iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Kaley 🍂 Midhiel

Tim Bolton 🐿 | 🏹 Ranatuor of Meriadoc 💍 (He/Him) @timbolton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

🧙 2/ I've created a guide for attendees (and ppl curious about Oxford): "The Rangers Survival Guide to Oxonmoot 2026" which I can finally share here too! Rangers of the North & Mithlondrim Smials represent NW England (and northern Wales) - I am a member in both. drive.google.com/file/d/1KwyI...

Cover page for Arador featuring a 2018 photograph of the Eagle & Child Pub in Oxford showing the blue sign with the bird carrying a baby in a cloth and the name "The Eagle and Child" in fancy lettering on the front face of the pub. You can see windows and a chimney.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I'm not familiar with the poster trying to dunk on Canadians to know if this applies to him, but I have noticed a slightly odd tendency of some people who don't use "y'all" at all in their normal speech/typing to trot it out in a certain type of political post. I am pro-"y'all" in general, though.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Every day, three times a day, fresh from the sea! Living the high life. It does reinforce my feeling of pleasant surprise at how harmless a Ringbearer Gollum is overall.

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Clare Moore @clarelmoore.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Big Readers!! Our guests presenter on Monday is none other than the fabulous @alas-not-me.bsky.social! Join us on Zoom as we continue our read through The Two Towers and hear from the author of Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring 💍

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The number of times I have had to try to explain the Andy Griffith Show to people who did not grow up in NC is strangely high. The conversation never concludes in a satisfying manner. I always expect the pickle episode to be more compelling than it apparently is

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Mercury Natis @mercuryreads.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

EXACTLY. We COULD be talking about the weird cognitive dissonance of seemingly believing in faerie and also being devout, or we could be talking about how the aesthetics of Catholicism (rather than Protestantism) influence his ideas of beauty, but no. god forbid we have fun.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is what drives me bonkers about it. So many of the people who want to talk about Tolkien's Catholicism aren't even curious about what his religion meant *to him*, they just want to project certain beliefs *onto* him for the purpose of one argument or another. It is mind-numbingly boring.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Aw, Stef, that's so kind of you! 🥺

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

That's adorable! I'm kicking off my FOMO of being a virtual attendee again 😂 Looking forward to living vicariously through y'all.

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Clare Moore @clarelmoore.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Westmoot 2026’s theme is Hope and Eucatastrophe and we want your papers! Be sure to submit a proposal for our event in Minneapolis, May 22-24, 2026! www.tolkiensociety.org/events/westm...

tolkiensociety.org

Westmoot 2026

The first Westmoot was held from May 9th-11th in Kansas City, Missouri, at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. It featured a range of presentations, including talks, quizzes, lectures, workshops, pe...

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𝔾𝕆ℝ𝔸ℕ @gorangligovic.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Realized it’s been a while since I posted my Bronze Age Fellowship of the Ring so here the lads are again

Bronze Age Fellowship of the Ring, nine stout fellas of varying sizes.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Yeah, it seems like people are wildly overestimating Bluesky's influence here. We're a relatively small internet niche. That's why it's usually better to be here than on the bigger platforms, but it also means this site lacks the sway of a giant website run by a technofascist.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Sure, I'm in favor of civil disobedience when the law is unjust. I'm not sure this plan would pan out as easily as you expect it to, in that this would more or less amount to not offering access in those countries (if they're blocked due to noncompliance), but at least you came with suggestions.

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Tolkien Society @tolkiensociety.org · 08/12/2025

Westmoot returns in 2026! Our new annual event - Westmoot - returns to Minneapolis on May 22-24. Bookings are now open, and we've kept the price the same as 2025 to help keep costs down. Look out for more info, including guests and more! Follow @westmoot.org www.tolkiensociety.org/events/westm...

tolkiensociety.org

Westmoot 2026

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Again: what do you propose? Be specific. Does Bluesky simply stop offering access in those countries? And if so, how does that help fix the laws?

