iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I want to see the parking attendant who has to put a ticket on a dragon.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Star-Dew Raisins: Making people nostalgic for Raisins they've never had.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I made custom #pixelart for the #stardewvalley #junimo prize donation we sent to #sgdq2026. We didn't get a chance to see it on stream, but I'm really happy with how the art turned out, so I'm posting it here as well. I'm pretty pround of this and I'm definitely getting put on a shirt.

A pixel art poster of the farmer from Stardew Valley wearing their default overalls and the red spotted headscarf and holding a basket of purple grapes with a green junimo hiding in it. The poster reads "Star-Dew Pelican Town Sun-Dried Raisins since 1.6"

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Our little #junimo friend, seen here letting my partner help them get ready for their international journey to #sgdq2026, is part of the current prize block. Minimum 10$ donation and on available until around 1pm, so get those donations in to gdq.gg. #stardewvalley #needlefelting #pixelart

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

What stage of capitalism is it when your company throws you what is effectively a pizza party but says they will be collecting $20 for the pizza from everyone a week in advance? Additional $20 if you'd like your partner to attend.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

#sgdq2026 is live. My partner and I sent in another #junimo prize donation, which will be in the #stardewvalley prize block. This time, our #needlefelt friend got into the raisin shipment. I did all the pixel art and box design, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Close-ups on my website.

A green needle-felted junimo character sitting on a box that reads "Star-Dew Pelican Town sun-dried raisins" surrounded by purple felt grapes.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

- Sounds like a recipe for disaster - ChatGPT promised it would be a "pièce de résistance" - if Firestone gave out restaurant stars instead of Michelin. - it said serve with matching cocktail Take your pick, I got more.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Seems like a good time to repost the design from my favourite t-shirt.

An arm throwing a molotov cocktail with a label that reads "warmest regards".

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I think I found where Rosanov buys his pillows.

A tag on a pillow that reads "Hollander Sleep Products"

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I'd stop and offer to let him go somewhere else, but he can't take the chair with him.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

I mean, what are post doc opportunities like?

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

This bodes well for my pickled-cabbage-heavy investment portfolio (by which I mean refrigerator)

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

For anyone else who needs this to make the #agdq2026 week feel complete: "Town Life" - djpretzel and Geoffrey Taucer ocremix.org/remix/OCR01495

ocremix.org

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Our little junimo friends are part of the current prize block at #agdq2026. While my partner is going to make individual junimos available on my site, I think the whole set with junimo hut box is only going to be available at AGDQ, so you only have a couple more runs to get a donation in for them.

Three needle felted junimo characters from the game Stardew Valley (pink, red, and blue) with a felted community centre bundle in front of a sewn felt junimo hut box

Three needle felted junimo characters from the game Stardew Valley (pink, red, and blue) with a felted community centre bundle inside the open lid of a sewn felt junimo hut box

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I'll post the actual hut later in the week when we're close to the prize block, but if you want to see it early go check out the GDQ stream and the other fantastic prizes.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Despite them being fresh from yet another cancer-related surgery, my partner insisted that we send our annual prize donation to AGDQ. I couldn't be more proud of them, or more grateful to them, and happy with what we sent. #agdq2026 in support of #preventcancerfoundation starts today. Go donate.

A small, red, felted junimo wearing a tiny felted Santa hat peeking out from behind a brown cardboard shipping box with a label on it that reads "Junimo Hut".

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Happy small apartment Christmas to those who celebrate.

A realistic spruce tree in a tree stand printed on canvas with lights strung haphazardly over it.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Having not seen your necklace, I assume it broke at the clasp or the jump ring that holds the clasp. Most chains I have fixed for people broke there. While there's a lot of reasons chains are built that way, having a designated weak point is certainly one of them.

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Reposted by Malcolm Stielow

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

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Reposted by Malcolm Stielow

FieldExplores (Gator Days) @fieldexplores.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Banned Books - Gator Days

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Librarians: helping people checkout butts since roughly 3000 BCE

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Reposted by Malcolm Stielow

Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

My recent favourite I borrowed from tiktokker kellykozzy, but it's brought me nothing but pain since I heard it, so I'll share it here: What would Obama say if he were a turtle whose home was being repossessed? Michelle

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

I forgot my alt text. It's a photo of pot of pepper plants that are well over a metre tall and taken over my apartment.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Peppers are behind, but the balcony herb garden was otherwise a rousing success this year

Large piles of herbs drying on towels on a kitchen counter, including curled parsley, flat parsley, lemon thyme, French thyme, tarragon, Greek oregano, and two varieties of rosemary.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

When you're in the middle of sorting your denim scraps, and your phone says there's a frost coming, but the peppers you've spent all summer growing on your balcony aren't quite ready yet. It seemed reasonable until I actually got them in the apartment. I have this same problem with ikea furniture.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Theft was just the first stage Doubt is the real threat that Ai poses to artists.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Things have stacked for me up this year, and I couldn't send one of my usual prize donations to #sgdq2025. I still donated what I could because I do believe in the work that @msf.ca does and the power of the @gamesdonequick.com community. Still time to get your donation in this evening. gdq.gg

gdq.gg

Games Done Quick

Watch the stream with your best speedrun dinosaurs.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

You could take a fire hose to my whole library, but ever since I started grad school, nobody has seen me walking around and thought: "There's someone who gets a healthy amount of sunlight."

