iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Apparently, I moved to France 15 years ago. Not sure how it's been that long...

Place de Jaude in Clermont-Ferrand, France (and not very far from where I used to live in Clermont-Ferrand, incidentally).

Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A lot of people've been doing the Standard Language Quiz, so I jumped on the bandwagon... with interesting results. (The top matches to my accent apparently are California, Maine, and Hawai'i... funny, because I've never been to the first two and I left the third over three decades ago!)

A dialect "heat" map showing closeness of accents to my English, with notable "hot" spots being in the northeast United States (Maine); California; and Hawai'i.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Nice buildings not far from Luxembourg.

The front of the Elector's Palace in Trier.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I'm definitely not built for temperatures like this anymore. (So looking forward to the heatwave breaking at last next week...)

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Pain is temporary, but the Palácio da Pena is quite a work of art.

Entry gate to Sintra's Pálacio da Pena, topped with a Portuguese flag.

View showing how much of a cliff/mount the Palácio is atop.

Lots of nice architecture, including a façade covered in azulejos.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Work travel coming up next week, and, with it, all the attendant pre-travel jitters. (Though I'll be going back to Portugal, so maybe fewer jitters.)

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Organizing conferences is always rewarding, but they leave you incredibly drained afterwards...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Just applied for my first Luxembourgish passport today. Feels like a lot of things (all positive).

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Sometimes, when going through your old data, you find cool images that definitely deserve to be shared.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Ended up with my best MTG prerelease performance in a long time: 4-1, good enough for second place (lost out on first due to tiebreakers). Feels nice.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

One immediately noticeable striking difference between NC and the Netherlands: sunrise. Went from about 7:30 in the morning in NC to about 8:30 here at Schiphol...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

One thing I especially appreciate about living in Luxembourg is the opportunity to attend lots of concerts. (And these two last week made the fifth and sixth concerts I've attended in Luxembourg this year!)

Confetti and pretty lights at an Electric Callboy concert in Luxembourg.

Lacuna Coil performing in Luxembourg, with lots of purple lights.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

This past week marked the tenth anniversary of my move to Luxembourg. Crazy to think it's been that long already... and also crazier to think I took the final step for this project I've wanted to do for just about as long (if not longer).

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Any time Deutsche Bahn is involved for a trip, it's always a bit of a game of "how much of a refund after the trip will I get".

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Now for the long wait for language test results. (Well, no idea how long it'll be, but it'll feel quite long... especially since I'm not super-confident with how I did on the one section.)

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Possibly poor life decisions: signing up to do the language test I need for naturalization in... about five weeks. Maybe I'm in better shape than I thought, but I don't think I'm anywhere near as ready as I need to be...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Seeing Guns N' Roses live was also not on my bingo card for the year, but it was totally worth it. (Three hours, not counting the opener and including some very long songs!) 10/10 would go again.

An audience in front of a red screen that reads "Guns N' Roses", right before the band comes out for three hours of music.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Advantages to living in Luxembourg include big-name musical acts with tickets that aren't super-pricey. Like, for example, Judas Priest, which I saw yesterday. (10/10, would go again.)

Image of Judas Priest in concert at Rockhal in Luxembourg, the stage illuminated with delightfully yellow lighting and the crowd going wild.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

After a few days of baking temperatures, this storm that feels like it's coming feels so nice...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Even after living in northern Europe now for 10-ish years, it still always throws me off how late sunsets are here (and how late we have full darkness).

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

The trip to Vienna (and Bratislava) was quite fun, full of beautiful things to see and visit. Now back to science and pretty things inside the lab...

Blue Church (Kostol svätej Alžbety) in Bratislava, Slovakia

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Just when you think that you're going to have an uneventful trip with Deutsche Bahn... your last train gets canceled. Yay for possible partial delay compensation.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

While the architecture in Prague is a delight, sometimes there are somewhat more unusual things worth capturing.

The Franz Kafka head monument in Prague, featuring a head in segments that rotates at various intervals.

Monument to the Victims of Communism in Prague, consisting of sculptures of men with various pieces cut out and descending a flight of stairs.

Another Kafka memorial in Prague's Old Town, this time of a man sitting on the shoulders of a headless, handless man in a suit.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Frankfurt's a pretty cool city. (En route to Prague by train, so why not have a short sightseeing stopover...)

Hauptwache, Frankfurt, with skyscrapers in the background

Looming tall skyscrapers overlooking smaller, more stereotypically German buildings in Frankfurt

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Felt great being back in Wageningen, even if for but a few days.

