iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by @pomfob.bsky.social

jenny tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"i have created the machine that thinks." you fucked up a perfectly good graphics card is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

For one last time, ahoy ahoy shipmates. It's the last day of the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, la Fête des Recompenses. Since that translates as honours, the honour of our final celebration should go to beer. To quote Homer, the cause of and solution to all our problems. I'll drink to that. Cheers!

A photo, taken by me, Pom. It's of a pint of beer in a curved pint glass. Looks like I've taken the first sip out of it and found it pleasing. It's red brown in colour, so probably a best bitter. The pint stands on a beermat on top of a copper coloured table in a snug of a pub. It looks warm inside, cold and dark outside. The pub was the Three Pigeons in Halifax, West Yorkshire, one of the best there is. A fine way to sign off this daft quest.

As someone once said,

Beer is not dark, beer is not light,
It just tastes good,
Especially tonight.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Ey up there me ducks. It's la Fête de l'Opinion in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We can translate l'Opinion to either opinions or more emphatically as convictions. I'm convinced that the Brudenell Social Club is the best live music venue I've been to, so we're going to celebrate it today.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

May I wish you all a happy Fête du Travail in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Travail translates as labour, and since most of my labour in the past couple of years has been on The Poms' allotment, that's what we're going to celebrate. Allotments that is, not the fact I can be found digging on it.

A photo of Mrs Pom on our allotment. Her face is hidden by a large, floppy blue hat. She's wearing heavy duty gardening trousers and a nice t shirt bearing the name of the band Benefits. All black apart from the hat, because we're goths on the quiet.
It was taken over the summer, so everything is dusty and straw coloured. Various allotment accoutrements around the place like a wheelbarrow, a garden fork and a low windbreak made out of branches, bamboo canes and rusty tin cans. You can see a big net cage in the background for keeping the birds off your crops and a big plastic cube for storing water. That's not ours, it's the much more organised people across the way.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Would you believe it? Today is la Fête du Genie in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Since Genie is talent, let's celebrate all the musical talent that has played and recorded behind the unassuming shutter of Nottingham's finest DIY venue, JT Soar. The off site festival will be a cracker too.

A photo of a street corner with a plain brick wall of a building. There's an air conditioning unit part way up the wall. A man in a blue shirt and white baseball cap stands at the right of the photo, next to a metal roll shutter.
At the top left is a rectangular cream sign with green lettering from the building's former use. It says

J. T. SOAR LTD.
WHOLESALE FRUIT &
POTATO MERCHANTS
NOTTM 502607/506681

The shutter points to the building's current use as a recording studio and venue, advertising JT SOAR FEST 3. It's on 31 October and 1 November at the Old Cold Store, featuring Bis, Delivery, The Klittens, Hey Colossus and many more.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hello.The Calendar solved having 12 months of 30 days each by adding 5 Complementary Days at the end of the year, 6 in a leap year. Today is la Fête de la Vertu in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. That's virtue, and by virtue of the internet, whatever you think about it, we're here to celebrate it.

A cartoon with the heading HOE DOES THE INTERNET WORK? It's almost laughably simplistic, but it's also idealistic, ignoring all the dirty money and suchlike.
Against a background of a blue sky and little fluffy clouds, from left to right is a smiling young white man with short dark hair in an orange t shirt sitting typing on a keyboard at a desktop monitor. Two wires connect the desktop to a globe representing the whole wide world. A wire leading out of the world connects to two rectangular servers, which in turn connect to an oversized open envelope with a card bearing the @ symbol on it. Finally at the bottom right is an open laptop with a web page on the screen. All you can make out is https:// Let's keep it secure.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Isn't this the sort of thing the writer and all round good egg Roy Wilkinson does? Don't think Roy's on here 🙁

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Well I'll be the son of a gun, we've made it to the last day of the month of fruitfulness. It's décadi 30 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. A celebration is due that we can all enjoy, but tough, we're doing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets because I use them all the time & I like them.

