iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

today, Microsoft opted for a move I'm shocked I never predicted: it allowed outside parties purchased for $75B to essentially swallow up its internally built Xbox division. Activision and Bethesda now run some classic "Xbox" teams. that's huge, because it suggests more of this is to come.

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anyone in Seattle who wants to meet up and talk about continued tumult in the region's Xbox/games publishing space, my DMs are open, my Signal is samred.81, and first round's on me (I'm sober but will imbibe w/ you anywhere).

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I sauteed my greens and overcooked my chicken 15°, how was YOUR American disease-avoidance dinner this evening?

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 21/09/2026

you won't BELIEVE which site I'm never writing for again (replies and quotes for context about this irresponsible clickbait if you need it)

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remastering existing content, instead of forging ahead with a next-gen Destiny experience, is probably the cheapest way for Bungie to prop itself up for a while. "Destiny Forever" will probably succeed. darkly hilarious that it took them years of burnt cash and layoffs to even consider the idea.

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 21/09/2026

if this new light rail station in my neighborhood actually opens in Seattle by Tuesday the 29th, I'll eat my sandwich. (not gonna eat a hat over this, but it sure looks like a lot of work remains.)

Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 20/09/2026

"Deejay wanted to look like a Viking berserker" in this photo, he told reporters ...or an FBI job applicant

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 19/09/2026

did you know that shrimp n grits could be so good ...hi this is once again a Zax Eat 'n Three fan account here in Seattle. seriously I've never had cheesy grits that nail the texture like this. this whole thing is layers of joy and flavor.

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I'm stiiill waiting for ST to confirm how much bike parking Pinehurst will have when it opens, so I rode over. I only see *13* bike racks + no bike lockers. Does @theurbanist.org have better info? I'd like to rely on parking my bike here, as I live 0.5mi away, but this has me pessimistic.

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managed to sketch to roughly 70% satisfaction of a Mugsy color test before my Surface Pen just... stopped working, so the sketchy outlines/shading are 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 but the general idea is 👍🏻 if you didn't know, Mugsy is a pinemarten, and I've always resisted coloring, so I'm trynna suss his fur/fit

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fire every human and / or robot responsible for the gen-AI "animation" attached to Neil Young's new album

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 16/09/2026

new Tove Lo album fucking rips

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reposting for the daytime homies

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 16/09/2026

anybody have experience with an older Xbox One X dying? specifically, when I try to power mine on, the Xbox button lights up and beeps, then the console immediately powers down. unsure if this is PSU, HDD, or something else. I'd love to easily/cheaply fix and get it back into the kids' hands.

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Reposted by Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech

M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The AI industry claims their products will "improve efficiency" and "accelerate science" but I'm able to do less science because I have to spend more time screening applicants to my lab. LLM noise drowns out signal- last year I shortlisted unqualified apps, and surely missed some gems.

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kayla, belated reptilian 🏳️‍⚧️🐊 @kaylagator.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

saw this today. a must-watch for anyone interested to know more about the eugenicist/colonialist history of the whole AI project, and how all the AI doomerism hysteria is just more of the same tech bros' projection of their own desires to build more & bigger weapons of war

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 16/09/2026

Danielle is the lynchpin of my working relationship with @gamedeveloper.bsky.social. Danielle is an editor and collaborator I would follow anywhere. She championed my words and interview-centric approach in ways I'll always appreciate. Keep an eye on her current/future missions. 🫡

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 15/09/2026

despite the resemblance when I shave my beard, I will not be Ed Sheeran on this tour

Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 15/09/2026

this means WotC is about to launch some kind of all-in-one launcher and/or marketplace for Magic Arena, D&D, upcoming video games, and more, right? that's my immediate guess. the below in particular screams "capture more revenue for Hasbro" to me. magic-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/art...

Which brands, websites, and products are included?
You will be able to use your Wizards account to login to a variety of existing and future Wizards and Hasbro products. Current products include:

Magic the Gathering Arena
Magic the Gathering Companion App
EventLink
Wizards Play Network (WPN)
Gatherer
Event Store Locator
Spelltable
Secret Lair
Dungeons & Dragons Beyond App
Dungeons & Dragons Beyond Website
Dungeons & Dragons Store Website
Sigil

When future games such as Exodus release, you will be able to sign in with your Wizards account as well.

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 14/09/2026

A performer with settled live-venue contracts and massive workforces at stake *can* sue to defend protected rights like free speech. Ed Sheeran misses me forever for forgoing his rights and abdicating what most ppl don't even have: the ability to fight back against the Krafts of the world.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Folks, if you want to know what's *really* up with "AI", where the harms lie, and contextualize the nonsense du jour, this film is must watch.

