iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Walked into my office and smelled Acetone. Which made NO sense... I haven't been doing anything with acetone. Anyway, apparently that was NOT the correct charger for my beard trimmer, and now I know what gently melting plastic smells like.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Whelp... the Apple ][c just booted up, and several of the floppies I tested work fine. Just need to troubleshoot the flickering/rolling video, but I think that's a bad RCA cable ($5 fix). If it's NOT the RCA cable... hooboy... then it's a hair-raising adventure in Soldering Iron Town. >.<

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is Merica. Merica is Not My Cat. She only looks like My Cat because she is My Cat’s daughter. It is uncertain if America desperately WANTS to be My Cat, or if she just really loves hanging out in my porch.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Had a terrible experience with Jimmy John's order tonight, and realized their service has been going downhill for a while. Googled "jimmy johns private equity," and lo-and-behold...

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

So I've been REALLY sad that while A) HMD has released a line of Nokia-throwback "dumb" phones, B) those are not available with US cell bands. Today I found that they've started including an "AI Button." Is nothing SACRED?!?!

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Re-reading some Zelazny, and noticing a returning trope is "protagonist checks himself out of hospital early." Holy shit, my guy! You're getting actual professional medical attention and it's not bankrupting you, and all you can think of is the INCONVENIENCE? The past is a different world.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Stop what you are doing and look at this ridiculous floof.

A small grey cat snuggled into a large, gray, plush cat bed.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Gearing up for the new semester, and just got a frantic email that - due to state law - we can't refer to our course syllabus as a "syllabus," as that term has been co-opted by a new state-required software platform. Welcome to the 21st century, I guess.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Looking back at my history, I have apparently neglected the most important post I could ever make, the post for which social media platforms EXIST... Allow me to correct this by introducing the Baroness Mixtape von Einbahnstrasse. ("Mixie" to her friends, which is everyone.)

A tiny, grey-striped cat stands majestically on the back of a green leather sofa, staring ahead into a glorious future.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

So, the 45 minutes or so of chainsawing the fallen tree? Not bad. Heck, lots of fun, even! The 90 minutes of lugging chopped-up tree bits back to the wood pile? I could have done without, thank you.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Took a vacation to the Gulf Coast last week, and discovered that while my ability to eat large quantities of shrimp doesn't extend to the epic, awe-inspiring levels of past years, it is still pretty darned impressive.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

House caught another fallen limb to the roof today. What’s different from last time? A) it was a much bigger limb B) part of said limb is now impaled through the roof and decking and is sticking into my attic C) I am approx 1000 miles from home. :-/

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Called up a friend to get some help hanging drywall on the ceiling. He was like “sure! No problem. I’m on my way home now, but will be over soon,” When he arrived, it came out he was coming home FROM A TRIATHALON! In which he participated! (And placed respectably.)

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Yeah, the casting in the Odyssey bugs me!! Matt Damon looks NOTHING like this guy:

Odysseus from SuperGiant Games' "Hades 2".

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I was re-wiring a light fixture yesterday and dropped it, and there was the inevitable shattering, tinkling sound as it hit the floor. I looked down and the (plastic, LED) light bulb was fine, but the porcelain fixture was shattered. And that was the most 21st century moment I've had in a while.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

100 years ago, one of my grandfathers was either an assistant pharmacist, a road-builder, or a dry cleaner. I can't remember exactly when he did those things, but it was that order. The other grandfather was 7 years away from being born. Big generation gap on the two sides of my family. :-D

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.

A very badly wired light fixture, dangling from the ceiling by its very bad wires.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

After weeks of sweaty toil mitigating the "cursed circuit" in my house, I finally wrap it up... only to discover that apparently ALL of the circuits in my house are cursed. >.<

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Another day in the (100+ degree) attic crawlspace, three of the four upstairs room fully re-wired. Tired, achey, and still thirsty hours later, but feeling pretty productive.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Been doing a "little" re-wiring around the house, and thought I would just go ahead and pull 12AWG wire. Why mess around with 14AWG and 15-amp circuits, when you can pull 12AWG just as easily? My fingers and hands feel like they've been passed through a laundry mangle. >.<

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Ya'll, not gonna lie, I came to BlueSky because I ran screaming from all the other "social" media sites, and this was just somewhere that some cartoonists and academics I like had landed. I'm not particularly smug about being here, honestly. Am... Am I BSKYing wrong? o.0

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Pro tip: Don't put a roll of electrical tape in the same pocket as your cell phone. Ew.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Things no-one warned me about getting older: While doing detail work with a head-lamp on, the angle you need to hold your head so you can see with the lamp is NEVER the angle you need to hold your head so you can see with your reading glasses.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I've spent the last week or so doing a ton of home repair and improvement projects around the house. Tonight, WHILE I'M FINISHING ONE OF SAID PROJECTS, a 15-foot branch falls, smashes a 2-foot crescent in our roof edge, and takes off the sofit, fascia, and gutters across the front of the house.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Apparently all those centrist/establishment calls to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" had some asterisks and fine print...

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

So, the new Iran deal... yeah, bonkers, but it's the new-normal bonkers, right? Except there's one thing I still don't understand... If we're giving $300B to Iran... who in this administration owns stock in "Iran?" Isn't that a prerequisite?

