iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Love that my county lets small children design the I Voted sticker. (I have spent an hour or more reading about the MANY things on my ballot, and it is now completed and ready to be put into a secure drop box.)

A child's drawing of some sort of animal with large eyes and a large mouth lined with teeth. In its mouth are the words "I Voted."

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Unusually for a trilogy, I liked the second one best, probably because it all takes place in one evening - multiple cons running at a fancy party! CN: some danger, there's a wealthiest man in the galaxy who just put his name on other people's inventions villain.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Full Speed to a Crash Landing, How to Steal a Galaxy, and Last Chance to Save the World by Beth Revis is a trilogy of very fun con/heist in space novellas. I literally loled more than once. Ignore the part where they claim to be romances - the romance is not that great or really the point.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The answer to this is no. I made it an hour and 20 minutes, now I can say I tried, everyone in it is insufferable.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Continued container disappointments: I bought these cute zippered pouches on Etsy to organize my purse, but they're an inch smaller in each dimension than the description, so the things I was going to put in them don't fit.

A pair of cloth zippered pouches with floral designs on a tile countertop.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

That's helpful to know! The main thing I was considering them for is replacing a 10x7x2.5ish box that I use as a sort of inbox for mail and things I want close at hand at my desk. It sits on top of my computer, so it has to be flat on the bottom and most organizing trays that size aren't.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Does anyone have any of the Kuggis boxes from Ikea? Are they good? And are they flat on the outside bottom?

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Tragedy! (I did put it in the closet, but I'm still disappointed.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm feeling a lot of unspecific anxiety (probably hormones + election season), which I would like to channel into organizing my closet and kitchen cabinets, but I bought a test pantry bin yesterday and it is just a smidgen too long for my cabinets, and now everything is terrible (exaggerated).

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Audiobooks are hard for me, but I have tried them before for this book club.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Uggghhhhh, my other book club's next book does not have quote marks around the dialogue. Has anyone read Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends? Is it worth listening to the audiobook to participate in book club?

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Fine Young People by Anna Bruno is an engrossing teen investigating a death at her school before she was born novel. The school is a Catholic school with a serious hockey team. It's a little precious about high school friendships. CN: death, suicide, secrets.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia is a solid supernatural/gothic suspense novel. Gothic is not really for me, but she's a good writer and book club all liked it. CN: various kinds of violence, including supernatural violence.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There's also A LOT of beginners now that fandom is so big/mainstream, which means I see it A LOT.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oh, no quotation marks at all is a hard no for me. This is very weird because it's only sometimes, not all of the dialogue.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Why is there so much dialogue in italics instead of inside quote marks? (I even saw that in a full-on published book recently.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Current questions I have about fic trends (that may be specific to the current hockey OTP): What's up with the increase in age play? Why are the children writing so much "woke up with a pussy instead of a dick" fic? Why is there so much fic where every sentence is its own paragraph?

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The email was the corporate person's suggestion when I asked if there was anyone else I could talk to to help them push the issue. I doubt that my carefully laid out email with my four current concerns and a full timeline is what she was expecting.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Update: You will perhaps be unsurprised to learn that the laundry room dryers are not fixed. I talked to on-site and corporate people this week, and spent time today compiling an email that includes a timeline with dates and maintenance request numbers.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Update: I sent some Dean masculinity links to my brother, who said that the queer reading of Dean hadn't occurred to him, although it makes sense. Fascinating given that that's the default reading people I know have of him.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Prodigal Daughter by Isabella Valeri is the second book in a series (maybe trilogy?) about an unnamed daughter of a very wealthy old money European family. It was just as engrossing as the first one. CN: evils of rich people, off-screen murders.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Is there any reporting on the re-rise of nicotine? Is it capitalism at the bottom of it, or is this like vaccines where we don't see the problems so people forget?

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I have been in so many medical offices recently (I'm going to appointments with my parents), and the one (1) place I have seen any staff member wearing a mask is the eye doctor. (Mostly the patients aren't wearing them either and I'm the only person there in a mask.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Has anyone read Train Dreams by Denis Johnson? I've struggled through the first chapter. It starts very yikes in a the main character participating in racist violence way, but if that's going somewhere and it's worth reading, I will try to keep going for book club.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My first thought is this peanut butter fudge: minimalistbaker.com/healthy-pean... But also: coconut cream pie, coconut rice, garnish on Thai food. (These become bad ideas if you hate coconut.) Any other recipe that calls for coconut butter - you process the coconut to make that.

minimalistbaker.com

Healthy Peanut Butter Fudge (4 Ingredients!)

