iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I had to pick up a bike this morning but once again the bus routes in Leiden suck and it would be just as fast to walk there. Then I realised I could just run it. Not exactly one of my #running goals, but nice to have the option, i guess

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Not That Rick Scott 🇨🇦 @shadowspar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

your regular reminder to follow @bahnansagen.bsky.social if you are working on your German. you get a useful bit of vocab every day with a funny punchline payoff for getting the translation right. 😊

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JosD @happydisciple.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Vraagje: met dit weer, kan je klapstuk ook op de barbecue bereiden? #Leiden #LeidensOntzet #3oktober

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Holland Historisch Tijdschrift @tijdschriftholl.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

En dan is het #3Oktober #LeidensOntzet De Leidenaren begonnen hun dag om 7.00 uur met het Reveille. Bij de Waag kun je haring en wittebrood halen. Op dit schilderij van Pieter van Veen wordt de bevrijding, het 'ontzet', uitgebeeld. 'De spijziging van de verloste Leidenaren op 3 oktober 1574'

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This noise is not the reveille. Who could be using loud machinery at 7am in #Leiden on #3oktober of all the days in the year?! After 2 October fell in a Friday? They’re lucky they’re too far away or I’d be out hunting for a fresh ingredient for the traditional hutspot stew.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The first Pride Ontzet is great fun! Hope they get the €€€ to do it again next year. Red and white are #Leiden colours and thus a challenge to my wardrobe, but my glitter skirt got compliments. However, even its excellent swish could never compete with drag queen style. :) 🏳️‍🌈 #LeidensOntzet

Motion blurred knee length red glitter skirt spinning out under pink lights. I’m also wearing a boring white shirt tied at the waist for the Leiden look.

A drag queen wearing a rainbow striped dress and pink flowing cape. Mic in one hand, the other arm dramatically flung out.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The barista asked if I was doing anything fun this evening and my reply had two more people asking me for details! please! 😁 So, I’m going to Pride Ontzet on the Ambachtsplein - DJs and drag shows. Times below. ⬇️ #LeidensOntzet #Leiden

3october.nl

Horecaprogramma Pride Ontzet op het Ambachtsplein - 3 October Vereeniging

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

New technique for clitoral reconstruction for vulval cancer sufferers, 40 yrs after the development of testicular reconstruction for those with penile cancer. An oncological gynaecologist from the uni hospital in Nijmegen worked together with a gender surgery specialist. London's now done the op too

nos.nl

Doorbraak in hersteloperatie van de clitoris legt achterstand vrouwenzorg bloot

Van de ongeveer 450 vrouwen die in Nederland jaarlijks vulvakanker krijgen, hebben volgens gynaecologisch oncoloog Mieke ten Eikelder 130 tot 150 een tumor in of rond de clitoris.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I just finished Wolf Worm and can confirm the seriously ew, ew, ew. Btw, I’m not sure how they manage their acquisitions, but I was very impressed that my Dutch library had this so quickly!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

No idea if working for the city council in the late 19th century made people particularly prone to illness, but at least there was a cure!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

OH: a world-weary sigh, followed by, "They just don't make good music nowadays." The speaker can have been no older than 10.

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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

for those outside New Zealand: 2 years ago a veiled far-right astroturf org threatened to sue an investigative journalist for a book he was writing about them. He was not writing a book about them, but this incident meant former staff started leaking to him. He used those leaks to write a book.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My host, “You have been kittened. I will bring you tea and food.” #Caturday

A six month old kitten in possession of a lap, one white paw stretched to make sure the possessed really can’t move. One of the prettiest cats I’ve ever seen: she has clear, light amber eyes, one outlined in black, the other outlined in orange brown. She’s a mix of white, black and orange brown all over.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Never expected this to happen a second time! Please take all this good karma into the weekend with you. :) Wordle 1.910 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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Quentin Godfroy @conscritneuneu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Avez-vous vu ce bandit ?

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A friend expressed the hope for an RHPS boat and, two boats later, joy!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The football girlies “don’t need balls to score” #Leiden #Pride

Women in red and white striped football shirts holding pride signs

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A certain telecoms company definitely communicated with their well-placed speakers. The Leiden University hospital sound system that followed was alas DOA. The fun wasn’t though! #Leiden #Pride

LUMC sloop with mostly people in white coats, holding rainbow flags and signs like LUM-slay, love on prescription, pride is protest

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Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com · 02/09/2026

Seen from the #ISS: a bit of Spain slides by in the night. Meanwhike, need something to read? Buy an #ebook direct from the author! (Offer not valid in the UK, sorry; Brexit…) Contains one mysterious veiled lady, one garden party, and one #SherlockHolmes getting physical. bit.ly/LionessMane

The #ISS cruises by over Spain. A screenshot from the 4K videostream at sen.com.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Schools on Sint-Maarten were closed due to the flooding risk from Hurricane Dolly. In case further evidence is needed that it's definitely not her!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

So sad about Dolly Parton. I especially admired her work on children’s reading.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

To the UK & IE people who were sharing their traumas of old traffic safety ads, I offer this antidote. This humorous anti-drink driving ad is arguably the most famous ad in Aotearoa, for good reason. #GhostChips

youtu.be

Ghost Chips - NZ Anti Drink Driving Commercial

YouTube video by Kunhadi Lebanon

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

As we’re still discussing the wisdom of UK’s phone alert to not set fires in a drought… in Spain the matrix boards were warning people not to drive with eclipse glasses. C’mon who’d make such a gaffe? 5 mins after leaving the eclipse site, my friend texted she’d seen the first driver with them on 🤦

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The TGV to Paris has aircon! On the lower deck this time. If I were romanticising train travel, I would at this point rhapsodise about the gently rolling countryside, but at 300km/h the best you get is, “look, there’s a <zoof> never mind.”

