iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Last note: pivoting to life in the relatively normie trenches doing urban community development work and tech ed was 100% the right call for me. The nature of my intelligence and my fairly inbuilt effort/reward motivational requirements would have made me a terrible fit for that kind of work.

ps: Engines of CREATION -- helluva Freudian slip there!!!

ps: yes, I find the wackos wacko in very many respects. But I'm not as sanguine about the LACK of risk in all this as, perhaps, the median tech-savvy, Yarvin-and-Yud hater on Bluesky (and I am all of those myself).

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

All else aside, still wild that I bought and read Drexler's Engines of Destruction (pioneer nanotech work) in 1985 and ALMOST pivoted to a life in academic tech policy (visited progs at Cornell, Penn, and GW) based on nanotech concerns. But I just went and did city stuff instead. Now here we are.

1112

Reposted by Mark Tough

Google providing the sort of deep insight they'll never tell you about in college

because he is a former tennis player who knows how to control a room's tempo, he handles this book's pacing with absolute precision. Publishers are highly optimistic

3901

Maybe, anyway; I covered the NOGLI/pan-Harford Road listserv. If this happens to be for an indiv neighborhood, then not so much.

OMFG, I moderated/admined that listserv from 2009 to 2011. And man am I exceptionally glad those days are well behind me.

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 28/09/2026

Reposted by Mark Tough

i am not going to listen to the fucking polyphonic spree man

2211

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Not sure why I referred to you collectively as y'all, though, but maybe it's just because you do a good job of embodying collecdtive values. [white guy shrug emoji]

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

As is likely obvious, I'm mostly not a radical myself and am absolutely capable of bitching about tankies and dirtbag folks. But I see it all as an ecosystem with different valid roleplayers and good-faith radicals are one zillion percent a part of that. Y'all,4 instance, are a hella good faith rad.

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Gotta lotta friends in and from Brazil*, so this one feels pretty good! * notably including my Belo Horizonte expat buddy and former roommate Idelber, who got his doctorate under Significant Radical Spirit Fredric Jameson, never mind Fred being a Browns and Indians/Guardians guy.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Reposted by Mark Tough

The pseudonymous account Rev. Howard Arson accused Saeed Ismail of being a fake, AI-generated person. After I wrote about how Saeed is real, Arson is now creating AI videos of Saeed and his blanket. I don’t know Arson’s goal with all of this, but it strikes me as incredibly cruel.

rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social: [AI-generated image of a man with glasses draped in a blanket alongside some kind of green mannequin head]

811953690

The wheel in Bluesky keeps on turnin'...

One of my strongest inconsequential opinions. Inline wired earbud mics are fine. Clothing clipped tiny mics are fine. If you are holding a tiny mic with finger and thumb, however, you are committing a crime against humanity.

030

I don't even have words. Save maybe: duck season.

010

ps: I catered Van Hagar in '89. Agree with ya completely on the musical merits, but I will say that Sammy was aces vibe-wise with local support staff. Most were pretty good really. Exceptions: Chicago, Mike Love (shocker), Whitney Houston, and Ian Astbury (who is shorter than Susanna Hoffs).

000

I agree that ultimately Love is the right answer. And I'd put Panama and Dance and even Jamie's Cryin' into the mix. But I will say that where Eruption is a singularity of awesome leading into a cover, Intruder plays like extended foreplay before giving way to Pretty Woman -- a perfect appetizer.

I don't have a dog in this game, but if the damn ball moves ten yards forward thanks solely to the movement of the QB's arm . . . that's a PRETTY GOOD SIGN that said QB's hand was moving forward on impact. This one wasn't that complicated.

000

Man I dunno. But I'm just a few years your junior and VH on Diver Down was my first concert at 17. Des Moines, Vet's Auditorium (just months removed from the bat bite), total general admission. Pretty good balance of crunch and camp at that point, but before things got ridiculous.

Shoe-per Intelligence @shoe.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Reposted by Mark Tough

You should not anthropomorphize Twitter users.

333848

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Iowa Farm Bureau is still straight red endorsements too.

The Emily pik was 100% a Seconds Before the Accident situation.

000

In the early 90s down on ye olde Redwood Street in downtown Baltimore, I worked with a fellow-20-something office manager who enjoyed being extremely transparent about her personal life. "We were REALLY ready to go Saturday night but my guy was out of Trojans. So we used Saran Wrap. Is that cool?"☠️

030

September Girls. In vibe, not just in name. Autumn Sweater.

030

"It nipped my bud when I happened to fall Into a spot Where no ink or an ink-blot Was on a scroll I just wrote me a new mot But now it's gone..."

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Joan Jett is also, of course, the world’s greatest living Orioles fan.

081

Reposted by Mark Tough

This is Maeve. She may be the sweetest, most good natured, most trusting dog I have ever met. She was abandoned in DC last week, and since I’m not able to adopt a dog now, I had to turn her over to the Brandywine Animal Shelter. I want to make sure this absolute delight of a dog finds a good home.

An adorable female Rottweiler named Maeve

4624195

Notable voice transcription of a message from my eye doc’s office today. (the call origin is legit; I haven’t had the heart to actually listen yet)

Screen shot of voicemail message thst begins: “this is crissy from my eye doctor. I love to come.. We have you on your schedule…”

000

also, IMO, one of absolute best last albums ever by a band that released more than four or five lps (Thump being their 6th). For me, it’s cCells, then Thump, then Buyer’s Choice.

Edge — oddly, the morphological centrist’s choice

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My top 5 albums when I turned 18? This would have morphed radically by age 21, but whilst still in high school: - Sandinista, The Clash - Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull - Moving Pictures, RUSH - Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads - Abbey Road, Beatles

Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 21/09/2026

Reposted by Mark Tough

FOLKS SOMETHING HUGE IS COMING I HAVE PRODUCED A "SOUNDTRACK" ALBUM FOR @beckbook.com, OF NEW MUSIC BY AMAZING ARTISTS I GAVE THEM ADVANCE COPIES OF THE BOOK; THEY GAVE ME BANGER TRACKS "𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒" DROPS OCT. 6, BUT YOU CAN PREORDER NOW — AND STREAM @lustytirefire.bsky.social's "ℙ𝔸ℝ𝔸𝕄𝕆𝕌ℝ"!!!

afewgoodrecords.bandcamp.com

Loser Babies: Music Inspired by Josephine Riesman's "The Last Temptation of Beck", by A Few Good Records

11 track album

1516868

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Rock Island locks are rubble. The loose meat in the Moline Maid Rite is no long steamed but flash-fried into charcoal bits. Palmer's campus backbone in Davenport is broken. Bettendorf, as yet, remains untouched. As yet.

000

Mark Tough @marktough.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm hearin' sprits gabbin' right next to me.