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Wrote a letter of rec for a student today, and it was NERVE WRACKING! Probably the only bit of writing I've stressed about more than that was my dissertation. I mean, if someone looks at my writing and thinks *I'M* an idiot... fair. But if my writing makes A STUDENT look bad, that's... just no.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Hang on, hang on... Are you telling me that pigeons literally -- LITERALLY LITERALLY -- have a "gut feeling" about magnetic north? o.0

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Okay, let's say that Bond villains unleash a horde of evil clowns. Murder clowns stalk the streets. Mimes steal your job, and then do it poorly. The cast of "JackAss" reunites and is throwing old ladies off bridges. It's not uncommon for people to opine "JESUS, these EFFIN' CLOWNS, man!"

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Reposted by MishaOutLoud

Andrew Tobolowsky @andytobo.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Students are much worse at knowing whether they learned anything than whether they had fun and they don't have fun in classes they don't do well in. Course evals are not useful, but the neoliberal university will never give them up

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

I used to chuckle smugly at the Lovecraftian conceit that people who gazed upon unspeakable horrors or improbably geometries wot the mind of man can't comprehend immediately went mad, screaming. But looking at this, for lack of a better word, "poster"... I think I'm starting to understand...

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I just heard a reputable news source report: "[Man] was the highest-profile target killed by [Country] since the cease-fire began." "... *since the cease-fire*..." I'm a little nostalgic for when Words meant Things. :-/

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Holy Crap, y'all: @samandfuzzy.com has taken silly little panel-transgression into it's own fully blown epic-fantasy world and it is STELLAR! www.samandfuzzy.com

samandfuzzy.com

Blockade

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

On the one hand, I feel bad for this speaker. This is probably every public speaker's worst nightmare realized. On the other hand, I laughed *SO FREAKIN' HARD* at this!

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

So, for anyone NOT in the thick of a major University this week, our (like EVERYBODY'S) Learning Management System was out most of the week. We got access back today (Friday) at 4:15pm. Spring term grades are due Monday. Not a WORD has been spoken about any extensions to the grade deadline. :-/

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Reposted by MishaOutLoud

Annie Sexton @anniesexton.com · 04/05/2026

I launched an indie webcomic hosting platform several months ago that offered a free and a $4/mo paid plan. This was purely to cover the cost of the infrastructure. But in seeing it grow, I'm no longer worried about the cost. So yeah Webcomic Studio is now free. webcomic.studio

webcomic.studio

Webcomic Studio

Read & publish indie comics online

7540382126

MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Five years ago, I got a PhD. Yesterday, I bought an electronic Drum kit. I feel like there was a "living like a worm" stage between those two things that I skipped.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I'm realizing I legitimately don't know what's going on on with this site... Is it social? "Celebrity" announcements? Some weird parasocial thing? Algorithm-jockeying number humping? It feels like someone smashed up LJ, 00's forums, and FB and made some weird melange out of the fragments.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Shopping for an electronic drum kit, and I really have three priorities: 1) Multi-zone mesh pads (at least on snare) and mutable cymbals 2) Staying in a reasonable vicinity of my budget 3) Supporting my local drum shop This is turning out to be one of those "pick two" situations. >.<

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Coming out of my cage and... on second thought, the cage was pretty okay... I'm'a just head back... :-D

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

There is no betrayal in life so sharp as a terrible novel with a great title. None. Bad novels happen, and you can live with that experience. But when they lure you in with an awesome title, and then stab you with bad prose and a dumb denouement... that pain is forever. :-(

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Codebreaking is spoiling me, as it does every semester. Why can't more of my courses involve scavenger hunts? And Nerf?

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Anyone who suggests I should be gentler or more patient with my past selves obviously does NOT know the absolute TRAIN WRECK those clowns have saddled me with.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

So I've been teaching a cryptography class for a bit now, and it's always bugged me that -- for the past two decades -- everybody seems keen to credit Babbage with pre-discovering what's known as the "Kasiski attack" on the Vigenere cipher. No shade on Babbage, the attribution just seemed weak.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I don't always agree with @tailsteak.bsky.social's takes, but "I trust Grok as far as I can throw it, and they won't even let me into the property to pick the thing up" has _resonance_. (Quote taken from the author's comment on the 3/16/26 page of "Forward")

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Confession time: I watched Sinners last week and didn't realize MBJ was both twins until the final credits. >.< I missed most of the buzz about the movie and, in the opening scene just had a brief thought of "Huh... impressive casting, finding someone who looks so much like him..."

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Spent most of the day reconstructing how Babbage likely solved the Thwaites cipher problem in 1854.

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

All right folks, buckle up. I think I've tracked all of this down, but let's take it piece by piece: 1/15

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Today I sat on a bench, feet stretched out, ankles crossed, hands behind my head, basking in the sun while 30 undergrads bustled around me solving ciphers and shooting each other with Nerf darts. And I thought me a thought that creeps up on me from time to time: "Man, I'm getting PAID for this!!!"

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MishaOutLoud @mishaoutloud.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Just realized that I can get Uni library books from the depository delivered the Engineering/Science library right next door. The one with the little cafe in it. This is very dangerous information to have. >.<

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