iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

A new scratcher from Aldi gave Fabio a whole new persona! Presenting … Gray Charles 🎹🐈‍⬛ (I’ll see myself out now) #caturday

A gray tuxedo cat scratches a keyboard-themed cardboard scratcher. I think he’s playing Unchain My Heart

141

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I have never known a more photogenic cat. 🩶🤍

A great and white tuxedo cat is stretched out on a window sill in the sun. A rose of Sharon is in bloom out the window behind him.

041

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Finally swapped out my snowflakes and black & white pieces. It's a weird ritual, but arranging #vintage #pyrex makes me happy. Almost happy I don't have space to display it all at once.

Two shelves of Pyrex. Top: Cinderella 4-bowl sets: yellow gooseberry (the one that started my collection because my mom had one bowl of the set), blue butterprint, pink gooseberry. Bottom: primary fridgie set, primary mixing bowls, primary dot bowls, 4 blue barcode casseroles.

130

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap.

The Wonders, the fictional band at the center of the movie That Thing You Do

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

We have two!! rallies in my red county today ✊️ #NoKings

Handmade sign that says "Out, damned twat! --Shakespeare, kind of" with a crossed-out image of a smirking Trump wearing a crown

131

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

We should've taken before pics. Just covered in dust. But inside? Original Jensen speaker and hand-wiring everywhere. It's really cool, and the sound? Omg. I didn't get to hear him play the Gibson through it, but a telecaster custom sounded pretty great this morning.

Inside the cabinet of an Ampeg Mercury, showing tubes, wiring, and speaker.

Shot of the amp's schematic, from the back panel of the cabinet of an Ampeg Mercury.

The label with model, serial number, and even the tubes in the amp. Super cool bit of history right there.

100

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Yesterday my husband helped a family friend with getting a 1959 Les Paul black beauty appraised. A gorgeous guitar, untouched for 60 years, all original, perfect. Belonged to a grandfather, stored in a case all those years. Another treasure was there, too.

A 1960/61 Ampeg Mercury M-12, with tremolo footswitch and a cord from 1961 on top.

100

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The best part of a snowstorm ... is not being out in the snowstorm.

A gray tuxedo cat in a crocheted bed on a fireplace hearth. The fireplace is lit, and the cat has his front paws crossed and one back leg extended over the edge of the bed, looking completely elegant and blissed out.

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

A poem for now. From Southern Review.

A photo of a journal page with this poem by Charles Rafferty:

The Problem with Early Warnings

People don't like to leave a party
unless the house is actually
on fire. Even then, if the flames
are far enough away
to be pretty, they'll finish
their drink, take one more pass
at the hors d'oeuvres.
How things happen has always been
unclear. Hurricanes begin
in a place where no one lives.
Agents of the government start
to wear masks. "Fascism" is
a word my neighbors won't use
yet. They are following
the law, they say, and the sirens
are coming for someone else.

000

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I have ton of Pyrex and have never seen that turquoise snowflake space saver. Mission accepted.

A display of pyrex casserole dishes, with a blue space saver casserole dish with white snowflake circled in red.

1111

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Fabio and Brando. They didn't even fight after i took this.

A gray tuxedo cat and a black cat suit on a window sill. Outside the window are trees turning orange and gold.

010

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Still thinking about the talk @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social gave yesterday at Hopkins--especially about how to face the huge disinformation forces working against public health. And not gonna lie, I was pretty starstruck when I got to chat with him afterward.

Peter Hotez stands at a podium against a backdrop that says Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

310417

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Saturday listening: new purchase from @bittersouth.bsky.social + @democracyforward.org Exactly the right mood and highly recommended.

Album cover with an eagle on a white background, the words "Democracy Forward" coming from its open break.

Unfolded double-album sleeve, blue with white clouds and the song listing in white type. Two brown interior album sleeves are on top of the outer sleeve; one album on brown vinyl is visible from one sleeve.

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

For #BlackCatAppreciationDay: The time I tried to take a clever picture of my black cat and my gray cat was having none of it.

