iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 28/09/2026

How you know you’ve been watching too much Gordon Ramsay…😂 Wild mushroom risotto with pan-fried scallops (in a 2nd gen HexClad pan, no less). #cooking #food #foodie

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 18/08/2026

Grateful to have won an excellence in teaching award today at Cuyahoga Community College! The student and faculty/staff nominations that were shared at our Convocation event were really touching. I’ll keep working to live up to such kind words. 💙 #teaching #highered

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 12/08/2026

My biggest achievement this year so far… S-class living ship in No Man’s Sky! Woot woot! Thank you SO much for the player who gifted me the void egg at the Anomaly that eventually hatched into this rare ship. #grateful #nomanssky #gaming

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 09/08/2026

SCROLL OF PEACE: An MLA TRRPG Made my first TTRPG with colleague Garrett Munro (co-founder of TabletopEDU) to teach college students MLA format in an engaging way while also practicing other strategic thinking, communication, and resource mgmt skills! #teaching #ttrpg #gamedesign #highered #games

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 28/07/2026

Made a Moroccan Fish Tagine with white fish tonight over couscous, though strictly speaking, I made it in a Dutch oven instead of a tagine. My family seemed to enjoy it more with a mild harissa rather than the hotter one. #cooking #food

Fish tagine in a bowl with couscous, peppers, onions, white fish, chickpeas, and cherry tomatoes.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 22/07/2026

It’s been fun getting back into some research over the past couple weeks. Me and my little boy, Mr. Bojangles (Bo). Some new, exciting stuff coming out soon! #dogs #academiclife #goldendoodle

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 08/07/2026

Thoroughly enjoying Matt Cain’s latest novel, The Castle of Stories, from Pansy Books, a new UK-based indie #LGBTQ publisher! Gorgeous prose. Funny! In short: a gem. Check it out here: pansybooks.co.uk/books/the-ca... Available on Bookshop.org: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... #fiction #newfiction

Mike Piero sitting on a white couch reading Matt Cain’s novel The Castle of Stories.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 23/06/2026

Pleased to see my book review of Stålenhag’s Sunset at Zero Point appear in Rain Taxi! Check it out in their summer print issue. Also, meet Bojangles (Bo), who showed his support by trying to eat my contributor copy. 🤪 Check out Rain Taxi here: raintaxi.com #dogs #puppy #Stålenhag #bookreview

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 19/06/2026

Meet Mr. Bojangles (Bo), our 10-week old mini Goldendoodle. 🥰 #dogs #dogsofsky #puppies #puppy

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 16/06/2026

Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in Yucatán, México, one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Absolutely stunning, breathtaking architecture. The El Castillo pyramid takes the sound of claps and transforms it into the call of the quetzal bird. Then there’s the Great Ball Court, 2x size of a football field.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 10/06/2026

New story out in Soundings East!Alternating between past and present, the autobiographically-inflected “Rituals” tells a story of an unconventional baptism and its implications 25 years later on parenting. Grateful to the editors! www.salemstate.edu/campus-life/... (print only)

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 14/02/2026

Played a great new game today w/ my partner: Fog of Love! It’s a 2-player romantic comedy, relationship simulation board game! Very fun! Thanks, @floodgategames.bsky.social, for this gem we enjoyed this Valentine’s Day! Even our cat, Lyra, enjoyed the box sleeve. 😁 Looking forward to playing more!🤗

Fog of love game sleeve with a grey cat poking her head through.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 09/02/2026

Can’t think of anything better than watching Werckmeister Harmonies by the late Hungarian filmmaker, Béla Tarr, a film based on Krasznahorkai’s stunning novel, The Melancholy of Resistance. Check out the novel here: www.ndbooks.com/book/the-mel... Film here: www.criterion.com/films/33388-... #film

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 20/01/2026

SNOW DAY TOMORROW (or, to be precise, an extreme cold weather day due to living in the Anthropocene). #catsky #cats

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 11/01/2026

So very saddened to learn of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr’s death. Rest in peace. Thank you for the gift of your art, which endures.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 03/01/2026

I’m finally reading The Melancholy of Resistance by Krasznahorkai, who was recently awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. It’s a stunning work of #literaryfiction, set in an exhausted, remote Hungarian town that confronts the unannounced arrival of a traveling circus during winter. #fiction

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 01/01/2026

Happy new year! Wishing everyone a healthy 2026! May it be infinitely better than 2025z #cats #cat #catsofsky

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 22/12/2025

When your fire shines too brightly… Sigh.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 20/12/2025

Seldom-used floor lamp converted into a reading light over the couch. Perfect. #reading #booklovers

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 29/11/2025

Chuffed to bits that my story, “Latibule,” was nominated by Midway Journal for inclusion in the 2026 Best Small Fictions Anthology! Couldn’t be more honored and grateful. 😊 Check out “Latibule” here: midwayjournal.com/latibule/ #fiction #shortstory #writersofsky #literature #authorsofsky

