iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nily @nil.dev · 27/09/2026

Painted my nails for fun. Surprised I hadn't bothered trying this until my thirties (I've had painted nails before as a kid, but that was my older sister amusing herself). Did the right hand tonight and it's much messier than the left. Fun seeing the color change under the light, though.

Photo of me holding up the bottom of my left hand, fingers curled inwards to show my nails. My nails are painted with Root of All Evil nail polish by mooncat, a sparkly purple iridescent lacquer with cyan and turquoise highlights.

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Nily @nil.dev · 12/04/2026

Zorya reminding me that sleep is temporary and my job is paying attention to her.

A tabby cat rolled over on her back with one paw stretched out while I rub her tummy.

The same tabby cat having her tummy rubbed, but now twisting slightly so the other front paw is stretched out and more of her tummy is visible.

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Nily @nil.dev · 23/02/2026

Tater was recently released from quarantine (the guest room) after being very sick for a couple weeks. He's back to acting mostly normal.

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Nily @nil.dev · 16/02/2026

Naturally, the first thing I sculpt in ages is yet another face wrapped around a sphere. Using Nomad Sculpt for now because it runs on both my iPad and Mac and is ridiculously cheap for what it is.

A screenshot of Nomad Sculpting showing a face sculpted into the surface of a sphere, most prominently the chin, lips, nose, and cheeks (with indentations where the eyes would go). The mesh has a red wax texture.

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Nily @nil.dev · 22/11/2025

Baked a cherry pie. Still waiting for it to cool down even if I think burning my mouth would be worth it.

A cherry pie sitting on a grey towel on a wooden cutting board. The pie top is golden brown with some darker brown spots where egg wash pooled and I didn't bother removing it. The edges of the pie are a bit cracked where the crust let some of the cherry filling out and it stuck to the sides of the pie dish. One bit of the cherry filling is still bubbling. The center oozed a bit where it was scored, showing the dark red filling inside.

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Nily @nil.dev · 17/11/2025

Tried to make mechado (the stew kind anyway, I think two years after I said I'd try to make it). No idea if I did it totally correctly but it tastes great.

A bowl of mechado over rice sitting in my cutting board. The mechado is a beef stew in a deep red sauce with red bell peppers, chopped carrots, barely visible sliced onions, and yellow potato chunks about the same size as the pieces of beef. The sauce is mixed into the rice and has a visible bit of oil around the edges of the bowl. There's a spoon stuck in it at the top.

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Nily @nil.dev · 13/08/2025

Slowly getting back to doing basic cardio every day, just walking on a treadmill at the moment. Probably also pick up rowing again because I did that a lot when my parents had a rowing machine (not sure if it's still at the house anymore). Kind of nice seeing the iOS fitness app fill up again.

A screenshot of the iOS Fitness app showing a calendar view (so a row per week, Monday through Sunday) of August 2025, with the first twelve days having filled out rings for (from the outside in) movement in red, minutes of exercise in green, and standing up at least once per hour in cyan. Above and to the right of each circle is a green dot, I don't know what they indicate. The remaining days have faded out rings because they're in the future.

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Nily @nil.dev · 21/07/2025

Baked a strawberry rhubarb pie again. This time no lattice top (they're a pain to do and the crust was already being difficult), though I don't get the top right anyway so it didn't seal entirely. Pretty sure it'll still be good. Just have to wait for it to cool.

A strawberry rhubarb pie in a dish seen from the top, with red, syrupy filling spilling out the edges and bubbling a bit because the top crust wasn't fully sealed with the bottom crust. The top of the pie is a flat crust with four slits radiating out from the center for venting. Some strawberry and rhubarb can be seen peaking through the slits.

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Nily @nil.dev · 02/07/2025

made beef stroganoff. haven't used rotini for this before somehow, but probably going to use it from now on. could've cooked the beef better but it works for being tired.

A bowl of beef stroganoff. The rotini noodles are pretty yellow and tinted darker brown from the sauce. There are sliced pieces of beef and mushrooms mixed in between the noodles. Some of the seasoning is visible on the noodles (pepper and thyme, mostly, as the paprika coats nearly everything).

They strogan my off til I beef, as the younger generations would say.

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Nily @nil.dev · 19/05/2025

Made some kind of ginger beef with a slightly tangier sauce (some added rice vinegar and sugar, but not enough that either took over the flavor). Turned out pretty well.

A flat bowl of rice topped with stir-fried beef, broccolini, green bell peppers, and onions (along with minced ginger and garlic). The stir fry is lightly coated in a shiny brown sauce. A fork is sticking out of the right side of the bowl.

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Nily @nil.dev · 22/04/2025

pretty sure she's a cat but I've had my doubts

Zorya, a short haired tabby cat, receiving tummy rubs while she rolls around in my lap and kneads the air. Her head is pressed into stomach and she has one eye closed because she just kinda does that when she's happy. I can safely say her tummy is very soft.

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Nily @nil.dev · 21/04/2025

Well, partly thanks to the horror I've inflicted on my little basil plant, I now have ginger beef.