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 14/09/2026

I should've known the t-shirts would be cool as hell at the Seattle @grandillusioncinema.org screening of a Butthole Surfers documentary

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 12/09/2026

El Chupacabra in Seattle: come for the bad service and punk-rock posturing, stay for the AI slop that undermines their whole schtick

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 12/09/2026

drinking and driving, c/o the Seattlites at Rainier Beer (happy R Day to those who attend today's free concert / event later today)

Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 12/09/2026

#blizzcon A $30 expansion to a universally reviled "remaster" is not the apology tour that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma probably thinks it is

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 11/09/2026

Heart goes out to everyone affected at Seattle's @polyarcgames.com, as their closure appears to have been confirmed on LinkedIn. Moss is one of those magical "makes sense in VR" experiences that I wish had been followed by a healthy post-VR studio transition, but 2026 sure hasn't helped.

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 11/09/2026

did Cube get to keep this squiggly headpiece I stumbled upon this two-page ad from late 1995 while picking through old mags today - I'd never seen it before, maybe it's old to the likes of @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social - and feel like even from a mid-'90s perspective, this ad sucks and makes no sense

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Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mean we're all out here trying to reach our own personal Air Force 100

text post: "10 years ago, I saw a listing on Facebook marketplace for 70 VHS copied of Airforce 1. I thought it was a joke but I asked the guy about it and he told me he was trying to reach airforce 100 but it was getting harder to find copies of the movie. I ended up buying all 70 copies and for about 4 years, every Christmas, I would give every single person in my family 1 copy. It turned into a huge gag. Everytime I would go to a thrift store, I would search for more to replenish my stash. Now, 10 years later, I have almost 70 copies again and am trying to reach my collection to Airforce 100. Most thrift stores around me don't sell VHS tapes anymore so its getting pretty difficult to find any but sometimes I get lucky and my friends find some and gift them to me. "

text follow-up: "P.S. I've never seen the movie either and I don't plan on watching it."

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Reposted by Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech

wild that a pillar of rockstar’s argument appears to be, effectively, that it’s wrong for employees to criticize the company in their own space and on their own time and that they should only talk about these things in spaces HR can monitor

52. On the latter issue of respect, non-disparagement, trust and confidence, one of the first things the Respondent's witnesses describe identifying when they gained access to the Discord, was that the hundreds of people in Room C were audience to the Claimants openly and vituperatively disparaging and defaming their employer and its parent company, Take-Two. A named manager was called a 'cunt, the company hierarchy were called 'cowardly corporate fucks', managers were called 'arseholes', 'narcissistic', 'abusive' and 'bastards'. A sequence of HR announcements were mocked as 'like a shit advent calendar and management was told to 'get fucked'. The company was slated as 'structurally cracking', 'sliding downhill into corporate hell' and having 'overspent its budgeť with investors said to be 'losing confidence'. At any moment a screenshot or forwarding of any one of these messages by any one of the 350 users, or the publishing of an article about them by the journalist, could have generated enormously damaging publicity and hit market confidence and the Take-Two share price.
53. The denigration of the Respondent by its own identifiable employees was sustained and damaging. Numerous Claimants fomented an atmosphere of "them and us", disparaging senior management, criticizing HR, encouraging employees to take their next bonus and then quit and even circulating a link to job vacancies outside the company. Management communiques were

mocked as 'corporate bs', a 'waste of keystrokes' and 'Fucking bullshiť. Several Claimants encouraged colleagues to use forms of communication which could not be monitored by HR and advised on the technological means of so doing46. The damage to morale and impact on the work environment of the Claimants' posts were one of the primary reasons that three employees felt compelled to come forward to blow the whistle.

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#sportsball "a starting quarterback went out after only five plays" and "a quarterback threw three interceptions and blew the game" somehow did not apply to the same team! that is wild sports right there!

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if anybody needs film reviews, I'm looking for new potential clients! I have a line on embargoed, timely screenings that simply require assignments to attend, and I just got an invite to a film that is hella relevant to my gaming-site pals. DMs and emails open; bricks thru window okay in a pinch.

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and I oppose Talarico being elected if that leads to horses marrying each other, okay who's next with an asinine logical fallacy

Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Reposted by Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech

Oh, you don't like AI, the stochastic parrot that's encouraged multiple people to kill themselves, is destroying the environment, creating CSAM, and making the internet itself unusable? Well what if I remind you that people used to call TV 'the idiot box'? Bet you feel pretty different about AI now.

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Sam.END.ICE.Machkovech @samred.com · 09/09/2026

#seattle I wondered if the Pioneer Square FIFA watch party staging might come back, and sure enough, a local bar / clothing store has reactivated the whole thing for today's local sports double header (Mariners soon, Seahawks later). Seattle: sometimes, an actual city! cc @mayor.seattle.gov 👏