iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

#smithsonite will always be in my heart (metaphorically) because it's about to lose in round one :(

A large light blue hunk of smithsonite, displayed at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I am stoked that #Kyanite won #MinCup25! I also got to see so many cool minerals at the Smithsonian that weren't a part of the bracket this year. #Smithsonite maybe takes the cake and I hope to vote for it next year! #MinCup25SideQuest

A large, shiny, bubbly, blue Smithsonite

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Either #mannardite has no votes or the results are glitchy :( I don't have either #cuprosklodowskite or mannardite, but I do have the #radioactive minerals display from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

10 samples of radioactive minerals on public display. They range in color from brown to greenish to bright yellow.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

The Smithsonian has a bunch of #kyanite! A lot of it is cut like gems but there is also this cool tall piece. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

5 pieces of kyanite, the one on the left is tall and rough. The other four are much smaller and cut into rectangular gems.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

For #carpathite vs #tugtupite I don't have photos exactly but I want to share the florescents display! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

The lights are turned off and a UV light illuminates neon green and oranges in a collection of florescent minerals

With the lights on, this display looks like a basic collection of grey and brown rocks.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

I promised a closer look at this #baryte if it moved on to Round Two and I keep my promises to this self-imposed side quest. I would love to hear how professionals would describe the flaky layers and speckling. I'm sure "halva" isn't the right comparison? #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

White flaky-looking layers at odd angles with dark specks throughout

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Mental health is still rocky but improving. I haven't yet been back to the museum, but! I found #haüyne a couple of days after its first match and grabbed a photo. Round TWO!! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A very neat gray rock with the middle kinda hollowed out and crystals growing inside!

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Also the world's smallest(?) kyanite. There are more of these too, so whichever moves on will get brand-new photos for Round 2. I'm not gonna post over the weekend, I hope everyone has a great one. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A small 3.7 carat, blue gem cut kyanite.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Posting Round 1 Match 13 early because I need to spend time away from social media, but these are REALLY good ones! So much #Topaz! There is so much topaz and I'm a sucker for gems. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A large gem cut, light blue sparkling topaz. 146.4 carats.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 12 Just #zunyite today! I think this is the best mine name I've seen yet. Someone tell me if I should look again for #molybdenite but I don't think it's on display. #MinCup25SideQuest

A white rock with some darker pointy crystals near the top center. The sign includes the name Zuynite, the chemical formula and "Electric Meatball mine, Quartzite, Arizona"

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

After finding #titanite I thought my luck was going to run out, but #thortvietite was waiting in a display near the back of the gallery. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A small club shaped rock. That seems like an inelegant way to describe it but it's the best I can do.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 11 I was so stinking excited to find BOTH of today's minerals at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. #titanite is displayed in this gorgeous circle of cut stones (and there's more if it moves on!) #MinCup25SideQuest

Yellow-ish gems of varying sizes are mounted and arranged in a circle

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

And #MinCup25 Round 1 Match 10, #wavellite I am loving the habit of the crystals in this, looking like rays coming out of a star! #MinCup25SideQuest

This piece of wavellite has a seam running horizontally with some round crystals protruding off the face. In the face around the spheres, there are rays.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Catching up on #MinCup25 Round 1 Match 10, sneaking in under the wire! Contender #dioptase with a two-for-one sample sale! Both beautiful deep green crystals! I'm a fan! #MinCup25SideQuest

Two dioptase pieces, on the left is a dioptase with wulfinite and on the right is just dioptase. The crystals of both are small and deeper green in person but almost blue on camera

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Bonus because I couldn't find kosmochlor I didn't realize that #talc could be so pretty!?

This piece of talc is roughly rectangular, a little longer than the size of a credit card. The color is a very pretty icy/pearly green.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I couldn't capture just how deep blue this #azurite is. And although I couldn't find #kosmochlor I am FOR SURE voting for it. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

This piece of azurite has blue crystals that range from dark blue to a blue so dark that it just looks black in the photo.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

One example of cool but not the actual contender Is "hairy" how geologist describe #actinolite? #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

OK here's the question - if I can't find one of the contenders, should I post something else that is cool but unrelated or just post the one mineral that the Smithsonian has on display? #tugtupite #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

Tugtupite. Small but sparkling white crystals with a brown rocky bit on the side.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

For the second match in a row, I could only find one contender at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. #sanidine was elusive, however #hematite wasn't too tough to find. I love the layers on this! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A sample of hematite, mostly black with some brown spots. It shows layers facing the viewer towards the outer edges.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

And for Round 1, Match 6 I could only find #leucite which I will share along with its neighbors spodumene, ilvaite, and cancrinite. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

Four mineral specimens. Top row has spodumene (gray and rocky) and ilvaite (dark black and dramatic columns). Bottom row has cancrinite (yellow with gray and black blotches, kinda like a tortoiseshell sitting in the sun) and leucite (a grey base with a crystal structure that looks like it could be picked up and rolled like a d20)

