iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

chelsea bridge 🩸 @secretaboutbox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

there are no worthwhile qualities of fraternities, full stop. when they're not busy raping women and defending their rapist members they abuse and kill new members for fun. colleges have proven they cannot be made safe or reformed. the only reasonable policy at this point is banning all of them.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"The dish was the finest example I'd ever tasted. But—I saw another patron nearby who'd ordered the same thing, and the quality of mine was noticeably better. I fear that that they may have clocked that I was a critic and went out of their way to make my dish better than usual. YMMV."

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

And let's say you roll a miss. Now, let's say that we've previously established in the fiction that you're a regionally-famous and respected chef. Even on a miss, you're still impressive. So the bad review might say something like...

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When you cook something extra-special to impress a critic, describe the dish and roll +Cook. On a 10+, you completely wow them; they write a glowing review. On a 7-9, they are impressed; they write a good review but point out a minor flaw: What is it? On a miss, they write a middling review.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Another would be for the MC and player to design a special custom Move for the situation, "Impress A Critic" or something like that. You might come up with something like...

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Again, if this is a PbtA game that's about running a restaurant, there is probably a specific move for "Impress Someone With the Food" or something like that. But let's say there isn't. There are other ways to handle the situation. One is to use the generic "Do Something" catch-all rule.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

So... first you establish the situation in the fiction. Here, it's "There's a guest at the restaurant who placed a very big order for one table. you're pretty sure is a Michelin critic. What do you do?" The player of the cook responds, "I'm going to make him the best damn meal I can!"

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not all Moves have a die roll. And many have specific results for the 10+, 7-9, and 6- rolls. Most have a "catchall" Move to use when it feels like dice should hit the table but there's no other Move that's appropriate. (Ur-example: "Act Under Fire" from Apocalypse World.)

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In a game designed to be about running a restaurant, there are probably several specific Moves about things like meal prep, turning a profit, dealing with problem customers, impressing people, and interpersonal drama between employees. They all have specific fictional triggers and results.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I pay a LOT of PbtA games, and have for about a decade. That is, frankly, not how the rules work—at all. First of all, PbtA Moves are NOT skill checks. Second, most PbtA games have various specific Moves for specific fictional situations in the game, tailored to what the game is about.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I hear this take on PbtA games fairly frequently. It's disingenuous IMO. The example cited is almost certainly a fabrication based on a misread of rules. If it's from an actual experience of play then the GM in question was clearly not following rules as written for how to interpret a mixed success.

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 30/09/2026

They're moving on from trans youth towards advocating banning care for trans adults, just like we said they would.

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"with Claude, we will no longer need lightly stoned weirdos who work at record stores because they are neurodivergent as hell and some band you've never heard of but is about to change your life is their special interest" these tech bros really hate anyone who was cooler than them in high school

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I've been saying for years that the single biggest thing that Cornell and other colleges can do to help break the cycle of rape culture on campus is to completely ban Greek Life. Burn the system to the fucking ground. Frats encourage misogyny and toxic masculinity: That is core to their existence.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Those parties convinced me that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with Greek Life or the rich, self-aggrandizing assholes that seemed to make up the membership. I'd dealt with those sorts in high school and I fucking hated them. Still do. Too many women—then and now—were assaulted at these parties.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When I was an undergrad at Cornell in the late 80/early 90s, I went to exactly two frat parties. At both parties, I saw that the frat bros were laser-focused on one thing: getting women completely falling-down drunk and then getting them upstairs. It was true 40 years ago and it's true now.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

[NOTE: Really wish the above essay wasn't on Substack. I normally don't read anything posted there because Substack hosts Nazis and white supremacists and financially benefits from them. But I digress.]

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Re: the Cornell 7 Rapists... I just read an excellent essay about Greek Life at colleges and universities and how they exemplify and perpetuate rape culture. besskalb.substack.com/p/abolish-fr...

besskalb.substack.com

Abolish frat culture

On “The Good Guy With the Text” fallacy

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 13/04/2026

I swear I will vote for any person who runs on revenge and court reform. That’s it. Those are the two planks of your campaign? You got my vote

