses on cameras, telescopes or binoculars.

There are three rugged islands in the foreground, and a fourth – Surtsey – in the distance. The sky is blue and the ocean is calm.

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David O'Brien @iamdavidobrien.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2026

#Cycled to the Burrell Collection today. More for a birl around the Park and to be in the building than the collection itself. Did have a wander round the galleries though, and one piece of interpretation accompanying 3 Buddhist figures did tickle me. #MonTheBurrell #TransRights #Glasgow

Me, a middle-aged white man with grey hair standing outside a low sandstone and glass building in a parkland setting.

Interpretative sign accompanying 3 Buddhist objects at The Burrell which says: "Guanyin: A Transgender Icon
Starting in the 900s Buddhists in China transformed the male god Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara into the female goddess of compassion, Guanyin. Some trans people feel this gender-fluid figure reflects their life experiences.
Figure of Guanyin
1662-1722
Trans people have always existed and are rooted in history. Figures like Guanyin reflect this, showing tha gender and identity are not always fixed.
Qing Dynasty
Porcelain, made in China
Figure of Bodhisattva
550-577
This Buddhist religious figure looks neither male nor female.
Other androgynous Buddhist icons are sometimes shown with fleshier bodies.
Northern Qi Dynasty Stone, made in China
Figure of Guanyin
1662-1722
Guanyin has always represented the basic human values of compassion and kindness. Trans people deserve respect and understanding.
Trans rights are human rights.
Be more Guanyin.
Qing Dynasty
Porcelain, made in China"

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