What we have here is a rather blurry photo of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Well, it's actually a photo of my laptop with Excel open on the desktop. Dark grey characters on a pale grey background, gridlines you can't make out because they're so pale, what's not to love? In a reality warping twist, this is the spreadsheet I use to keep a track of the songs Richard posts in reply to the celebrations. We can see he's missed one, but unless Richard reads the alt text, he'll never know.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Hiya! It's nonidi 29 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today may be the most controversial choice of the revised calendar celebrations. The British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, Auntie Beeb. For any crap it throws up, there's Peel Sessions, Doctor Who & David Bloody Attenborough.

A photo of the classic BBC1 intertitle or identity screen. In between programming, you'd see this and hear the voice of the continuity announcer telling you what was coming up on BBC television. This one would have been from the 1980s and maybe the early 1990s. It's BBC1 in big, blocky white letters at the bottom middle of the screen. Above BBC1 is a globe of the Earth rotates, dark blue for the seas, a sandy gold colour for land. Behind it all is a very stretched out version of the globe in the same colours. Simple and effective. Nation shall speak peace unto nation.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A cheery wave to all you stranded youngsters out there on octidi 28 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I'm on something of a lap of honour here, celebrating my favourite things. Anyone who's met me knows I bloody love bread. It's bizarre that it was missed out in the original calendar.

A photo of a loaf of bread on a plain white background. Pure, golden brown, the staff of life. All that jazz. Bread. Yum. I could eat that now, one sitting, no bother.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Joy to the world on septidi 27 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. What are we going to celebrate today then? Well, as I've been keeping the good stuff to last, I suppose we'd better have the most elegant and best format for capturing and replaying music. The record, so simple, perfect.

A photo of a twelve inch dye blackened vinyl disc spinning on a white turntable. The arm is near the beginning of the record. The arm is also black. The clear plastic lid of the turntable is up, reflecting the record on the dark red painted wall behind it. Since it's spinning, you can't make out the label of the record. It's Music For Magnesium_173 by Ian William Craig. I'd never heard of him till about a month ago. I really like this, a cross between minimal neo classical and glitchy techno. Apparently it's a soundtrack to a computer game, which is surely a freaky experience going off the music.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Ahoy there mateys. It's sextidi 26 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're coming to the end of this daft odyssey through the French Revolutionary Calendar, celebrating what's come along since the Revolution. Here's civilisation's greatest achievement. Soft toilet paper! You know it is.

A photo of a white toilet roll held on a white woman's hand against the background of a tiled white wall. Taken from the website of the Pom's bogroll of choice, serioustissues.com. They sell ecologically friendly cleaning products, and the toilet paper is soft, strong and very, very long.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Would you believe it? Today is quintidi 25 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, all along the way. As we reach the end of the French Republican year, I'm getting self indulgent. My favourite TV programme is Doctor Who, so we're going to celebrate its enduring popularity after 63 years.

A still from the greatest of all television programmes, Doctor Who. In fact, it'll be the last shot of the show so far. It's the actor Billy Piper who played Rose Tyler in the 2000s but in the final sequence, the Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billy as Rose. Maybe.
The still shows the head and shoulders of a blonde white woman in a white dress. She has an enormous grin, and gold sparks of regeneration energy are coming off her.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Yoo hoo there all. It's quartidi 24 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today is St Hubbins' day, patron saint of quality footwear [editor's note, are you sure this isn't just a Spinal Tap joke?] Whatever, let's celebrate the best footwear there is, Doctor Marten's, DMs or just Docs.

A photo of two pairs of Doctor Martens, sat on a pale wood chair on a pale cream tiled floor. Yes, it's the Poms' kitchen and those DMs are mine. On the left, black eight hole boots with black laces. On the right, black three hole shoes with black laces. I like black shoes, ok?

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Afternoon you lot. We're at tridi 23 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Following on from the RNLI yesterday, to whom I hope you donated, let's celebrate lighthouses. Out there in all weathers, keeping those at sea safe. I got quite obsessed with them during covid. More in alt text.

