iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Nova Scotia goo.gl/maps/wmUR965...

Photo of a street sign at an intersection- upper sign says "THAT ST". Lower sign says "THIS ST".

Screenshot from Google maps. Readable street names are "This St", "That St", and "The Other St".

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oh good, they asked for feedback.

Screenshot. Asks "Any comments you would like to add?", with a text box below. I have filled it in as follows:

Your AI agent autoresponse began "I understand how frustrating it can be..." before asking if I wanted to be transferred to a human agent.

a) No. It doesn't. It's an LLM.
b) No frustration was expressed in my original request - I simply asked if someone could have a look and sort it out. The frustrating part was getting the condescending reply that was a clear lie.
c) Yes, obviously since the LLM had done nothing except give me a few scripted lines, I wanted to keep the ticket open and seen by someone.

The human agent was very helpful. The part before it, the simulation of customer care without any actual care, was not.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Love a bit of recursive RTFM.

Screenshot from a manual. Text reads:

Important Safety Instructions

1. Read these instructions.

2. Keep these instructions.

3. Heed all warnings.

4. Follow all instructions.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Great ad. No notes. ... wait, one note. The X does nothing. I can only opt to "see fewer posts like this" via the ...

Phone screenshot from the Facebook app. Posted by Meta AI app, it reads "Judith, try free AI tools", and then there's a huge blank space where there presumably should be an image??

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Oh fuck OFF. Keep going. Keep going. No, you can not possibly have fucked off enough. That will never happen.

Meet Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365
You may be new to Microsoft 365, but you don’t have to start from scratch. With Copilot Chat built into the apps you’ll use every day, you can ask questions, explore ideas and move work forward, without breaking your flow.
Here’s how Copilot Chat helps you every day:

Work in context – get summaries and insights directly in your apps.

Stay seamless – pick up where you left off with memory and history.

Get more done – move faster with AI that understands your files.

To get started, find Copilot Chat in Word, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps by selecting the Copilot button in the app ribbon.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Thanks for the "Crocchet Patterns" rec, Etsy. I'm sure that's definitely not absolute trash. #FuckGenAI

Screenshot from Etsy. Underneath the title "Inspiration at your fingertips" are two photos - one has been crudely obscured to not get it mixed up in all of this, the other is a book titled "10000+ CROCCHET PATTERNS BUNDLE".

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Suuuuuure, ad at the top of my Gmail. Nothing says 'professional tool' like calling your shitty AI product Nano Banana 2. Do you just not know what professional means? I know Google search results have vastly declined in quality, but there are still dictionaries.

Screenshot. A banana emoji on the left, with two lines of text.

First line (bold):
Instantly create professional images with Nano Banana 2
Second line: Generate high-quality visuals for presentations, posts, and websites directly in Gemini

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

This Grammarly thing has been an insane story, and people are rightly mad as hell... But my brain won't stop imagining a user trying to check their punctuation now having to dodge unsolicited advice windows like it's Sim City. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

Screenshot of Sim City 2000. A window at the front has an image of a man with the text "Crime is out of control. We need more police stations."

Image from dosgamesarchive[dot]de

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

This, for better or worse, was intentional. But the choice carries meaning. When people discuss the words on the page, that's what they're talking about. AI doesn't make choices in that way. That's why we don't want to read it.

Screenshot of an excerpt of "Tom's Crossing" by Mark Z. Danielewski.

--
still enjoyin the sight of that black mare and blood bay geldin, who were likewise also still enjoyin themselves.
What could be better?
And then Lindsey Holt charged up.
Hey! he hollered, but the new kid either didn't hear him or didn't care to hear him, because he just kept starin at the horses. Hey, I'm talkin to you! Lindsey shouted again, closin fast the gap between hisself and the object of his fury.
The new kid did at least turn around
then.
--

Speech is italicised rather than enclosed in speech marks, every word that ends in "Ing" has dropped the g from the end without an apostrophe (geldin, enjoyin, starin, closin), the word "hisself" appears.

Your school teacher would be most displeased.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Strong feeling that I know what my 'favourite' book would have become for one day a year if dressing up for World Book Day had been a thing when I was small... (If memory serves, there was also a Roger Red-Hat and Jennifer Yellow-Hat... so, y'know, options)

Book cover - Billy Blue-Hat, by Sheila McCullogh. Has a drawing of a plainly-dressed child sitting on a cantaloupe-shaped hill. The child is wearing a blue hat.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Why do you continue to advertise for them? This one’s been in use since at least the 1950s.

1950s print ad. A toddler has a finger raised. Text reads “Just one question, Mom… Can you afford not to smoke Marlboro?”

