iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Bathday for Bailey today. He’s home again, & I need to take a photo. I’d asked for the fur hanging down off his ears to be trimmed. It’d been hanging down into his dinner, & I had to finger-comb the stuck-together clumps. Now he looks like a puppy again, now that the ear fur is shorter.

Picture of an apricot coloured cavoodle sitting up on a two seater lounge coloured a shade of bluish-grey. His ears have been trimmed shorter than usual, & he’s fluffier than usual because he’s just come home from having a bath & a haircut.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@tanaudel.bsky.social It’s arrived. Seeing as your reading has had some influence on my reading this year.

A photo of a book by Edward Chisholm called Murder in Paris ‘68. The cover is in black an white, including a photo of a car, with a man looking out of the open window, the man presumably being French actor Alain Delon, who is one of the major figures in this book.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Home river (the Hunter, at Morpeth)

Picture of the Hunter River at twilight, from the riverbank at Morpeth. Reflections of the trees can be seen in the water.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I just like how @infinitescream’s post looks like a reaction to Mr Allain’s joke.

Screenshot of two Bluesky posts on my timeline. The first, by Moose Allain, says “I always get my pizza delivered. I’ve no idea why they put liver on it in the first place”.

The second post, by Endless Screaming, immediately underneath so as to look like a reaction to Mr Alain’s post, says “AAAHHHHHH”.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Look at that. Am already betting Bailey creeps under the covers at some point overnight. He’s covered by a throw rug right now, but that’s not going to be enough later.

Screenshot of the BoM app, showing that while it’s currently 9.6 degrees C & feels like 5.7, the temperature before the sun rises tomorrow is going to feel like minus 1 degree C.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Serious dog wants to know why I’m pointing the phone camera at him.

A poodle cross, with beige & white fur and a straightforward expression, balances on the arm of a blue-grey lounge. He would like to jump over on to the lap of the person typing this, but she was pointing a camera at him. The cheek of it!

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

It’s Garbage Night, and guess why I’m not looking forward to taking the garbage out to the red bin?

A screenshot from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, indicating that the current evening temperature is 14.4 degrees Celsius, but because of the windchill factor, the temperature feels like 6.1 degrees.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Yes, Duo, but you can fly. You don’t have to buy petrol or diesel.

A screenshot of a French translation exercise from Duolingo. One is meant to translate “ Fuel is expensive” into “Les carburants sont chers”. Duo is tapping into world affairs again.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Found a picture of Jasper from when he could still get up on the lounge without us worrying about how he'd get back down again. Some after breakfast snuggles going on there. That's a happy memory of our matey. I need to start thinking of a few more of those.

An apricot & cream dog, on a lounge with a red cover, is leaning against a partly visible human. One of the dog's front legs is draped over the thigh of the human.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The last picture of Jasper that I took was on the new dog bed. Here’s the first picture of Bailey I’ve taken since Jasper left us and, yes, there’s the dog bed.

A photo of a large dog bed in a chequered pattern. An apricot cavoodle sits in the right-hand front corner. He’s just finished a post-prandial roll on the bed, with face rub on the fabric. His expression suggests he doesn’t know what the human is thinking in taking a photo of him like that.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

JASPER 10 July 2009 - 13 February 2026 Our Matey

Full face portrait of an apricot & cream dog of the cavoodle variety lying on a beige patterned bedspread, one front leg outstretched to the camera lens. A blue bone-shaped plaque hangs from his collar. It says JASPER. Goodbye, matey. You were a very good boy, & we’ll miss you.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

I’ve posted this before, back when I was still on Twitter, and I just wanted to post it here. It’s my favourite photo of Jasper. He was eight years old then, half his age now. Happy, healthy, & interested in spending time on people’s beds, whether or not he supposed to be there.

A photo of an apricot & cream coloured dog, part poodle part Cavalier, lying on a cream, pink, and green throw rug. This is my favourite photo of Jasper.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Now that’s more comfy-looking.

The same dog is now shown lying along the back of the black & white dog bed, fully supported instead of half on half off.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

For anyone wanting photographic proof.

Photo of a a dog, creamy apricot in colour, lying with half on and half off a large black & white chequerboard-patterned bed, on a laminate floor of a rather similar colour to that of the dog.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

The temperature gauge for our local weather station must be in the shade. It’s much warmer than that.

Screenshot of the local weather, according to the app for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. There’s no way it’s 25 degrees C, as the picture says. It’s hotter than that.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Here is the offender, now that I’ve downloaded the video from the app. Showed it to brother, who suggests changing settings so as not to be disturbed late at night by anything not human-sized.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

It’s a bit too bright to see properly, but one magpie preening a wing, & Bailey was furious, despite his being unable to see through the front door.