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

What do you propose? That the platform simply doesn't exist in any of those countries? The governments won't change their laws because people can't access Bluesky.

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Norfolk Record Office @norfolkro.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

A beautifully illuminated example of a #EYAMedieval document from our collection. This is a Psalter for Sacrum Use from the 14th century. #ExploreYourArchive #ExploreYourArchives #illuminatedmanuscripts

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

I only get to some of my mugs when the ADHD is strong and I haven't kept up with the dishes. I'd hate to see how that would go if I had a hundred backups 😅

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Looking wistfully at these 2013 numbers...

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Yeah, my mug situation feels silly and I don't let myself buy more because I have no need for them, but I have, like...10? Where would you even put this many mugs?

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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 26/11/2025

A note from our CEO Andy Hunter expressing our gratitude for our extended book family and stressing the importance of supporting independent bookstores this holiday season and beyond 💜

Image reads: A Thanksgiving note from Bookshop.org CEO and founder Andy Hunter

Image reads: “Did you know that Black Friday got its name because it helps small businesses go from “in the red” (losing money) to “in the black” (solvent)? It’s no exaggeration that a strong holiday season is necessary for most local bookstores’ survival. And their survival is critical to us as readers, writers, and book lovers. Without booksellers’ passion and advocacy, our literary culture would fade fast.

Image reads: This holiday is about being thankful and connecting with the humans you care about: your family, whether they’re biological or chosen. We are thankful for our extended book family—the authors, booksellers, and readers—and we’re fighting for them. Please fight for them, too, by choosing to support local independent bookstores this holiday season. We are all part of the same chosen family—built of readers who are trying to preserve a human-centered future with a beloved bookstore in every town.

Image reads: Your purchase on Bookshop.org supports more than 2,500 independent bookstores (90% of the bookstores in the U.S.). They are thankful for you, too.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 19/11/2025

I quit the former Twitter two years ago this week, and I am here to tell you that my online life got a lot better for having left it. In two years I've not been tempted to go back, and I haven't felt any penalty in either career or community for not being there. It's nice to be here and not there.

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Queer Lodgings: A Tolkien Podcast @queerlodgings.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

We're super excited to share that "Queer Approaches to Tolkien" will be available in paperback on Nov 28th (less than 2 weeks from now!), and in digital format a few weeks afterwards. We can't wait to check this out!! robinareid.substack.com/p/queer-appr...

robinareid.substack.com

Queer Approaches to Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth

Publication date: November 28, 2025!

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

This clearly shouldn't be my first response, but I just find myself so remarkably annoyed not by the fact that my field is being co-opted by the worst people, but that it is being co-opted by the dumbest people, just the thickest, most arrogantly superficial 'trousered apes' imaginable.

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

look I know being an engaged citizen IS the work of democracy but it is also the work of elected officials not to create situations where everyone has to be mobilized all the time to prevent them from allowing some kind of Dickensian horror on a Sunday night while you're in between loads of laundry

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I said abolish and I fucking meant it @astridoverthere.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default. Here's how to turn it off. First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner

Screenshot of the top of a Bsky feed, with a red circle around the hamburger menu in the top left.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Have been feeling sad so I reread Persuasion. Am not sure that was the right call. Now feeling sad and yearning. Also, the age gap between me and Anne Elliot is increasing rapidly lmao

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

American with electric kettle: I pretty much always boil water in the kettle and pour it into the pot, because at least with my setup, it's much faster.

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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 03/11/2025

...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

[a nobody walks into the thread] Finrod, the worst? Say more?

