iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR? HELL NO! got to introduce the tween & 10-year-old to this monumental cultural deep cut today. I bet their teachers will appreciate me!

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Two things I’d like to shout out into the void today: (1) hantavirus isn’t COVID-19, and even if it was, this isn’t Feb 2020; (2) if you must monitor the situation, asymptomatic transmission is much more important than the details of exactly who got sick on the ship/plane.

Hantavirus ≠ COVID-19: This Is Not February 2020!

Please "Monitor the Situation" More Thoughtfully

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Insomnia, Homer, taut sails—here I translate and comment on a lovely poem by Osip Mandelshtam that expresses this idea of everything moving by/through love. Predictably, I have Dante on the mind, who also seems fairly obsessed by this idea, although it's sorta horrifying as applied to Inferno.

Insomnia, Homer, Taut Sails, and Love: Mandelshtam and Dante

"Love" Isn't Always Comprehensible or Easy

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Lobotomy was banned in the USSR at the height of its international popularity. The Soviets made the right decision for a strange mix of good and bad reasons, which perhaps illustrates the importance of memetic diversity & multipolar decision-making structures as a resilience mechanism for humankind.

Lobotomy: A Nobel Prize in Europe, Banned in the USSR

Some Musings on How to Avoid Catastrophic Mistakes

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Mind is a sense, like the others. A tasty idea is tasty like a ripe peach, and an intellectual glutton is a glutton. As with the other senses, it’s all about what you do with it. I'm a pretty indifferent practitioner tbh, but this idea has stuck with me over the years.

Mind as a Sense: An Insight from Buddhism

With a Brief Detour Via Ron Swanson and Social Distortion

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Etymology has a distinct flavor because it tries to establish maximal certainty about small facts, and then builds from there. As exemplified through this debate about the word “apple,” involving Eric Hamp, a remarkable linguist and person who I briefly crossed paths with.

The Etymology of “Apple”: A Methodological Microcosm

Etymology As a Guide Through This Bayesian Vale of Tears, with the Slightest Detour Involving Communist Albania

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Albanian is an interesting language for a lot of reasons — but a relatively little known one is the diversity of alphabets/scripts that have been used to write it, including some that were specifically invented for the purpose but never entered into widespread use.

Unique Alphabets for Albanian

A Few Short Notes from the History of Literacy

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

The unexpected/expected decay of Zosima’s corpse had various consequences, including (146 years later) my ruminations about non-acceptance vs. rejection. The former seems to be linked to a healthy spiritual autonomy and agency, the latter—to obsessive bargaining. Also, the trolley problem sucks.

Rejection vs. Non-Acceptance in The Brothers Karamazov

By The Way, The Trolley Problem Sucks

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

True friendship breaks the logic of Hell. Reading Dante while listening to the soundtrack of Hazbin Hotel (with a detour via the Pogues) took me to some interesting places. sandstoneviolin.substack.com/p/friendship...

Friendship in Hell: Dante, Hazbin Hotel, and The Pogues

Musical Reflections With A Side Of Aristotle

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

A rainy day activity with the kids somehow metamorphosed into the strangest (and only) movie review I’ve ever written. In a nutshell, “Super Mario Galaxy” brings out the childlike and quaint aspects of surrealism. Uncharacteristically for myself, I bring up Trump too.

Super Mario Galaxy, Trump, and Surrealism

A Movie Review That Surprised Myself

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I’m not particularly interested in commenting on politics, but I did find myself thinking about how Turkic/Persian linguistic contact in Iran is an interesting echo/semi-parallel of Turkish in the Ottoman Balkans. This parallel might be worth exploring in greater depth.

Turkic Languages in Iran - Part 1

Preliminary Notes on Language Contact

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

In Canto XV of Inferno, Dante encounters his former teacher, Brunetto Latini, among the sodomites. He treates Latini with remarkable respect, but also puts him in his place. This resonates for those who’ve had difficult mentors (and for mentors, teachers, or parents).

