iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026

Film 14/31. Somebody got some vampire movie in my Mob comedy and I need so much more of it. Like seriously, this didn’t have quite enough of either.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 07/10/2026

Film 13/31. Shout out this one for a genuinely tense moment involving an episode of Dora the Explorer.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 07/10/2026

Film 12/31. I didn’t love this to the same degree as the first one, but it’s still a good time.

Movie Poster for Happy Death Day 2 U (2019)

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 06/10/2026

Film 11/31. Glad I finally got around to this delightful horror comedy.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 06/10/2026

Film 10/31. I watched this one last night and promptly forgot about it.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 05/10/2026

Film 9/31. I've lived in NOLA just long enough to be absolutely pissed about the texture of this one.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 04/10/2026

Film 8/31, rounding out a marathon day with another favorite.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 04/10/2026

Film 6/31. I’m blown away by this; it was quite graphic, but not gratuitously so, had just the right amount of heart and levity but was still effective horror.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026

Film 5/31. Also not new to me, but it’s just so damn good.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 03/10/2026

Film 3/31. Gonna do a thing tonight with movies about bands.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026

Trying to explain being Very Online to an aggressively normie colleague and she keeps looking at me like

An older gentleman in a tuxedo sits at a piano. He looks like he’s been tired since before Thatcher.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 09/09/2026

In case you’re curious what type of time I’m on right now.

A stack of books: Age of the Geek edited by Kathryn Lane, Fan Cultures by Matt Hills, Getting A Life by Brandon Woo, The Borders of Subculture edited by Dhoest et al, Fandom For Us By Us by Al Martin, Black Nerd Problems by William Evans and Omar Holman, and A Companion to African-American Philosophy

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 08/09/2026

Some reminders to myself in my weekly goal setting doc that maybe some of you need too.

Remember:

- Calendars are working documents
- All Work and No Play makes Nick a piece of shit
- I have to take care of my soft animal body or I cannot be a Professional Serious Thinker

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 22/08/2026

That feeling of coming out of meditation and realizing you maybe cracked a big problem

A very chubby cheeked baby wearing a white Carhartt beanie. She has brunette extensions because why not, and her expression suggests she doesn’t know a damn thing about a damn thing.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 21/08/2026

Yall said adult lunchable a few days ago and I took that seriously.

A bento box with oranges, bread, pickles, olives, turkey, salami, cheddar, Gruyère, and some veggies. Also on accident my Tulane swag cup.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 21/07/2026

I cant believe that they put my boy Jimothy in the Roku City

A drawing of Jimothy in the Roku City next to a lightpost

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 14/07/2026

3) a really good agnostic explanation of Marxism and Leninism; and 4) this read of American socialists.

I think to most of us in the U.S., even the socialists — who sometimes pretend to be Marxists — I've met relatively few who truly believe in dialectical materialism or historical materialism.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 14/07/2026

I was mad that she wouldn’t get up and get me grapes, but then she did this with her leggy so we’re good again.

Marcy, a tuxedo cat, doing the shrimp thing, but with one hind leg stretched up and in between her front paws.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 13/07/2026

I think my “favorite” thing about this book is how Wacquant sets up a bunch of strawmen that represent a view of race that oversimplifies arguments that may academics aren’t even making anymore. Truly CANNOT wait to be beyond this project.

The cover to Racial Domination by Loïc Wacquant

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 12/07/2026

I’ve been trying to figure out who Haaland reminds me of and I remember now

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 04/07/2026

The whole thing is a typical masterclass, but this last paragraph is, I think, the answer to a week’s worth of discourse On Here.

So whose Fourth of July is it, really? If the long movement for Black freedom claimed the Declaration and its various revisions as weapons, inspirations, a North Star, a nightmare, then the Fourth of July is ours, too. But not to commemorate a nation's birthday, and certainly not to celebrate the
"birth of freedom."

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 26/06/2026

I think a lot of these questions require a more nuanced response than a likert scale, and the frame it puts on social/cultural issues is ass, but I don’t disagree with the outcome

The results of a 4-axis political test: I am 88% “Woke,” 56% “Neo-Luddite,” 77% “Hopepilled,” and 88% “Davos.” This test thinks that makes me closest to former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 21/06/2026

One last sit in traffic on the Kennedy. Maybe not how I wanted to say goodbye, but I suppose it’s fitting.

A view of the Sears Tower from the Kennedy Expressway at about Armitage. There’s a predictable amount of traffic.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 28/05/2026

New profile pick, same dumb dumb. But also again just fawning over the fact that my partner really captured my essence in these little guys.

A kewpie style drawing of a Black person wearing a black wizard hat with yellow and green stars, and a green cape. They’re leaning on a skull adorned with teal planeswalker symbols.

A kewpie style drawing of a Black person, wearing a green and yellow wizard’s outfit, black pants, and teal chucks. They’re holding a yellow wand with a teal planeswalker symbol on the tip.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 26/05/2026

These are the cakes. 2 of them will probably sort me until lunch time.

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 16/05/2026

I mean look at this guy!?! Very much capturing my essence, and like cute but not in a way that feels gendered. Also a wizard!

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 11/05/2026

I forgot to feed the cat this morning (that’s usually my partner’s job, but she’s out of the house for a few days) and the way she just pathetically slinked over to her empty bowl and looked up at me like

A black and white drawing of a humanoid with really long arms, hands folded, and a slightly uncomfortable expression. It’s wearing a Kufi

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 04/05/2026

Just to prove I walk it like I talk it, here’s lunch today. I probably paid $25 for all the ingredients and I’ll have lunch every day this week.

My Paldo shrimp flavor instant ramen with baby corn, scallion, bean sprouts, and air fried baby bok Choi and hot dogs

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 26/03/2026

The thing about train travel is that I think you get worse natural vistas and better cityscapes.

A view of the St Louis Skyline from Amtrak

A different view of the St Lois Skyline (and a lil bit of the Mississippi River) from Amtrak

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Nick, the Melanated Magician (they/them) @melanatedmagus.blacksky.app · 18/03/2026

Really worth saying that this is maybe THE case right now for IRV. I’m largely okay with the outcome (was unreservedly a Biss supporter until yesterday, now it’s complicated). But like 3rd-6th place is populated with good candidates AND nobody looks set to break 30% feels off.

Screenshot of the Chicago Sun Times election results in IL-09:

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
RACE CALLED
VOTE SHARE
• Biss 29.6% • Abughazaleh 25.6% • Fine 20.4%

VOTES
PCT.
Daniel Biss
く WINNER
32,762
29.6%
Kat Abughazaleh
28,341
25.6%
Laura Fine
22,523
20.4%
Mike Simmons
8,054
7.3%
Phil Andrew
6,936
6.3%
Bushra Amiwala
5,711
5.2%
Hoan Huynh
1,935
1.7%
Patricia A. Brown
1,350
1.2%
Jeff Cohen
913
0.8%
Justin Ford
613
0.6%
Bethany Johnson
497
0.4%
Sam Polan
430
0.4%
Howard Rosenblum
236
0.2%
Nick Pyati
195
0.2%
Mark Arnold Fredrickson
166
0.2%
79.6% of precincts reporting
90.3% of expected votes counted (AP estimate)

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