iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The least realistic part of Lanterns so far is being able to navigate an FCC website that quickly.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Me, wiping down vegetables circa March 2020

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Checking in on the Freedom 250 takeover of DC's streets for an IndyCar race...

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Just getting back from a week at the @barrelhouse.bsky.social Writer's Camp. Gonna be hard to go back to the email factory tomorrow after spending the last few days star gazing, writing by the creek, and talking shop with so many smart, kind people.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Some would say it's broken but I think it's perfect

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Been messing around with some B&W film and naturally went to my favorite sandwich shop in DC.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The last image I see when the final whistle is blown

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

What did you just call me, bruv?

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Just needed some immaculate views to get over a bit of a third act hump

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I started working on an idea for a novel a year ago. Just finished the first draft.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Scotland are facing stiff opposition

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Me every time the Spurs don't just lob it to Wemby

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Maybe try riding the metro then, you goons

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

The new show Widow's Bay is so good, like instant classic good. Equal parts hilarious and spooky, with meticulously cinematography

Two frame screenshot of a meeting of the mayors office staff, first, the assistant sitting: "So, I guess you don't want me to take him to the old hospital?"

Second, Matthew Rhys, playing the Mayor, standing: "No, I don't Dale. And I think you knew that."

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Maybe because it's the start of baseball season, but this story from Emil DeAndreis hit the spot. "The River Table" in the New Delta Review: ndrmag.org/the-river-ta...

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

If anyone knows where the new Miniature Wife show got these ceramic coffee mugs, dm me. I will fly to Japan if needed.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Another year, another great day of writing craft lessons and book hauls from @barrelhouse.bsky.social's DC conference.

Spread of books, Tacoma, Aliens Attack, How to Write a Novel, Until it Feels Right, Out There In the Dark, If I Can Be Honest, and Frontier

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

See you in the Elite 8, go hawks

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

A top priority, great job team

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Our block organized a mass snow shovel session this morning. I'm the cluster of pixels in the back here admiring our progress. Now for 6 ibuprofen and a nap.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

It's gonna be a close one this year

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Proud of this chonky lil whale I carved for a Christmas gift this year

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Got a new dog leash and you wouldn't believe who they optioned for the naming rights

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein but the monster is the cobbled together corpse of the Iowa Democratic party

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

I'm a complete sucker for Callan Winks nature descriptions. From his new book Beartooth: “They crossed the river on the Cinnabar bridge, the water low and clear, a gray line on the rocks like a bathtub ring where the water had receded since the early summer snowmelt.” And this whole page really:

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

You'd think he'd have to start swimming to get there.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Waiting around at a Verizon store and just tearing through Rita Bullwinkle's HEADSHOT. I'm a sucker for these brutal switches between the characters literally getting pummelled in the face to remembering the worst shit they've ever seen in their lives.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Back yard fence sustained minor wounds

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Wind ripped through DC for like 5 minutes today and took down a tree at the end of the block

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

For context, the Digital Equity Act was appropriated by IIJA and funding is split between an allocation to states/territories and a competitive program for business/nonprofits/other government entities. It supports things like trainings on how to navigate online tools, like banking or telehealth.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

A common DC talking point is there are too many disparate broadband programs. The GAO tallied 133 across 15 agencies. But when you look under the hood, you see internet/devices are just one of many eligible uses of $ in broader programs. For the Dept. of Education this is what it means in reality:

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

My neighbor's house burned down last night and my sister in law put her dog down this morning and when I got to this section of the article I had to take a walk around the block

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Just a brutal end to a chapter from @garthgreenwell.bsky.social, almost the upside down version of Jack Gilbert's "Manger of Incidentals"

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

New to shooting with film but got a point-and-shoot Olympus Pen EE3 over the holidays and finally got a few rolls developed. Had to get some shots of my favorite DC monument (RFK stadium) before it's too late.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Catching up on the new episode of Severance

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

A real life version of the "so say it" clip

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

One day in and we're already back to the "staring at empty podiums for an hour and listening to camera operators chatting over the live mics while waiting to see if the policy area you work on will dramatically change" portion of the administration.

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Lord please, I've seen what you've done for others

TikTok ban notification but for Microsoft Teams

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

I think I've missed the window for end of the year reflections, but after trying to write short stories for the past ~12 years, I was pretty proud to have one published back in July (and then a second just a few months later!). Thanks to Vita & the Woolf for printing my first story, "Butterscotch"

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

From my new story published in the Rathalla Review - Saturday Night in Trader Joe's www.rathallareview.org/post/2024-fa...

Excerpt of text from the short story Saturday Night in Trader Joe's, with the image of the neon sign for Trader Joe's on top and the DC skyline on bottom. Text reads: "And one layer after that, at the molten core, he knew that if he started in on it, he would tell them everything. How his mom didn’t come to the funeral, and how a generic pastor he had never seen in his life read from a stock script about grief and God’s plan, and how his grandmother had cried in halting gasps, inhaling the whole world between each sob. It would ruin being in DC for the summer. No, this was the perfect opportunity to disassociate from it. Work was here and family was there, and as long as he kept his mouth shut and didn’t post anything online about it, no one here ever had to know."

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

A bit close to home: "to go around saying Negroni this and Negroni that, it gives them this little frisson. This was the consumerist small-talk phase of the party, and I was meant to say something nice about, for example, his Restoration hardware cocktail shaker." Chris Knapp, STATES OF EMERGENCY

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Jake Varn @jakevarn.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

LinkedIn sends notifications that would have sent High School me into an anxiety coma

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