iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 07/10/2026

Of all the things I'm adding to my bluesky theme, this little bar right here might be the one that I'm the most pleased with from a quality of life standpoint. It's SO easy to do, and yet, GOD FORBID the official app does it. (I mean, granted, it relies on my server for state checks, but *shrug*)

An "end of unread items" divider that shows you when you've reached the end of the content you've seen already.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 07/10/2026

I have a color scheme that pulls from Voyager’s colors too. :D

A screenshot of the LCARS Bluesky theme with a voyager color scheme

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 06/10/2026

So like I said in the post earlier, I basically decided to take the framework I cobbled together in CSS using old code I’d used for an abandoned mastodon instance, and figure if I’m going to do it, I may as well do it WELL. Reworked aspects of just about everything, and I still have a lot to go.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

Liz brought back gifts for us from New Orleans, and mine was my first Tarot deck, as you’re supposed to have it gifted to you. It’s a thing. Naturally, she got me a Star Trek TNG deck. Because she’s AMAZING. The major arcana are all bang-on selections, but… HOW FUCKING DARE THEY.

A “Death” tarot card featuring Tasha Yar, with Armus standing behind her menacingly. Because it’s important we remember that trauma needs to be relived over and over again.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

This was us. It was nice to get down to breathable oxygen when the show was over. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

IT’S LITERALLY THIS JACKET. I just have the absolute hardest time believing more than one of these exists in the universe. Sure, he MIGHT have multiples… but he might not. But like… 30 years ago, the SAME JACKET. That’s BONKERS.

Weird Al wearing a VERY DISTINCTIVE maroon wavy-corduroy jacket.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

Also… obviously the graphic was made long in advance, and was clearly a Godzilla reference, but we were seeing him on September 11. 😬

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

We were NEARLY as far away as we could possibly have been, but fuck if it wasn’t still fabulous. Harper has been a MAJOR Weird Al fan for years now (thankfully) and she might even have been more excited than I was. I’m so goddamn glad I got to do this with her.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/10/2026

I COMPLETELY forgot to share this last month, but for my birthday gift back in June, Liz managed to get a pair of tickets for me and the kiddo to go see Weird Al in concert. It was her first concert ever, and she’s the SAME AGE as when I went to my first concert ever, also Weird Al.

Harper and I about to see an absolutely fabulous Weird Al concert. :)

A picture of the stage with the “Bigger and Weirder” tour graphic on it.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 04/10/2026

I think it might just be the fact that the first three ingredients are sugar, corn syrup, and brown sugar. They’re… REALLY NOT GOOD FOR YA. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 04/10/2026

How old am I? Old enough that when I saw this sign, my first thought was “D’AAAAH I HEARD THAT!”

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 04/10/2026

My kid got some new millipedes the other day to add to her collection (some male and female ivory millipedes) and god damn if they’re not kind of cute. When they’re interested, they “nibble”, which honestly feels more like they’re licking you. Also, this one pooped on me. New experience unlocked. 🤨

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 03/10/2026

I friggen’ love living right next to a power spot. It makes hosting G-MAX raids SO much easier. (Especially since my kid can also queue up a hosted raid in PokeGenie, and we can get upwards of 40 participants. FROM HOME.)

A screenshot from pokemon go showing a power spot with Gigantamax cinderace

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 03/10/2026

Liz has been in New Orleans since Sunday, first for work but the last two days, two of her friends flew in so they could essentially just take her out sightseeing and hanging out, which is rad. (Plus, free extra trip!) They went to Lafayette cemetery today, and Liz was super excited to find this.

The Karstendiek Family Tomb in New Orleans, which was the inspiration for Lestat’s tomb in Interview with the Vampire. ‘Cause we’re apeshit for Lestat. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 02/10/2026

Then you’ll get a kick out of the profile pages. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 02/10/2026

I decided I was a grown-ass adult human being with too much time on her hands and not enough sense to know a waste of time when she saw it, and said to myself “hey, an LCARS Bluesky overlay would be cool as fuck.” And it is. But it also takes SO MUCH EFFORT for the tiniest goddamn thing.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 02/10/2026

Seeing this post come up in the custom Bluesky wrapper I’m working on was a moment of cognitive dissonance. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 29/09/2026

She looks exactly like the original book cover.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 26/09/2026

She was, unfortunately, incredibly bad at playing Numberwang. Always losing to Simon.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 22/09/2026

IT IS AS THE PROPHECY FORETOLD!

