iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 08/09/2026

A beautiful ship from any angle. No matter where I stand, this model above my desk looks great. Happy Star Trek Day to all who celebrate!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 01/09/2026

How do I know I have management potential? Look at how many unread emails I have.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 21/07/2026

Little late, since I dropped my phone and had to switch over to a backup, but happy (late) Moon Landing Day to those that celebrate.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 02/06/2026

This week, for the two-week writing prompt for the friendly writing competition among my acquaintances, the prompt is: Cows. I hate cows. #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 18/05/2026

Writing prompt for this two week period for the friendly writing competition: Write a passage, story, poem, etc. that is told entirely by correspondence (letters, journals, text messages, smoke signals… etc.) #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

A PowerPoint slide with the title "Epistolary Story: Round 06" and the text body reads "Write a passage, story, poem, etc. that is told entirely by correspondence (letters, journals, text messages, smoke signals… etc.)"

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 04/05/2026

Writing prompt for this two week period for the friendly writing competition: Write a passage, story, poem, etc. where a thing of great power has one limitation: It has to charge like a cellphone or other electronic device. #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

A PowerPoint slide that says on the left “Charging the Ring of Power, Round 05.”

On the right it says, “Write a passage, story, poem, etc. where a thing of great power has one limitation: It has to charge like a cellphone or other electronic device.”

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 20/04/2026

Writing prompt for this two week period for the friendly writing competition: Write a passage, story, poem, etc. having something to do with a cryptid of your own design/making. #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

Write a passage, story, poem, etc. having something to do with a cryptid of your own design/making.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 18/04/2026

I used Erector sets for so many projects, but I had to get them from my family's basement. Once, I built a hot-wire foam cutter with a DC power supply, an erector set, and some steel wire. I still use "mending plates" from the hardware store for certain projects. They are perfect replacements.

A screenshot of the lowes.com website showing a mending plate. Basically a piece of erector set.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 18/04/2026

A lot of people I know have been posting variations of this meme, because of all this. The war was a bad idea all around.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 13/04/2026

Random post for the day: I have many Godzillas around my house. This is the one I keep in the garage. He is Garage-zilla. Now, back to regular scheduled programming.

A vinyl figurine of Godzilla (from Godzilla, 2000) on a cluttered workbench in a garage.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 10/04/2026

A writing acquaintance told me "you must be one of fewer than 20 people who have ever connected a floppy-disk drive to an iPad," and he's probably right. There is something about floppy-disks that will always seem futuristic to me. Growing up, it was like magic. 💾 💾 💾

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 06/04/2026

Writing prompt for this two week period for the friendly writing competition: Set a passage, story, poem, etc. during a high-stakes game, literal or figuratively. Ex. The losing team in some mesoamericqn games would be sacrificed. #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

A writing prompt titled "It's all fun and games until..." with the description: Set a passage, story, poem, etc. during a high-stakes game, literal or figuratively. Ex. The losing team in some mesoamericqn games would be sacrificed.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 22/03/2026

This week, for the two-week writing prompt for the friendly writing competition among my acquaintances, the prompt is: “Cro-Magnon the Barbarian” The inspiration came from this post: bsky.app/profile/gora... #amwriting #writing #ayearofwrites

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 17/03/2026

Doing a friendly writing competition with some members of an old writing group. I'll share the prompts here every two weeks as we work through a year of writing. We'll see how long that lasts. The first prompt:

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 28/12/2025

For any space or numismatics fans, the Alabama, Florida, Maryland, and Texas Innovation Dollars are works of art, and cheap additions to your collections. The amount of detail on the Saturn V and Shuttle is great. They didn't need to add USA on the Saturn or the SRB details to the Shuttle.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 09/11/2025

I'm thinking that Oura (the smart ring manufacturer) is missing out on an opportunity to collaborate with the Tolkien estate, while knock offs are doing this anyway.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 13/10/2025

The goal was to make a tool you can use for any conlang. You can define phonetics, then a dictionary, then grammar rules, number systems (because not everyone will use base 10), compare languages (say old English to modern English), and even define qnd export a ttf font.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 30/09/2025

If anyone is in the Waynesboro, VA or Staunton, VA area, and wants to get together for dedicated writing time, this Thursday is our next Shut up & Write meeting. We will… Shut Up & Write for an hour. Going forward, this will be meeting on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. See you there!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 18/09/2025

Little late, but tonight is the first meeting of the Waynesboro, VA chapter of Shut Up And Write! If you're in the area, stop by the Waynesboro Panera Bread for an hour of dedicated, quiet writing time. We're scheduled from 6:30-7:30 this evening. Thanks! www.meetup.com/shut-up-writ...

