iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 06/09/2026

Saw @jasonnarducy.bsky.social and Michael Shannon at the Brudenell tonight. I saw REM live once, in 2000, but the chance to hear those songs live in a packed room, delivered with energy and life was everything I wanted. Getting to hear Country Feedback played was really something. Thank you both.

A small stage filled with talented musicians, three with guitars, and a small but densely packed crowd paying close attention to the lead singer, delivering an amazing performance.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 30/08/2026

Since everyone else is posting their Hawkses, here’s mine! I have great affinity for minor Clone Wars character Bariss Offee so I was delighted to have the option to make a Mirialen character. She loves pants with big pockets, gloves like The Undertaker, and shooting droids. #ZeroCompany

A computer game image of a lime green skinned woman with elaborate face tattoos wearing a grey leather jacket, dark purple cargo pants and very purple long leather gloves. She’s the best.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 21/08/2026

Look, I’m not saying our entire trip to Ireland was an excuse to visit the @cmatbaby.bsky.social mural in Dunboyne, but it would have been rude to be so close and not pay our respects.

Two smiling idiots in front of a nicely painted mural of Irish singer CMAT, in a blue hooded cloak looking towards the sky with an arm upraised. On the wall, text reads ‘Welcome to Dunboyne, home of CMAT’.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 18/08/2026

Made an emergency pivot and found a pair of rapid chargers in the car park of a pub that had signs saying the chargers were for patrons only, so got things going and had a drink in the pub while we waited. Long drive after, but made it to the B&B with 50% charge.

A map of Ireland with a dot showing our location in the far south west of the island.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 17/08/2026

Imagine, if you can, a more cursed name you could give a racehorse than this.

A tv screen showing a horse racing event with a man being interviewed. Beneath him, the betting chyron shows the names of horses and their odds, including “Aura of Melania” listed at 7-2 odds

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 15/08/2026

Things that I was not anticipating when I went to learn about the origins of this song. Figures that insipid Tory also-rans Toploader couldn’t even have their One Hit with one of their own songs though.

History
Sherman Kelly wrote the song in 1969.!! While recovering from a brutal assault by a St. Croix gang, during which he was beaten with baseball bats and his girlfriend was gangraped, (2) he
"envisioned an alternate reality, the dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life", 3. Kelly wrote:

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 15/08/2026

This nice hotel we are staying at in Westport is delightful, but they did just play a downtempo piano lounge cover of Toploader’s “Dancing In The Moonlight” so now I have to give them a 2* Tripadvisor review.

A concerned looking Celine Dion in a white shirt and leather jacket over her shoulders. She is holding a telephone receiver to her ear and a caption across the image reads “je telephone à la police “

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 11/08/2026

I found where they first grew Blood Oranges

A grey sign attached to a granite garden wall, with an arrow pointing towards the “Gothic Orangery”

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 10/08/2026

I hate to be a cliche. If it gives me any passing credibility, I cut my teeth drinking Guiness in the Queens Park Hotel in Chesterfield at the age of 16; as a group, we worked on the logic that the bar staff wouldn’t challenge our age if we were drinking Guiness. I think they just didn’t care.

A pint of Guiness, partially drunk, sat on a wooden pub table somewhere in the Republic of Ireland

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 08/08/2026

In 2013, through playing Android Netrunner, I met @ptwiddle.bsky.social - 13 years later, I’m at his wedding, drawing Netrunner cards from memory for their wedding deck…

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 25/06/2026

Old Kings Crown in the boiling heat with the Sheffield Netrunner crew.

A wooden table covered with pretty, but inscrutable board game pieces

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 11/06/2026

Old Kings Crown with the Netrunners! So confused! Having fun!

A wooden table covered with an elaborate board and a whole bunch of cards and tokens which makes very little sense.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 31/05/2026

Quote with a great self-titled album that isn’t by The Beatles or Metallica.

A young boy in a red hoodie pulling at his face with his hands in distress; this is the album cover art for the self-titled album by the band Placebo

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 13/05/2026

I had exactly this conversation on WhatsApp with my RPG group last week in response to the last QQ review and was told I was wrong. Nice to know I am not completely crazy.