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 26/11/2025

Super thrilled to have helped lead the launch of Cuyahoga Community College's Esports Team, serving as Head Coach. Looking forward to NJCAAE Div. III play this Spring with more Div. I & II competition next academic year! We're also in the process of creating our Tri-C Esports Center! #esports

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 25/11/2025

Define #love: Coming home at 9 pm after a long day at work to find this waiting in your office. #kingofthehill

Cardboard cutout of Hank Hill from King of the Hill.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 15/11/2025

This was me this week. LOVE higher ed politics. 🙃 Need to get out of meetings and back to my writing. #bollocks #borderlands #highered

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 11/10/2025

Haven’t posted #cat pics in a while—here’s a festive one for our favorite holiday! Lyra doesn’t mind the body costume but isn’t a big fan of the hat. 🎃👻💀 Also, happy National Coming Out Day! Special shout out to my fellow Bi+ peeps! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 #lgbtq #pride #catsofbluesky #catlovers #cats #felinefriends

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 11/10/2025

A lovely treat arrived from Bonny Doon Vineyards yesterday, their Grenache-based Le Cigare Volant, which I ordered after watching too many #Frasier episodes (Le Cigare Volant is the of Frasier and Niles’ favorite restaurant). Check out the wine here: www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/product/2023...

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 07/09/2025

Working on a new short story, "Lawn Jesus," along with drafting an autobiographically-driven op-ed about the existential dangers of evangelical Christian nationalism. My debut novel, ROGUE BURNOUT, also addresses this theme in the context of an esports tournament: mikepiero.org/index.php/ro...

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 29/08/2025

Nothing like a hot buttered rum once the weather cools down.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 23/08/2025

Finally made it to the Murakami exhibit in Cleveland! Incredible and insightful, especially with how catastrophe has shaped his art (particularly post-2011 Japan). #art #murakami #painting

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 16/08/2025

Fresh from the garden and blackberry bushes for this coming week! #gardening #cleaneating #food

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 13/08/2025

Thrilled to start reading Michael Jerome Plunkett’s debut novel, ZONE ROUGE! If you’re into WWI fiction, check this out and order a copy from the publisher’s site or wherever you buy your books! www.unnamedpress.com/all-books/p/... Happy reading!

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 11/08/2025

The upcoming challenge for this academic year: maintaining an unyielding spring of perspective. To what degree do lies help us maintain the illusion(s) of perspective in daily life, all towards pressing on? Where does art fit in to help? Perhaps the key lies in this pic of Lyra and the sunflower.

Great cat next to a big sunflower bloom.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 07/08/2025

Excited to receive my copy of @drkeigraves.bsky.social's book, BEYOND BEAUTY: AESTHETIC PHILOSOPHY AS A TOOL FOR LIBERATORY EDUCATION. Highly recommended to all teachers and educators. Check out my full review here: mikepiero.substack.com/p/brief-revi... #education #highered #bookrelease #DEI

Mike Piero holding a copy of Dr. Kei Graves's hardcopy book, Beyond Beauty: Aesthetic Philosophy as a Tool for Liberatory Education. Bookshelves in the background.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 04/08/2025

When you forget to smile for the caricature artist because you’re a moody writer who often forgets to smile. 🙃😂 Also: my mustache really is that big.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 30/07/2025

Our first sunflower bloomed overnight! I thought you all should know. 😊 #flowers

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 25/07/2025

Any literary journals particularly interested in short #fiction that deals with religious abuse in childhood? I have some short stories and flash fiction I’d love to send you. #literaryjournals #shortfiction #writing #flashfiction

Various characteristics of spiritual abuse.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 25/07/2025

Have a short story, “Culture of Care” (6800 words), that’s seeking a home. Told in alternating voices, the story follows a new chaplain who attends her first chaplains’ retreat at a Mexican resort, all to learn of the secret ways her colleagues rejuvenate once a year. Journals—hit me up! Thanks!

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 23/07/2025

Lyra is an agent of chaos, every day all day. #cats #catsky #cat #joker

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 22/07/2025

I keep this quote handy in my office. “Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.” — William Blake

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 18/07/2025

I went with the big one but only because it made William Blake’s Albion dance joyously. Part of my life-under-fascist-rule health routine for the upcoming academic year.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 17/07/2025

On a pre-writing walk this morning…

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 16/07/2025

Signs of the times from The Gay & Lesbian Review. An issue not to miss! #lgbtq #fascism

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 15/07/2025

new camps so vicious even alligators flee such barbarism #haiku #poems #poetry #alligatoralcatraz

Image of a new US concentration camp for immigrants in Florida, cheap bunk beds surrounded by chain-link fencing.

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 05/07/2025

Shish kebobs. Tofu, veggies, and chicken. Yum. #food #grilling

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Mike Piero 🏳️‍🌈 @mikepiero.org · 03/07/2025

Just read @youcanandyouwill.bsky.social’s “In the Fullness of Time” in @trashcatlit.bsky.social’s latest issue. In lyric, musically-gorgeous prose, Johnson tells a nuanced story of desire & discontent. Read/listen to this masterful story here: trashcatlit.com/in-the-fulln... #fiction #authorssky

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