iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Rivka

Rep. Dr. Jasmine Clark @jasmineclarkforga.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Maryland just released its own vaccine recommendations based on guidance from established medical and scientific organizations instead of the Trump administration. With unqualified leaders at the helm, states can and—should—step up to protect their communities.

wypr.org

Maryland issues first-ever statewide vaccine schedule to push back against Trump administration

Under new legislative authority, the Maryland Department of Health has issued a state-level vaccine schedule based on guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading independent e...

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Every post pushing AI sounds like it’s written by someone who has never had a human interaction or understood why people would want to. My older kid’s stock refrain to this is “…and after that, you can tell the AI to fuck your wife for you.”

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 19/09/2026

The truth was that if United Health had an AI that was accepting a shitload of claims with a 90% error rate, United Health would stop using the AI in about 0.2 seconds.

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Krista D Ball is Canada's Spooky Potato @kristadb1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

That's enough RTing people. Bottom line: A bunch of Americans are upset that Canadians are treating blue state Americans exactly how blue state Americans have always treated red state Americans. 🚬

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I live in a state with strong parents’ rights, meaning the law doesn’t prohibit us from getting medical treatment for our minor child. …Oh, is that not what it means? Huh. (“Parents rights,” like “religious freedom,” obvs only applies in one direction bc libs have neither kids nor religions.)

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I feel like I’m losing my mind. The president of the United States is promising $5000 payouts if his party wins the midterms, and the discussion in the media is “but what about the deficit” rather than “vote buying is illegal”?

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I gave vision and intelligence tests to baby monkeys. I think I got paid around $15K plus all the baby monkeys I could cuddle.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

My husband got me some blueberry honey at the Renn Faire today, so we’re trying it in cocktails. An Old Fashioned for him, with rye whiskey and Peychaud’s. A Bee’s Knees for me (and a half-strength one for Ms. 21). Lovely!

A dark honey-colored drink in a short glass, with ice, plus a pale gold drink in a coupe glass

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Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 07/09/2026

The original incident was appalling enough. But this response to @mariness.bsky.social is a slap in the face to every mobility-impaired Worldcon attendee. @laworldcon.bsky.social, you need to wake up to this.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Raise your hand if your first reaction is to be proud that your religion was included.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#therapistsky - this looks like a good resource for therapist self-reflection as well.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I’m so glad Bluesky is having the “NGOs are racist, colonialist, and imperialist” discourse while I’m in the airport flying home from my Red Cross deployment.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Why the vest has pockets: this was my everyday carry, plus my phone. Not pictured: good teabags from home, because I used the last two this afternoon. On some deployments I’d have a tube of sunscreen in my pocket as well, but I wasn’t working outdoors this time.

Items laid out on a white hotel bedspread: hotel key, Sudafed, lip balm, nail clippers , small notebook and two pens, hand sanitizer, energy bar, rental car keys, tin of Altoids, sunglasses in pouch, two Red Cross pins, business card wallet with driver’s license, cash, mission credit card, and personal credit card.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I’ve “out-processed” from my disaster service. My boss kindly had me switch to a hotel in Indianapolis tonight so I could book a morning flight home. This has been a grueling deployment. Mental health service is usually 10 days but this one was 14 and felt more than 40% longer. (1/2)

A back road with no lane markings runs between two fields. The sky is heavy with dramatic clouds. The horizon has a band of flamingo pink.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Something like 90% of Red Cross workers are volunteers, including almost everyone who deploys to a disaster zone (even the administration). It’s admirable, sure, but it also means our shelter clients experience transition after transition, and that’s hard. (1/2)

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

So, you can *know* about the rural suicide epidemic from your big-city psychology practice, but it hits real different when you’re deployed with the Red Cross to an impoverished rural area of Indiana. (1/2)

thenesscenter.com

The Suicide Epidemic in Rural America: Understanding and Addressing a Growing Crisis – The Ness Center

