iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 8h

Thick layer of foamy yeast at the top of the wort.

Foam of yeast at the top of the fermenting wort.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 8h

High kräusen less than 24 hours later! #homebrew

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 03/10/2026

Malt extract syrup added, and rinsed the bottled syrup with the wort. Took about 2 hours from cold to boil. A little longer than the banjo burner, but less frightening.

Boiling wort (steeped grains, before the extract added)

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 03/10/2026

The induction plate is working! Plus: The meter has useful markings for all grain brewing temperatures. Minus: They are in Farenheit so if I do any of my old recipes I'll have to convert. #homebrew

Thermometer reading around 110 degrees F.
Also has markings for various enzyme activity for purposes of all grain brewing.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 03/10/2026

Five and a half gallons of liquor (water for brewing) ready to start heating.

Brew kettle with spigot and thermometer on 1800W induction plate.

110

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 03/10/2026

As foretold, it begins again

Mag stirrer for the yeast, in low gravity wort with nutrients

10 gallon SS kettle with thermometer and spigot.

West Coast Ale II Yeast from Omega

Reported to be Anchor Brewing's house ale yeast

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/09/2026

I would like more coffee but I am trapped.

Fynn, smol bean, resting his head on my arm.

020

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 26/09/2026

My cats are not sure what we're looking at, but are happy to participate.

Fynn, the very orange smol cat, and Bubba, who is spiritually orange, looking in the same direction I am, because that's what we are doing together.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 25/09/2026

The sky is trying to warn me

A very very red sky at sunset in the approaching Stormpocalypse.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 12/09/2026

48 years ago, September 12, 1978 Taxi A very long drive over a very short bridge. youtu.be/qWNh20Yg1Rk?...

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 12/09/2026

Bubba is helping review code.

Bubba, the cat, on my laptop, Pwyll, making sure the forgejo migration goes smoothly.
Fynn, in background, waiting his turn on the platform.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 09/09/2026

"maxxing" officially for the olds.

As on the LIRR using "maxxing".

"Hip" and "ironic"

So it's dead to the youth, right?

010

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 09/09/2026

Always a good time for a game of "hey, what, no, what are you doing, why, no, hey why did you stop?" with Fynn and Loki, the very orange cats.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 04/09/2026

What did cats do before we had books and phones for them to push on?

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 04/09/2026

Some of you all talk weird.

Heat map of where people speak correctly.

mydialect.us

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 29/08/2026

My wife will not allow me to wear this one anymore. Not from my first Ramones show, second or third around 83. First was '81, Warner Theater, Pleasant Dreams, Marky Ramone drumming.

Ramones tee shirt:
Johnny - Joey - Dee Dee - Richie

Too Tough to Die tour.

030

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 20/08/2026

In which I am, again, easily amused.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 19/08/2026

Is this the mechanism? Like a built in plunger converter?

Picture of a fountain pen with the barrel removed showing the filling mechanism, a spring loaded plunger.

Wing Sung 3024 advertising

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 09/08/2026

So, the consteval compilers I've been playing with can produce programs that are core constant expressions that can be evaluated at compile time. I spent a good amount of time last night with my brain just on "woah".

110

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 09/08/2026

Thank you lisdexamfetamine

Trash from gardening in the trashcan.

Not on the patio table, next to the trowel and rake.

010

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 31/07/2026

Wait, did someone see sekrit projekt #3?

I NOTATION POLISH REVERSE ❤️

https://xkcd.com/3277/

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 30/07/2026

Fun new fountain pen ink. Octopus Fluids Neon Orange. Theory of use is my commentary on notes I'm taking, to distinguish from the notes themselves, or from red correction/copy edit. Or just because I want a super bright florescent orange.

Swatched Octopus Fluids Neon Orange

Q-tip swabbed on left. Sailor Hocoro medium dip pen on right. Col-o-dex card.

160

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 30/07/2026

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 16/07/2026

Views from Stirling Castle

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 15/07/2026

Before the railroads, clocks were set to local solar time, where noon is when the sun is at its highest. How you feel about standard vs dst is a measure of how far off you are from true solar time.

Map of the difference between local and official standard time. Darker is higher difference.

Red/blue coincidence, but now I wonder...

010

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 11/07/2026

Fine penmanship is still beyond me. But these are from the last tech conference (C++Now) I was at: Wooden lap desk not pictured. YuSari paper, various fountain pens, various inks.