Two messages reading:-

“And the more QQ I watch the more I am convinced reviewing RPGS is like movie reviewers trying to give critical assessments of a 20 page outline and a few pages of dialogue, but prefacing it with “when I cast, filmed, and directed this 20 page outline and fleshed it out into a full motion picture, it was amazing/awful/weird” when really what everyone else is going to do with that outline and casting is going to vary wildly.”

And

“And some people are just going to cast their wives and make it all about cool explosions and trying to look badass when it’s meant to be a meditation on human greed and the frontier oil barons”

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 13/05/2026

Accurate, apart from the skydiving accident thing I guess.

A set of labels for my account; Anti-AI labeller, Skydiving Accident (Helicopter) from something called The Cave Of Troponius, and my joined date (Aug 23) and a Bluesky Elder tab

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 23/04/2026

Some Thursday night Arcs with the fine Sheffield Netrunners!

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 21/04/2026

Also this is component/setup dependant, but I get a lot of value out of using the NetZero app to both graph my usage/output but also run automated setting changes based on time/battery state.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 12/04/2026

The cherry tree my partner and I planted when we bought our house together 16 years ago…

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 12/03/2026

You should come live in the sunny UK, you’ll never worry about wasting free electricity again! (Also out of curiosity what panels/rating do you have?)

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 14/02/2026

Getting ready for Florence; hope all the swifties I know who are at the show tonight have a great time…

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 10/01/2026

post your favourite Star Trek character, wrong answers only.

The smirking face of Dr Katherine Pulaski, wearing a blue star trek uniform, standing on the bridge. Her expression tells you that moments from now she’s going to goad another member of the crew to do something reckless and irresponsible for her own amusement.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 04/01/2026

Listened to Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel while having pancakes for breakfast. 7/x

Some chocolate pancakes with Bananas and yoghurt on them!

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 30/12/2025

It feels weird seeing “Days Remaining: 1” here. I’ve felt such focus trying to his this 1000 album milestone and charting this for the last year, I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with not doing it. Let’s see how high I can run that score up before midnight tomorrow….

A screenshot showing the statistics for my listening project for the year. Days, 364. Year Progress 99.73%. Progress 1028/1000, Target Progress 102.8%. Albums per Day 2.82. Days Remaining: 1

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 12/12/2025

As with Evermore yesterday, this is an album I’ve owned on Vinyl since March and not listened to waiting for this moment. At 8.45pm tonight, it’s time for album 1000 of the year and the finish line of my self-imposed goal.

The front cover of the album Give Up by The Postal Service

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 11/12/2025

With the lights down, I sat on my sofa and listened to my copy of Evermore by Taylor Swift on vinyl for the first time, an album which unironically has changed my life, and is five years old today. 999/1000

The vinyl record sleeve to Taylor Swifts album Evermore, depicting her with her back to the camera, hair braided in a plaid coat walking towards a distant woods, balanced in front of a TV with Christmas cards either side of it, and a record player below.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 06/12/2025

I think about this poem more than I should really. I learned the first stanza of Howl by Alan Ginsburg by heart and I think it’s amazing but this is the one that I feel like lives in my soul.

A screenshot of the poem “The Tiger”, which reads,

The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
the tiger is out

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/12/2025

The undefeated four-time Queen of my music listening heart strikes again. The fact that I made it to top 3% while also listened to 950 non-Taylor albums this year tells me all the other #swifties need to step up their game… 🫣

Taylor Swift is your top artist. You spent 1476 minutes with them, which makes you a top 3% global fan.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/12/2025

Spoilers: this is my favourite album from the entirety of 2025 (and this is a year where at least five of my favourite artists put out new albums) and this song is the standout track from a great album. No surprise there.

“Your top song: True Believer by Hayley Williams”

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/12/2025

More artists than albums I’ve listened to, but that’s from throwing on playlists for games sessions…

Another banner saying “You listened to 1,188 artists this year”.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/12/2025

As my friends at @thisonegoesto11pod.bsky.social say, we hate genre, but this seems positive to me.