Dante’s Inferno, Canto XV: Sodomy and Mentorship

Brunello Latini and Difficult Mentors

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Today (day 6/30) I revisited some lingering discomfort I felt with an otherwise excellent performance of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard in Marin County. Ultimately, it’s a translation issue, but one related to emotional subtext rather than word choice. sandstoneviolin.substack.com/p/chekhovs-c...

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Happy Life-Defeating-Death Day (aka Easter). Here’s an unusually nice Easter poem by Mak Dizdar, written from the perspective of one who stands in the shadows. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Sun-Christ: An Easter Poem by Mak Dizdar

On Standing in the Shadow

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

This game has accounted for quite a bit of my time and energy this week, so for day 4 of April’s 30-day writing challenge, I decided to see whether research on the philosophy of games could help me articulate what makes Blood on the Clocktower fun. sandstoneviolin.substack.com/p/blood-on-t...

Blood on the Clocktower - Part 1

Conceptual Tools from the Philosophy of Games

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Out of nowhere, my 12-year-old son can now destroy me at chess. I wrote out some thoughts on this sudden nano-singularity and what I can learn from losing. (Excluding, of course, how to avoid repeating chess mistakes. That’d be ridiculous.) substack.com/home/post/p-...

Reflections on Parenthood, Perceptions, and Enjoyment

Losing at Chess

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Day 2 of this semi-self-imposed (along with a friend) 30-day writing challenge for April. In short, the Karamazov trial feels like it could take place on the Jerry Springer stage. And that’s a good (or at least interesting) thing. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Dostoyevsky and Jerry Springer

The Philosopher-King of Trash

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

A friend urged me to try to write and publish a thing per day in April. Today wound up being some reflections on etymology and epistemology based on the Albanian linguist Eqrem Çabej's work. substack.com/home/post/p-...

An Etymological Detour Through Communist Albania

Notes on Methodology

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Peak parenting experience: introducing my sensitive, thoughtful 4th grader to "The Man in Black", explaining what makes it so cool, and being met with considered appreciation rather than eyerolls.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

This dinergoth piece is getting attention elsewhere with much wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth, but it's neat. It aligns with some things I've observed, puts them in a bigger picture, echoes how I see my kids starting to explore the world (for better or worse). www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...

thenewatlantis.com

American Diner Gothic

In the 2020s, the weird soul of placeless America is being born on Discord servers.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

War, war, what is it good for? ... According to an editorial I'm editing today, training higher-quality trauma surgeons 😬

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Somewhat lost in the discourse hubbub, this is huge news - increasingly seems like we're committing to trying a private response (or lack thereof) to climate change. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...

nytimes.com

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

It's been a difficult week on multiple levels — and having a Thursday with two @catherineproject.bsky.social discussions of Dante and Dostoyevsky with groups of incredibly thoughtful readers has been the absolute highlight of it. Tremendously spirit-lifting. (And completely free.)

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

It's mildly trippy to be editing a paper by East Asian researchers where "USSR" is used as an acronym for ulnar superficialis slip resection. The world moves on, life-changing institutions for some are random historical footnotes for others, and so forth.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Somehow I never watched the classic James Bond movies — and I'm delighted to find that the most charming part of "From Russia with Love" is the background footage from early 1960s Istanbul.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

I was noticing today how I still get ~1-2% of my editing work in .doc, not .docx, format, even nearly 20 years after the .docx format was released. Kinda interesting re: technology obsolescence cycles, maybe especially for technologies that generally fly below our conscious radar screen

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Introducing the 4th grader to some (recorded) late night talk shows: "Is Stephen Colbert a bear? A cold bear?"

Chuck Copeland 🌀 @chuckcopelandwx.com · 28/10/2025

Reposted by Sandstone Violin

This meso loop of #Melissa from CIRA is absolutely stunning at it makes its closes in on landfall in southwestern Jamaica. rammb-data.cira.colostate.edu/tc_realtime/... #hurricanemelissa

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Ooh, another nice linguistic coinage tonight from the middle schooler — "more sneakily" is "sneakilier".

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Philosophical conversation with the 7 y/o today — why, indeed, ARE farts funny? "They're just smelly things that have noises and come from your butt! And why are butts funny, bro? All they are is like an oval with a crack in it that shoots out poop [pause] that's kinda funny."

