iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 02/12/2023

Rory Stewart, an Independent MP, has announced a UK Tour. Most of the dates/venues are based near and in London. One date/venue is in Edinburgh. And that's it. It's a bit unusual describing the tour as UK wide, when it's mostly Southern England.

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Delilah S. Dawson @delilahsdawson.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

I def put a book down if it's not exciting me. I can tell immediately if something is high quality or sticky. Weirdly, it doesn't have to be both? But this also means that when I read a sentence that really sings, I have the highest respect for the writer. No book is for every person, and that's ok.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 02/11/2023

Listen to the sewer.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Created this meme where you cross The Thing movie with Mariah Carey

Three panel meme based on the movie The Thing.
First panel: A man called Mac, he points his shotgun upwards. He's in a freezing room. Mac asks openly "What the heck happened here?"

Second Panel: Mac stands above an ice block which had been hacked open. There's nothing in the ice block.

Third panel, a group of people are breaking apart the ice block. There is a woman inside the ice block. She's wearing a red dress. The caption reads "Days earlier. Mariah Carey being defrosted for Christmas"

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TrekkieBrie @trekkiebrie.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

I had a ton of awesome Irish accounts on Twitter that I followed, some that posted in Gaeilge, and I fear I won't be able to find as many here. So if anyone knows any accounts, please tag them so I can follow here too.

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Natalie @discopigeon.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Nice that these new builds now come with your own private void to scream into.

House floorplan with a room labelled 'void'.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Since the Former President's ascent and subsequent decline, chaos has gripped the GOP. Understanding the implications of this seismic shift can be challenging, but this insightful piece is a great place to start. ⬇️

thinkbigpicture.substack.com

Is the GOP Disintegrating Before Our Eyes?

The current state of the Republican Party is akin to political party schisms of the past, which might signal a coming realignment.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

I didn't feel going to the office, I was going to work from home, but I decided to drag myself out, anyway. On way to train station, I bumped into a school friend. Makes me think about missed opportunities if you don't get out there. :)

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Joanna Wyld @joannawyld.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

Not quite as catchy as the Jimi Hendrix version.

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Jeremy Jenkins @jeremyjenkins.net · 18/10/2023

If you don’t find the motivation to write. Just start writing anything. That’s what I’m doing right now. I’m writing to you. Doesn’t seem to work though.

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rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · 14/10/2023

author royalties for books sold is 10% of cover price, and can even be lower,

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

I've created a new Javascript game and it's hosted on my GitHub Pages. It's called "Mahjong Roman". You have to pair up a Roman number with their numeric counterpart. jjowens.github.io/mahjongroman...

Game tiles showing showing Roman numerals and integers e.g. CLXXV, 198, CLXXXII, 175

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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 09/10/2023

a huge company with power saying actually, we'll go to the trouble of not just making bigotry easier, but legitimizing it, making it one more anodyne choice in the process. comemierdas.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 09/10/2023

I've written an internal blog at work, detailing how I've developed my javascript based game. Blogging is a great way of improving your articulation of your thoughts and identifying problems in hindsight. If you haven't tried blogging, do it. It might open up doors. Who knows?

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 08/10/2023

Yesterday, I visited the Barras, Glasgow, I took some pictures of the area.

Street art of St. Luke's building. It shows a bull having wings on their backs. A banner is at bottom, it says "St Luke's"

Tall Building, it has a mix of red brick and sandstone colours. Lovely architecture

Small street art. Text appears at tope saying Barras East End Studio.

It shows a coat of arms on a white wall. A beehive is at top middle. On top left, a fish appear on middle of tree. A bell and a bird appear on each side of tree.
At top right, an Eagle's head appears between a symbol that resembles the Boy Scouts.

There are 3 cats showing their faces at bottom of coat of arms.

A view from a view. It overlooks Bill's Tool Store, off Bain Street. The Barras sign is on left. On horizon, there are flats and a shop below an large advertising board

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Emily St. John Mandel @emilymandel.bsky.social · 27/09/2023

I’d say this banned-books story horrifies me because I’m queer, but honestly I don’t think I’d be less horrified if I were straight. It’s the kind of insanity that should worry anyone who cares about a) living in a free society or b) other people. popular.info/p/florida-sc...

Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries...

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 04/10/2023

#accessibility A musical called Mrs Doubtfire, taking place at Shaftebury Theatre, London. It will run until September 2024, almost a year. There are over 300 dates to book from. There are only 4 dates for accessible performances; BSL, Captions, Audio described, relaxed 1/2

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

Scala. I made another win in web development. I'm learning Scala and I've setting up unit tests to check my mock service returning fake employee data. I was working out issues with class versus objects. I'm having fun again with web development.

