iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

This morning my heart is tight. Over the past year or so, my old man Smokey had lost weight and quit grooming. He'd go off his food and hide for a day, and then bounce back. Yesterday was another "off" day. This morning, he was gone. He was a perfect cat. My next cat will be perfect as well.

Smokey, a long-haired, pale beige cat with blue eyes gazing into the camera with paw extended while stretched out on a rumpled sheet.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

My daughter and her husband are MLB fans. Saturday marks a significant day when Jen Pawol steps onto the field to umpire the Marlins and the Braves. She's worked tirelessly with the minor league and also at spring training. She should be invisible on the field. I celebrate her big league debut!

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

I have already marked on my calendar that June 6th to June 10th are national strike days. June 14th, No Kings Day, follows close on its heels.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I'm offering a glimpse into my alternative timeline. I can only doomscroll for limited windows during the day, but I can never get too much cat therapy. My daughter captured Rand with his head deep into a bag of Clancy's Pub Style pretzels, which are currently on my daughter's preferred snacks list.

Rank, a gray tabby tuxedo male with white spats, sticking his head inside a bag of Clancy's pretzels.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Convicted of lesser federal charges, but declared not guilty of all state charges is a gross miscarriage of justice, and I am ashamed: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing...

en.wikipedia.org

Killing of Tyre Nichols - Wikipedia

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Matrim took a moment out of his busy day to pose for a photograph, cleverly using monitor displays to disguise his true career - keeping the home office free of elephants. You can infer that his career is booming, owing to the complete lack of elephants in the picture.

Matrim, a very good boy kitty with yellow eyes and a sleek frame, wearing a formal black evening tuxedo with small white bib, a few white chest and chin hairs, with more white hairs delicately peeking from his large expressive ears.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I'm rushing the summer season by eating popsicles. I buy sugar-free to keep the carbs down. I get the variety box, which contains strawberry, orange, and grape even though my favorite is banana, but that's because the sugar-free banana pops are the unicorns of the flavored frozen water treat world.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

My daughter, no liberal but hates current leadership, has a charitable descriptor for Trump's SOD (Defense Secretary). It's "weak-willed toady." Not that we are maligning toads, but it seemed too good not to share. It should be used for the sofa-fornicator and many others as well, I suppose.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

It warms my heart that Biden will forever live rent-free in Trump's mind.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

On this day: Julius Caesar was assassinated by members of his Senate. No lessons. No analogies. No history repeating itself. Many of our senators lack backbones. So odd that they have all those skeletons in their closets.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

The new Republican party platform: Pro-life - all must be born Pro-death - let them die from disease, starvation, neglect, racism and bigotry

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

My mood was in the sewer from the news this morning. Then I heard my daughter conversing with Rand, and I chuckled. She was complaining of his flatulence, all while allowing him to loll on her arm, as is his usual pose so he can watch the characters in her video game dart about on the monitor.

A slightly cross-eyed tuxedo tabby cat with white gloves and spats staring at the viewer while reposed on his staff's arm resting on a computer desk.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

I can do manual accounting. I can sew, knit, and crochet. I can dress wounds. I can skin a deer, clean a fish, and catch nightcrawlers for bait.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Yeay to CNN for putting out a news story of a kink in the planned conversion of the SS America to an artificial reef in, of all places, the Gulf of Mexico, and not the Gulf of America. Seems a small thing, but I consider it a win. I saw a weather map showing the same name. My resisting soul smiled.

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Reposted by Laurel

Meng-meng Fu @mengmengfu.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

If you’re a federal govt employee targeted for leave or termination on the basis of your DEI work, please file an EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) complaint & retain legal counsel. I’m a former NIH PI. Happy to refer you to a law firm that has successfully sued the govt many times! Pls repost 🙏❤️

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Reposted by Laurel

Here we go @delmasso.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This guide, “1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual, by Strategic Services” might be helpful for people stuck working in a fascist organization. The chapter “(11) General Interference with Organizations and Production“ especially. It’s also kinda funny. gist.github.com/kennwhite/46...

