iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The third volume will be called Tescos.

Munichs is much much more readable than Red or Dead, which is semi-psychotic in its style.

220

The third Japan book was really good

John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 9h

Next year David Peace will publish Strangeways, "the much-anticipated second novel of the Munich trilogy", which makes me ask - anticipated by whom? Did anyone know there was going to be a sequel to Munichs?

Faber catalogue page for Strangeways: "The much-anticipated second novel of the Munich trilogy: a fictional chronicle of Britain, sport and the formative scars of our collective past from the prize-winning author of The Damned Utd and Red or Dead.
Just three months after the Munich air disaster, sympathy for Manchester United is already running out, and Matt Busby is faced with the hard reality of having to rebuild a team and a club almost from scratch.
Strangeways is the story of how Matt Busby leads the club from the ruins of 1958 to the triumph of 1968, helped by the likes of Best, Law and Charlton; but it is also the story of those that Munich left behind, the survivors and their families, and of a city and a country through a decade of dramatic change."

460

"A little banana sediment is totally natural! But because it's in a can, you can't see it, so your first indication will be the thickening taste of it in your mouth when it's too late to stop."

130

John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 15h

Parseword #252 ⚡️ 16s 💎 Perfect

130

John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 17h

I see that incorrect hyphens have now made it to BBC News headlines. This is what happens when you don't crack down on them.

Braid-creator Jonathan Blow on making the 'biggest puzzle game ever'

3140

I downloaded the album and am finding it sovereign.

331

I mean they weren't alone were they

Childminder who left 27 children alone in her home pleads guilty to neglect

6353

Pat Burke 🇺🇦 @patburke.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Parseword #251 ⚡️ 11s 💎 Perfect 🤳 Secret Found

230

Reposted by John Self

I remember reading the words “protecting the world from the full horrors of unvarnished Archer prose”, and I wish I could remember where.

041

Maybe it was the same source that this passage, from the Times obit of Archer, used, though it puts it (a bit) more diplomatically. www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

This success was no thanks to critical opinion. One review of that first book said that "the writing, especially the dialogue, is bad beyond belief", setting the tone for many later reviews. It was true that, judged by serious standards, Archer's books were lamentable, though those are not the standards by which popular fiction has ever been judged.
His wife helped him to write the first book, and over the years Archer relied on a great deal of assistance from others. His longstanding editor, Richard Cohen, admitted that Archer's manuscripts, with their childish handwriting and semiliterate spelling, needed endless work.
It was also part of Cohen's task to calm Archer's wilder ambitions, telling him that he was not likely to win the Booker prize, or the Nobel. All the same, said Cohen, "his books do convey the sweat and noise of a recognisably real world".
For those not fastidious about prose style they had gripping plots of a kind. The dialogue remained laughably bad, in a way that could never have issued from human lips: "Frank, we have been friends for over 50 years. Equally importantly, as my legal adviser you have proved to be a shrewd advocate."

4100

David Whitley @mrdavidwhitley.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Trying to remember the precise arrangement of details in a piece I read decades ago about how Jeffrey Archer’s agent, or editor, or possibly even wife Mary, helped him with his work by “translating his books into English.”

4295

Reposted by John Self

The emotion-prompting loss of Jeffrey Archer has reminded me of the ancient Chinese curse - May your Wikipedia entry have many unusual subsections.

46716

Trump’s Triumphal Arch By The Numbers

“1: Healthy male relationship during Trump’s youth could have prevented all this 189 million: Viewers that will watch its eventual dismantling on livestream” Trump’s Triumphal Arch By The Numbers:

theonion.com

Trump has directed his administration to build a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary. The Onion looks at the key facts and figures behind the new monument...

050

Reposted by John Self

David Whitley @mrdavidwhitley.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I reckon I've spotted a gap in the market, and I am going to churn out an absolute fuckload of tapestries.

1213

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Electro bangers, you say...?

110

Reposted by John Self

"As the royalties accrued are under 100 GBP," writes a thoughtful publisher, "we’d like to carry the payment forward to the next half-year." Yes, I bet you fucking would. JFC what a racket.

2452

Daniel Ostrowski @froakiebloke.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When I was a lawyer I once had two clients back in the early 2000s, husband and wife, his name was Rodgers, aka 'Dodger'. I asked her for her email address and she solemnly spelled out 'dodgersbitoftail2@[web-based-provider].com'. I think it was the '2' that I particularly liked.

1142

Reposted by John Self

The all time classic

Ye @kanyewest tweets ‘I will never a make a diss record’. Ryan Pequin quote tweets: ‘When Mario starts to doubt himself during a speed run’

24069563

Nice! Did they do anything else in that look? Seeds of Time maybe? Can't think of any others.

100

Love this insertion in the report: 'While he referred to himself as “the American [Fyodor] Dostoevsky"...' I mean, if you don't know who Dostoevsky is, adding Fyodor isn't going to help. And it's not like there are several Dosts.

Loved reading this. Quite tempted to see All About Steve and Observe and Report now...

Elsa @erli.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

'It's not just "the Brits were terrible"'? You'll not get far on Bluesky with that attitude, G.

030

Reposted by John Self

I can't stop thinking how wrong the tech bros have understood creativity and creators. Or even just having hobbies. #erliart

167143024712

I don't think I ever watched it! I did have a box set of all of them at one point but I think even by the end of series 3 the cracks were starting to show.

As someone else said in reply to the quoted tweet, it's a mug's game to rate them as individual sketches anyway, as their appearance in sequence and as part of a hermetic comic world was part of the point.

2131

Series 2 of Monty Python's Flying Circus is more consistently funny than almost any other sketch show and some episodes, such as ep 2 ('The Spanish Inquisition') are close to perfection.

3202

Joe Scaramangaaaarrrggghhh!!! @joescaramanga.co.uk · 05/10/2026

Seeing the correct options more than once but never recognising that [X] + [Y] made a word, let alone the right word. The vowel sounds, you see.

120

Reposted by John Self

YT-ers performatively holding clip on mics has become an annoyance for many, but I've just seen a YT video where the prresenter was not only holding their tiny mic in their hands instead of clipping it on, but they'd attached it to a stick, so ... just like holding a microphone!

static.klipy.com

Man Kicks TV Screen

Alt: Man Kicks TV Screen

7213

This is the content I come to Bluesky for.

And so begins another bad week. Given the paucity of options here, I strung this one out for a remarkably long time. Parseword #250 ⏱️ 1m23s 💎 Perfect ⚽ Secret Found

120