A photo of a lighthouse. Quite a small, decommissioned lighthouse sat in a park on a cloudy day. The tower is thirteen metres tall, painted white, with sandy yellow brown edges and the dome of the light room itself is black. These are the standard colours of the Northern Lighthouse Board. They're in charge of lights around Scotland and some on the Isle of Man.
You may be asking yourself, Pom seems to know a lot about lighthouses. Well, it's the band (British) Sea Power's fault. During the covid lockdowns, we were all looking for distractions. Tim Booth of The Charlatans started organising listening parties for records on Twitter (never X), and one of those was (British) Sea Power's From The Sea To The Land Beyond. That's the soundtrack to a documentary about Britain's relationship with the sea. We and I think most people watched as well as listened along. There's a brief section where the voiceover says something like, if all the lights of British lighthouses were combined, they'd stretch from Dover to Kingston, Jamaica. That sounded like bollocks to me. I started looking into it, and after a couple of years of on and off research, the answer was probably not, but it would have been close and a lot of lights had their distances reduced in the 1990s. So there I was, too much newly acquired information about lighthouses sloshing around my head and a new found admiration of them.
One last thing for anyone who hung around the (British) Sea Power internet fan forum too much. The lighthouse above was decommissioned in 2006, is occasionally used for special events and is in Cromarty. Titters childishly.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Hello there good folks of BlueSky. It's duodi 22 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I'll keep it brief today. We're celebrating the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the RNLI. They do an important job, as volunteers. Chuck a few quid their way & fuck fascism. rnli.org/support-us/g...

rnli.org

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A very good afternoon to BlueSky. Here we are on primidi 21 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. For today's celebration, we'll be praising an often overlooked medium for non hierarchical art, dissemination of information & advertising outside the capitalist norms. Stickers! Get sticking.

A photo of a laptop lid covered in stickers. Some of you may have seen it before on the website sticker top.art and if you haven't, it's a fun site anyway. It's the very old laptop of your pal Pomfob. Yes, it's mine. I'm not going to describe all of the stickers as we've only two thousand characters in alt text, but here are some highlights.
Top and left of centre, one of several stickers from the Black Iris Brewery. This is a round one, in the distinctive black and white style of Black Iris, advertising their long gone lavender grisette beer, Lovelace. It depicts a young Ada Lovelace at the Analytical Engine that she programmed.
Next row down, at the right edge, another round sticker, with lots of stylised yellow parachutes with bunny rabbits attached. This is for the music promoters Don't Panic, We're From Poland.
Central, another round black and white sticker from the band worriedaboutsatan. The illustration is a series of black and white stripes of varying width.
Bottom and to the left, a photo of the happiest marsupial, the Quokka. Would you like a leaf?
Next to that, a round sticker reminding us that Trans Rights Are Human Rights.
Bottom right, a curious sticker showing Snoopy the beagle from the Peanuts cartoon strip dressed in a blue pinstripe suit, wearing red trainers, a pair of 3D cinema glasses and waving a small glowing instrument. There's a speech bubble saying ALLONS-Y! What the connection between Snoopy and Doctor Who as played by David Tennant is, I don't know. The sticker looks cool though.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Aloha folks. It's décadi 20 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today I'd like us to celebrate dinosaurs. Let's not get too bogged down in what actually is and isn't a dinosaur though. Any ancient lizardy thing will do. What's your favourite dinosaur? Here's mine, the psittacosaurus.

An illustration of a psittacosaurus. They're a species of dinosaur, about the size of a big dog that ran around on its hind legs in what's now Mongolia, China and Russia. This one is shown as a red brown colour, on a mossy green forest floor. It has some spines on its tail. Sometimes this is shown as a small ridge or sail, sometimes it's omitted. The psittacosaurus has a parrot like beak. That's where the name comes from. This one has big eyes and looks like it's thinking about something. It has a sort of chinstrap, maybe tusks? Some psittacosauri are depicted with quite complicated horns in their head. It's my favourite dinosaur.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Well then. Hope all's well with you on nonidi 19 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today, let's celebrate earphones, handy devices that allow us to listen to our obnoxious music or tedious podcasts without bothering anyone else. Wired or wireless, headphones if you prefer. Just use 'em.