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 08/09/2025

Happy Star Trek Day for those who celebrate!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 02/09/2025

NASA GMAT (sourceforge.net/projects/gmat/ ) is a fantastic tool that anyone with an interest in orbital mechanics should have, because it's free! I needed to create a fictional comet for a WIP novel, and using my knowledge of orbital mechanics and GMAT, I was able to get it in the right place 1/2

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 27/08/2025

It was cool to watch the burn through as it developed, though.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 27/08/2025

At T+47:00 exactly, boom!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 23/08/2025

I forgot I had a signed copy I bought from the Barnes and Noble in Huntsville, AL when I lived there. I still haven't had time to read it. Whoops. I'll get around to it @alexwhite.bsky.social .

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 15/08/2025

Last week, I forgot to post the moon base that my wife and I succeeded in building while playing Lunar Outpost. It was a test of our marriage: we did not die on the Moon, nor fail our mission, nor did not have a big fight. A fun game! It'd be fun to run concurrent games and compete... in a race!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 26/07/2025

Finally have a new keyboard, so I can write again.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 20/07/2025

Happy Moon Landing Day everyone! It's been 56 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. I hope to live to see a Moon/Mars landing myself. My father was a wide-eyed 13 year old kid when he saw history being made. That said, I hope the Senate budget for FY26 allows us to do so.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 01/07/2025

Finally finished "Wernher Von Braun" by Erik Bergaust. It was a great, long read. It's also interesting because the publisher, the NSI is now the NSS. If you're interested in a biographical profile from a close friend of von Braun, it's a great source.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 09/06/2025

Had a great afternoon playing Call to Adventure by @brotherwisegames.bsky.social . It's a favorite of ours, but my wife has beaten me every game we have ever played... for years. This was the final character I made. Looks like I need to write a story. #amwriting #writing

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 07/06/2025

Context. A submission to @analogsf.bsky.social is started to get surrounded by rejections.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 22/05/2025

These should do. Everything in these photos are somehow related to my WIP. Not all directly. #WIPPIT #amwriting #writing #amediting #editing #SFF

A photograph of a comet over a rural setting.

A photograph of the nose of Space Shuttle Discovery in Udar-Hazy Center

A rear view of the Saturn V rocket at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. The five F1 rocket engines are prominent in the center. To the right stands a V2 missile.

The cover of a book titled “Mars 37 Pocket Atlas and Almanac for Mars Year 37”

In the background is a Lego model of the International Space Station.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 01/05/2025

This sentence was written [by zombies]. #writing #amwriting

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 23/04/2025

landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNam... This is really cool. You can make words with LANDSAT images.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 22/04/2025

Happy Earth Day! I'm doing my part. I've got my garden and planted 25 trees this year (so far). I mainly write, but here is the only painting I've ever painted. I wanted to capture the only home we've ever known from another, future outpost. An island oasis in a black sea, over the grey desert.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 20/04/2025

We all have an emotional support, dead, famous guy and who he is says a lot about you. I'm not sure what it means.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 09/04/2025

Repost with a favorite book from childhood Well, in elementary school, I checked this book out of the library a lot. My mother bought it from the school for me when they discarded it. I still have it. It teaches young kids how to, among other things, make alcohol and (on the same page) chloroform.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 28/03/2025

My profile banner is a picture of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS that I took from my back porch. It was amazing, and the technology that made it possible is a product of the Cold War, spy satellites, and space probes. Getting here was complex, with seemingly unrelated technology contributing to others.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 27/03/2025

Just to reiterate how great nuclear power is.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 21/03/2025

Not sure who needs to know this today, but this is why books smell so good. #books #reading #writing #science #chemistry

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 20/03/2025

I've been looking back at the rough outline I made for the novel I'm working on. I made a detailed outline from this. I need to go back and add a chapter or two on Earth, which could have been avoided had I thought for five seconds before NaNo 2023. #writing #editing #scifi #writerslife #amwriting

Incomprehensible handwriting that is purportedly and outline for a novel. Legible on the left hand side of of page are chapter numbers. Smaller numbers indicate an estimated wordcount for the total novel at that point. It is very underestimated.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 27/02/2025

I've got this Mars Atlas, and after reading about this yesterday, I can't help but think of a coastline around Elysium Mons. The volcano on one side, the sea on the other, and organic molecules in tidal pools between the two.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 25/02/2025

As an engineer, the quote on my bookmark reminds me that my job isn't just to read and write about the future, I take an active part in its development. We all do, in a way.

A space themed bookmark with the quote, "Your task is not to forsee the future, but to enable it." attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 22/02/2025

These are the books I picked up today. I'm looking forward to reading "Hacking Planet Earth," which is about geoengineering.

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 22/02/2025

I visited my favorite store today: The Green Valley Book Fair in Mt. Crawford, VA. Every book averages around $3-6, even hardbacks. The stock is refreshed regularly, so I like to visit once a quarter. If you are traveling on I-81 through Virginia, you should stop and take a look!!!

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J. Russell @jrussellwrites.com · 20/02/2025

I've had the opportunity to visit a replica of the Pinta and Space Shuttle Discovery. As much as people compare space travel to the Age of Exploration, the differences are numerous. 1/

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