Screenshot of a section of concrete, with a shrub in a plant pot, & a blurry magpie perched on a railing.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Smoke, I can believe. I’ve been smelling bushfires on the air for a few days now. A storm? I’ll wait & see. But 24.6 degrees Celsius? You must be kidding me, little app, you’re pulling my leg.

A screenshot of the BoM temperature & forecast for my area for the rest of today. There is no way the outside temperature is under 25 degrees C, unless the local weather station’s thermometer is deep in the shade of something. It’s more likely to be closer to 40 degrees.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

If this lady is the cause of my death, it’s because I’ve been badly haunted by an ancestral ghost (see alt-text).

A very old photo of an older woman in 19th century clothing, all in black, given that we know she was a widow. This is my maternal grandmother’s paternal great-grandmother, Margaret Maxwell Kelly.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

What’s under all of that fur that was taken off today. Jasper looks so small, but he was so hairy & matted that the groomer warned us it would cost ten dollars more than usual. Mum gave fifteen dollars more, & said keep the change. You can see his eyes again.

View of Jasper, an apricot-coloured cavoodle, with close-trimmed fur after a bath & a haircut.

View of Jasper, so you can see his face close-shaven.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

@tanaudel.bsky.social will probably shake a finger at me for not getting these out of the letterbox earlier, but never mind, my Mr Squiggle purchases are here. Bill Steamshovel, and Blackboard, all present & correct.

A photo of purchases from the National Museum of Australia’s shop, from the Mr Squiggle exhibition. From left, a postcard showing Blackboard, a rather flat & grumpy-looking character, with his catchphrase “Hurry up!” In red letters underneath him; two pin badges of Bill Steamshovel, complete with caterpillar tracks, curly hair hanging over his face, & his tongue hanging out of his mouth; underneath the badges, three copies of the Bill Steamshovel sticker.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

New scarf. Souvenir of Ireland, brought back by my brother & my sister-in-law. Told them they were spoiling me, because before they went I just said to bring a postcard from somewhere interesting.

Photo of woven material in varying colours, some purple, some blue, some pink, some pale yellow.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Endless Screaming strikes again in my timeline, immediately below your post.

Screencapture of a post by Camestros Felapton as to having forgotten about former Australian P M Scott Morrison until an article by The Guardian acted as a rude reminder. It is immediately followed by a post from @ infinitescream, which this poster finds horribly appropriate.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Bailey’s getting anxious that he can’t catch the flydys. Doesn’t like flydys. They have to be jumped on, so why won’t they stop to let him do it?

Bailey, who had a haircut a couple of weeks ago, so isn’t quite as barrel-like a dog to look at as he was.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

@tanaudel.bsky.social, just noting the arrival of one of your Redbubble items. Lovely pattern on the material, just as it is on a screen.

Picture of part of a large tote bag, of a design by Kathleen Jennings, in lines involving a castle, a row of flowers, a row of trees, & then a a colonnade.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Sometimes you want the words in print on paper, & not just on a screen. And I love these covers. (No faulting the artist behind the new covers, just a matter of personal preference.) And Abbey’s in Sydney is an excellent bookshop to order books from.

Picture of a stack of books by T Kingfisher, from the top: Paladin’s Grace, Paladin’s Strength, Paladin’s Hope, and Paladin’s Faith.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Backing this up with a photo taken nearly 5 years ago: one end of a former theatre in Peterborough, South Australia, with a round window looking like a big nose in the middle of a face with decorative elements resembling closed eyes above and a smiling mouth below.

Building seen from the window of the Indian Pacific train. For further details, see the post this attaches to.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Another hundred days. Think that I think that if I keep going some grammatical blind spots might become known. Doubt it though.

Orange rectangular image, containing an image of a fiery owl, and the words “I’m on a 2200 day learning streak!”.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Some of us prefer Cavoodle. This is Bailey.

Picture of a light-coloured dog sitting on a wood-look laminate floor.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Have a fluffy puppy, should you need to see one today.

Picture of a very fluffy pale-coloured cavoodle, not long back at home from his bath, on a wood-like floor.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

This woke me from a doze at 6 am, & I had to persuade Bailey that there wasn’t a reason to bark. Nicer to see than that weird spider-thing, apparently dancing in mid-air, some months back.