An overhead photo of a dozen or so pairs of chargeable wireless earphones or earbuds on a grey surface. Lots of little plastic cases with two small curved plastic blobs in them. Roughly half are black and half are white. There's one pair of orange earphones brightening up the scene. Or possibly they're for the Rangers supporting loyalist anti-Papist who has everything else.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Would you believe it? Today is octidi 18 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're going to celebrate a musical instrument I know little about, but I love the sound. The pedal steel guitar isn't just for country & western. The pedal steel guitar always improves a song, like a sax won't.

A photo of a pedal steel guitar. I'm not going to pretend I know about these things, I just like the noise they make. Forgive my lack of technical knowledge.
The instrument is set up in the corner of a room with white walls and a smooth, possibly marble, speckled grey and white floor. There's also a dark wooden skirting board. It looks like a doctor's waiting room and I'd have thought the acoustics would be awful.
The pedal steel guitar is a flat, oblong box on four thin, silvery metal legs. You can just make out some wires leading down to the pedals on the floor.
The box has silvery metal sides, a black front with the words ReSound 65 on the right. Whether that's the maker or the model, I don't know. The flat top has what looks like a red leather cushion at the back of it, with the majority of the space taken up by the guitar part. It looks like the neck of an electric guitar, but different. It has ten strings and tuning pegs, and the neck is much thicker than you'd expect on a standard guitar. It also appears to be made of a silvery metal.
There's no body as such to the guitar, just a flat space where the strings are attached.
There's just the one neck here. While I was looking for appropriate pictures, I saw lots with two necks, and a few with four. I don't know which ones are most common or what the additional necks achieve.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Good afternoon and thanks for keeping the faith with the revised celebrations for the French Revolutionary Calendar. Today, septidi 17 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, is the day we celebrate maps. They can be geographical, political, art or just help you get where you're going.

A map of the Great Lakes region between south east Canada, and various states not yet in Canada. These states are coloured orange, yellow and green to differentiate between each other and the unified nation of Canada, coloured khaki. The lakes are blue. There are five lakes. Superior, Michigan and Huron sort of run into each other. The other two, a little further to the south east, don't connect to those three or each other. These last two lakes are Erie and Ontario. Yes they are.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Let's be having you on sextidi 16 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I had today earmarked for the celebration of gaffer tape, holding it all together. It's only proper gaffer tape if it's non light reflecting. But then I remembered this fantastic flow chart, so have a twofer with WD-40.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Top of the morning to you all, it's quintidi 15 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. As it's the month of fruitfulness, let's celebrate something any gardener, farmer or agriculturist appreciates. Compost! Simple rule, if you cut it up small enough & wait long enough, you can compost it.

A woodcut by Jonathan Gibbs to illustrate composting. As it's a woodcut, it's mainly black with details in white. There are some trees in the background, with at top centre of the picture a compost bin. It's a box made of wooden pallets or fence panels. There's a pile of compost mellowing down to something useable. In front of the compost bin is a strip of plants just poking through the earth, and in front of them a dibber and a garden rake.
Note the illustration is from the book Compost by Charles Dowding. He knows his onions about gardening, but he's also a bit of a posh crank. Swings and roundabouts, eh?

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

All are welcome at the celebrations of the French Revolutionary Calendar today, quartidi 14 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. You're welcome every day. We're celebrating The Clangers today, another brilliant children's television show made by Oliver Postgate. Joyful whistling abounds.

A still from the original series of The Clangers, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Clangers were small creatures living on a planet far away. They look like a cross between pigs and anteaters, but bipedal. They're pink, have long noses and communicate by whistling. Here we see five Clangers gathered round three visitors. They're stood on white, dusty ground with a starless, bible black sky behind them. At a guess I think left to right it's Tiny Clanger, Mother Clanger, Small Clanger, Granny Clanger and Major Clanger. Major Clanger is stood next to a metal lid covering an entrance to the planet's caves, where the Clangers live. All the Clangers look surprised at their visitors. These are Froglets, even smaller than the Clangers. They're just orange heads on black legs with flat feet. The Froglets have big eyes on top of their heads and all have serene smiles. They appear to have arrived in a battered brown upside down top hat.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Hi there me hearties. We're at tridi 13 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. It's time to celebrate the gong. By that I mean the big brass percussion instrument not the unbearable hippy twaddle. Sorry, Kavus Torabi seems like a cool bloke & he's a Janner, but musically, needs Steve Davis.