Peanut. Butter. Fudge. Yes, I'm on a fudge kick, and no one is gonna stop me. This fudge was inspired by its chocolate fudge cousin and is somehow

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I know I'm the only person in the world who blocks this particular tag, but why does Tumblr Savior just decide that sometimes it's not going to block the tag cats? It will still block other tags on my dash, but not that one, and only sometimes.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The Keeper by Tana French is an excellent mystery that's the third book in a trilogy. A thing I saw coming was still heartbreaking, and I ended up crying at the end. I love the found family. CN: murder, suicide, small-town secrets, the press of capitalism.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Okay, I laid on the floor with a book for a while, and now I have calmed down.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Nothing like starting your day with a bit of capitalism-induced rage. (I wanted to know if the website is accurate and my CVS actually has the new Covid vaccine, but you can't ask a person that, you just get a shitty automated system that tells you to leave a message if you ask for a person.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The short version of the long saga is that I have continued to walk over to the resident managers' office at least twice a month to ask for a status update. This week they said they finally figured out what's wrong, and it should get fixed "soon," as in probably this month.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Hey, remember this from three and a half months ago? There's a long saga, but this week I bought a pad of 3x3 Post-Its so I could easily leave notes for my neighbors about what's not working in different ways - and then it turns out someone already left a Post-It pad and pens in the laundry room.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If you need a Rosh Hashanah/fall/no reason except you want to eat one vegan apple cake recipe, I can vouch for this one: lovingitvegan.com/vegan-apple-... You can easily sub in gluten free flour too. But do not leave out the nutmeg - if you do, it is unbearably sweet.

lovingitvegan.com

Vegan Apple Cake

Light and fluffy vegan apple cake with a cinnamon sugar topping. Packed with fresh apple flavor and absolutely divine served warm.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Today's other A+ win is that I made an apple cake for tomorrow's Rosh Hashanah dessert this morning. It was hot out (but also raining - not normal weather for here), but not the nearly 100 it was later today.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Remember that time two years ago when I felt guilty for outbidding someone for a piece of art in a charity auction? I finally got that art framed and put up on my wall (and then moved the inch and a half over it really needed to be moved).

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Oooh, yay! I have it checked out and I'm reading it as soon as I finish the book I'm reading now.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

You win some (successfully retrieved my crayons from behind the TV stand), you lose some (bent over to untie my shoes and snapped the underwire on my bra). But actually I also got cute stacking trays to organize a piece of shelf in my closet, so today's more win than not.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner; the Dead Rivers trilogy (Freedom's Gate, Freedom's Apprentice, Freedoms Sisters) by Naomi Kritzer; The Other Half and The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell. I enjoyed all of these!

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

US friends, here are some books I'm giving away. I will mail them to you if you want them! Books in these photos; lists in the next post(s).

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I know this about myself, but it is also amazing to feel the way that one (1) week of cooler weather, going to bed half an hour early two days this weekend, and getting a massage yesterday have given me so much energy that I'm like, let me do a lot of household projects now.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

(I was not just randomly thinking about this post. I was actually compiling a text of links about Dean and masculinity for my brother, who is not quite through with the series but is somewhere in season 13ish.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Does anyone have a link to that SPN post about the appeal to straight men that's like, "Wouldn't it feel good to cry sometimes? And you could if your dad died, if your brother died, etc."? Someone in the commentary chain either blocked me or made it unrebloggable so I can never find it again.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Terms of Service by Ciel Pierlot is an adventure that combines sci fi and fae-like worlds. My sci fi book club read it and we all found it slow to get into but ultimately fairly enjoyable. CN: non-con body modification, death/grief/mourning, violence. (But not as dark as that makes it sound.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I want some kind of service where I can select a bunch of authors, and then get one (1) single email when they have a new book that's released.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Huh. It turns out "gummy smile" is an actual specific thing that dentists care about. Wikipedia calls it "a common clinical condition." (I never know when I run into things in fic that sound weird to me if it's actually wrong or if I'm just one of today's lucky 10,000.)

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio was a book club book that we all thought was fun. I liked that it dived right into the premise without a lot of figuring out the premise.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A usage question: do people actually use the phrase "gummy smile" to mean a smile from someone who has teeth where their gums are showing? I would only use it for a baby or someone else without teeth, but I have run into this in fic in multiple fandoms now.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I dropped my box of crayons behind the very heavy TV stand the other day, and application of a broom handle was not able to retrieve them, so they may just live there forever and I'll buy a new box.

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Ruth Sadelle Alderson @rsadelle.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Ugh, I was trying to research something on my work computer and it kept insisting I log in. I googled it, and apparently they're in general trying to keep people from reading without logging in.

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