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

I was reading the back of my toothpaste while brushing, and the directions told me to "expectorate". If I need to read the directions on the back of the toothpaste what makes you think I know what "expectorate" means. I only know it because it's one of the things nobody does like Gaston.

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Reposted by Malcolm Stielow

mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 30/06/2025

don’t get distracted! | patreon.com/lubchansky

panel 1
mattie running away from some tentacles
m: WELL, THIS ISN'T GOOD.

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the important pundit shows up
TIP: hey this is just a distraction! stay focused!

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mattie, getting eaten by something
m: a distraction from what?
tip: someone i’ve determined to be more important than you is having a problem, over there!

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mattie, wailing
m: oh no! i’m so sorry!

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

A paradox for the digital age: The more one is asked to verify their humanity, the less human they are.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I haven't sold many of these through my website, but if anyone out there has one, feel free to weigh in. I'd be most curious how it stacks up to other stichless wallets people have seen or owned. Personally, it's my favourite wallet I've ever made, but admittedly, that's not a very big pool.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

A fold deepened along the interior spine early on, but cutting that section away makes the wallet too floppy. Overall, I'm happy with this design and mostly want to try it in more leathers to see how it changes the fold. It can be unfolded for care and cleaning, but it doesn't seem to need it yet.

Close-up of the interior spine of the wallet, where a crease has formed on the right side of the spine.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

For a wallet with no stitches, everything seems to have stayed in place well. The center seems to lift more if a lot of bills are carried. There were 8 cards: one in each slot with 4 tucked away (see the green corner). The cards aren't showing unusual wear, hopefully meaning they have enough space.

An overall view of the wallets interior with cards removed on one side to better show the card slots.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

The leather has begun to patinate beautifully. While I feel the embossed logo I used is a little small for this wallet, the imprint is still deep and clear. The edges are holding up well and still sit square. The corners are not splayed, and there's no signs of unfolding: important with no stitches

Close up of the exterior of the wallet, showing the maker's mark and corners.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

It's been about 6 months since I started carrying one of my Cadre wallets every day, and that's when I usually like to revisit my designs. In an effort to be more active on social media, I'm going to write some of my thoughts from my design check-up on here as a thread. #design #leatherwork

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

For anyone that is having a hard day, here's a pretty flower for you from my mom's greenhouse.

A bright red strawflower with a large yellow center. The purple, pink coleus leaves with bright green edges drape both over and behind it.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

I don't think I have any unique obstacles, just things that are new to me. Such as what's the best way to show off a board game to a publisher when you live in north-central Alberta and can't afford to travel? Do I want to self-publish? At what point does a self-published game count as published?

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

I'm working on a second prototype that will look closer to how I imagine the final version. Acrylic dice, playmat board, 3d printed bikes of I can swing it. I'm refining the rules and finding people to playtest. The design part makes sense to me. It's the stuff after that that gets a bit arcane.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

After receiving some online encouragement, I've shown Moto GO! to a few people over the last few weeks. So far, the response has been really positive, and people have further pushed me to #publish. I've never published a full physical copy of a #boardgame, so the question has to be asked... how?

Brightly colored rings around large blocky text that reads "Moto GO!". The exclamation point had been replaced with a checkered finish line.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Honestly, I wasn't sure at first, but I've gotten pretty good reactions across social platforms and in person. I don't really know the first thing about board game publishing, but since people seem to like it, I'm certainly willing to try.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

A close-up of the game pieces I carved for Moto GO!. I'm really happy with this design, that I figured how to have them wheelie and lean so I could include that in the game. A little rough, and in need of some colour, but there wasn't time for everything. #boardgames #boardgamedesign #gamedesign

Three hand-carved wooden motorcycle game pieces on a colourful track. Two of the pieces are standing on their tail to represent a wheelie.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Where was this post when I was writing my thesis about play and ambiguity?

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Are you normal, or did you not have a gift for your niece's birthday, so you conceived, designed, prototyped, and packaged a board game from scratch in a week? So anyway, let me introduce Moto GO! A #motorcycle #racing #game for 2-6 people. #boardgames #boardgamedesign #boardgamesky #gamedesign

A brightly-coloured race track game with hand-carved wooden motorcycle game pieces, wooden dice with shapes instead of numbers, a rulebook, and a packaging tube. Many components feature the name of the game: Moto GO!

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

That would have probably worked well for these. Somehow, I always forget that stuff exists.

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Malcolm Stielow @mstlo.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I need a better way to prototype game pieces than carving them by hand. At the very least, I should have taken the extra time to find a piece of wood that wasn't oak. #boardgames #boardgamedesign #gamedesign #boardgamesky #woodwork #woodcarving

A piece of wood is being carved to resemble a motorcycle with a rider. The wood is clamped in a small antique vice, surrounded by wood shavings.

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