Ginger beef with snap peas and yellow bell pepper on top of rice in a wide, flatter white bowl. The beef and vegetables are all coated in a dark sauce. This photo was taken while simultaneously staring at the video camera pointed at my kitchen so I can make sure my cats don't try to knock the wok off the stove or drink the soap out of the kitchen sink.

The same ginger beef but in the wok I cooked it in. (No rice.) The lighting is a little blown out because of the overhead lights on the stove.

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Nily @nil.dev · 04/03/2025

I don't know whose cat this is that visited me tonight but they were very friendly. Went out on my porch and they walked right up to me to get pet, and at one point seemed like they were going to climb my leg if I didn't reach down to keep petting them.

Gray tabby cat getting pet. Their eyes are slightly closed because they're trying as hard as possible to smoosh their head into my hand while I scratch their head.

The same grey tabby cat, now standing up against my leg to get pet some more because they're unbelievably friendly. Continuing to pet the cat seemed necessary since it was clearly intent on getting to my hand by climbing my leg otherwise.

The same gray tabby cat still getting head scratches because it is determined to get as much attention from me as possible.

The gray taby cat sitting and raising its head so I can scratch behind its ear, along its cheeks, and under its chin.

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Nily @nil.dev · 04/01/2025

Zorya is very cute.

A small tabby cat resting her head on my hand and index finger with her eyes closed while laying down in my lap, wedged between me and my desk. She appears to be melting into coziness.

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Nily @nil.dev · 14/11/2024

Zorya, just after jumping on my lap and a few minutes later. Completely normal cat.

Zorya, a short-haired tabby cat, sitting on my left thigh, looking a bit like a loaf of bread. She's looking up at the camera wondering why I'm not petting her. Her white whiskers stretch out a bit over an inch past the sides of her head.

Zorya rolled over on her side (similar to how you'd cradle a child) in my lap with her legs stretched partway out across my left thigh. She has one paw on my stomach and is grabbing my shirt with her claws to pull herself up while I pet her head. Her eyes are partly closed. You can see some of the dark fur spots on her tummy.

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Nily @nil.dev · 24/10/2024

Photo from a couple years ago of a tiny rabbit that was hiding under my porch steps. I don't usually see them around, so was really lucky to get this photo before it ran off to hide somewhere else.

A small, wild rabbit hiding under my porch step to keep out of the rain. It's slightly smaller than a typical person's closed hand, especially with its tiny ears down against its back. Its fur is a mix of grey, brown, and black. It's hard to tell what it was looking at with its shiny black eyes. It probably just wanted me to go away.

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Nily @nil.dev · 20/10/2024

Alright, if I post this, will the button finally go away?

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #65,159, Nily ‪@nil.dev‬, joined on May 7, 2023"

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Nily @nil.dev · 19/10/2024

Zorya being completely normal. #cats

Zorya, a tabby cat, laying on her side on my lap and using her claws to pull herself up my chest.

Zorya laying on her side on my lap stretches out, with one hind leg stretched way out. You can see her tummy spots pretty well.

Zorya on my lap, mostly on her back and in a hard to describe position, like she's trying to roll around but not quite succeeding.

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Nily @nil.dev · 15/05/2023

Zorya spent part of the morning being very concerned about this bird sitting on my backyard camera's power cable. Clearly a problem.

A bird, unsure of the kind (kinda looks sparrow-like but I don't recognize it), sitting on a thin USB power cable running along a thick wood beam. The bird has a white chest and throat, dark gray wings and head, and is very thin. Its wings droop slightly like it's tired. The bird's body faces the beam, but the bird is looking back and down towards where Zorya has slammed her head into the sliding glass door.

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Nily @nil.dev · 13/05/2023

I upset the balance by taking Tater's spot on the couch. He is forced now to take his place on the arm, degrading though it may be.

Three cats sitting to the right of me on the sofa. Tater, a very large fluffy tabby, is sitting on the sofa arm, looking dejected because I took his spot. The grim expression on his face tells of 3am carpet barf to come. Zorya, a small short haired tabby, lays on the seat of the sofa cuddling with Finn, a larger short haired black cat, who is asleep with one paw wrapped around Zorya. They do not look insulted the way Tater does. Nobody could ever look as insulted as Tater does.

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Nily @nil.dev · 10/05/2023

Finn's favorite spot lately is sitting on top of this towel on a shelf. He won't sit there unless the towel is there as well. Haven't figured out yet if he'll sit on the towel anywhere I put it since he seems disappointed when I remove it from the shelf.

A black cat laying on a small towel I left on the bottom of a bookshelf. It doesn't look comfortable.

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Nily @nil.dev · 08/05/2023

I guess in the absence of full consciousness because I'm forcing myself to not take a nap (to try to fix my sleep schedule), here's the beef broccoli I made a couple weeks ago following J. Kenji López-Alt's recipe from The Wok. Made curry tonight, but didn't take photos because it's kinda the usual.

A photo of beef broccoli, using broccolini, on top of rice in a white bowl.

A photo of beef broccoli, using broccolini, in a wok. The wok is steaming and the sauce is bubbling. The broccolini is an especially vibrant green, standing out against the darker beef and sauce.

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