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Fredrik Backman - The Winners

“Home.” There really ought to be several different words for that, one for the place and one for the people, because after enough years a person’s relationship to their town becomes more and more like a marriage. Both are held together by stories of what we have in common, the little things no one else knows about, the private jokes that only we think are funny, and that very particular laugh that you only laugh for me. Falling in love with a place and falling in love with a person are related adventures. At first we run around street corners giggling and explore every inch of each other’s skin, over the years we get to know every cobblestone and strand of hair and snore, and the waters of time soften our passion into unfailing love, and in the end the eyes we wake up next to and the horizon outside our window are the same thing: home. So there ought to be two words for that, one for the home which can carry you through your darkest moments, and one for the home which binds you. Because sometimes we stay in towns and marriages simply because we would otherwise have no story. We have too much in common. We think no one else would be able to understand us.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Mark Lanegan - Sing Backwards and Weep

After I heard Rose utter that comment, I made it a point each day to be extra kind and thoughtful around her. “How are you, Rose? So nice to see you today. What a treat it was to hear you play last night. Hope you have a great show tonight!” Knowing she dissed me only made me more attentive, as thoughtful as I could be, forcing her to interact with the fakest, nicest version of myself possible, as all the while I was thinking, Uh-oh! Look who’s here! Get ready to enjoy the idiot, lady, ’cause he’s comin’ to see ya! I made it my personal mission not to let a day go by that she could escape talking to me, my own mild version of Chinese water torture.

This clown had accidentally stumbled into the high life, courtesy of his talented older brother, Noel Gallagher. Noel was the one-man hit factory and true genius behind Oasis, writing all of their great, classic tunes. He had been friendly and respectful, treating both our band and crew with common courtesy. The limelight of popularity Liam basked in had evidently uncaged a monster, one without teeth or claws, but a small, irritating monster nonetheless. Success looked to have unleashed his inherent narcissism, his look-at-me-ism, his transparent deep-rooted insecurity. But what the fuck did I know? He had probably been a lowlife cocksucker his entire life. Maybe he’d been a bedwetter, shit his pants at school, or been cut from football squad as a youngster and never gotten over it. I couldn’t believe someone hadn’t beaten, knifed, or shot him to death by now, such was the reckless, witless, and despotic nature of his insufferable facade. Where I was from, a person wouldn’t last a week behaving as he did. One day, they’d simply disappear, their mangled body discovered years later, haphazardly tossed into a shallow grave somewhere deep in the woods.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation

There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to relive, certain kinds of connections so deep that when they are broken you feel the snap of the link inside you. As we descended into the tower, I felt again, for the first time in a long time, the flush of discovery I had experienced as a child. But I also kept waiting for the snap.

You understand, I could no more have turned back than have gone back in time. My free will was compromised, if only by the severe temptation of the unknown. To have quit that place, to have returned to the surface, without rounding that corner … my imagination would have tormented me forever. In that moment, I had convinced myself I would rather die knowing … something, anything.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Gretchen Felker-Martin - Cuckoo

Something was wrong. Something was wrong with Casey, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. They’d taken the daughter she’d hated all her life, whose mouth at her breast had felt like a leech’s boneless orifice, who she’d left one day at six months old in the back seat of their old sedan when it was ninety-five degrees. She could still remember the red flush of Casey’s skin, the slick of sweat on her small body. She’d stood beside the car and stared at her child sitting slumped half-conscious in her car seat, and wondered what would happen if she just waited half an hour. That feeling that had always lain between them, unspoken, uncomprehended. Now it was gone. Now there was . . . nothing.

“I know this place seems harsh right now, but you can trust us,” said Pastor Eddie. “We only want what’s best for you.” Oh, there it is, thought Gabe, realizing with nauseous disgust that in some frightened corner of his heart, some little piece of himself still cowering behind the locker room door against which his father stood pressed and breathing angrily, he’d been hoping against hope that there was something gentle hidden inside Pastor Eddie. The thing they say when they want to hurt you.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I mostly read on Kindle, which has the advantage of being able to make highlights and annotations. I mostly use it to highlight and share excerpts. Here are some favourites: Steve Aylett - The Book Lovers

Death’s not so romantic is it Inspector? Death shits in the sink and gives you a stare.

It seems to me if this were a universe of blind chance, we would occasionally blunder into good fortune. How to explain the one we inhabit?

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

It’s been a rough year, so it’s a fairly limited selection of fiction/ autobiography* this year… but it’s been a quality year. *I don’t track non-fiction on Goodreads

Screenshot from Goodreads of my books of 2025. Featuring (in no particular order):
RF Kuang - Babel, Yellowface
Fredrik Backman - Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners
Cory Doctorow - Red Team Blues, The Bezzle, Picks & Shovels
Mark Lanegan - Sing Backwards and Weep, Devil in a Coma
Serj Tankian - Down with the System
Steve Aylett - The Book Lovers
Gretchen Felker-Martin - Cuckoo
Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
Kaliane Bradley - The Ministry of Time

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Finally getting around to Apocalypse Infrastructure Sim 2*. It continues to be weird and beautiful.

Death Stranding 2, photo mode. A man carrying an impossible number of things is on a rocky mountaintop, with a glowing city behind him in the distance.

Death Stranding 2, screenshot. Mid shot of Norman Reedus’s character. Black smudges and thin columns appear in the close background, with a hint of mountains in the distant background.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

This story has some incredible quotes. People do NOT want their communities infiltrated by AI. This specific community ran a poll, members voted to limit the AI to its own channel (no AI anywhere was not an option in the poll), then they went ahead and put it everywhere anyway.

