iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Today I used this Praktica L for 1st time. Very straightforward East German SLR, my third from that maker. The 1st (also a K) one was broken when I bought it. The 2nd, a late 80s BX20, was well used and it didn't last long. I found this pristine one at the thrift store for $40 and took it to a fair.

A Praktica K camera from the early 1970s, with the basic f.28/28mm kit lens. With pumpkins.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The largest of my large formats, a Calumet CC-400 4x5 Rail Camera, probably from the 1970s. It's wearing a Schneider Kreuznach f4/150. Weighs about 5 kg, minus tripod and wooden steamer trunk. I don't know what to do with it. I've taken a dozen photos in 11 years, and they were a pain to develop. :D

A grey Calumet rail camera. It is chonk.

A black and white portrait of Pyat's wife, Dezi, wearing a tophat and scarf and little round glasses.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Minolta 5000 photos from Nuit Blanche are back from the photo developer. I have yet to try developing colour film at home.

A white man with vibrant green hair and many piercings stands in line at a food truck.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Not that I've seen, but if you do an image search for Margaret Hamilton Apollo you do get AI images that seem to be accidentally blending the two women and I hate this intensely.

A terrible no good AI image of "Margaret Hamilton" the NASA programmer, which appears to blend her face with that of Margaret Hamilton, actress.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Saw a quote attributed to Margaret Hamilton, without context. Mentally read it in the voice of the wrong Margaret Hamilton. It was a couple of days before I realized the quote was from Apollo Program M.H. and not Wicked Witch M.H. (Who, w/o makeup, looked like a Goth working at a board game cafe.)

Actress Margaret Hamilton in an early photo for The Wizard of Oz.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My smallest large format, a 1952 Crown Graphic. The "Whatta scoop! *FLASH!*" camera used by actors channelling Weegee. Uses 3.5x4.5 film sheets I can only get from China. Owning one means learning the difference between Graphic, Graflok and Graflex. And never sell your flash handle to the 501st!

A shiny 1952 Crown Graphic press camera sits between two small pumpkins. It is larger than both pumpkins,

Drawing of an anthro mouse reporter holding a Crown Graphic. The mouse says "It's a Crown Graphic, your basic press camera. I don't have the flash, because your no-good Darth Vader cosplayers keep buying them to turn them into light sabers." Art by Norman Rafferty!

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Photo taken with this camera.

A child emerges from the surface of a still lake. Behind her on the horizon line where water meets sky are a small cabin cruiser and a trees on a small island or outcropping.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This is a 1936 Kodak Bullet, a streamlined Bakelite gadget designed by the legendary Walter Dorwin Teague. The lens barrel screws into the body of the camera when not in use. Uses 127 film, which is hard to find. Just one shutter setting - f16 and 1/50th - best for good light and a steady hand.

A black Bakelite art deco camera from the late 1930s, the Kodak Bullet. It is held in front of two small pumpkins.

Black and white photo taken with the Kodak Bullet. A metal memorial sculpture of a young man playing drums sits aside a highway in Northern Ontario. A little girl walks away from the sculpture, her back to the camera.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Camera collectors always run into Soviet tech. This Agat 18K was made in Minsk in 1988. It's a half-frame rangefinder that just barely fits the film / take up spool. Lens is 2.8/28mm, a good multipurpose lens. Shutter settings can be manual, or set to IS0/light conditions. My fave pocket cam! #film

A Soviet-era Agat 18K half-frame camera sits in front of two small pumpkins.

A black and white photo of two women walking down a tunnel. There is a bright light at the tunnel end and they are silhouetted against this.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Toronto really does look like what I, as a child, imagined future cities would. I went to Nuit Blanche with @teddog.bsky.social ! It was amazing. There was a boat! Also happy belated Manimal Day to her.

A illuminated beehive against a nighttime cityscape

Toronto's Nathan Philip's Square at night.

An LED illuminated man looks at a map next to his LED illuminated bike.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Trouble In Mind" occupies the same fever dream "Was this real?" memory space for me. Kris Kristofferson,Keith Carradine, Devine NOT in drag, and the original Captain Janeway in a noir mystery set in an alternate future American metropolis called Rain City. But now I have it on Blu ray!

Movie poster for the neon noir film "Trouble In Mind."

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Just imagine if Blade Runner had been released in the early 1980s. It'd be so lame. "He's a future cop running the razor's edge in a race against time... and robots. Yes, Tom Selleck is... The Blade Runner."

Movie poster for the 1984 Tom Selleck movie, Runaway.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Here's another camera, a post-war Argus C3 from a camera consignment store in a nearly abandoned 1930s office building in Rochester. An old man behind locked doors let us in, once establishing we weren't there to steal the copper. It was filled with gear belonging to dead photographers. #film

An Argus C3 with a jaunty folding fan flash. Also there are pumpkins.