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Interesting innovation in phrasal verb usage from the 9 y/o: "this make sures that..." I've heard similar things from the 11 y/o too but have forgotten to jot them down.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Interesting Gen Alpha linguistic usage from the middle-schooler today. Apparently "AFK" can apply to being absorbed in work for a couple hours—even if that work is *at a laptop*, literally *at a keyboard*.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Very interesting interactive map of indigenous territories, treaties, and languages: native-land.ca. The choices of what to include in Asia, Africa, and Europe are quite interesting. I wonder if future versions will have more Siberian representation (e.g., Tungusic?)

native-land.ca

Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land

Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I started learning Turkish many years ago with high-minded ideas about using it in my research. 15+ years later, I'm rocking out to this fun ditty about partying with Dracula, hooking up with Frankenstein's wife, and becoming a vampire. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGD...

youtube.com

Drakula'nın Daveti

YouTube video by Sokak Köpekleri - Topic

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

By far the best part of watching Oakland A's games now is listening to the back-and-forth between the announcers, esp. how Dallas Braden tries to politely conceal what seems to be genuine dislike and WTF responses toward Chris Caray's random comments.

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Reposted by Sandstone Violin

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Feel like one political party kidnapping an opponent should be bigger news

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Thoroughly enjoyed @mastroianni.bsky.social's post on the woeful state of academic psychology, esp. the critique of "pick a noun and study it" (I often edit research along those lines, in nursing). Not sure I share the optimism re: boredom's effects, though. tinyurl.com/5akw8b3h

experimental-history.com

I’m so sorry for psychology’s loss, whatever it is

The plane crashed and nobody checked the bodies

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Watching Jurassic Park with the 9 y/o, and I had never noticed before the thread of "whether to have kids" discourse, or remembered that the cool, black-leather chaos theory guy apparently has 3 kids and is a big fan of both kids and divorce 😂.

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

This online presentation of the Genji poems is one of the coolest things I've seen in quite some time! Not just that the "poems are online", but so much thought and care has clearly gone into the presentation and interface. genjipoems.org

genjipoems.org

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Today's work-related reminder that someone's always having a worse day (and of the importance of flared devices) — apparently there's at least one documented case of a heart attack resulting from the stress induced by a self-inserted glass bottle getting stuck in the rectum.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Never imagined a word-for-word theatrical adaptation of a short story could be so good. I was stunned by Word for Word's adaptation of "Annunciation" www.zspace.org/annunciation. One vividly played character in particular was a delightful reminder of someone from my past, too.

zspace.org

Annunciation by Lauren Groff — Z Space

Word for Word and Z Space present: ANNUNCIATION BY LAUREN GROFF Directed by Joel Mullennix June 18 through July 13 in Z Below Award winning author, Lauren Groff, brings us a tale of a young w...

Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Plans for bacterial-driven biomanufacturing on Mars! Super cool. Back when I was a 30-year-old career-changing premed (before those plans fell through too), I low-key fell in love with microbiology, and this reminds me of why. pioneerlabs.substack.com/p/our-first-...

pioneerlabs.substack.com

Our first target microbe for Mars, and how we chose it 🏗️

Goal: push the limits of science AND be practically useful

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

A little bit of Goethe today, reflecting on how our entire built landscape is a sort of fossilization of human stories and passion. #poetry

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

"Competitive authoritarianism" is a great phrase. Also an excellent point re: people's assumptions about transition states — there's never going to be a day where we wake up to the announcement, "NOW HEAR THIS, IT'S AUTHORITARIANISM TIME," and waiting for such an announcement is a fool's errand.

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

A first in a paper I've edited: "Statistical analyses were conducted using ChatGPT 4o." 🤔🤔🤔🤔

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Sandstone Violin @sandstoneviolin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Mamdani & the impact of his campaign/election remind me a lot of Obama, maybe not least because I lived in Chicago (and was in my early 20s) when Obama became prominent. Multiple parallels come to mind, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more people note the similarity.