A black & white photo from the doorbell’s camera, showing two pale columns & some bricks in the background, while in the foreground is the somewhat flared view of a large moth that caught the attention of the movement sensor at 6 o’clock this morning.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

See that “feels like” temperature? I shouldn’t look at the BoM app later in the day. I was feeling a bit chilly already without that.

A screencapture from the Bureau of Meteorology app, forecasting not only heavy rain but also an afternoon temperature of 11.7 degrees C that feels like 0.8 degrees C.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

For @tanaudel.bsky.social’s benefit, part of a pre-order confirmation of the e-book format of her book to come out in September, purchased through the Kobo Australia online shop. Quote posted so that any of my compatriots reading this might look at the link to the reel, should they wish to do so.

Screenshot of part of a receipt for a pre-order of an e-book from Kobo Australia. The book is Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings, with a publication date in the middle of September.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I need to check if it’s snowing on the Barringtons. That wind can’t be all the way from the Snowy Mountains, could it?

A screen cap from the Bureau of Meteorology app, showing a quite reasonable winter temperature of 11.1 degrees Celsius, but with a feels like temperature of a much less reasonable -1 underneath. Wind chill. Don’t you love it?

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

My timeline provides the words Natee cannot bring themself to say right now.

Natee’s post, quoting an artist whose painting was put through an AI program for the profit of someone else. It is, appropriately enough, followed by an Effin Birds post, with an angry red bird captioned in upper-case letters “Motherfucker get lost”.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Nearly 11 pm, & I should be going to sleep. But I had to have a quick look at the Bureau of Meteorology app. Isn’t that a lovely little collection of weather warnings?

Screen capture of the BoM app, saying it is 17.6 degrees Celsius but feels like 6.9 degrees C. The main part of the picture is a big yellow square listing these weather warnings: flood watch, severe weather warning, coastal hazard warning, marine wind warning, sheep graziers warning & hazardous surf warning.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

We picked the right time to go to the nearest polling station to vote. No line, not even the small one that developed after we finished & bought our #DemocracySausages & something to drink. I considered a cake, but they were mostly sold out, which was well done for them.

One photo of a volunteer at Wallsend Public School cooking sausages, & probably onions, as they were on offer, on a barbecue for anyone who wanted to support a fundraiser for the school.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Another hundred days. Taking it easier, though. Wondering when the streak will break naturally. (Of course I could break it deliberately, once I’d used up all the streak freezes.)

One large orange square, containing a phoenix-style version of the Duolingo owl, with the caption “I’m on a 2100 day learning streak”.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Here they are, after I retrieved them from the letterbox today.

Two copies of the duck woman sticker on top of a cardboard envelope from Redbubble.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

I had to do #ProofofDog instead, having neither cat nor fox. Here is Jasper & Bailey. Bailey is the one closest to the camera.

Photo of two dogs with similar colouring to the floor they’re lying on.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Gave them some room. I like being on good terms with the local magpies.

Photo of two mostly black birds, known to Australians as magpies, at the bottom of a tree in a suburban street.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Post the first video game you ever played. (I am an Old, junior edition.)

Screenshot of an opening screen, in green & yellow on a black background, the words “Mattel Electronics presents Buzz Bombers (c) 1982 Mattel”.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

If you look closely, it looks like someone has drawn a hopscotch game on our driveway. Why ours, I can only guess.

Photo of a pebblecrete driveway. Look closely and you can see a drawing in white chalk. It appears to be a hopscotch game form.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

My aunt has answered. She’s been very busy making sure nothing is going to be propelled by the wind. She also sent me the picture, which is being shared around by people up that way.

Picture caption is “I have detailed the path of cyclone Alfred for your convenience”. The picture shows a multicoloured scribble over the top of an official Bureau of Meteorology forecast map of the cyclone.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Sunday doesn’t look like fun. Better than the situation further up the coast & into Queensland, though, once the cyclone hits.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast for Friday to Thursday of next week. Going to be wet, & particularly so on Sunday when, presumably, what’s left over from Cyclone Albert reaches the Hunter Valley.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

It’s not the third answer, no matter how much it amuses me.

Screen cap from Duolingo. The top line asks why the school principal and Eddy are meeting. The first of the three choices says Junior is doing stupid things at school. The second choice has Junior being sick for two days. The third choice has Junior having turned into a frog.

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J MacQueen @jomacmouse.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Our dog groomer wasn’t going to take Jasper, but I explained that the vets had said he wasn’t going to drop immediately, so would she take him for a badly-needed wash & trim? This is how he came back, clean & knot-free. But a bit naked, as she said at the time. And oh, the big eyes!

A light-coloured cavoodle with a very short haircut, because he needed it very much.

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