iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 5h

And that reading level is not just one thing at that age. The year I finally read LOTR all by myself, 2 after I tested as college-ready? The authors I read the most of were Avi and L. Frank Baum, exchanged every morning at the school library bc right target age and the right length for the bus.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 19h

The phoenix also flat-out does it onscreen in his first appearance in the movies (can't remember if it's in the books), so it's something anyone who made it to the second movie knows about. Given the new series and the proximity to the new audiobooks, I would not be surprised.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 22h

I have to laugh because one of the shortwave stations I can pick up most easily in my apartment is literally only there because when they tried to go FM-only,. Boat captains complained about not being able to get sports scores at sea, so back on the air it went.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 22h

Certain groups of Christian conservative stress "There Is no such thing as a harmless little white lie, all lies are equally sinful" to their kids and as someone who grew up in one? Part of it is the control issues and part of it is they make SO MANY opportunities and reasons to need to tell one!

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 23h

I do not know the name of my maternal grandfather's only brother. I do not know if he was ever married or ever had kids. I do know explicitly in detail exactly WHY the rest of the family will not speak his name. There are reasons the Lancre books remind me of my Appalachian family.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I do 'things I would want in my wardrobe with a few accent bits' costuming, so it's something i would have likely added to my closet this fall anyway and not an impulse sale buy. I have a bunch of things sitting in my saved cart but only TWO barely went on sale, and not the item i was hoping for.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Decent price on a shirt I wanted to update an existing Halloween costume... except the company I bought it from regularly does sales in that range anyway, it's just that the sale hit the right time to count as during Prime Days.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Had not realized until then how formative being immersed in the fight for expanded marriage rights complete with You Cannot Legally Replicate This lists at 20 was versus their heterosexual experience of the 1960s, but it really shocked them that was what finally got us in legally binding territory.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

We hung out with my parents around a year after we got married and compared notes. Them: she finished college, he got out of the army, Religious Permission Slip Us: our first presidential election was 2004, and a terror attack near him made us realize we had no legal standing to help each other

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm still not over the time an employee spent more time trying to get us to use a kiosk (3 of 4 screen off completely down, the 4th with the I Am Out Of Paper, Notify An Employee message up and not taking orders and no he did not take our word for it) than it took to take our order at the register.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When it comes to fast food, anything that used to be a standard order just plain takes longer too. I used to be able to rattle out my standard nonupsized combo at McDonalds in under 15 seconds, intelligibly. Same order once I got used to the kiosk could take that long to even get to where it was.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Also full denial of what the actual damage is. It usually gets treated as the theft of a single retail copy instead of "there is a non-zero chance this author's language quirks influenced training enough they will never sell another work or pass another academic class because of AI detection".

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

(I would like to yell at whatever band of pharmaceutical reps convinced the medical world those were the magic solution to every persistent chronic cough in the early 2000s, because it wasn't just him and if they were treating me like that I *know* somebody got handed those for early lung cancer.)

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This was literally a full MD doctor-doctor. Around 2009. Who then blamed perfume. And then he tried to push the 'I've prescribed these for you before, and if you'd actually taken them they would have worked so I know you didn't' cough 'pearls'. Which WON'T WORK ON UNDIAGNOSED ASTHMA.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

They've been open long enough I'm seriously wondering if it's an adult wondering about the fallout of a childhood incident now that they've got kids they could take.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I've had multiple as an adult whose default move was 'let's wait two weeks to see if it's a virus not counting days since onset' and the REAL turkey wouldn't count 'I spent a weekend in a con video room with people from 3 continents and I'm still sniffling a week later' as international exposure.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Brave Little Toaster, and I'm certain I am not alone in that. I still don't think I've ever managed to watch the entire thing in one sitting. (Followed not long after by the final flight in The Little Mermaid.)

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

We will be making sure they were accepted before counting our election season as over. (Fellow MA voters: if you have requested a mail-in ballot, in-person only closes to you once it's accepted and you do not need to have it with you to do so. Check a day or two after drop off, it's an easy fix!)

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

We will be educating ourselves on (HOW MANY!?) ballot initiatives before filling them out and dropping them off at our convenient local early voting location, which is a municipal building that puts the drop box within the full protection of whatever outside security went up after 9/11.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Our ballots got here, so at least in some parts of the Boston area delivery for ballots going to voters has not been screwed with and is running remarkably fast. Earliest mail date was Oct 1, and I had confirmed that night on the MA Sec Of State's website that mine had entered the USPS system.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The series that got me through the health stuff in late spring early summer? Took me from wanting someone to get Humiliation Conga treatment at the end of Book 1 to Wait Nope They've Had Enough within the first chapter or two of Book 2. Never underestimate the power of a good POV character shift.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And for a long time, he was normal to people he meant to appear normal to. There were few unmistakeable red flags until getting out meant crossing international borders. (I was going to church with the widow of someone he was in seminary with during the 30th anniversary. She warned us about that.)