Photo Source in Rochester is one of the strangest retail outlets I've been in. It's located in an otherwise empty 1930s office building, complete with transoms and nailed shut doors. It was the sort of place Sam Spade would go to track down a mob dentist. The late owner had been there for about 50 years. He once had all the street-facing suites as a photo studio, and by 2010 carried on a shadowy existence as a consignment retailer for elderly photographers, selling to hipsters, weirdos, film collectors, and very normal and cool people like me.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I am taking this camera to Toronto tomorrow. A Minolta 5000 1980s entry-level SLR with autofocus. I put a manual focus lens on it, an Auto-Sears f1.4 55, great for low-light portraits. It's loaded with Reflx Cine 800T, also great for low-light and for city lighting at night.

A Minolta 5000 1980s entry-level SLR with autofocus. I put a manual focus lens on it, an Auto-Sears f1.4 55, great for low-light portraits. It's loaded with Reflx Cine 800T, also great for low-light and for city lighting at night. Behind it are two small pumpkins.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Choosin' Texas" discourse, Southern Ontario style. "You don't know Walter Ostanek?! 13 Grammy nominations, 3 wins*? 108 album releases! No? He was on The Tonight Show! You must live in a cultural bubble, you liberal philistine. (*For polka.)

The cover of the "Let's Dance!" album from Walter Ostanek, Canada's Polka King.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Every event in town seems to attract fursuiters. From Saturday, shot with a Minolta Maxxum 5000 fitted with an Auto Sears 55mm f1.4, loaded with Ilford Delta 400 film. Featuring @vecturry.bsky.social and others who may not be on Bsky.

Behold the Beast Empire arises as foretold.

Cartoon card and dogs living together! It's in Revelations, people!

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Last October my wife and I accidentally found the filming location for Cold Harbour while wandering off the beaten track in Newfoundland!

A couple of nearly abandoned houses on the Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Series based on C.S. Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy. Scenes on Earth are 4:3 aspect, grainy film with 1970s BBC FX and 1940s wardrobe. Then Roger Dean colours and HD widescreen when they leave Earth or Oyéresu visit. And, as Studdock gets deeper into the Institute, the more F.W. Murnau everything gets.

Cover C.S. Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy (or "Space Trilogy") with particularly colourful art and Brian Froudian characters.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

They've been posting fursuit selfies in cockpits all day. Granted some are just touring the cockpit or posing, but there are some pilots and attendants. (The train drivers thing is because of the well known overlap in train nerd and furry nerd Venn circles.)

A fursuiter at the controls of a plane along with a non suited human in a pilot uniform. From Bsky @snepstuffs

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I hit Supercrawl with @perthum.bsky.social and @ladyjessica.northsky.social on the weekend, and also Grafficker Alley, a zine event outing put together by @teddog.bsky.social , featuring @bitterguy.bsky.social , @artyewok.bsky.social and more without Bsky accounts! Also a bug.

Two white women in glasses, both alike in dignity here in fair Hamilton where we set our tale. The one on the left is blue haired and wields a rainbow umbrella and is smiling about it. The one on the right wears a cap with the words "Best Ex Ever" written on the front. She has a dragon tattoo running atop her decolletage and is really good at Magic the Gathering.

A metal and plastic sculpture of a Preying Mantis. Or perhaps a terrifying monster from a Bert I. Gordon film.

Three nerds in a row, two women, one man. Each wears a black t-shirt printed with a cultural reference appealing to a pretty great set of people of the sort I would hang out with. All three have deep recesses of forgotten lore and have done cool things. Also the are looking at zines and small press stuff in artist booths.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Unexpected bonus in the used book I bought online a couple of days ago.

Title page for a hardcover edition of "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davis. The printed author credit has been crossed out, and under it is Robertson Davies' autograph.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I went to see Coyote Vs. Acme with @babsiwuff.bsky.social . Things I learned - Peter Lorre is still culturally relevant. And it is possible to insert DJ Shadow/Run The Jewel's "Nobody Speak" into a family movie soundtrack without being inappropriate. (Photo taken a Pentax 110 on Orca 100.)

Black and white photos of Babs, a white woman smiling, wearing a jean jacket and baseball cap and specs. Or, possibly, a timberwolf.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Oh, hey, the Premier is campaigning on my street. I had been bird watching so I had a long lens on my camera, and now I can mark off "Bald-Faced Blue Boob" in my little book of sightings. (Also that first photo, minus the nicely dressed couple and politician, is just pure East Hamilton vibes.)

Ontario premier Doug Ford stands on a residential street surrounded by typical East Hamiltonians.

Ontario premier Doug Ford talks to a typical Canadian couple who are dressed like real estate agents in a bus ad.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Cool: Dan Ackroyd using his spiritualist background / beliefs to add depth to Ghostbusters lore. Not So Cool: Dan Akroyd says a camera strap is a "spirit tube." Unsure if Ackroyd truly believes or just likes fooling some of the people all of the time.

A post from Dan Akroyd on FB, text and two images. "SPIRIT TUBE in the old family farmhouse. Check it out. Not a solid object or photo composite. You can see through it to the stovepipe and my jacket. I am 17 here. My dad is making a screwdriver, pre Crystal Head."

