iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Today's epiphany: our high school #DnD group is in effect a series of inside jokes strung together. That was a happy epiphany.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

As the DM of high school #DnD group, I want to propose a new spell: if the coach of any player thinks about scheduling a practice with less than 24 hours' notice that would conflict with a game session that had to be pushed out a month so everyone could make it, they get the hives. No saving throw.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Gotta admit that my curiosity about @larianstudios.com’s next project after #BaldursGate3 — it was a relief that the new cinematic trailer was so gory that I would have no temptation to pour time into it. Now if only I could unsee as much of the trailer as I did watch.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Unsigned review of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘣 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦: “the whole trend of the age is away from creative communal amusements and towards solitary mechanical ones. The pub… is gradually replaced by the passive, drug-like pleasures of the cinema and the radio.” — #GeorgeOrwell, January 21, 1943

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Wondering what it would be like if pets had smartphones. “Spot, it’s time for a walk. Don’t whine like that! It’s not my fault that you need all your legs to walk and can’t hold your phone and walk at the same time.”

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Mail anymore seems to junk and the random bits of adulting that can’t be done online, but it was “feels like a kid again” feeling to open the mailbox door to get this a day early. #CoyoteAndCrow #AhuTiiko

A book on top of its mailing envelope. The hardcover book is a copy of the Ahu Tiiko supplement to the Coyote and Crow tabletop roleplaying game.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

That moment of being almost done getting ready for the next #DnD session and realizing that a mini is missing its hand. Welp, guess I gotta tweak that NPC’s backstory. #DMprep

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

You know you're spending too much time staring at pixels when you think of photographs as IRL screenshots.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

I’m very powerful. I can get people to do things without their knowledge. All I have to do is click “Join” for a virtual meeting and I can turn on leafblowers, convince neighbors to get into arguments with Alexa and even get dogs to go on barking benders.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

You know the kiddos are getting older when, on a camping trip, multiple moms wear their sons' old clothing.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

You know you're getting to be an older #DnD player when you have thoughts like, "If they really wanted to crank up the horror in The Curse of #Strahd, they'd have a chapter/setting based on a U.S.-style nursing home."

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Quite the #Earworm: I would conservatively estimate that I've listened to Rose Betts's "Doodles" a hundred times today. This is just shooting joy straight into your veins. www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Bv...

youtube.com

Rose Betts - Doodles (Official Video)

YouTube video by Rose Betts

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

A consequence of nerds taking over pop culture is that it’s so hard to schedule high school #DnD sessions because everyone has team sports.

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Reposted by Parke Troutman

Parke Troutman @parkeonpolicy.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

17 yrs ago a student in my local history class found this newspaper reprint of a letter a GI wrote home in #WWII. Recently we reconnected and I asked about the letter, which they still had. Its take on why fight is so prescient in #2025. Worth zooming in for sure.

A faded newspaper letter from a WWII soldier to his dad saying they don't want care packages or propaganda but a Democracy to return to.

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Reposted by Parke Troutman

💜🌌Kirioz🌌💜 dnd memes-ttrpg memes @encounterfactory.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

what a unique character backstory never seen one like it! #dnd #memes

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Been worrying that the empty shelf on my newly organized #DnD wall would burn a hole in pocket. Voila! Assemble a budding shelf of @coyoteandcrow.bsky.social.

A bookshelf with four Coyote and Crow products: the core rulebook, the Hemlock and Sage novel, the boardgame Wolves and the dice game Naasi.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Today taught the high schoolers how to play one of my childhood favorites, #Axis&Allies. Cool to listen to them talk strategy. Much better than reading about “adults” talking about invading Greenland.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Has anyone ever delved into the mass alcohol withdrawal implicit in the Curse of #Strahd #DnD campaign? Seems like folx drink themselves into a stupor because Barovia is so miserable but then the wine stoppage... alcohol withdrawal is no joke.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Getting disenchanted with metallic paints and only time constraints keep me from trying NMMs. But dang, I’m finishing the teeth on this drake last because I keep feeling it’s about to bite my fingers. #minipainting

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Tidied up my #DnD supplies and discovered that they take up less space than I thought. My wallet calls the empty shelf ‘the danger zone’. #ttrpg

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Is there a real word for what I call #backstacking? While doing something, I discover more upstream tasks and subtasks. For example, I start organizing a shelf. I go to put something in a more permanent spot, which also needs to be organized. Then the place beside it looks dirty in comparison… #ADHD

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Listening to #FloggingMolly for hours and then my music player tossed in Frank Sinatra's Jingle Bells. That wasn't jarring at all!

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Been exploring new genres of music in recent years. But can’t stream music this week, so I’ve been listening to music from when we downloaded mp3s. Some of it is gobsmackingly amazing. Lookin’ at you, #FloggingMolly. Even songs I didn’t particularly like are sending chills down my spine.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

When in Rome, do what the Romans do --- as long as the Romans are watching. Otherwise, do whatever it takes to keep the homesickness down.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

In contrast to the satanic panic of the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons is now intergenerational. The dad of one of my high schoolers made this dice tray for us. #DnD #dicetray

A large square wooden tray, spray painted with touches of bright colors, with a cork bottom and a set of dragon dice in the middle.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Just realized that if I made a #NewYearsResolution, it would amount to "Keep doing what I'm doing." I don't know if that means I'm happy or terrible at achieving my goals. 🤷

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Ran a 4+ hour Dungeons and Dragons sessions for high schoolers today, without any real breaks. Exhausted but weirdly energized. Is that what being an extrovert is like? #DnD

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

In Dungeons & Dragons, do vine blights look like painted cord under a wash of Earthshade Agrax? When you discover that (a) they exist and (b) are in the session you’re running in less than 18 hours, why, yes they do. #DnD #Strahd

Dirty looking shoelace painted green on a 25mm mini base covered with GreenStuff earth texture.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Best question in 2024 from one of my (then middle school) Dungeons and Dragons players. During set up (for a session in Neverwinter), "Why do you have a box labeled 'Mob violence'?" #DnD

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

In #DnD, has anyone ever had labor issues with #FindFamiliar? The bat familiar of the wizard in my party is over the suicide scouting missions. The rules say that it has to “always obey your commands” but there’s a lot of wiggle room in “always.”