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Yesterday was my ✨day off✨ and I spent it in or near my bed, except for a brief sojourn to pick up my laundry from the wash-and-fold and go to an Indian buffet. It was AWESOME. (Our standard is 12-hour shifts with a day off somewhere between day 6 and day 10.) Shockingly, much more energy today.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I’m really starting to feel the strain of 12-hour days that involve trying to be in two places at once. I’m supporting two locations that both have a ton of need. The mission is starting to pick up - there are 200 Red Crossers in Indiana, although we’re spread all through the state. (1/2)

A white woman with messy greying hair and glasses leans against a car. She’s wearing a red-and-white Red Cross vest with “DMH” written on the shoulder in sharpie, and a Red Cross lanyard covered in mission pins.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This is the earliest I’ve ever shown up after a natural disaster; the floods hit on Thursday and I was on a plane Sunday. It’s been real different to be here while the operation is still standing up. This sign was new today. Shower and laundry options were new on Tuesday. We’re getting there.

Whiteboard reads: “Current Information
• Showers at YMCA
-towels, soap, shampoo provided
-Bus pass can be provided if needed
• Laundry done for free by church members
1-2 day turnaround.
• See Resource List for possible assistance from various organizations
• The MARC is coming!
MultiAgency Resource Center”

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Really good day of disaster work. I’ve been putting a lot of work into showing up and building relationships, and slowly people are starting to see me as a resource. I recognize I’m saying “slowly” when I’ve only been on the job four days, but I assure you each day has been a couple weeks long.

A large grey cloud blocks the setting sun, whose rays illuminate its edges in gold. Windmills, telephone wires, and cell towers are silhouetted against the faded blue sky. The land is flat, flat, flat.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

No fun Red Cross deployment stories or wise musings tonight. Talk amongst yourselves. I have removed all my role identifiers and taken myself out for a steak and a drink.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Twelve-hour shifts are more of a suggestion than a mandate in the Red Cross. I didn’t get back to my room until almost 10 tonight, but my reward was a gorgeous sunset. (It got even prettier, but not when I was in a place where I could safely pull over.) (1/3)

An orange and grey sunset over a flat midwestern landscape

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Two things I did today that count as mental health interventions: I went to Dollar General to buy adult coloring books and colored pencils, and I sourced clothes so a kid could go to school. I also spent time gently teasing elderly rural men, which is a valuable disaster response skill. (1/2)

Bright yellow shopping basket with colored pencils, adult coloring books, word search books, and playing cards

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

For those of you who haven’t tagged along on one of my deployments before, there are a few things you won’t get to see: (1) pictures of people’s destroyed homes (2) pictures of Red Cross clients (3) the tragic personal stories of people I help

A sign planted along a walkway says “American Red Cross shelter” with a directional arrow. In the background, a partial church sign says “hate divides, love unites.”

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My Red Cross gig has me in Muncie, Indiana. Here’s the story I’ve been told: “This area used to just get level 2 disasters, but for the past few years it’s been level 4 after level 4. We just finished up a long, exhausting disaster response on Sunday, and 36 hours later these storms hit.” (1/3)

A giant, awkwardly proportioned statue of a lumberjack towers over a small town intersection. He wears a bright yellow shirt and holds an axe.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

20hrs after getting the first text, I’m at my gate. I never check a bag on Red Cross service. I don’t bring my purse, which means I spend the first couple of days looking for it every time I stand up. I did bring my collapsible teakettle, no worries there.

Airport departure lounge pic of a carry-on bag and a backpack, plus my leg clad in jeans and sensible close-toed walking shoes.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I got a text from the Red Cross this afternoon asking me to fly out tomorrow for a two-week deployment at one of the many sites experiencing a climate-driven disaster right now. Follow along if you’re curious about frontline disaster response, and feel free to ask me anything. #therapistsky

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

What do you think is a normal number of different types of cocktail bitters to pack for a week at church camp? Three?

