iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

This is the fourth of five Charles Portis novels I have read. I am a Charles Portis Bro now fyi.

Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

This showed up on one of those spammy facebook accounts and I instantly remembered a great line by Zadie Smith, but I haven’t been able to track it down and may be misquoting. She quoted this from DFW and added “Perhaps the joke loses something in the telling.” Good joke!

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Someone left a message in the snow of Wausau's 400 Block, visible to a webcam, offering the advice "SMILE MORE." I kinda like it.

Screenshot of Facebook post showing SMILE MORE written in the snow

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Adventures in facebook marketplace

Is wasu too far away from Kenosha?
Message sent
Come on
I'm not from here
It's pretty far!

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Extrapolating from spring training data the Cubs are on track for the first undefeated season in MLB history.

Screenshot showing Cubs 6-0 in spring training.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

If you want to read a novel that rules I recommend CAHOKIA JAZZ by Francis Spufford, a murder mystery set in the 1920s in a world where Native Americans established a 20th-century city, Cahokia, roughly where St. Louis is for us. Intrigue, alternate history, good voices by the audiobook narrator.

Cahokia Jazz audiobook screenshot, read by Andy Ingalls

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Fraudulent and unwholesome, as pitiless as the plague.

Two days after his Howard commencement address, La Follette delivered a House speech favoring a tax on oleomargarine, which signaled the beginning of his lifelong efforts to protect his home state's powerful dairy industry.
La Follette condemned oleo, in typically dramatic fashion, as "fraudulent and
unwholesome.., as powerful and irresistible as vicious ingenuity can make it. It is as pitiless as a plague." La Follette also began another lifelong interest during his first term in the House - the rights of Native Americans — the result of a circuitous turn of events typical of Congress during this period. 1o

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Something is suggesting to me that bluesky may be facing a bit of a bot problem.

Bunch of follow notifications from women named “Sarah.”

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Hilarious quote in this NYT story about a mathematician who says no, a million monkeys would not eventually type out the complete works of William Shakespeare. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/s...

“It’s not happening,” Dr. Woodcock said in an interview.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

One of the absolute best kinds of notifications you can get on your phone.

New episode of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Some of my New Year’s resolutions:

- Keep writing fiction, which is something I enjoy doing and I have an idea I want to get to work on.
- Gain the ability to touch my toes.
- First app I open in the morning should not be any social media app. This was also a resolution last year, which may be a clue of how my progress toward being less online is going.
- Go to at least three (3) concerts and two (2) museum shows. This would be an improvement on my 2024 numbers.
- Finish reading this long-ass history book that I read half of last year and set aside and didn’t come back to.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

They year in @angelamajor.bsky.social’s photos for WPR. www.wpr.org/news/2024-wp...

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

The guy who sings “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” is named Thurl Ravenscroft, an amazing name and one of the great cases of a guy whose name perfectly matches his voice. He was also the voice of Tony the Tiger in Frosted Flakes commercials. Classic Thurl.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

“Looks like a Big Snow,” they said at the Highway Department, and sent Katy out.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

In the studio this morning for WPR’s member drive and I’m going to steal Morning Edition host Alex Crowe’s meme for the morning…

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

There was a big fight in early 2022 about Oshkosh Corp.’s decision to build these vehicles in South Carolina instead of Wisconsin. Just a check-in on how that is going... www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Highlighted text: Currently, Oshkosh can produce just one truck per day at its South Carolina factory.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Everybody say hello to Murph the friendly orange kitten! A family friend who was out hunting found him in the woods a couple of weeks ago. They couldn’t keep him, but we could.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Since Wisconsin was the closest state and had a tiny swing to the right compared to other states, plausibly that ground game cushioned the party’s losses somewhat. That is somewhat less than was promised, and much less than Democrats hoped. www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tru... 3/

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

News alert from Nextdoor re: stinkiness near Franklin Elementary

Nextdoor post: “it’s really stinky over by Franklin school”

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Captured this blatant lawlessness on the mean streets of Scottsdale last week. Yes I have shared this photo with the FBI.

Bike rider next to sign that reads “Pedestrians only, no bike/scooter riding allowed.”

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy that isn’t a selfie.

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Rob Mentzer @robertmentzer.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

One thing I love about Facebook now is getting these incredible AI-generated conversation-starters pushed into my feed. AI comes up with questions I honestly would not have thought to ask, such as “So, wyd your girl this like that when she so you see til her friend not him cooking probably?”

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