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Rand exhibiting typical box-sitting behavior. By the way, the small dark nugget next to him is not a cat turd. It is a piece of black licorice, a sweet treat for us humans and a toy for the horde. :::as if springs. balls, stuffed mice, fabric pickles and wrapping paper are not enough toys:::

A blue-eyed gray tabby with a large white bib, boots, and eye highlights, seated in a large box, with a rolled piece of black licorice to one side.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

For our cat lovers: Brush or groom your cats. Take the fur from the grooming brush and save it up in a bag. Add dryer lint to the bag. Come spring, put clumps of the lint and hair outside for the birds to use for nest making. We put ours in our front door wreath. Bright thread helps.

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Reposted by Laurel

🇺🇸Boston Brian🇺🇦 @bostonbrian.com · 20/01/2025

Don’t forget to post your black flags or whatever sign of protest you choose.. No compliance, no capitulation, no mandate✊🏼🏴

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Have Republican card players who play bridge socially or competitively stepped in to change the standard "No trump" call yet?

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

The other night, I watched "Forbidden," a movie released in 1932, with Barbara Stanwyck, 25, and Adolfe Menjou, 42. He looked decades older than Ryan Gosling, who is 44 now. Even Ryan Reynolds, nudging 50, looks much more youthful than dear old Adolfe. I think my age is coloring my perception.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

How I feel sometimes about the next four years. My apologies in advance if I have attributed the work incorrectly. The art was posted on another platform without attribution.

Abstract impressionist painting in tones of blue gray and muted salmon showing the image of an apparently male figure, seated with shoulders bent forward and head slightly bowed as if in abject resignation. The forearms rest on the knees and the hands are clasped in a wringing manner. The face is in shadow and the paint seems to melt from the face and hands and other background. The bold strokes of salmon color sweep outward and upward from the figure, which almost merges into the canvas. The overall tone is one of misery and defeat. It's quite possibly created with AI, based on the name A I Insan in the lower right of the painting.

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Reposted by Laurel

Orange Dick Tater Hater @realbiscuitspaw.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

A great American is being honored on January 20th.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Rhuarc and Nynaeve, for the moment, sleeping in harmony. This is not a common pose. Rhuarc usually ends up assaulting Nynaeve in a dominant move. I've been having to correct his behavior more lately because Nynaeve really enjoys the heat from the pad within the blanket.

Two gray tabby cats, Rhuarc, short-haired, Nynaeve, long-haired, sleeping inverted spoon-fashion on a blue blanket next to a window with the shade up. The blanket is a favorite dozing spot in the winter because there is a heating pad sandwiched between the folds.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I've been a bit mournful these last several days. Among my brighter spots are the cat photos and my own Viking horde. Thankfully, they deal only with community politics and local resource management, such as who gets to bask in the warmth of the heating pad. Here are three of our horde.

Nynaeve and Rhuarc, female gray tabby and male gray tabby, and Lord Perrin Poobah, black, all enjoying the warmth of a heating pad sandwiched between layers of a fluffy blue blanket, next to a window streaming in daylight. The two tabbies look off to stage left while Lord Perrin stares pensively at the viewer. All are green-eyed. Nynaeve and Lord Perrin recline while Rhuarc sits regally.

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Reposted by Laurel

Andrew-John @andrew-john.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

repost @sassyliberaldem.bsky.social This is a wonderful post from @lgspace.bsky.social Thanks for reposting. 🙏 aj

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

I am baffled by user accounts that neither post nor reply; yet they follow thousands and are followed by thousands. Why follow an account that never posts? Are they here only to harvest content? Perhaps for AI? Or some other reason?

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

A rare event for Memphis: almost a half foot of snow. Three of the cats are snuggled together on the heated blanket situated on top of the buffet by the window. Yesterday, they watched brown leaves scurry to and fro with the wind. Today they see only snow.

Three cats on top of a folded blue blanket, which is draped over a pine buffet situated next to a window with the blinds raised for the cats' viewing pleasure. One cat, Nyaeve, peers out the window while Perrin stares at the viewer and the third, Rhoarch, sleeps curled at the far end of the three. The drape is the color of parchment and the wall in burgundy with a white chair rail.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

People who look at pictures of cats are very similar to people who look at pictures of naked bodies. The subject matter is different, but the action is the same, if not the result. No matter how many cats I see, I will always enjoy looking at more. This is Smokey, whose baby name was Bad Hair Day.