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

There is no bottom to hit, apparently.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Speech pathology majors be like

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Thank god for @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social . “pursuit of the elusive vote of the working class […] is too often used by middle-class pundits and politicians to justify centering the needs, desires, and prejudices of white men while insisting that this is a very progressive position to take.”

meditationsinanemergency.com

Pod Save Patriarchy (or Whatever That Sorry Platner Spectacle Was)

For at least a decade we have been told that this and that and the other thing must be tolerated in pursuit of the elusive vote of the working class or the white working class which often means the wh...

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Reposted by Rivka

Ned @thewesterhazys.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

This, to me, was one of the more troubling things about the whole ordeal.

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Reposted by Rivka

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/07/2026

let this be a lesson to deal with your feelings of gender anxiety and masculine inadequacy with a hobby or therapy or something and not a high stakes senate election

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

First time I’ve made myself the classic Maryland summer cocktail called an Orange Crush. So delicious.

A tall lidded glass with a straw, patterned with lemon trees in pots, and filled with an orange iced drink

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The DC fireworks won’t start until 10:30 or 11 and will make so much smoke that it will be hard to see the fireworks from the ground. NPS says with this many particulates people should wear an N95 or stay indoors. Really striking how much this event is not designed for *people.*

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This book is excellent, y’all. Clear, well-argued, funny, and includes concrete suggestions of where to go from here.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Words cannot describe how crushed I feel, as a bisexual woman, to know that Jesse Waters doesn’t find my orientation to be a turn-on. Anyone have words of hope? Something I can live for? Coping resources?

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Okay, this may be the most Smalltimore thing that’s ever happened. I got to page 157 of the book and they started quoting “activist Carolyn Tyson.” “Carolyn Tyson?!” I said. “I have her punch bowl!” #baltimore

Elaborate cut-glass punch bowl and matching cups made of white “milk glass”

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Reposted by Rivka

Heather Anne Campbell @heathercampbell.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

#baltimore folks, I strongly recommend Emily Lieb’s book about the highway to nowhere. It’s short, smart, and packed with detail. It expanded on what I already knew about redlining, blockbusting, and predatory lending, filling out more of the whole picture. (1/2) www.emilylieb.com/road-to-nowh...

emilylieb.com

Road to Nowhere — Emily Lieb

Road to Nowhere: How A Highway Map Wrecked Baltimore by Emily Lieb. University of Chicago Press, 2025.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Nodding along vigorously in Child Psychologist. (I have given up on explaining the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment to anyone but psychology students.)

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Just got cold-called by another ABA clinic looking for an autism diagnosis mill. …I mean, they said they were collecting info on providers who diagnose autism, as a resource for families, but when I said I never prescribe ABA the conversation ended real quick. #therapistsky

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I have an IQ test kit right here in my office and I can be at the White House in about an hour. Let’s do it.

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𝖏𝖆𝖘 @vores.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

the entire point of life is to be kind and weird btw

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Reposted by Rivka

Jerad Walker @jeradwalker.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

What an incredible photo of the scorekeeper for the Durham Bulls.

PHOTO: FLORIDA STATE ATHLETICS
Chris Ivy watches as Florida State University outfielder Chase Williams makes a catch during the semifinals of the 2025 ACC Championship, which took place at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Peak parenthood experience: accompanying our 17yo to her first Indigo Girls concert!

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I’m waiting for my teen to wake up so I can explain to her that she did things that girls don’t get to do because of safety. We need a “you’re not in trouble, but Jesus Christ you could have been” conversation. If this makes me a humorless scold of a smoothgroined HR lady, so fucking be it.

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Rivka @rivka-otter.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

21yo daughter was helping me cook and I put on a song that was part of the soundtrack of her childhood. “Oh!” she said suddenly, after the first chorus. “This is about colonialism!” …it’s fun parenting adults.

youtu.be

Too Late Now

YouTube video by Oysterband - Topic

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