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

It looks like #silver might be on the way out, so I'll share the silver and copper display. I'm starting to learn the words for the different shapes that crystals make, so shout out to silver and copper for being (sometimes) dendritic! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A museum display case, about one third filled with silver and two thirds with copper. The silver pieces are smaller, in general, but both the silver and copper have dendritic crystals which form branching figures.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I need you to know that you are all getting *bespoke* *hand-selected* *customized for the moment* photos. I'm just weird enough to do this for (maybe) a month. Anyway, I'm getting photos for the next two rounds, in the mean time MORE #calcite #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A cute lil hunk of calcite, pinkish in color. The sign reads Calcite with hematite, Cumbria, England. I have left off the formula because I don't know how to transcribe it!

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

The Smithsonian does have several very cool #baryte pieces. We'll start with this large piece and if it makes it through I'll have more to share including a closer look at the piece directly above.

A large hunk of baryte, greyish in color with some variation. Crystals have formed at irregular angles creating some pockets of shadows and some nicely sparkly bits as well.

On the shelf above is a smaller piece that has a different type of structure, more like layers. It is white with darker chucks speckled throughout.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

OK, one last #calcite for the road before we move onto tonight's face off! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A pearly white hexagon of calcite on a base with darker spots of galena.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#perovskite is currently in the lead and there are so many more #calcite specimens that aren't gonna get posted! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A close up of the large center pieces of calcite in the Smithsonian museum display. The central piece is kinda football shaped but larger, yellow on the ends with a vertical purple band in the middle.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

#Perovskite only had one specimen that I could find. I'm going to have to do more research on this before voting. And then consider what to do if it wins. #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A gray metallic rectangle of perovskite in a display case with other minerals around the edges

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

I hope you like #calcite because the Smithsonian has loads of it!! This isn't even the most impressive example! #MinCup25 #MinCup25SideQuest

A museum display case with over 50 calcite pieces, in many colors, sizes, and shapes.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

My #MinCup25SideQuest failed to find #Haüyne. Instead, I will show off my favorite #beryl

An impossibly large beryl tower, cut to make it sparkle impressively. The sign reads:
Dom Pedro Aquamarine

10,363 carats

Pedra Azul, Minas Gerais, Brazil

An immense beryl crystal found in the late 1980s yielded the Dom Pedro-the largest known aquamarine gem. The original crystal was almost two feet in length and weighed nearly 60 lbs. In 1992-1993, gem artist Bernd Munsteiner fashioned the gem and named it after the first two emperors of Brazil. A pattern of tapering "negative cuts" is faceted into the two reverse faces of the obelisk. These facets reflect the light, making it appear to glow from within. The vertical "lines" near the base are hollow tubes that formed naturally in the original crystal.

Gift of Jane Mitchell and Jeffery Bland, 2011

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

#MinCup25 Round Three! #MinCup25SideQuest I was not at all sure I was going to be able to find today's contenders, but I found #jeremejevite Very pretty! Somehow less blue than I expected?

Two examples of the mineral Jeremejevite, one long and slender and the other cut like an oval gem. They are sort of blue and sort of blue-purple?

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

First up is our first elimination #Chrysotile So fibrous! Very thready! #MinCup25SideQuest

Two specimens of chrysotile, a tan-ish mineral with fibrous threads aligned vertically.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Best star trek crew, wrong answers only

The crew of the Wurst, from Starstruck Odyssey, Dimension 20.

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

The meanings seem to be influenced by what google thinks it knows about you?

A screenshot of Google AI search results for "erase twice, plank once." The AI result reads "The statement "erase twice, plank once" could refer to a fitness routine where you erase a mistake twice, then perform a plank one time. It could also be a playful way of saying that after making a mistake (or two), you should focus on improving yourself through exercise, like a plank."

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Hivemind - if I want to mix up a simple spray to discourage my cat from chewing and scratching (like chewing on a door) what ingredients would I use? Some sort of alcohol and essential oil like orange? #cat #caturday #blackcat #oneorangebraincell

A black cat with green eyes and a blurred background

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The cats and I have been largely confined to my bedroom due to a full kitchen remodel which has ripple effects throughout my 800 sq ft house. My room is on the north side of the house but today we are able to sun ourselves in the south-facing office.

The sun reflects off of a black cat with a blurred background

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

@wmata.com What's the "overachiever" archetype? I'm surprised given how infrequently I actually use Metro (I only use it when I go into the District).

Screenshot of WMATA's year-end dashboard, too 43% metro customer, too 23% rail customer, 36 trips taken, 488 miles traveled, 150.2kg carbon dioxide captured, and 10 stations visited

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Second Geeses @secondgeeses.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Happy Caturday, bluesky 💕🐈‍⬛

A black cat gazes softly in the direction of the camera. He is handsome and for a moment not creating any trouble.

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