Screenshot of a paragraph from the article -

“To me it shines a light on the god-complex that AI C-suite members seem to have, and their willingness to ignore people's consent and opinions as they bulldoze their way of pushing AI,” Reese, a member of the community, told 404 Media in the aftermath.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Just asked my Windows computer to shut down. It’s apparently got some stuff it wants to do. No option to postpone. No notification it was going to do any updates when I shutdown. No indication of how long it’s going to take. It’s just happening.

Image of a section of screen saying “Updates are underway. Please keep your computer on.”

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Important development in my Alan Wake 2 replay: You can pet the dog.

Photo mode screenshot- our player character, Saga Anderson, is petting a dog.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Vivaldi iOS - 503 Bad Gateway

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I’m getting somewhere near to finishing this thing while Pride month is still on, at least. I usually end up finishing things at the exact wrong time of year to wear them.

A crocheted cardigan in the colours of the asexual/ demisexual flag. Pattern is “Frosted Waves” by Crochet Highway. Hemming and seaming/ end-weaving still need work.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

I… what? No. I get that you were hoping to have been able to have sold these things to me by now, but you’re not my mother.

Screenshot of a notification from the Amazon app. Title “Recommended for you”, text “We thought you’d like a new baby pushchairs or pram”.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Yes. Almost unrecognisably.

A screenshot of the Google street view at the junction of Whitcomb Street and Swiss Ct near London’s Leicester Square

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Loving Chisola’s business cape, though. #BBCApprentice

Screenshot from the BBC series “The Apprentice”

A woman strides across the screen towards a vacant office chair, wearing a beige trouser suit which includes a cape that almost reaches her ankles.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I’ve skipped over most promotional emails today, but I did enjoy this from @krotos.bsky.social (Even better - onlyfootsteps.io links to their actual footstep generator site)

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Microsoft are just going all-in on making sure nobody wants to use Edge, huh?

A screenshot of the Apple App Store entry for Microsoft Edge. The first image in the preview highlights that it is an AI-powered browser. The second image suggests turning words into art with DALL-E 3.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

HOW are these elements reasonably classed as being under “Screen Time” settings? Feels like they’re trying really hard to hide them.

Screenshot of an iPhone settings page titled “Intelligence and Siri”. Includes toggles for image creation, writing tools, and ChatGPT extension.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

From my response to the UK Government’s AI “consultation”:

Screenshot. Question is “Do you agree that generative AI outputs should be labelled as AI generated? If so, what is a proportionate approach, and is regulation required?

Answer in a text box: Big label. Unmissable. Let people know if they’re supporting actual artists or the people who stole from them.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Some random guy: creates an Instagram account, posts things with no crossover to the things I post, has no mutuals on any platform. Instagram:

Screenshot of Instagram’s notification “[username], who you may know, is on Instagram.”

The original username has been obscured, and “Some random guy” has been inexpertly superimposed in red text.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

The UK Government’s consultation on waiving copyright for the benefit of the AI bubble has 52 questions. You do not have to answer them all. Just find a few places that seem appropriate to tell them where to shove it. www.gov.uk/government/c...

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Apparently in September I was into “Pirate Theremin Dark Cabaret”…. Yeah, checks out.

Spotify Wrapped screenshot. “My September: Pirate Theremin Dark Cabaret”

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

That cancelled TV show you’ll never stop thinking about?

Still from the tv series SANTA CLARITA DIET

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 01/03/2024

People are over-confident that Labour will win the next GE, imo. Yes, the Conservatives are horrific, and FPTP is the worst voting system… but what is it that’s better about Labour except for the vague hope they’d be less horrific in some as-yet undefined way?

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 29/01/2024

“You’re one of a few experts invited to add to this collaborative article”, says LinkedIn. i.e. fix this bit of bullshit we generated with AI, for free. Ugh. No.

Screenshot- “How can you ensure project timeline awareness when collaborating with other film teams? Add your insights into this AI-powered collaborative article”

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 15/01/2024

Found a stack of these in my mum’s house. Going to find some mini-floppies to insert for added mystique when using them.

Photo of an A4 transparent plastic wallet with a small pocket for a mini floppy disk.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 02/01/2024

Oh well. There goes any chance of my finding that app ever again. It’s just so invisible.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

I don’t know why I’m on their mailing list… but I DO love a bargain…

Email preview - sender is “Tractor Supply Company”, text preview starts “Shop today and save BIG”

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

What possible functionality does this question serve? Is it a trustworthiness score? Testing who’s likely to respond to random surveys in their feeds? Because I find it very difficult to believe that someone has paid money to Facebook to ask its users this question.

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 19/09/2023

Recent survey of the UK film/tv industry, on the effects of the US SAG-AFTRA strike: bectu.org.uk/news/three-q... The system is broken. It needs rebuilding.

Other key findings include:

35% are struggling to pay household bills, rent or mortgages
15% have taken out a loan or other unsecured debt to pay bills
1 in 10 are considering moving in with parents or other family to help with costs
Nearly a quarter said they did not see themselves working in the industry in the next 5 years

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Judith Allen @jaa-edit.bsky.social · 18/09/2023

I see no possible way this could go wrong, though....

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