The Forum building at Wageningen University.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

After long train/plane/car trips, it always feels a bit like I'm still on the train/plane/car for quite a bit afterwards.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Springtime means lots of pretty colors. Nice thing is that mine are both in and out of the lab.

Dried array of red-reflecting liquid crystal droplets against a black background with strong inter-droplet reflections making a green starburst pattern.

OMG ROWS OF TULIPS AT THE KEUKENHOF SO MUCH PINK SO MUCH ORANGE SO MUCH RED OMG OMG OMG

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

I got interviewed for a Luxembourgish news outlet about my thoughts on... the situation in the US. Almost makes me wish I would've tried to do the interview in French, but, hey, it got translated quite well. www.woxx.lu/offensive-co...

woxx.lu

Offensive contre la science aux États-Unis : « Je ne suis pas surpris »

Lawrence Honaker est chercheur postdoctoral en physique à l’Université du Luxembourg. Il vit en Europe depuis 2015 et est revenu s’installer au grand-duché l’été dernier. Il conserve toutefois des lie...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Three years ago today, I was traveling in Southeastern Germany and ended up being greeted by lots of snow in the town I was visiting, Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Very memorable day, also partly because it coincided with the anniversary of my family moving to Germany long ago...

The Plönlein in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Bavaria), covered by a light blanket of snow.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Another friend I brought with to Brussels two weeks ago. Perhaps less striking than the butterfly, but still with some interesting optical behavior...

A Chrysophora chrysochlora beetle from South America, mounted in a frame.

The same beetle, but viewed through a circularly polarizing glass, showing a green color.

The same beetle, but viewed through a circularly polarizing lens of the opposite handedness, showing a dark color.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

This new thing I got for an upcoming science exhibition in Brussels seems fitting for this website.

A framed and mounted Morpho didius (giant blue morpho butterfly) with strikingly blue wings.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

A 30-minute public science talk in French about optics and pretty colors? Sure, why not.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Looks like I'm going to a conference in Prague in June. Coincidentally timed right around my birthday!

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

More acquisitions for the coin and banknote collection. (It seems like my main acquisitions as of late are a lot of the pre-euro stuff from when I lived in Europe long ago.)

Old German 100 Mark banknote next to an old Dutch 100 guilder note. Not too different value-wise, but completely different artistic styles...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Yay MTG prerelease. (Went 2-2; format is surprisingly fun!)

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

A good thing about trips back to the US is stocking up on things that are tricky to get from here, such as cat pictures for various purposes.

Sam, a quite large and exceptionally fluffy brown and white tabby cat, resting on a green tarp and looking towards the camera.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Three weeks in the US always seems to go by so quickly, but now it's time to head back to Luxembourg and to Science.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Achievements: winning a table at an EDH night (and ending up with a prize!).

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Not sure how it's already been nine years since I went to India for a friend's wedding, but...

A black and white photo of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

[insert assorted wishes for a Merry Christmas]

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Ten hours in the air and a layover through Charles de Gaulle airport later and I'm back in NC. Vacation time.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Normally I don't like quote-posting, but this is an exception. My last stamp actually was French (Roissy–CDG), en route back to the Netherlands. However, I spent quite a bit of time in France this summer, such as here near Clermont-Ferrand.

Me atop the Puy de Dôme with paragliders in the background.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

A rotating observation deck in Metz gave me some nice views of the city.

View of Metz, facing the St. Stephen's Cathedral.

View of the Christmas market at the Place de la République, Metz.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Düsseldorf visit from earlier this month. (I like Düsseldorf; too bad it's so far away.)

View of Düsseldorf by the Rhein river with a seasonal Ferris wheel.

View of a bridge across the river Rhine in Düsseldorf, with the TV tower in the background.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Yesterday in Luxembourg. (It all had melted by this morning, though.)

A snowy street in front of where I live.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Something that spun off of my hobby of collecting coins and banknotes is making designs for fantasy coins and banknotes. (And sometimes getting commissioned to make banknotes for people.)

Fantasy banknotes featuring equestrian statues and a language I made myself.

Fantasy banknotes made as a commission for someone's personal constructed country.

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 29/10/2024

While my Dutch abilities are far from good, they're certainly starting to "interfere" with learning German and Luxembourgish...

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Larry Honaker @lwhonaker.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

Apparently, I've been a doctor for a bit over five years now. Not sure where the time's gone.

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