A banner which says “Taste like yours can’t be defined. But let’s try anyway.

You listened to 391 genres”

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/12/2025

Last year my Wrapped broke my brain so hard it made me listen to 962 albums and counting. Let’s see what damage I was able to inflict in return… #wrapped #musicsky

A banner saying “It’s time for your 2025 Spotify Wrapped!”

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 28/11/2025

The broken part of my brain now wants to see if I can find other diametrically opposed song titles to put into a playlist. Like I don’t have other things to do which are music related.

A Spotify track listing showing the song Stop (Don’t Push The Button) by Suzanne Sundfør playing.

A Spotify playlist showing Push The Button by Sugababes playing.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 27/11/2025

It’s getting down to the wire now for me to listen to 1000 albums by the end of the year and defeat Ian Wang off Only Connect, but I’m hanging in there. If I can rattle off 3 new albums per day I’ll be done by mid December…

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 26/11/2025

I saw @cmatbaby.bsky.social at Sheffield tonight and goddamn if she, and the very sexy CMAT band, are not the best live band I’ve seen maybe ever. This was the third time I’ve seen them, and they just keep getting better. Awesome.

The incredible CMAT, a young woman with red hair in a brown dress and white heart shaped sunglasses holding a microphone, standing in a soundest. She’s about to kick ass.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 01/11/2025

Time Walk: A Powerful Card. Another 7 win Powered Cube draft, which included attacking two different opponents with Emrakul and Ulamog at the same time for the win. #MTGA

A screenshot showing 7 wins and 1 loss in the Magic The Gathering Arena Powered Cube draft format

A spread of the winning deck featuring Time Walk, multiple ways to get Time Walk back, two Eldrazi and a Sneak Attack. This deck rocked.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 31/10/2025

Watching LSV draft Flash combo over and over earlier this year was instructional (7-2).

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 29/10/2025

Listened to Folkocracy by Rufus Wainwright while going 7-2 in the Magic Arena Powered Cube. 862/1000

A screenshot from the Magic The Gatherine Arena client showing seven wins (which is the most possible) and two losses

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 24/10/2025

Excited to see her again for the forth time next year! But if you can find a way to see her during the leg of her tour where @cmatbaby.bsky.social is supporting her, that’s two great shows in one night!

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 24/10/2025

More live bands should have a loading bar filling up preceding their arrival on stage. #HAIM #iquit

A stage with a crowd gathered in front of it. A red led bar with a display next to it reading ‘28%’ is the only thing visible on the stage.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 20/10/2025

As I’m getting tantalisingly close to my 1000 album goal I made a spreadsheet (natch) to make sure I had space to cover every remaining recommendation and a bunch of artists I wanted to get to. I think I have 11 blank spaces left to fill.

A colour coded spreadsheet clearly the work of the mentally unhinged, showing columns of 174 different albums waiting to be listened to. I don’t have the space to list them all here.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 13/10/2025

In an unusual start to my Monday, I went to make a coffee, looked out of our kitchen window to see what I think is a Peregrine Falcon just chilling on our garden fence in Sheffield.

A brown speckled bird of prey facing the camera perched on a wooden slat fence in an urban garden

The same bird but facing to the side, being all coy

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 12/10/2025

Dear Maxine Hall from Ballasalla, you are killing me. If you want to catch up with your friends DO LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A news clipping from a BBC article where a terrible person justifies talking throughout a gig making them the worse person I’ve read about today

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 03/10/2025

The biggest issue is going to be not wanting to eat this album like a giant orange sweet. It’s very pretty.

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Rich Hammond @nottopgearrh.swifties.social · 02/10/2025

On January 1st I started a project listening to 1000 albums this year. I just updated my spreadsheet and I’ve listened to 799 albums and 9988 songs so far this year. When I listen to #TLOAS at 6am tomorrow, Taylor Swift will be both my 800th album of the year, and my 10,000th song.

A spreadsheet page showing statistics on my album listening this year. It shows 799 of 1000 albums completed

Another spreadsheet excerpt showing I have listened to 9988 total songs so far this year (and 39,659 minutes of total music)

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