iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Quick photo of the Moon and Jupiter on the way to my car early this morning.

Very poor quality photo of the moon just before it occults Jupiter.

Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Arrived at the Silent Book Club (this month it's in Rowley at Willowdale Bookshop) and walked in determined to not buy a book. Then I saw this one. (There's also a sequel but I had the discipline to not also get that one.)

Photo of a hardcover book titled "We'll Prescribe You a Cat".

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The board game version of The Horror on the Orient Express finally came in and wow, I need to clear more shelf space. I'm glad I'm getting better about letting games I'm no longer interested in, go.

Photo showing the four boxes (two quite large, for a board game) that make up the Horror on the Orient Express.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Buying a few more inks for my small collection of fountain pens isn't at all like drugs, I'd like to think. But then, this morning, I witness what I left out to dry last night.

Several refillable fountain pen ink cartridges and a couple of 20-gauge needles (for refilling used ink cartridges) sitting on a paper towel stained with splotches of different colored inks.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Yesterday's book club meetup was at the beach.

A near-dusk photo of the beach, looking down the sand at the shore, with bits of land on the left and right of the water.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I hadn't played San Marco in a while so it was great getting it to the table. Paul easily beat Becky and I. Played San Marco on 2026-06-14 boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1041 #bggplay via @boardgamegeek.com

Image of a San Marco board, a colorful stylized map of the city of Venice.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Early this morning in the driveway. I think I'm being stalked.

Photo of a rabbit calmly sitting in the driveway, looking very contemplative.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Bunny living his best life outside my window.

Photo of a rabbit splayed out on a grassy lawn, looking very relaxed. It's laying partly on its side, rear legs stretched behind it, with a casual look on its face.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

It arrived! The latest volume in Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries is out. I've currently rereading the series in anticipation of getting to this one. It's wonderful revisiting a beloved book series. No matter how much I think I remember the details of each volume, I end up being woefully wrong. 😂

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Using speech-to-text and having it mess up yet again, I realize that the Far Out Space Nuts foretold the likely way AI would accidently end us all. "I said LUNCH, not LAUNCH!"

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

SQUIRREL!!! (probably looking for peanuts dropped by the crows)

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Scraping frost off of my windshield this morning and it's going to be in the 60's tomorrow. I suppose variety is the spice of life. Or maybe ice shavings of life, in this case.

Photo showing the windshield of a car, half covered in frost with the other half scraped off.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I left some kibble out on the roof of the cellar door for the crows and one of them patiently watched me get in my car and leave for work before indulging.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I love encountering "that night feeling"; that atmospheric sensation on those quiet, solitary evenings with a few isolated people and buildings. This was a gas station I stopped at on the way home from Maine last night that, for me, perfectly captured that feeling.

Gas station and convenience store, lonely oases of light on a dark evening.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Not a fan of that modernized foremast on the Constitution.

Photo of the USS Constitution with a crane behind it, right behind and taller than the foremast.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Slowly being encased in snow. See everyone this Spring.

View of a blizzard through a window obscured by snow.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Okay this ad totally worked on me.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

THIS IS A PERFECTLY CROMULENT WORD!

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The best way to measure winter storms.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Huh. I didn't realize that we have the Lockheed CEO on the MGB Board of Directors. These folks are outside the MGB Somerville office right now. I don't envy them in this weather.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Paul, Becky, and I continued our game day with the Voynich Puzzle and A Place For All My Books. Becky easily won both; clearly, being a teacher gives her an unfair advantage in book-based games. 😆

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Finally got Moon Colony Bloodbath to the table! These pics show my colony at its height with 44 colonists (and 7 buildings) and then at the end with 16 colonists (and 3 buildings). Amy and I tied while Doug triggered the end by losing all his colonists.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

My effort to put my co-workers at ease.

Photo of me in a Christmas sweater with a picture of the periodic table on it, titled "CAN I LICK IT?" (with color-coding about how safe each element is to lick) while holding a mug with the words "NOT BLOOD" to my lips.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

There was an opera singer at the event I supported last night. I wish I recorded her entire performance; she was outstanding.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Finally finished installing the light kit on the Lego bookshop.

Photo of the Lego bookshop all lit up. Lights are not only in the buildings but in the trees and the street lamp.

Photo of the Lego bookshop all lit up. Lights are not only in the buildings but in the trees and the street lamp. This photo shows the bookshop on top of a bookshelf.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Got to spend an amazing long weekend at the Lobster Trap board game convention. It was wonderful getting together with friends and trying out all sorts of new board games.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

It was so cute! My little Dino died of sadness. 😂😭

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

A game that I kickstarted almost 2 years ago finally came in. The players are space orchestra managers, traveling from planet to planet to recruit the best musicians. Who could resist a theme like that?

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Nothing like scrambled eggs with bacon, spinach, and blue cheese covered maple syrup, apple cider, and New England Harvest tea sweetened with maple syrup as a nice Autumn-is-here breakfast.

Text in the post describes what's in the photo.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

I kind soul wanted to give this game to a good home and Fish, knowing me very well, gave it to me. I've only read the first Honor Harrington book (and that was far in the distant past) but have always wanted to try the system that this game is based on. Woohoo! Thanks, Fish!

Photo of the board game box for Saganami Island Tactical simulator, showing a woman naval officer in portrait along with several spacecraft above a planet, firing off to the side of the box.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

A few photos from my truncated New Hampshire vacation.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Thank you! This was my annual board game vacation with a bunch of friends. I brought close to 90 gallons of games up there. Got some good ones in, but now just hope that I haven't infected anyone. A Place For All My Books has been a hit so far. 😃

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Probable future home of my Lego book shop.

Photo showing a Lego bookshop on top of a bookshelf flanked by candles, with another bookshelf over to the right.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I finally finished my Lego bookshop! Now to install the light kit.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Zoe is happy you're attending her.

A very regal and self-satisfied looking cat sitting on my lap.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

I wanted to replace the absolutely fine but still-could-be-improved first player token in A Place For All My Books, and couldn't decide between a really tiny version of The Raven or a slightly less tiny version of Through The Looking Glass. So, both will be in the game. 😁

Photo of a tiny hardcover printing of The Raven that might be the size of a quarter or so, and a larger hardcover printing of Through the Looking Glass, perhaps an inch and a half high by an inch wide.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Someone actually went ahead and wrote this. The author was apparently so preoccupied with whether or not he could, he didn't stop to think if they should. (The reviews on Amazon are actually pretty good.) www.goodreads.com/book/show/40...

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Becky, Paul, and I ended the evening with a game of Wyrmspan. Behold the dragons I was able to entice into the caverns I excavated for them.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

You're kidding! Dang, I figured that was a pie-in-the-sky campaign but didn't realize he didn't even do that. The minis ARE gorgeous (and I keep telling myself that someday I'll teach myself to paint them). And now I feel bad! Let me look through the Ad Astra Traveller minis again.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Inspired by a recent Traveller session: (very) quick studies of an Imperial scout ship.

Extremely rough pen sketches of an Imperial scout ship from the tabletop role-playing game Traveller.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

One can imagine a storm god hiding in a cloud formation like this one.

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

It's here! It's here! There are few board games I'd been anticipating as much as this one, and it finally arrived! This is a game about collecting and sorting books, and then going out to buy more books. I can't imagine a better theme. 📚😁

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Mark Christopher @markuskt.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Nice! I completely forgot to even look for merch. I'd somehow never heard of them until a couple of months ago when a friend invited me to the concert. I started listening and was immediately hooked. They put on such a great show!

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