iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Chips are looking better w finishing touches. #Chocolate #Poker

Poker chips made out of chocolate. 8 are colored blue with white stripes and 4 are red with white stripes. They all have a gold letter C in the middle. A plastic template for the C is also on the board and some small rectangles w practice Cs on them.

Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

After some expert consultation from @shoelais.bsky.social, I believe we are ready for picture day on the 23rd! #MissionAccomplished

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Operation Banana Patch (tm) is on track! Next step, cut out bananas, then sew.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Picked up a signed copy of @chriskamler.bsky.social 's book this evening!

Book cover of "Paulie's Pizza" by Chris Kamler
Cover shows a typical old school pizza parlor inside w the white and red checkered table clothes. On top of the main table is a smoking gun, a jar for a candle and a couple glasses

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

But also, was gifted a pokemon coin by other kid bc "It looks like me". This smiley happy fellow:

A pokemon coin showing a snorelax character. Gold colored with black background

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Not sure how many of these I can actually eat, but I feel like I'm always thinking I wish I had just one more when eating them. Gonna make 20 and see what happens.

Top of a pork dumpling box showing the words: 36 Dumplings
Black letters against a yellow background

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Giving off big "never misses leg day" vibes here. Was so fun! Arms were so tired though since it was very shallow where the lesson was. I literally scrapped my hand on the rocks on my first paddle & left a bit of finger skin in HI for the fishes, as a treat. Had to do wide shallow paddling.

Man surfing a wave that is just starting to show whitecaps on the top. Shot is from the front of the surf board looking up with a gray sky behind him.

Due to this photo perspective the man looks almost giant-like if giants had skinny legs, arms, and barely any hair on the top of their head but fantastic beards. The waves seemed much bigger from the hotel room.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Best value in the state. TheBus goes everywhere. $7.50 for the day & always w/in like 5-10 min of a station/pick up. #HeckYeahPublicTransit

A credit card sized plastic HOLO card used for TheBus in Honolulu. It is a blue and white patterned card.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Gross, who'd choose to live here.

Sunset with the deep orange poking below dark rain clouds. Ocean in the foreground mountain with sun rays in the background.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Her: everything reminds me of you.

A red flower with deep green leaves. The flower is cone shaped and has a single bud type extremity poking out.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Artists: getting number of fingers correct since at least 2350 BCE #SupportRealArtists

Relief of Egyptian on limestone. Placard says 2350-2100 bce

Full relief of Egyptian on limestone from a tomb hung in a museum in hawaii.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Yesterday the instructor asked to delay by 2 hrs. This morning weather decides to start raining at 8 (original lesson time). Just stopped raining, waves for new start time:

Rainbow over the ocean with waves in the background and a boat harbor filled with boats in the foreground.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

"If you'd like you can bottle your own & take it with you." Hand goes up immediately. Yes please. Still have a week, so this vacation is starting off nice.

A bottle Old Pali Road Private Reserve Straight Bourbon from Ko'Olau Distillery on Oahu Hawaii. The label has a model A car on a road and is in black and white. There is a gold label at the top with the distillery name.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

There is a boat here that I have a sneaky suspicion is owned by a kansan. #Jayhawk

The back of a boat in a harbor with the name "Jayhawk" on it.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

All in all, would not recommend. Not for me. Interesting enough to try but only the purple balls were worth putting in my mouth. At least they had a plum like taste to them. These weren't all that sweet or sour either, just goo. #NoNom

A package of gummy candy named "Noms". These are "burst" noms and have some sort of goo in them. They say they are coated in Li Hing and lemon peel. Made in hawaii.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Saw a cat cafe last night. Had to grab a pic from the outside. #AllergicToCafes So many cats in there.

A black cat in a cat cafe lounging in a geometric wall installation.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Up for 24 hrs before bedtime here. So worth getting up at 2 to fly out.

Diamond Head mountain in HI with the ocean and beach in the foreground.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Back on my bullshit this morning. Wanted to see if I could recreate the graham cracker thingy since I kind of winged the recipe the first time. Since I had egg yolks and a lemon I made custard. Since I made whipped cream for the pancake tacos, may as well put that on. Just kept snowballing.

A small blue plate holding a dessert pastry.
Pastry is two layers of a graham cracker looking rectangle with yellow lemon custard in between the crackers. On top is another layer of lemon custard, 3 raspberries, whipped cream between the raspberries in a cone shape, and chocolate drizzled across the top. There is also a small piece of graham cracker that is very thin and irregularly shaped sitting on its edge between two of the raspberries.
This party dessert is sitting on top of a whipped cream swipe in the blue plate

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Did one of those "Huh, I got an idea what if.." things. Made tiny ice cream cones. Chocolate tops, strawberry marshmellows, custom graham cracker tuile type cones. #Baking Learned a lot making these things.