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The Prancing Pony Podcast @prancingponypod.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Our Call for Papers for the 2025 PPP Moot happening December 18-21 is here, as well as one for activities and entertainments! And if you’re wondering more about this event, check out our website for details, registration and more: theprancingponypodcast.com/moot/

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Tolkien Society @tolkiensociety.org · 28/10/2025

Have you heard about The Bovadium Fragments, the new #Tolkien book published three weeks ago (and the last to be edited by Christopher Tolkien)? The Fragments are a satire on the impact of cars, and highlight again Tolkien's concern for the environment. www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/06/new-...

tolkiensociety.org

New Tolkien book – <em>The Bovadium Fragments</em> – is satire on industrialisation

HarperCollins has announced that J.R.R. Tolkien's The Bovadium Fragments will be released on 9 October 2025.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Yes. The HP and LOTR movies were all coming out at the same time, we were seeing both - and Star Wars, and Pirates, etc. I'm not saying most millennials have read the books, but on the few occasions I've heard someone say they've never seen LOTR, the reaction from everyone else has been surprise.

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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 29/10/2025

I believe people who misuse Tolkien to advance fascism should have a brief but life-changing encounter with World War II–era Christopher Lee

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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Let’s be real: approximately ten seconds after you told Tolkien that Catholics couldn’t go to Mass because they were afraid of being disappeared by agents of the government, he’d be out there protesting.

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Mercury Natis @mercuryreads.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Tolkien, on the record, hated Nazis, hated Tyrants, hated Government Control & Surveillance, hated bullies, and especially hated bullies who enact violence on innocent people while trying to obfuscate that it's all about power.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Not sure that's a representative test case. Millennials literally grew up with these movies. (I'm not a representative test case either, to be clear, just in the opposite direction.)

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

If you need to explain to an idiot why Tolkien would have despised these goons, I have already grabbed a picture of the relevant passage (and I doubt I was the first):

An image of a passage from the Return of the King, in which Robin the Hobbit Shirriff explains that 'the Chief' (Saruman) has coopted the shirriffs and uses them to lock up or beat people who protest is tyranny - and he always wants more shirriffs, "with all these new rules."

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Continued the theme by visiting Otter Falls on Thursday. This trail near Seven Devils leads down to what has got to be one of my favorite places in the Blue Ridge.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Started out strong by visiting the Cascades on Wednesday. Part of the trail is still closed post-Helene, but we could still make it down to the upper overlook.

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Autumn views from the Blue Ridge Mountains this week. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

Otter Falls, a waterfall surrounded by rocky cliffs and autumn trees, with a bright blue sky

Sunset from the top of Grandmother Mountain, with scrubby mountain plants in shades of green, red, and orange

Grandfather Mountain as viewed from Rough Ridge on the Tanawha trail, with a blue sky with fluffy white clouds, and autumn vegetation in bright red, green, and brown

Natural stone carved into stairs up a steep path in Tanawha trail, surrounded by green rhododendrons and taller bare trees

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ClavdiaMinor @clavdiaminor.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

The Latin adj. “pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum” and the Ancient Greek adj. “καλός, καλός, καλή, καλόν” should just be translated as “beautiful”regardless of gender (I.e. don’t switch to “handsome” for masc. (or n.) nouns. The Grks and Romans used a single term; we shouldn’t code switch.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

"as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen [=Muslims]" between this and Washington's letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, the framers really went out of their way to say, "No, really, we mean to protect *all* religions."

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Gorgeous photos! You're making me excited to get up into the Blue Ridge this week.

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Will Sherwood @willsherwood.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Delighted to share that my (co-)edited volumes 'Tolkien and the Gothic' and 'The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien' have been reviewed for the Journal of Inkling Studies! www.euppublishing.com/toc/ink/15/2

euppublishing.com

Edinburgh University Press Journals - Table of Contents - ink: Vol 15, No 2

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Kaley 🍂 Midhiel @midhiel.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I've gone back and forth a lot on whether it's wise to take or share protest photos, but I got a lot of requests to take pictures of my sign this weekend, so I did end up taking one myself. I need a little thematic levity to maintain the last vestiges of my sanity right now.

Protest sign with a picture of Aragorn in his crown, with Elvish-style text reading, "the only king I will accept"

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