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The earliest MA mails ballots is Oct 1. I had already checked the Sec Of State's Track My Ballot page by midnight. (It's out of their hands.) I've known for weeks what to do if it doesn't get here. (In-person opens Oct 17.) 'Likely Voter' as a category label doesn't even begin to cover this.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And in a way that won't get them in the door anywhere else. They won't have the credentials everyone else is using as shorthand for being academically capable past high school. At least 'we'll pay for you to take these classes for this degree we want you to have' gave a transferable resume item.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My first thought was that it was going to mean a switch from TSA identification check being a situation where they aren't looming over people to one where it easily happens by accident, so I also assume him or someone else with his concept of being physically imposing as the most important thing.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I've read multiple articles where relatives of victims point out that because of an understandable difference in appeals, the legal process ends so much faster for Life Without Parole. One the family gets to move on grieving, the other the system just keeps picking the wound back open. For decades.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's the distance problem again. It's a full day there and full day back for my parents to get to their state capital. The offices we go to for state photo ID are overcrowded. And if we're down to municipal buildings, we're already going to default to the post office for anything requiring pickup.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Also how much hybrid turned into WFH. Which is us. The big problem here is that I'm rarely alone inside during the day, which is how most housework used to get done, because Apartment With Downstairs Neighbors and more space to spread things like laundry sorting out when it was just me around.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's the same logic as my worst bully of an elementary school teacher, whose chief discipline policy was Being There Is 9/10s Of Having Done It. Someone said you did something bad where you were seen or expected to be? You were there and thus guilty. I thought I should expect higher of Congress.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

They don't even get the public/private divide. I have three distinct to-do lists across two apps, and I do *not* even want Finch and ToDoIst talking to each other about me. And that's without throwing in a corporate system with NDAs involved, which is their target market to pay highly for it.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There's a movement in the sort of religious group I grew up in of being a SAHM (they wouldn't accept a Dad making that choice) as 'no one else should ever have access to your child without you there'. When the traditional model was being available as a resource incl volunteering with the school.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When I was in grad school, there were people at church offended I was getting help paying from family bc my parents had to have taken out loans for my undergrad so it was My Turn (I had been on a full ride scholarship incl room & board and then some others). This is going to hit some families hard.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Makes sense to me. Limiting the loans feels like a leading edge on limiting federal aid in general, and some of the programs in a lot of Christian religious private colleges are flat-out aimed at people they intend to make $0 a year within 5 yrs. So there goes any program intended as a Mrs degree.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Mom had me (surprise only kid after giving up) in a once-a-week program at 2 and half-day preschool at 3 because we needed lives beyond each other. She was a SAHM, but it meant she could run errands without me and I learned how to negotiate relationships beyond relatives young. Kids need age-peers.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Just how many programs nationwide are basically designed to educate future pastor's wives, because high school or homeschool equivalent isn't specialized enough and people get mad if she's not ready to take on a full-time job for $0 even in places that say they're not fundamentalist?

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My Algebra 1 teacher had a 'if you programmed it and you trust it, you can use it' TI-82 rule. She had fewer takers after the first test. She flat-out told us being able to program it would require greater understanding than punching all the buttons. AI seems to me like another complication layer.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My life laughs at the meal planning suggestion. Our last big grocery run was BEFORE we knew the Nor'easter was coming, which slammed me with a migraine all weekend. And any plans were up in the air until 3pm-ish Friday bc Medical Test Results on top of that - comfort food or celebration, no clue.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The end goal of most healthy parent-child relationships is 'everybody lives long enough the tables turn on which side is the better logic check of the other'. Once the kid is a legal adult "that doesn't make sense" and "that's changed since you learned it" start to become essential tools.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Knowingly take advantage of. My parents have been hit by ONE phone scam that I know of, I was still living with them, it was one of those 'and it covers everyone in the household' cold-call phone scams and thank goodness I had enough ability to stand up to Dad to get him to Call The Bank NOW.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Even without that, I've had cases where there were a TON of 1-star reviews because the item was EXACTLY the weird size it claimed to be and I needed, not the more common standard size a bunch of buyers had assumed. Also part of the 'fun' of seeking empty cases. No one reads "not included" anymore.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Before COVID, I had already heard multiple people theorize that some rescues were practically animal hoarding but with upkeep donations because the requirements were to the level of There Is No Way Anyone Within The Local Culture Ever Meets This.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Treasurer Island: Look The Rest Is Just Sitting There For Anyone With The Manpower To Go Over The Entire Island And Since When Does The East India Company Turn Down Basically Free Gold. A saga of the ship's treasurer watching the expenses mount as it is nowhere near that simple.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I keep thinking to how many departments during my undergrad basically had two paths: come in at a basic high school level and know the dept norms and personalities before you hit the cull classes OR come in with one AP course credit that actually worked for intro and get absolutely slammed.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am still 25 years later wondering what was up with Huidance that they AGAINST MY AND MY PARENTS WISHES pushed for a hard senior year with a STEM class only used in careers where the accommodations I would need can NEVER exist bc Can't Let You Indulge Senoritis. I got two college applications out.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I was so glad that the 3 AP tests I took and the placement credits I received otherwise only amounted to one semester equivalent, which meant I could be a 12-14 credit hour student instead of having mandatory 15+ semesters. My peers took more, aiming for schools where they'd be elective credits.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

When you've grown up in the age of Artists Who Sound Too Much Alike in a church that is trying to push Only Our Music (even if your family doesn't) yes you can miss that the song name is that word in the chorus and it is by Group That Did That Song You Like. Classic rock stations, NAME YOUR MUSIC.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

There were two songs I loved but only heard on the radio once as a preteen, luckily with a tape recorder. One was easy to find bc it had been played bc of a singer's death. The other, they assumed everyone knew. I passed up their Best Of for years - I thought I liked one song, not half of them.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The last year I was on the ACA, the cheapest Silver plan in my area was for the nearest city and nothing outside it was in-network. Anyone put onto that plan in that town would have needed an entire day off for any office visit, because 3-4 hours of driving total. Of course they didn't use it.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm pretty sure at least one year I was on a discounted ACA Silver plan, the only care I got was a flu shot or on the dental rider. If it didn't keep me from helping with Grandma, it was getting treated OTC. The real problem is people not being able to take time to access the preventative care.

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MegaForte84 @megaforte84.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

No, because the sodium problem was primarily from how our diets shifted in 2020 over grocery logistics and I'd been having warning signs all summer but then the AC got turned off at the main building switch. I've never had to use the Albuterol out bc control meds work, but I keep it on me.

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