Collage of 6 pics showing how I made small chocolate covered strawberry marshmallow ice cream cones.
Pic 1 is a single tiny finished cone about the size of a mans index finger.
2nd is a dozen or so finished cones all lined up on a pan, some on a sheet some in a holder.
3rd is about a dozen finished cones in the holder but before the strawberry marshmallow is completely covered.
4th is a row of cones upside down in a chocolate mold where you can see the strawberry peaking through.
5th is blank cones drying on a holder
6th is a chocolate dome mold filled with chocolate with a couple domes also filled with strawberry marshmallow. That mold is next to a marshmallow sheet where tiny circles have been cut out.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Reference picture with real ghost:

Framed picture of a ghost running down a hallway at The Stanley hotel in Estes Park. The light fixtures on the ceiling are in a direct unending line in the center of the hallway, doors on both sides, and a ghost running toward the photographer. The picture has a sepia style coloring to it. Also, the "ghost" is a large man under a white bed sheet with no eye holes. His figure takes up most of the hallway due to the angles and the movement of running has made the sheet all flowy like a ghost.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Breakfast time. Donut from the farmers market yesterday.

Donut with pink frosting a cup of coffee and a crepe with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream on top.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

When a kid only likes the pink and purple nerds you sit down and get to dadding (tm).

Two plastic containers each containing nerds candies. One container has the superior tasting purple and pink nerds, the second has the clearly inferior tasting yellow, orange, and green nerds.
*Flavor superiority rankings may vary by nerd haver.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

WaffleTaco (tm) dinner is the best.

Waffle bent in half to look like a taco shell. It has whipped cream, strawberries, and raspberries inside.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Space Carmel bonbons turned out better than expected.

Blue and white speckled assorted chocolate bonbons. All lined up on a parchment paper.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Test run of the playing cards seemed to turn out as well. #Chocolate

A small set of playing cards, just the hearts suit. Made in chocolate with a white coloring on them and the suit and number are in blue instead of the typical red.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Poker chip trial / concept worked well. #Chocolate

Blue poker chips with 6 white stipes
Made out of chocolate white spray pattern slightly noticable on several chips.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

In what fucking reality would this make any sort of sense? Auto-fill used to work pretty well, never seen anything this ass-backwards out of it. But go on w/ the AI revolutionary tech that's going to replace 30% in 5 yrs. I'm sure it was a human coder that decided to fuck it up.

Screen shot of a Microsoft word document where it wants to auto-fill the word "reference" with "nday, Octob". The word Reference is only partially completed before the auto-foll option shows up.

Yes, it does not make any sense. No, there is no "day" that starts with R or even a month that starts with R so why would it suggest to auto-fill with a partial day and partial month? Because Microsoft has made an active choice to use AI in its coding and in the process has messed up a lot of previously functioning tools. This type of activity is the exact reason the company's products are routinely being referred to as "Microslop". So much so that they've put out an internal memo to make sure employees never use that wording.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Sushi* night with cauliflower rissotto and homemade spicy sauce. *Not sushi, allergic to the fish so used chicken, tortillas instead of the fishy stuff

A blue plate with 5 "sushi" slices. The slices are made with flour tortillas, rice, avocado, and chicken. Next to it is a pile of cauliflower risotto and some pink sauce dollup.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

And on the 3rd day he got up, crawled out from under his rock & said "for reals bro, French toast." And there was.

2 slices of decedent, masterfully prepared with love, French toast. Each slice adorned in luscious, smucker strawberry preserves and a dollup of whipped cream.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Would have posted more, but was busy high fiving every cosplayer all day. Also, no service, too many people. Seriously, folks had amazing costumes. The guests kid wanted to meet were super nice as well as staff she had a blast & had several complements on the costume. #Kitty #HazbinHotel

Pieces of a costume sewn by the best dad ever. There are two red large horns attached to a head covering, a large silver bow, and a cumberbun looking strap for the bow. The red horns have white strips on the top it is for a "Kitty" costume from the animated series "Hazbin Hotel".

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Damn, whoever this band is, they must have some pull as they were able to land that guy from the meme.

A guy standing in a court or church or something w/ a document in his jacket pocket. Blue shirt, brown jacket, hands over the edge of a pew. Other attendees (all but one are men) wearing suits and ties are looking at this guy. Looks like a normal rockwell style of picture.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Can't imagine. Not possible to imagine (checks notes)... a machine that can instantaneously give you information you request. To put the cherry on top, "in the comfort of your home"? "Whoa!" ~ Joey next you are going to tell me we could have one in our pocket too. Get out of here w/ this bs.