A photo of a gong. A big brass disc suspended from a wooden frame. The frame also has a wooden beater for hitting the gong.
Sometimes, the alt text needs to be simple. Especially after a massive essay like yesterday. Especially if I'm down the pub.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Ey up there me ducks. It's duodi 12 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Yesterday we celebrated the porcupine. Since we've already done the hedgehog, that suggests only one thing, surely? For my audience anyway. Let's celebrate the pineapple with this handsome chap. More in t'alt text.

It's a photo of a grinning buffoon. More accurately, a balding, middle aged white bloke with glasses and a laughing cavalier style moustache and goatee. Yes, it's me, your pal Pom. It's maybe fifteen years ago, at the venue Joseph's Well in Leeds. Long closed by it's prick of a landlord who wanted more money. It's been empty ever since it closed.
We were at Joseph's Well to see the band Brakes. Two significant points there. Eamon, the singer in Brakes had been in the band British Sea Power. I'm wearing one of their t shirts, a dark blue one with the legend HERE TO GO, and an illustration of the evolutionary ladder labelled with British Sea Power song titles.
Other point is that Brakes had a song called Porcupine Or Pineapple?, which live had involved a pineapple being thrown at the crowd. Health and safety concerns meant that was amended to just handing the pineapple to some chud in the front row. Hello! That night it was me, hence me grinning and pointing at the pineapple that I'm holding in my left hand. Took it home and ate it.
In my right is a young woman with long wavy hair looking at the stage in what can only be called a simpering manner. Don't know her, perhaps it was an unfortunate angle. On my left is Helen from Hebden Bridge giving me pineapple recipes. She's wearing a purple hooped long sleeved top with a black top over it.
Now all this would have been hilariously funny because Brakes are playing the Krankenhaus festival, Helen's there too so I was going to restage the photo however many years later. Unfortunately, trains and weather conspired and I didn't get to the festival. Sad face. If anyone at Krankenhaus has read this far, go on, get a new version of this picture.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Would you believe it? It's primidi 11 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. So today, let's celebrate a spiky little fella snuffling around. Not the hedgehog, we did them back in Germinal. Today is the day of hedgehog's rather extravagant cousin, the porcupine. Best Bunnymen album too.

A photo of a porcupine in what looks like a domestic garden. They're stood on some sandy coloured gravel, next to some green leaves and snuffling about on the patio. Not that Americans call them patios. Pavements in gardens anyway.
Porcupines are brown, medium sized rodents, who look pretty unremarkable apart from the really long, sticky up hair on their heads which turns into really long, black and brown spikes on the back and rear end. You aren't going to sneak up on these lads without some serious pricking.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Ooh, hello there pets. Its décadi 10 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Time to celebrate another duck, and what a marvellous duck we have today. Eiders are quite big and look very serious with their stark black & white feathers. If you've never heard eiders xeno-canto.org/591766 Ooh!

A photo of a male eider duck, somateria mollissima, floating serenely on a pale grey sea. It's a large duck, mainly white with a black tail and rump, black wings and a black cap coming down over his eyes and along his beak. It's a long, strong beak, lemony coloured.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Good afternoon all you good people on nonidi 9 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today we're celebrating a cheap, simple and effective way of showing our allegiances, whether that be bands, brewers, clubs or whatever. Wear your badges, buttons or pins with pride, whatever you call 'em.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Is everyone gathered in safely on octidi 8 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Our celebrations today are for Georgia O'Keeffe, one of my favourite artists. Difficult to choose just one painting to represent her, so go look up some of her other work. The flowers are just flowers, ok?

