iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I think I have a solution that works, but haven’t watched the video yet.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

First snow today. Leaves that haven’t fallen yet added a bit of color. Our cats are going, “Wtf?” 😂

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

How I arrived in Bluesky. Happy to leave that other place! (“Guitar Choro” by Mario Gangi)

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I like a good western. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order: (I thought about adding “Bad Day at Black Rock,” but wasn’t sure it qualifies as a “western,” though it plays like one)

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m always looking for bugs under outdoor chairs; you never know what might be hiding there. So, today I found what I think are two varieties of the two-spot ladybug (Adalia bipunctata), one a paler version of the other. They’re tiny little bugs, around 5mm. Alberta has ~75 ladybug species.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ruffed grouse just off the driveway this afternoon. They don’t normally stick around to get their picture taken.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A bee mimic fly, Sericomyia sp., on a potentilla flower.

From Wikipedia:
Sercomyia are large flies with species that are bee mimics both short pile and long pile. Sericomyiine flower flies are common in boreal forests across the Holarctic region and southward at higher elevations into the Oriental and Neotropical regions. Sericomyia species have larvae of the rat-tailed maggot type, often found in ponds rich in decomposing vegetation where they filter out microorganisms as their food.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A rain cloud from the other day. Clouds like this, especially the bigger, taller ones, can contain over one million pounds of water vapor.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A jumping spider, Phidippus borealis, at the entrance to its hideaway on a fence post the other evening.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just watched this classic gangster movie on Netflix, starring Robert DeNiro who plays two characters that go head to head against each other. Really well done, and a very good story. 👍

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It is indeed delicious! 😅 My mom got the recipe from a popular magazine in the mid 1930s.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Here’s a recipe for Apple Dumplings that’s been in my family for almost 90 years. As you can see from the stains on the card it has been used extensively! I had to laminate the card to keep it from disintegrating! 😁 Great as a desert, especially after Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy!

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Here’s the front gate as it was when I was a student there, versus the security gate there now. In the early 1970s the campus was basically wide open. Not so now. Different times.

Front gate of Cairo American College, c. 1970

Front gate of Cairo American College, c. 2016. More pictures here:

https://macsegypt.com/projects/cac-gates-upgrade/

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

In 1970 students moved into their new campus at Cairo American College, in the suburb of Maadi, Egypt. There were about 230 students in grades K-12 then. Today, with nearly 1,000 students, the campus looks very different, with bigger, and more modern classrooms and facilities.

Sportsday at Cairo American College in the spring of 1970.

The modern campus of Cairo American College.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Feeling awfully patriotic these days!

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Looking out my back window this morning.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie that came out when you were 20 years old?

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Looks like we may both be wrong on this, if what I found from Google is correct:

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I think it could be argued that American involvement in Vietnam started under Kennedy, small though that initial involvement was. See:

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Went through a “psychedelic” car wash this morning. Flashing colored lights, rainbow-colored soap …. What’s up with that?? 😂

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I’ve often wondered how these spiders find white or yellow flowers to begin with, especially if the flowers are in a place with no easy path for the spider to get to them. Case in point: this small patch of daisies in my yard seems isolated, yet they contain M. Vatia! Same in other places.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

When you blow out a candle the apparent smoke that rises from it is briefly flammable, and can be used to reignite the candle without directly relighting the wick. Quite a neat effect! I slowed this video down by 50% to make it easier to see.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Saw the wasp again yesterday, in the same area. This time it was carrying what looked like a dark grub of some kind. However, the grub was a little too heavy and it took the wasp several attempts before it finally managed to fly away with it. Here’s a video of an unsuccessful attempt.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Closeup of one of the caterpillars. Ants quickly got to them.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This afternoon I was in the right place at the right time to get this. The wasp returned a few more times and brought 2 more caterpillars out of the same hole. It dropped them all on the ground and left them there.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I found one of those fungus flies just yesterday when I was checking on a crab spider (Misumena vatia) that’s been using the same daisey flower as a place to trap visiting flies. The infected fly had chosen that flower to die on, but after examining the dead fly the spider rejected it as food.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

This bubble formed on the spout of a dish soap container, and lasted quite a while. Lots of interesting movement going on!

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

An adult male Araneus trifolium. At this time of year the species matures. The adult males don’t spin a permanent web, but wander in search of adult females. After mating she’ll lay eggs that overwinter. She’ll die after laying eggs, but a new generation is born next spring.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Smoke from wildfires contributed to yesterday’s evening sky, with a nice result.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I’ve been reading Janet Asimov’s memoirs (his wife) which is where I’m finding the quotes. It very entertaining, and I’m afraid I am putting off things that need to be done so I can read it; hard to put down! 😂 I’ve long been a fan of his and his books (he wrote more than 500 of them).

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

RIP Sam Neill, who never disappointed in any role. He shall be missed! His autobiography, published in 2023, is an entertaining, anecdote-filled memoir of his life that his fans will want to read.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I just happened to look out the back window the other day just after some deer entered the yard. The protective mother took a good hard look at me while her fawn pranced around, lol. Nice to see them! 😁

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Some colorful beetles on flowers in the garden yesterday.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Here are a couple of male crab spiders (Misumena vatia). One is lurking on a daisy flower, waiting for either an unsuspecting fly to arrive, or a perhaps a female spider, and potential mate, instead. The other, hunting among cow parsnip flowers, has already caught a fly.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

A young crab spider (Misumena vatia) with a fly it just caught. This spider will often bend over a petal or two on one of these flowers to make a shelter for itself. I was lucky to get these pictures. These spiders have good eyesight and often move and hide under the flower when approached.

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Found some tent caterpillars (probably Malacosoma disstria) on a young aspen tree in my yard. There are just a few of them, nowhere close to the infestation numbers that occurred about ten years ago. Beautiful colouring!

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

From 1538 here is my interpretation of “Canción del Emperador” by Luis de Narváez (1500-1552). I love this piece! 😁 Enjoy. 🎧

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Whenever I see a glove lying by the side of the road I think of “The Crawling Hand.” That movie scared the heck out of me when I was a kid! 😬 I love the MST3K version of it now!

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Thanks! It’s a La Patrie guitar, Etude model, which is essentially a student guitar in the lower price range. It has a better sound than most cheaper guitars. I like it because the string height is low (4mm at 12th fret); easy to play. Also, it holds up well to Canadian winters, a big plus. 😁

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Here’s my attempt at a short Etude by J. K. Mertz a few years ago. I’m wearing three sweaters and a toque, because I was playing in my basement in the middle of a Canadian winter and it was a bit chilly, lol! 😂 Enjoy! 🎧

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

How to “destroy” enriched uranium:

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Isaac Albeniz 🇨🇦 @pardosa.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I dislike this, because it buries replies in threads so that fewer people see them. I know it’s intended as a junk filter, but it is not discriminating enough. Many reasonable and relevant replies in threads are also sidelined and shouldn’t be.

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