Quote: "Imagine a humanoid educator named 'Plato,'" she said. "Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous: literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and history. Humanity's entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home."

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Happy "1980s Stay out of the kitchen cause Dad needs to finish taxes and is using the whole table for the important papers." Day to all who celebrate.

A beautifully ordained table. The ordains: French toast piled high on a plate with a single pice on 2 plates. Assorted berries of raspberry blueberry and blackberry in their containers as well as in small pink bowls. A clear glass bowl of whipped cream so tempting, just asking to have someone shove their face into it. A plate of bacon some super crispy some less crispy. A mug of coffee, half full. A butter stick slightly used on a crystal butter dish. A half eaten cinimon roll. Some bananas of various ripeness. One naked blue plate waiting for delicious breakfast.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

A KC Current win deserves cherry pie! *Everyday is a good day for pie.

A pie uncooked with the top crust vent marks. A 3.14 is cut into it as vents for Pi Day

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Gf picked up the book for me. The first sentence is: "can I get that plain? No sauce, condiments..." Lol yep, that's my biggest issue w most restaurants, pastry shops, treat makers... I just want a burger / sandwich, I don't want your artisan bbq sauce w soggy onion rings and jalapenos...

Book cover from the library. Cookbook named "color taste texture" by Matthew broberg-moffitt

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Got quite a bit of baking done today. Tested a cheesecake roll concept, made peanut butter m&m cookies blueberry muffins.

A pan of blueberry muffins, bag of cookies, and a container of cheesecake.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Essentially comes down to an hour a jar. From Picture, to shipped. This group seems to be more art-ish and should fetch $100 each, but some of the others are still sitting out there at $20 w/ no takers for the last 8 months. This batch is all Rick Wisecarver jars, here is a sample:

A cookie jar in the shape of cats playing in a basket of yarn. One cat on the left side, one cat on the top, and one cat laying down playing with the yarn. The yarn basket/ball is dark blue. The cats are gray, brown, and black.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

On the list for today: Do my own research to make sure this villasenor family treats their dogs ethically and doesn't over milk those little gals.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Ok, ready for the answer key to NAME THAT POKEMON!! ?

5 cupcakes, each decorated with a beloved pokemon character. The artistry is so beautiful it is reminiscent of that one guy who tried to restore a master artwork and failed horribly.
Cupcakes have small pictures under them on a counter that says what they are.
From top left to right are
Charmander
Squirtle
Bulbasaur

The bottom two are Pikachu and Eevee

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Thanks! Making cupcakes for bday party and wanted to try and match the pokeball cookie theme I made last weekend.

Pokemon ball decorated sugar cookies. Assorted colors each with a white bottom half, a black line thru the middle and blue, green, red, purple, orange, or gold on top. Solid colors, not all colors on one cookie.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

NAME THAT POKEMON!! #5 Last one, don't get burnt by this one. I'm sure you are already 4 for 4. This one is a big flamer with a big ..... Smile! Showing you his belly for some good good belly rubs. #Pokemon #Cupcakes

A cupcake decorated with blue frosting and a little brown pokemon in the middle. The pokemon has a white belly and flames on its tail. Super awesome, super cute, and super delicious.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

NAME THAT POKEMON #4 This one was tuff, as it's just all bulby and green. A regular lawn care professional, he's "always high on grass" ~ grass pad #Cupcakes #Pokemon

A cupcake decorated with brown frosting and a green bulby looking pokemon. It has a green shell type thing on its back but it is also green and walking like a turtle so it's tough to tell. It has a big red smile and eyes and looks delicious.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

NAME THAT POKEMON #3: This one is a bit harder, but focus on the colors and brown shell. This guy loves the water and splashing about. #Cupcakes #Pokemon

A green background frosted cupcake with a blue turtle that has a brown shell decorated on top. It is supposed to look like a famous pokemon, but looks more like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wearing black sunglasses trying to join the blue man group.

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Mark @johnnyoptimist.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

NAME THAT POKEMON #2 Better not do any criming around this little guy as he used to be a detective once upon a time. Likely to "zapp" your sorry ass if he catches you. #Cupcakes #Pokemon

A masterfully decorated pokemon of the lightning variety adorns a small cupcake. With green background and a yellow animal that has a jagged tail and black steaks in its ears, there is mistaking which pokemon it is. A big red smile and black eyes are always prevalent on this dude.

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