The painting Sky Above Clouds III, by Georgia O'Keeffe. It's one of her later, more abstract paintings, from her impression of being in an aeroplane looking down on clouds. On the horizon, the sky is a vague blue line at the top, fading downwards through white and very pale pink. Most of the painting is a sea of little fluffy clouds, like white lilly pads or stepping stones in a deep blue pool. Like all her paintings, it looks simple, but then it absorbs you.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Hello everybody. It's septidi 7 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. It's getting close to my lunch time, so my mind turns to thoughts of food. What's my favourite food? Quite possibly dolmades, vine leaves stuffed with rice & other good things. Why? Don't know, but let's celebrate 'em.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Ahoy there shipmates. It's sextidi 6 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, and I feel like a beer. There are some fine breweries in and around where I live, but finest of all is the ever dependable Black Iris. Used to be ten minutes walk, now it's a forty minute tram ride. Always worth it.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Bollocks, I'm old, part 401. And it would appear things still are shocking🙄

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Up & at 'em, comrades of BlueSky. It's quintidi 5 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're celebrating the Crazy Horse Memorial. What? I hear you cry. It's a massive middle finger salute to Mount Rushmore. Fascinating story, which I suggest you look up on Wikipedia. Far from completed.

A photo of the Crazy Horse Memorial taken from a distance. It's a mountain in Dakota that's being carved into a statue of Crazy Horse, the victor over the forces of General Custer. After about eighty years, they've done the face, which can be seen at the top of the photo, and are currently working on his arm pointing across the plains. It's a sandy coloured rock rising high above the tree line. There's what looks like a horse head painted in white on the lower right side of the mountain. One day, the horse will be carved out of the rock. A clear blue sky looks down on the scene.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Would you believe it? Today is quartidi 4 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV all along the way. It must be time to celebrate damn fine coffee, or indeed if you've ever been to the right shop in Amsterdam, Fucking Strong Coffee. Not that sort of shop, you hippies. Or them places either😯.

A photo of not one but two damn fine coffees, taken a couple of hours ago by your pal Pom just before drinking them. This is in the excellent Greenhood in Beeston. I'd also recommend Omnia around here.
What we have is a pale wood table with a small shiny oblong metal tray on it. On the tray on the left is a cup, green on the outside, white on the inside. There's a small amount of rich, dark brown liquid in the cup. It's an espresso, and it was lush.
On the right is a glass, full of a creamy, pale brown liquid with some white swirls on top. This is a gibraltar, Greenhood's take on a cortado. The espresso perks you up with a slap round the chops, the gibraltar smooths everything out. Damn fine.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Are you receiving me on tridi 3 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV? That's good, because today we're going to celebrate the greatest film ever, in my not at all humble opinion. A war film that isn't a war film, Powell & Press burger's wonderful flight of fancy, Matter Of Life And Death.

A black and white still from the 1946 film, A Matter Of Life And Death. It was also known as Stairway To Heaven in the US. Yeah, Led Zep didn't just borrow riffs from old blues musicians.
The still is of the stairway, though it's really more of an escalator because the stairs are moving slowly but inexorably upwards. The stairs are huge, going from left to right and dominate the scene. There is sky and clouds all around it. Big statutes of the great and the good are dotted on one side of the stairway.
In the centre of the picture are two tiny white male figures. One looks towards the statues. He's wearing dark pyjamas, has dark hair and is Royal Air Force officer Peter Carter, played by David Niven. Next to him is Marius Goring as Conductor 71, a heavenly representative meant to take Peter to the afterlife when Peter jumped out of a burning plane without a parachute. Conductor 71 missed Peter in the fog, leading to a very strange situation. Conductor 71 was a late eighteenth century French dandy who lost his head. He's dressed appropriately, and is looking at a small picnic he's brought for the two of them, while trying to distract Peter from realising he's being taken up. We know this because one of the marvellous devices of the film is to have all the scenes set on Earth in Technicolor, but when in the Other World they're black and white.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Now then comrades. It's duodi 2 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We've celebrated cheese graters & halloumi, but there's so much else to cheese & little time, so let's have it all, now. From the challenge of a tangy blue to the comfort from a fine cheddar, all cheese is fantastic.