Incomprehensible scrawl, blue/red sheen ink, fine nib.

Incomprehensible scrawl, blue/red sheen ink, medium nib.

Incomprehensible scrawl, blue/red sheen ink, medium nib. With commentary in red.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 05/07/2026

Name that Diamine fountain pen ink 😀 Not Writers Blood, this time.

An ink stained wretch showing off his finger stains.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 05/07/2026

I'd hand wave Chaos Theory here, but it's a new century. But all interesting dynamical systems do it. Even ones that seem really boring at first.

The chaos and order of the logistic map. The long term behavior of
P_t+1 = r P_t (1 - P_t)

Strong order is always right next to unpredictable behavior.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 02/07/2026

Early Happy 250th from Bruce, Kermit, and Me

Kermit
Born in the USA

(The Springsteen Album Cover, with Kermit swapped in, on a T I am wearing)

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 30/06/2026

Mahjohn P136 flex nib fountain pen, Akkerman Violet ink.

Some loops and lines, on Rhodia paper, my desk pad.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 17/06/2026

Yes, I've always been like this. See alt text for (non) explanation.

Steve explains Doyalist vs Watsonian explanations in the context of discussing the origins of The Prime Directive, 10 years ago.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 04/06/2026

We have arrived at the "If I can't have good attention, I will get bad attention" phase of the morning.

My cat Bunny, on my keyboard, behind my chair.
She is definitely not happy.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 03/06/2026

Help! I urgently need three reasons why I do not need this fountain pen. Lamy Al-Star Disco HP Colab is one strong one. I'm never buying HP anything, but I can see how the horribleness of JKR slips under corporate radar. "You don't need a new pen" is too weak to be one.

480

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 29/05/2026

Idealistic and patriotic Dexter Riley, recruited by the US Military into the Special Forces, becomes disillusioned after being burned by Military Intelligence and "Captain Berrigan", and adopts the nom de guerre Snake Plissken and goes underground.

Dexter Riley, Medfield College Student, accidental subject of terrifying medical experimentation.
Documented in
- The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
- Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972)
- The Strongest Man in the World (1975)

Snake Plisskin
- Decorated Soldier.
- Special Forces Unit "Black Light".
- Disillusioned after the "Leningrad Ruse" suicide mission designed to plant a double agent, both corrupt and unsuccessful.
- Pardoned after rescuing the President from the cordoned off maximum security Manhattan Island prison facility.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/05/2026

JPMorgan Corporate Challenge Before and After

After running 3.5 miles (that I thought was going to be 5k)

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 22/05/2026

Both were done in collaboration with the reddit fountain pen community. The latest is Lady Grey. Prior ones: Writer’s Blood, Celadon Cat, Sailors Warning (renamed Red Sky and Sailor was very nice about it, really!), Aurora Borealis, and Earl Grey. nickstewart.ink/2025/07/14/d...

Swatching of Reddit ink project Lady Grey, winning version.
Swatching by Nick Stewart

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 21/05/2026

Fountain pen adjacent news. 700 to 800 year old pocket notebook recovered from a latrine in Germany. People dropped things in the toilet, then, too. Waxed pages with a wooden cover. Cross-writing was not a 19thC invention, which makes it harder to read today. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/f...

Leather case for notebook. Embossed with a floral pattern.

Wooden notebook with waxed pages, written on with a stylus rather than ink.
Erasing would have been with heat, but instead the owner cross wrote over.

052

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 21/05/2026

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap

The Rutles.

Although they did release some very good albums without existing?

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 17/05/2026

If you see this, post a Star Trek

020

Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 19/04/2026

My cat, Bunny, left some notes on code I was working on last night. She had also toggled to light mode for some reason. I switched back before taking pix.

Magit diff of emacs lisp.
With some literal cat walked on keyboard edit.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 16/04/2026

Nonsensical context for BIRD and AI. The current huge rise is barely visible on the long term history.

Long term price of BIRD.
It started at 300 and rose to over 500.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 04/04/2026

My understanding of the doctrine of Ex Cathedra. Used Twice. The Pope, to be clear, is not Bugs in this metaphor.

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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 01/04/2026

One small mistake, but I am missing the tool.

Keyboard with switches you can't see that I installed, and key caps you can.

Especially the I.

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