A gray cat with fur in disarray cleaning his front leg.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. I experience something similar at least weekly. I wish it would flash, but it's like a parade marching by, sometimes keeping me awake in the night for more than an hour. I have memories going back 65+ years. What a highlight reel!

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Even though my mother-in-law gives me money at Christmas, she also sends me keepsakes. This year, in addition to other gifts, she sent me a book and necklace. The book has nuggets of wisdom and conjures up my first husband's grandmother, the epitome of old woman cliches. I'm saying "nope" a lot.

A book "How Not To Become A Little Old Lady" atop a necklace with a hand-painted dragonfly pendant.

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Reposted by Laurel

Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 23/12/2024

Could two followers please copy and re-post this tweet to show that someone is always there? National Suicide Prevention Hotline Call: 0800 689 5652 (UK) 1-800-273-8255 (USA) 1.833.456.4566 (Canada)

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

I post cat pictures because right now almost everything else I read makes me want to cry and break things. Again, this is Avienda, as she grew into her adult coat.

Avienda - Mottled calico with blue eyes, a splash of orange energy on her nose and forehead, a bit more on her nape with the remainder a mottling of black fur and white.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Tonight I heard a commotion in the kitchen. I went to look and spotted Lord Perrin dragging the feeding mat, complete with heavy glass feeding plates, to the office entrance. He'd snagged a claw in the sisal fibers and had pulled the entire station nine feet. I rescued him. He is chagrined.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

#Caturday is nearly gone for Central Time, so here's a throwback photo by my most photogenic feline female, taken when her body coat was a whiter shade of pale and she was slim.

Calico was dark face mask and one dark front leg, posed atop a cat tree against a dark rose wall with eyes gazing off toward the other side of the room .

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Do the Project 2025 proponents understand that ED treatment is "gender-affirming care?" Surely they don't mean to render most of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet impotent, right? Oh, too obvious?

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

For #ThrowbackThursday, I present Nynaeve in her early kitten days, runt of six siblings and a bottle baby like the others. Three weeks of extra attention saw her through her fragile period. Here she is with huge paws, but half the weight of her biggest brother. #CatsOfBlueSky #BlueSkyCats #Cats

Tiny gray tabby kitten sitting on the kidlet's chest. The kidlet is dressed in an orange shirt and her face is obscured by the kitten's head.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

It's Tuesday, and that means..."There be bleps here! Don't call me lazy. I was born with a lithp."

Long-haired, tawny gray, blue-eyed cat with a blep, with sunlight on fur but face in shadow.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Does anybody remember when a 14" color monitor for a Mac was HUGE? It was used in Marketing at work (Ladieswear retailer). I had a CRT of more modest dimensions and a x386 that SCREAMED with speed. I had Lotus down pat, and I could build apps that ran flawlessly. All gone but for a resume line.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Dear me! Mere hours away from missing a never-requested cat post. Oh, yes, #LoafMonday, only my doughboys/girls are yeast deficient. Have a spider instead. It does look like a spider, no?

Resting cat face in extreme closeup, with eyebrow whiskers that resemble a spider's legs.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Today, if I refer to the Trump or any of his nominees, I will call him back-end loader, making the nominees front-end loaders by default. Because it's de fault of the back-end loader that we now have these front-end loaders. Loading his back end may be rumor, but I'm going with it.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Little guy Smokey was unimpressed by leftover green bean casserole, despite the saucing of homemade mushroom soup. The Brussels sprout leaf did no better. He later expressed the mildest interest in the crispy French-fried onions. The things I do to entertain this curmudgeon in his decline.

Gray cat with blue eyes in shadow, showing a neutral expression and slightly inattentive ears.

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

In honor of #Caturday, I wanted to talk about our drooly girl, Aviendha. One of six sibs whose mother died post-birth, she has always been a drooly girl when held and cuddled. She's a bit of a chonk, exceeded only by brother Rand. She wanted garage privileges. She's patient. #CatsofBlueSky

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Laurel @memphissass.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

I just saw another member's profile -- @fireravenk.bsky.social -- and I'm going to appropriate an idea from her. I see in my future a personalized mini license plate saying "Hell on Wheels," just in case I use a walker or wheelchair in the future. Let them wonder!

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