A drawing to celebrate how good cheese is. Pale blue sky and little fluffy clouds with three birds, possibly crows, flying overhead. Rows of trees line either side of the picture. There are green fields with what may be young wheat. The fields are divided by rough earth tracks, creating a crossroads at the centre of the picture. At the crossroads, a figure sits on top of a ridiculously large wedge of cheese. The cheese is bright yellow with holes in it. The figure seated on the cheese has a mild, pleasant expression, and is holding a plate of cheese in his right hand. A slice has been cut out of the cheese and the figure has it on a fork that he's holding up in his left hand. The implication is it's being offered to you. The figure is saying,
Hey, have you tried cheese?
The figure is the devil. All red, cloak, horns, tail, twiddly moustache and pointy beard. But he's offering to share his cheese, so he can't be all bad.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Bonjour tout le monde as we begin the month of fruitfulness on primidi 1 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Fructidor is also the last month in the French Republican Calendar. Let's celebrate the nuts & bolts holding the world together. Actual nuts & bolts, not a metaphor. This is real.

A photograph of a big pile of nuts and bolts. They're all silvery metal, so it looks like a black and white photo, or more accurately a grey photo.
I did a bit of an epic alt text yesterday, so I'll just leave it there today.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Coo-ee all. It's décadi 30 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're at the end of the month of summer heat, yay! Maybe the greeting should have been oooooo-eeeeee? We're celebrating Professor Theremin's best known invention. No, the Beach Boys didn't use a theremin on Good Vibrations.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Well then me hearties. Today is nonidi 29 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're going to celebrate the glory of the garden shed. Whether it's a man cave, a lady den, a gender nonconforming retreat or just somewhere to stash the lawnmower and the garden tools, they do a fine job.

A photo of a garden shed, unsurprisingly in a garden. Wooden, not all the planks match, weathered, it looks like it's been used for a long time and some very big spiders are happily living in the corners. Probably rattles in the wind and leaks a little when it rains hard, but nobody minds too much.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Yo ho ahoy! It's octidi 28 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. How about celebrating one of my favourite water birds that isn't a duck, the cormorant. You thought I was going to have a shag, didn't you? Clean your mind out 😂 Cormorants are grumpy looking goths, so I'm bound to like them.

A photo of a cormorant, phalacrocorax carbo, stood on what looks like a tree stump next to a pond or river. The cormorant is drying itself with its wings outstretched, because unlike a lot of water birds, its feathers don't have a waterproof coating. It's a large, black bird, white cheeks,a vicious looking hooked beak and a beady blue eye. It doesn't look like it's in a good mood.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Would you believe it? Septidi 27 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, and we've only mentioned David Lynch once, celebrating Eraserhead back in Prairial. Time to celebrate the man himself, for his films, TV, music, paintings and just generally being a walking, talking work of art.

A photo of the head and shoulders of David Lynch. Lots of people in the background, it's blurry but you can make out since of them have big cameras. I guess it's a film premiere.
David Lynch is in the centre of the picture, wearing black suit, black tie, white shirt. It's older David Lynch, so his hair is white and in an almost but not quite unfeasible quiff. He has a tight smile on his face, like someone has asked him a really dumb question. I'm sure he answered in a polite but bizarre manner.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Hiya! It's sextidi 26 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Let's celebrate one of the best BlueSky cartoonists, Miles Grover, who's responsible for Butt Goblin. That's right, a goblin with an enormous posterior and the hi jinx they get into. Well, I think it's funny. @butt-goblin.com

A Butt Goblin cartoon. Butt Goblin is a little green individual, big nose, pointy ears and yes, a big rear end. They're standing at a desk, saying Oh hi, I'm Dave's goblin, while holding a stapler behind their back. On the other side of the desk, behind a black computer monitor, is a skeptical looking woman in glasses, with brown hair tied up in a bun. The text below the cartoon says

Butt Goblin just shows up in offices and claims it's "Take Your Goblin to Work Day" any time he wants to steal a stapler

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Alreet there pets? It's quintidi 25 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. The celebration today may cause a few people to, according to Shakespeare, void their urine. Hope not, but I do understand the bagpipes aren't everyone's idea of fun. I think they sound great, whatever type of pipe.