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Delilah S. Dawson @delilahsdawson.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

My beautiful murderbook is out today! Bloom has: * Hannibalesque origins * cottagecore style * a sweet sapphic romance * dark, creeping horror * a really cool typewriter * and the cat LIVES! Please buy a copy today, wherever books are sold! And please reskeet to spread the word!

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

Last night, I've been stuck on a javascript problem for a few hours. I've been banging my head against desk, (not literally!), trying to get past problem. This morning, I revisited same problem and got it fixed in a few minutes. Moral: Take regular breaks from your desk

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 01/10/2023

Relaxing, going through a music playlist. Listening to REM, "Man on the Moon". "Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

Never ever ever ever EVER eveeeeeerrrrrrr do this. Ever. Ever! Just buy books from (independent) bookstores. Bookstores are great. We love bookstores. And they’re home to booksellers who are basically book wizards. It’s pretty great.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 27/09/2023

Recently, I've been busy writing internal blog posts at my job. Those posts have been well recieved. I have a feeling that being a writer is my calling. :D

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

I buy books more than I can read. I'm encouraging myself to try to read more. I've attempted this a few times in the past times. I'm too easily distracted with TV or video games. I'm working on creating a positive habit to read more. 📚

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

Booked two city breaks. I haven't done any summer breaks this year. I wish I had done, though.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

#photography Recently, I've started taking photos in RAW format. I didn't realise how useful RAW format would be for me in recovering photos that appears washed out or too dark to see. I took those 4 photos in Glasgow.

Photo of street. It looks down the street. On both sides of photo are tall buildings. On left, the building has scaffolding with green mesh. On right, a different building shows smooth and reflective glass.
At bottom, there's a woman crossing the street. Her light brown hair is being by the wind.
At middle of picture, there's a covered bridge connecting two buildings further down the street,
At top, there's a horizon. In distance, there are building in various shapes and sizes. The sky is almost bright

Photo of bridge. At top, the spire of University of Glasgow towers aboves the trees. There are are several trees with a variety of green colours.
At middle of photo, there's a bridge standing over the River Kelvin. The bridge is coloured sand stone, which is a light brown and beige colour.
At bottom, the river is dark and some highlights shows the wave patterns

Photo of shoes hanging on overhead wires. In middle, two separate pairs of shoes or trainers are hanging on overhead wires by their shoelaces. There's not much detail on those shoes. The overhead wires contrasts clearly against the dull sky.
At bottom left, a tree stands tall. On right, a sandstone coloured building can be seen

Photo of side street. It's a narrow street. In middle of photo, two people walking towards to the horizon. On left and right hand side of photos, the buildings are light coloured. Double yellow lines are on the street. A yellow car peeks out of a car park.
Against the bright and almost cloudy skyline, a construction tower crane is operating.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Around 8 years ago, The Martian movie was released. I got a bag of potatoes where there was a promotion for the movie. Quite cute and surreal! Potatoes are of the movie storyline. Picture shows The Martian promotion on packaging.

Packaging for Albert Barret rooster potatoes. There is a label on right hand side promoting The Martian movie. The promotion is to win a family space adventure.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Javascript. If you ever need to unit test browser based Javascript, you won't go wrong with Mocha and Chai. Recommended!

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

I've been in my job over a year now, I realised I'm happy where I am. The company is very much an inclusive workplace. I was able to contribute suggestions at meetings at community meetings, like accessibility, and they took it onboard. I never had that experience before where I feel included

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 22/09/2023

I've been working with Javascript and unit testing with Mocha. Two challenges. - unit testing browser based javascript - unit tests not picking up on imported javascript file Finally got it working. If you get stuck, check out this question stackoverflow.com/questions/42...

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

Fighting with unit testing javascript. This image represents an re-enactment.

Image from Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith. Obi Wan Kenobi is fighting against Anakin Skywalker. They're using light sabers to fight against each other.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 19/09/2023

I returned to my javascript project, by using IntelliJ Ultimate. I think I've borked it. The unit tests are set up with Jest, but I forgot that while while some of the javascript syntax works in Node JS, it doesn't on client side, via web browser. Time for a rewrite.

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 18/09/2023

Cochlear Implant update: I can't hear anything much. The sounds are muffled, as if the volume is low and is unclear. In my head, it feels loud because I can feel a sensation or echo inside my head My brain is trying to make sense of the new sounds. It feels a bit overwhelming. I need to be patient

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John Owens @johnjowens.bsky.social · 18/09/2023

Today is the day I get my cochlear implant switched on. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

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