Image depicts Ackroyd holding a wood framed blown up photo depicting details in his description. "Spirit tube" is a loop of light material looks very much like a camera hand strap reflecting the built in flash.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The family's first computer, purchased in 1983 from Canadian Tire. We had Garden Patrol (maze shooter) and Visible Solar System (animations and facts about the solar system), plus a number of games on tape. We had only the tape drive for storage, no modem or printer. Lunar Leeper was my fave game.

An early 1980s Canadian Tire ad for the Commodore Vic-20 computer.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Sometimes you are just walking around a furry com minding your own business with a 1980s Soviet TLR, when a giant lady in a cardboard fursuited head takes a photo of you and your camera using a Gameboy. I feel out-hipstered.

Pixelated Gameboy photo of a bearded nerd holding a Lubitel 166B TLR camera from the USSR.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

You have not been to my dollar store Margaritaville

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Once again, going to Ottawa for a thing that is in Ottawa, with @spcaptainrush.bsky.social

A still from an early film of Alice in Wonderland. Alice points to a sign reading "To The Animal Convention" while a furry creature looks on.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Voice over: "Anzio playset comes complete with one figure representing Eric Waters, Company Z of the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and genuine miniature scroll (with gold leaf adorned) signed by his Majesty's own rubber stamp. Rock opera and generational trauma sold separately."

Photo of an "Invasion of Anzio" military play set toy.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Realized this morning the little Aussie penguin "Ollie Funt" that shows up to replace Opus in a 1988 Bloom County story arc was intended to be political cartoonist Pat Oliphant. And then looked him up and discovered he died a couple of weeks ago.

Two panels from an early 1988 Bloom County comic. The main characters go on strike and scabs are hired to replace them. Steve Dallas (who refuses to join the strike) speaks to a tiny penguin.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Pong? No. This is TV Tennis.

Image of a late 1970s ad for the APF Electronic TV Fun Game - a dad and son play racquet ball on a black and white TV, with console details printed below.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The game in question is currently on sale! :D www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/1...

Cover art for the Sanguine Games TTRPG, Myriad Song. A reptile, bug and humanoid gaze on a futuristic tower.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

It's okay, later he was cast as a major supporting character on the hit show Automan.

DVD box art for the 1983 TV show "Automan", which lasted 12 episodes.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

**Problem**: I have analog televisions that cannot display a digital signal. Some have no AV input ports **Solution:** Buy a tiny analog TV transmitter, input a digital signal into it, then broadcast old timey TV from my basement.

A 1987 Sony Watchman. On the screen is a bearded white man with glasses and a Gravity Falls hat.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Around 5 AM our cockatiel woke up, left his sleeping perch, and started jumping on us till we woke up. He was alert and tense, but totally silent. I think he smelled smoke on the air. I had to bring him downstairs and turn on some lights before he'd settle.

The sky was the colour of a television tuned to a closeup of Donald Trump's face.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I get about 500 km on a small tank of gas, and once was able to carry myself and other chunky LARPers with a tent and gear to a camping LARP in Indianapolis!

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

"This week on Hearts of Space. An emergent tonal wallpaper, originally composed for East German Singing Bowl, but performed entirely on Theremin. Yes, it's Constance Demby's 1972 extended conceptual emulation of the ethereal bongs of the Glockenfurz."

Photo of the title page of "The Hearts of Space Guide" from 1981.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I went on a road trip with @perthum.bsky.social and she hardly touched her LSD.* *Box actually contains partly-eaten chicken quesadilla.

A white box in a small hotel fridge. The box is labelled LSD in black marker, which apparently stood for "Lake Shore Drive." Box did not contain LSD.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Father's Day card from my youngest, who asked me which one of the bots was anti-ICE. @billcorbett.bsky.social the youth salute you. And fathers.

A black and white water colour painted card depicting MST3k cast in front of a screen reading "The Curse of the Father & Day".

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

They, because sometimes he is shown in groups! And sometimes, he rides a horse, so he's not always walking. :D

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

My family has been doing this for yeeeeears. :D "Hey, Piet it's you!"

Two people standing next to a statue of a guy

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

This is not a personal relationship update, just an idea sparked by the cover art for musician BA Johnston's new album, entitled: "I don't know who needs to hear this right now, but they are never going to come back and you will die alone"

Cover art for musician BA Johnston's new album, entitled: "I don't know who needs to hear this right now, but they are never going to come back and you will die alone."

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

How it started vs. How it's going.

Bert and Lisa, a pair of cartoon raccoons from the Canadian TV series "The Raccoons", confront each other angrily. They canonically dated at one point!

Bert Raccoon sits forlornly in a coffee shop at night, an homage to Edward Hopper's 1942 painting, Nighthawks. Painting is detail from a new album cover by Hamilton artist BA Johnston.

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Pyat, a Mouse @pyat.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Lovecraftian explanation aside...

Graphic displaying uniform patch for the Fighting Seabees.

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