A black cat sits close to the camera next to a Black Cat overdrive effect pedal, while a gray tuxedo cat glares at the camera behind the attempted tableau

040

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

I mean, just LOOK AT HIM. This is Fabio and he is exquisite.

A gray tuxedo cat sits with his tail around his paws on a green chair. He's looking off to the right of the camera.

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Fantastic Cat put on such a great show last night. Live music reminds me I have a soul. It takes effort to make myself go out these days, but it is always worth it. 👯‍♀️

A drum kit with Fantastic Cat written in script and 4 anthropomorhized cats under that on the bass drum, each representing a band member.

3 members of Fantastic Cat, 2 playing guitar and 1 playing bass on stage May 3 at elkton music hall.

030

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

A friend recommended this picture book, and I'm so glad she did. What a balm it is. This copy is from the library, but I just ordered two copies--one for me to revisit again and again, and one for a friend who needs it as much as I did.

A hardcover copy of 'The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse' by Charlie Mackesy. The illustration on the cover is a drawing of a horse bending over a boy, who is holding a mole, with a fox sitting at his feet

130

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Fabio's reaction is exactly how I feel processing the day's news. 🙈

A gray tuxedo cat lying on a green chair with his face smashed into a pillow

050

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I always loved this one by the Connells.

Cover of The Connells album One Simple Word, which has all of those words, or parts of them, mixed up around the cover

030

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

I can't fathom how I ended up on this email list. Wow.

Screen shot of email headers from Proud Patriots with subject lines advertising "Trump Bear - 2024 Edition" and "Join the Collector's Club"

Screen shot of email headers from Proud Patriots with subject lines "Trump inauguration Collectible $2 Bill" and "Trump Assassination Attempt Collectible $2 Bill"

Screen shot of email headers from Proud Patriots with subject lines "Trump White House Bobblehead" and "Trump Fighting for America Gold Coin"

000

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Samantha Harvey's Orbital is a slim novel, but it's taking me forever to read because it's filled with language like this that demands slow reading and attention. It demands rereading. The sentences want to be inhabited.

A picture of a paragraph that reads: In the new morning of today's fourth earth orbit the Saharan dust sweeps to the sea in hundred-mile ribbons. Hazy pale shimmering sea, hazy tangerine land. This is Africa chiming with light. You can almost hear it, this light, from inside the craft. Gran Canaria's steep radial gorges pile the island up like a sandcastle hastily built, and when the Atlas Mountains announce the end of the desert, clouds appear in the shape of a shark whose tail flips at the southern coast of Spain, whose fin-tip nudges the southern Alps, whose nose will dive any moment into the Mediterranean. Albania and Montenegro are velvet soft with mountain.

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Today was a balm and a reminder of what this life is supposed to be about: family, good food and wine, music, inside jokes, and this exquisite cake I made.

A cake frosted with marshmallow icing, ringed with sugar-frosted cranberries and topped with a small pile of frosted cranberries and rosemary sprigs

130

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Actually, because there was still so much to do, all the creatures were still stirring, except this lazy mofo.

A gray tuxedo cat asleep with his head on his paw, in his cat bed, surrounded by presents under a christmas tree.

The same gray tuxedo cat curled adorably on his side in his cat bed, surrounded by presents under a christmas tree.

020

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

I kept my Atlantic subscription for years, even when I couldn't really afford to. This article was the last straw for me. I'm out.

screenshot of a cancelation confirmation that reads, We're sorry to see you go. You will receive an email confirming your cancellation. We thank you for your time, and hope to welcome you back in the future.

0150

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

This is Fabio, and he is doing this because I touched him while he was sleeping, apparently

A gray tuxedo cat looking grumpy while lying on his side with his paws in the air

040

Melissa Hartman @mssemicolon.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

I honestly never thought I'd get to see it, yet here the aurora appears in my Maryland backyard. It looks and feels like magic.

Pink and purple aurora light up behind a border of silhouetted trees.

0250