The movie poster for the Steve Martin movie “The Man With Two Brains”, or as it will soon be retitled for reissue, “The Man With The Normal Number of Brains”.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 21/09/2026

And that’s about as far as I can take her before I can afford the green glass for the border. I went ahead and soldered on the leading that will go between the green and brown, and applied the patina to all of the solder lines except the leading around Leota’s crystal ball. :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 20/09/2026

Out pokemon hunting with the kiddo and found some older mountain lion tracks by the lake. (We’re in the foothills and back up to a huge nature preserve, so it’s not uncommon for them to be out this way) It’s hard to tell from the photo but it’s about the size of a human hand.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 18/09/2026

If I’m ever tired of listening to this album, it is because I am dead.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 17/09/2026

Thank you! She definitely has a different look when light is coming through vs when it’s shining on her from the front, and it’s made me realize how important it is (when working with semi-opaque glass) to mirror the painting on both sides of the glass, to ensure light is blocked evenly. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 17/09/2026

It’s been a few days since I’ve given any progress photos on the Haunted Mansion window I’m working on, and this is a decent “in progress” picture of it in the light right now to see how it’s going. I have all the brown pieces cut for the border, but I wanted to get the top panel done first.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 16/09/2026

BREAKING: The Pizza Time Players will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran. No comment yet from members of The Rock-afire Explosion.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 16/09/2026

BREAKING: The Vampire Lestat will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 11/09/2026

Madame Leota’s crystal ball is done, and OH MY GOD she looks amazing in the light! I can’t WAIT to start working on the rest of the window (design included here so you can get a sense of the scale), which will be a lot quicker, since it’s mostly straight-line cuts instead of these curves.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 10/09/2026

*laughs* I’d never seen the resemblance before, but I can definitely see it now. Madame Leota (the face, anyway) was performed by Leota Toombs, one of the original Imagineers. Her voice was done by Eleanor Audley, who also voiced Maleficent and the Wicked Stepmother. :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 10/09/2026

Well, two of the pieces seem to have gone missing, and three of them will need some slight adjustment on the grinder, but she’s taking shape! (The painters tape is just to hold the pieces in alignment while I check the fit)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 08/09/2026

Twist my arm, why don’tcha! :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 08/09/2026

It looks kinda wild when you first open the kiln, too. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 08/09/2026

I think I’ve finally got Madame Leota’s face to where I want it to be! She needs a final glaze coat (for some reason the glass in the unpainted areas took on a matte finish) but then I can finally assemble and solder the crystal ball portion of the window!

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 08/09/2026

They’ve never understood what people actually WANT. Like, when they did the “Disco” shirts, I kinda felt like they had it figured out, but then they just go back to the same old boring shit they always make.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 08/09/2026

So, I need a new purse at some point here, and though I don’t have any money, I figured I’d do a little window shopping online to see what’s out there. Why the FUCK is the official Star Trek online shop selling THIS? Is there literally no one who looks at this stuff?

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 07/09/2026

*sigh* My son, the master Minecraft Skin designer.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 06/09/2026

I think I’ve got two more paint/firing passes, but these details have helped Leota really start to look like herself. This kind of painting is absolutely new and foreign to me, but I get immense satisfaction from the results. :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 06/09/2026

Harper’s friend invited her and a few others to go to SacAnime for their birthday party, so Harps worked overtime to finish her Tenna cosplay for it. In true cosplay fashion, it was done THREE MINUTES before we had to leave. :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/09/2026

Definitely mellows out a bit when the light comes through, but I’m trying to get soft shading, so I think it’s working out well overall.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 05/09/2026

Leota is starting to take shape! I’m having to paint the shading in INCREDIBLY thin layers and then fire them to lock them in place. (Once a layer dries, it’s essentially a powder and will flake off unless it’s fired first.) This is after two firings, so I’ll do another layer tonight. :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 02/09/2026

IT BEGINS. I painted the first shading pass on Leota’s face piece tonight. We don’t have a light table to work with, but we have a light, and we have a table, so MacGuyver music started playing and I made it work! :)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 01/09/2026

I’m serious. THIS IS TOO MUCH POWER TO WEILD.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 31/08/2026

Interesting - I expected the black to develop a lot darker than it did. But the blues take on pretty much exactly the color they are when the paint is wet, so that’s good. Might need to look into richer blacks, or higher firing temp. Either way, they’re fused to the glass, so that’s cool!

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 31/08/2026

I used Liz’ little sticker printer to make them - here’s the sheet I printed off. (The small one is for the back of my phone)

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 31/08/2026

I cannot be trusted with free will.

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 30/08/2026

I’m so excited about such a minor thing - I did a test swatch on a piece of scrap glass to see how these paints will develop once they’re fired - and in 4-5 hours, I’ll have actually fired a piece of glass in a kiln. WHY IS THAT SO COOL? :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 29/08/2026

Ah, Will Friedle, AKA, my pre-transition doppleganger. :D

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Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com · 28/08/2026

I have successfully installed a temperature controller and thermocouple to my janky secondhand kiln, and it WORKS! Took 2 hours and 20 minutes to hit 1150°F, but the relay actually holds the temp where it needs to be! :) Tomorrow I should be able to test-fire some glass!

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