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

When I first got a #BlueSky account over a year ago, I didn't have many extraneous followers. I just created an account to talk politics (@parkeonpolicy.bsky.social) and within seconds was getting random bot-like followers. Got some growin' pains going on here.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Seems like if there was a formula for how long it takes to adjust to a new time zone, it would be: the number of days before you head home minus one.

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Reposted by Parke Troutman

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 28/12/2024

This is how www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-...

Five months later, a little over a year after the Code Yellow debacle, Google would make Prabhakar Raghavan the head of Google Search, with Jerry Dischler taking his place as head of ads. After nearly 20 years of building Google Search, Gomes would be relegated to SVP of Education at Google. Gomes, who was a critical part of the original team that made Google Search work, who has been credited with establishing the culture of the world’s largest and most important search engine, was chased out by a growth-hungry managerial types led by Prabhakar Raghavan, a management consultant wearing an engineer costume.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

There's something decidedly unmagical about temperatures in the mid-30s, doubly so when it's raining: it's like the weather gods are taunting you with the possibility of snow.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Despite hearing good things about the new DM guide, I decided not to get any of the new #DnD rulebooks. Then a friend and I want to get coffee after lunch and the only place was the nearby Barnes & Noble. They're applying their 1/3 off hardcover sale to D&D. What jerks.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

I've been thinking a lot recently about how nerd culture, especially #StarWars, has supplanted the Bible and Shakespeare as cultural touchstones. At tonight's service, the nativity story began, "In a time long long ago, in a city far far away..." Not sure what emoji to add to that.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Today’s #DnD session got giggly as we got to imagining what people would think if they heard snippets of our conversations out of context. DM: So! The plan is to grab the head and run?

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Times have been a-changin’: today the high schoolers asked the #strahd blue dragon its pronouns. Even if the parents of my friends hadn’t blocked #DnD for being satanic when we were in high school, I don’t think that would’ve happened back in the day.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Invented a new subspecies of the wild boar (𝘚𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘢) for fast approaching #DnD session: the all-white boar (𝘚𝘶𝘴 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺𝘏𝘢𝘥𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘛𝘰𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘴). #MiniPainting

An all-white wild boar 28mm mini mounted for painting but only with a coat of primer.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Got a sheet of the new Dungeons and Dragons stamps. Suddenly having this urge to send Christmas cards to the parents of my high school friends (1980s) who didn’t let them play #DnD because they thought it was satanic.

A sheet of Dungeons & Dragons US postage stamps.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Does anyone have a ##TTRPG storage area that they feel works? In the living room of my small apartment, I have had a midden of plastic containers, ultimate dungeon terrain, the town message board, two travel bags, etc. Black Friday mini binge on Etsy made me realize that I need a system. #DnD

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Has anyone had a #DnD party just medievally nuke #CastleRavenloft? Reading that chapter of campaign book last and: my players don’t dungeon crawl; it’s ridiculous TMI; and if it’s good enough for the Shield Wall, it’s good enough for #Strahd, I say.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

My high schoolers in our @itsbeththebard.bsky.social's genderbent #strahd campaign have reached Vallaki. Might have gotten the idea for the town message board from @bobworldbuilder.bsky.social (?). It’s great for clues and humor. And #Watchmen teachable moments. #dnd

Wooden board with aged brief messages for the town of Vallaki. Includes the smiley face from The Watchmen.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

#ElonMusk: Maybe I should buy #Hasbro to save #dnd! Hasbro: No need! We can run a storied brand into the ground without your considerable expertise in that field, thank you.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Looked at online discussions about how big to make #dice trays. The key variable isn’t like the number of dice to be rolled or ease of storage. What matters is how wide must a dice tray be to capture a falling #dnd dice stack placed towards the middle without an infernal racket when it falls over.

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

A great way to confuse friends who don’t know you’re into #minipainting is to post on Facebook things like, “Just shaved a vampire’s leg. With a drill.” #strahd #DnD I love this mini, except the gashes on her right leg, so out came the Dremel. tinyurl.com/MaudeLacroix...

tinyurl.com

Maude Lacroix Elf Rogue Dagger the Graveyard of Sorrows Tabletop Miniatures D&D Dungeons and Dragons 5e Pathfinder - Etsy

This Role Playing Miniatures item by SuntreeGaming has 42 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from United States. Listed on Nov 5, 2024

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Who here is running a #Strahd campaign? Bonus points if it's @itsbeththebard.bsky.social’s genderbent 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵. Mine’s also lightbent: dark = good; light = bad. Noon causes eye damage. The Sunsword's like the Mandalorian Darksaber. Castle #Ravenloft is a madhouse of glass and mirrors. #DnD

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Saw this on Amazon and instantly thought, "Aha! I know exactly where in Curse of #Strahd we could use that." Turns out it's unavailable. I reassured myself thinking, "My players would take one look at that thing and go, 'nawww, too dangerous,'" and keep on walking. #dnd

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Parke Troutman @parketroutman.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

#NeedAWordFor the irony of being from #SanDiego, traveling someplace cold during the winter and then freezing upon returning: my place in San Diego doesn’t have central heat so when I wake up in the morning, it’s way colder than anything I experienced unbundled on my trip.

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