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Oh... and since I mentioned that I work for Cornell, my continued employment requires that I state: This post is my personal opinion as a human being who cares about the welfare of other people, and does not necessarily reflect the position of Cornell University.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There have been MANY calls over the last 40 years to dismantle the Greek Life system to make campus safer for women. They never go anywhere: alumni from the Greek Life system consistently donate far more to alumni funds. And it's a system that connects failsons to Old Boys Networks.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Cornell absolutely handled this case poorly and it's far from the first time that a victim of a horrific sexual assault was punished more than the perpetrators. Frats have been unsafe for women since at least the 80s, and EVERYONE knows it. This isn't even the first example that's made the NY Times.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I live in Ithaca, I'm a Cornell alum and a CU staff member for 30+ years. Fraternities have NEVER been safe places for women. Rape culture is fundamentally baked into them. Misogyny is part of the whole point of a "boys-only" club. Banning frats permanently would be a step in the right direction.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I remember watching reruns of this absolutely bonkers (and kinda racist) late-1960s kid's TV show with a cast of trained chimps when I was a little kid in the late 70s. It was more-or-less "Get Smart" re-cast with chimpanzees, dubbed over by voice actors. It was very weird. youtu.be/PdgMq2HVsa8

youtu.be

Lancelot Link Secret Chimp

YouTube video by Retro Sci-Fi Channel 🇺🇸

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh, and the vet bills for her cat that lost a fight with a raccoon topped $3000. She had to run a GoFundMe to afford it.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A friend who lives in a wooded, rural area about five miles from my house no longer lets her cats out. One got sprayed by a skunk. Twice. One limped home after being severely injured fighting another animal, probably a raccoon. And one never came home: they think a coyote got it. Oh, and the ticks.

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Candace the Magnificent 🔜 PAXU @thecandacemarie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Shout out to my fellow survivors dealing with PTSD this week. Being assaulted on a college campus and watching your abuser get lauded and rewarded is beyond fucked. Fuck Cornell, those seven pieces of shit, and every other abuser who got away with it bc a school failed to believe the victim.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My cats have never been let outside. They're both 14 years old, and are perfectly happy and healthy.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My ground floor home office looks onto the street. Since 2020 I've personally witnessed four neighborbood cats get killed by cars, five accidents caused by drivers swerving or skidding when trying to avoid hitting one, and two drivers sob when they realized they killed a cat. Keep your cat inside.

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Starry Knight Press @starryknightpress.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Monstrous and inhumane.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My abject hatred for the Republican Party and for every single person who votes for it increases daily.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I have a non-coding IT job. It is almost entirely reactive problem-solving and requires creativity, subject-matter expertise, and lateral thinking: Things that genAI LLMs are simply incapable of doing. I have exactly one use-case for AI: Turning a Zoom transcript into meeting minutes.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19.

Cover art of the Indigo Girls' self-titled 1989 album.

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s pretty funny because there’s actually no possible way to cancel her: she’s been wrong about everything possible and people repeatedly point that out but she still has a job writing the same warmed-over culture war tripe every week as a columnist at WaPo. She’s proof cancel culture isn’t real.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🎵Iron Man, Iron Man Does whatever an iron can Presses sleeves really flat Steam out wrinkles just like that Look out! Here comes the Iron Man!🎵

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The only reason I've heard about the song "Choosin' Texas" is because of the current discourse about it. Still never heard the song itself and have no inclination to do so. I really, really dislike mainstream "Nashville country" music. It all sounds like this to me: youtu.be/CORANvT8l9A

youtu.be

What bro country sounds like to people who don't like bro country

YouTube video by There I Ruined It

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Dean Lamar the Revenger @deanlamarrevenger.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Beer, a lawn chair and one of those tarps people used at a Gallagher show.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't live there anymore, but Boston is an amazing. If you're looking for somewhere smaller that has the trappings of a big city, I've lived in Ithaca, NY for over 30 years, and I love it here. Winters do get pretty cold, though. And it rains a lot.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As time goes on my respect for my alma mater falls further and further. Kudos to the student journalists staying on this story.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Anywhere I'd recommend gets pretty cold in the winter. Is that a showstopper?

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Reposted by Mike Ferdinando

Jason Cordova @jasoncordova.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We have never needed a stock market crash more than we do now.

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Feminize a band name: The Dead Barbie-Dees

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Mike Ferdinando @mikeferdinando.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Literally everyone I know who bought a new car in the past 3 years bought a hybrid or an EV manufactured by one of Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, or Rivian. Myself included: I bought a 2024 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport. I don't know anyone personally who bought a new car from a US manufacturer.

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