iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 10h

Margaret Hamilton... not to be confused with the actress who played the Wicked Witch.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 13h

This weekend's Substack post is several days early, since I'm about to pack up my office in preparation for the move. mattkelland.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

mattkelland.substack.com

Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism

A feline manifesto for resistance

BTW, glad you're having fun with shorts.

I'm thinking on a very black comedy based on a story from the USSR about a guy who's promoted to senior management to prove that anyone can do it if given the chance. Except he can't, and the Party has to go to all kinds of crazy lengths to hide his failings. Not sure when I'll write it, though.

That's my immediate reaction, but every so often, it actually works. 95% of the time, however, I give up after a few chapters.

Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm looking forward to reading this one.

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It's more of a psychological thing. They should have said "nope, Netflix didn't cancel it, it's finished, and there never was going to be any more." And no little teaser for a potential sequel. That would have felt better.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I think it would have been much better if they'd written it as a one-shot and wrapped it all up neatly at the end.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I love this. The days when FX was optical illusion not pixels.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My brain can't handle Reddit ever, sick or no.

Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight

I'm making Japanese milk bread, which begins with a technique called tang zhong, and I now have "Everybody tang zhong tonight" going around my head. Have fun, everybody! youtu.be/BoXu6QmxpJE?...

youtu.be

YouTube video by WangChungVEVO

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It’s okay to write clichés. It’s how we learn. It’s like playing scales or cover versions, or copying Old Masters. Just don’t publish them, and don’t delude yourself into thinking they’re good. (Sadly, I have no idea where that list is or what was on it.)

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About a decade ago, I read a blog post about “ten clichés every novice writer thinks are original.” I think I checked off eight of them. Fortunately, nobody except a very few close friends have ever read those stories, and I’m not sure I still have copies, so nobody ever will.

Thought: when you say "after this, I swear we're never moving again," what you're actually saying is, "I intend to die in this house."

Sculpted skull and crossbones on a tomb.

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It's weird doing the monthly house maintenance chores and realizing I'll never have to do them again. I may never have to cut grass or rake leaves again in my life, since we're moving to an apartment and all that stuff is their job.

Yup. Our month-long retreat in Maine has finally come to an end after six years. It's time to switch woods & snow for sand & sun once again.

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Packing the bags for paradise: Dracula, dragons, and Danish spies

Not much time for reading this month - we're heading to Florida in just over a week. mattkelland.substack.com/p/my-october...

mattkelland.substack.com

My October reading list

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I don't think I've ever read East of Eden. Not sure I've ever seen the movie: I think had it confused with Giant. But I'm enjoying the Netflix series so far.

In European pagan tradition, counterclockwise or widdershins, is generally regarded as evil, while clockwise, or deosil, is benevolent. No idea why.

There's a walking trail behind our house. When I'm alone, I always go clockwise. When my wife's with me, she insists on going counter. I wonder if this has anything to do with growing up driving on the other side and going clockwise round roundabouts.

Actually, there's a huge intercontinental trade in thoroughbreds, both for racing and breeding.

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In the late 18thC century, Kentucky pioneer William Whitley established a circular course where horses ran counterclockwise, deliberately rejecting the then-familiar English clockwise custom. Later attempts at major right-handed American tracks did not stick.

Ha! Was just working on that. Yes.

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I suspect it may be mostly a US thing. NASCARs for example are all built to turn left. US horse racing tracks all go counter: this was intentionally to be different from European tracks. Asia & Australia also follow the Euro pattern. OTOH, running & cycle tracks are left turns worldwide.

Interestingly, in F1 most tracks go clockwise. The counterclockwise ones (including two of the three US ones) put a lot of stress on the drivers, especially their necks, because they're not used to it.

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Spiral staircases almost all go the same way. That's all about how you hold a sword. If you're right-handed, you can't use your sword properly when fighting your way upstairs, while the defender has fairly free movement.

If it was geomagnetic, it'd be the other way round in the other hemisphere. Much like water and plug holes.

That's pretty cool. Would never have guessed that.

“Kaw,” “The Time Eliminator” (1926) An early recognition that viewing the immediate past turns a historical device into an espionage to ol

Try these: Isaac Asimov, “The Dead Past” (1956) The central danger is that if one can view a fraction of a second into the past, privacy effectively ceases to exist. It ends with the implication that chronoscope technology will spread beyond control.

Something's telling me I've read something along these lines but I can't remember title, author, plot or anything.

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As was Seward's phonograph. Expensive too. In 1891, an Edison dictation machine was over $150. By 1897, they were a bit cheaper but still rare and pricey.

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Typewriters were fairly modern too. Mina's learning to type.

Reading Dracula for the first time in about 40 years and I'm struck by Harker’s comment about taking kodaks of Carfax. That would have been very modern: Kodak portable cameras had been out less than a decade when this was written.

Yeah. It's me. I'm dead, but I can't prove it. Hang on... maybe there is a valid use case. I've been declared dead, but I'm not, so I need to produce the erroneous death certificate as evidence of the mistake. I mean... it could happen, right? And you've gotta design around the edge cases.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My first tech job was writing SQL for Oracle databases. 36 years later, I find myself working as a senior copywriter at Oracle. Strange world.

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Some days, interviewing people for work is a chore. Ask questions, get answers, turn them into something readable. Other days, it's an absolute pleasure. Today was one of those days. We could have chatted for hours about all sorts of things, except we both had other things to do.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You're the third person I know who's got it. I'd begun to think it was a thing of the past.

Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yeah. 97% approval rating means nothing.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The alternate take would be Carmina Burana, Das Rheingold and African Sanctus.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just finished ep 4, straight into the next.

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Matt Kelland @mattkelland.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Given their long term effect on my psyche, I'd have to go with: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (14) The Doors - Absolutely Live (15) Motörhead - No Sleep Till Hammersmith (16)