A photo of a set of Northumbrian bagpipes. They're laying on a blue background, there are three easily visible black pipes with brass and white plastic settings. There looks to be two or three smaller pipes tucked away behind the bigger ones. The bag of the bagpipes is of green velvet. Unlike Scottish bagpipes that the player blows into, Northumbrian pipes are played with a bellows the player tucks under their arm. These are roughly pear shaped, made of pale wood and black leather or faux leather. I thought I'd use these rather than the usual type of pipes for a change.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Hail and well met folks. Or something like that anyway. It's quartidi 24 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today's celebration is one of my favourite artists, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, better known simply as Goya. Took me a while to choose one of his works, they're all good.

Goya's painting of the Duchess of Alba. She's stood on what I reckon is a stage. The ground is pale and featureless, the background of hills and sky looks painted on. Yes, I know this is a painting anyway, but there's no depth to it.
The duchess is a striking looking woman, not exactly conventionally beautiful but proud, confident and in charge of the situation. She has a mass of long, black, curly hair. She's wearing a white dress with a red flower in her hair, a red necklace, a red bow on her breast and an incredibly tight red sash at her waist. Her right hand is pointing down to some writing on the ground, which adds to the impression it's a stage. I can't make the writing out on the screen, but I know part of it reads SOLO GOYA. Only Goya, which is a strange thing to say. What is she, and by extension Goya, implying?
One last thing. At the duchess's feet is a small, shaggy white dog. It looks more like a mop head. It has a small red bow on its hind left leg. That probably has some significance too.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Oh you know the one by now, me looking like a cult leader at the Roundhay Park Heineken Festival in the mid 90s. This one, with credit to @adam0407.bsky.social , who rarely misses a chance to point out he took this 🙂

A photo of me, thirty years ago with long but noticeably receding hair, a Laughing Cavalier goatee beard and a look that either says the band on stage were fantastic or I'm tripping my tits off. I'm wearing an Amphetamine Reptile Records Ugly American Overkill t shirt which I still have in pretty good condition. It's a music festival, there are lots of people around and there's a young woman looking over my shoulder in lust. But I guess that was aimed at the photographer. Any comment on that Adam?

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Mediocre is an aspiration. Especially on Tuesdays. Not entirely shit will do.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Well well, here we are, all the followers of the French Republican Calendar on tridi 23 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're going to celebrate the most important item of clothing. I mean the t shirt of course. Artwork, advert and convenient belly concealer. What more could you need?

A photo of a t shirt hung on a wooden coat hanger on the back of a pale painted door. It's a purple t shirt, with a paler purple design. Difficult to describe the illustrations, but I think it's a cat headed crab demon, above a group of dancing spectral figures, and the words Otoboke Beaver in that nearly illegible black metal font. It is, as you may have guessed, the band Otoboke Beaver's metal tribute t shirt. Or rather, it's my Otoboke Beaver metal tribute t shirt.

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pomfob.bsky.social @pomfob.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Ey up there ducks. It's duodi 22 Thermidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. It's not ducks we're celebrating today, but it is a water bird. We celebrated little egrets back in Ventôse, so it's time for their cousin, the enigmatic grey heron. For more of the same, there's @everyheron.bsky.social

A photo of a grey heron, ardea cinerea, as posted on BlueSky by @everyheron.bluesky.social. The heron is standing on a tree stump in a park or other green space. There's some general greenery around, the trunk of a tree to the right and a black fence in the background.
The heron itself is mostly pale grey, with dark grey or black patches on its head, shoulder and stomach. Its neck, body and face are mainly white. The heron has a piercing yellow eye and a yellow orange beak. Dagger like doesn't do it justice. It has an expression of barely concealed fury, as if it's going to take all it's frustrations out on the next fish it catches. And it will catch one. Probably more.

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