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Driving from Bilbao to Bordeaux. Just overtook a pot of basil doing 100km/h. It was stuck on top of the bikes on the back of a caravan. Some people take their fresh basil seriously, I guess!

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Marcel Steeman @steeman.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Ik heb gelukkig nog op het laatste moment een regenbrilletje bemachtigd om te kijken naar de regen. We kijken omstebeurt.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

We bumped into a local festival while stopping to shop in the village of Leitza. TE: “Look at these wooden fences, they might do bull running here.” Me: “They’re still setting up stalls, surely not.” A quick search finds nothing on toros. Wait, “vaquillas” sounds like vâche! 🐮 ¡Vamos!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My spoken Spanish isn’t even A1 but I can read the news. So I learned the word for drought from El País and five minutes later managed to use it while discussing the state of the local waterfall with the hotel owner. My feeling of pride was quickly drowned in the sudden flood of Spanish 😂

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Local talkback radio in Bordeaux resoundingly in favour of taxing tobacco companies to pay for the wildfire damage.

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The good news: this next train’s loos are working, unlike the Eurostar. The bad: the aircon isn’t, so we’re already getting acclimatised for Bordeaux. 😄 Also, am on the TGV’s upper deck next to the emergency rope ladder!

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

45 minutes back in Paris and I’ve re-integrated enough that a French person just asked me for directions. I didn’t know the answer, but they did ask me. 😂

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Let no one accuse me of romanticising international train travel: poor Eurostar service added 45mins, ticket provider misinformed us about works (caught it in time) and NS is still charging extra for the train that is running. Train manager is sympathetic about my broken seat but it’s sold out, so.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Pre-orders are open for The Green Man's Debt. Thanks to enthusiastic readers sharing their enjoyment, we've reached the ninth book in this small press series! Find purchase links for your preferred vendor here - with others added as they go live. wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/book...

Cover art by Ben Baldwin for The Green Man's Debt by Juliet E McKenna. A grey wolf with pale eyes stands in the shadows of a derelict building with a black and white tiled floor. The wolf is looking straight at you. Its snarl reveals blood on its teeth and jaw.

Cover copy reads: Dan Mackmain’s mum is a dryad, so he knows asking someone from the supernatural world for a favour means there’ll be a price to pay, sooner or later. He’s been waiting for the Hunter, the antler-crowned guardian of predators and prey, to call in his debt.

He wasn’t expecting this to happen when he and his girlfriend Fin were planning to visit her sister Iris and her new husband Conn. Dan has prepared for this unknown challenge, reading up on Irish folklore. So far, he’s learned how different those who live in that unseen realm will be from anyone he’s encountered before – and that crossing them could be very dangerous.

A modern fantasy rooted in ancient myths and folklore

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BahnAnsagen @bahnansagen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

"Sehr geehrte Fahrgäste, wir möchten bei dieser Gelegenheit noch mal darauf hinweisen, dass das Mitführen von Nutztieren, insbesondere von Eseln, bei der Deutschen Bahn nicht gestattet ist!" (Julian Mundl) #BahnAnsagen

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te pua o te rēinga @cucumber.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

absolute sphere ☺️

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Trains were stopped from running for a couple of hours in Drenthe yesterday so a cat and her two kittens could be rescued from near the tracks. The train driver who spotted them has volunteered to adopt them if there’s no owner. (1/2)

nos.nl

Treinverkeer stilgelegd om poezen van het spoor te redden in Drenthe

Samen met de dierenambulance wist het spoorpersoneel de moeder en haar twee kittens te vangen.

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Sharon Murdoch @domesticanimal.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

A drawing today about the recent passing of actor and gentle man Sam Neill (and his duck Charlie Pickering), and I guess about the landscape he loved.

Cartoon. Title: “Absence” Charlie, a white duck, stands mournfully beside a pond on Sam’s vineyard in the Earnscleugh valley, in Central Otago. In the lower right it says, “Sam Neill, 1947-2026”

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Sadly for @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social only the police officer looking at the bollard is visible, the bollard itself isn’t. Hopefully it didn’t suffer too much while catching this van trying to tail a bus through the bus lane. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer van.

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Tim Willoughby @timswheelbarrow.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Sam improvs in a take where he talks directly to my mate, where it only makes sense for him to respond. Sam pushes for this to stay in, such that my friend gets to keep the money/credit associated with having dialogue. Folks, we lost a good one.

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Tim Willoughby @timswheelbarrow.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My random Sam Neil story. An actor friend of mine was cast in a small role on Peaky Blinders. Never receives his script pages. Discovers his role has been pushed to non speaking background, which is less fun/less money. Sam Neil spots him looking dejected on set and finds out.

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Dylan Reeve @dylanreeve.com · 13/07/2026

I got to have a few conversations with Sam Neill. He was one of those famous people who is exactly what you want them to be — just a great human being who genuinely loves what they do and enjoys sharing that passion with others. A huge loss for NZ's screen industry, and just NZ in general.

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BahnAnsagen @bahnansagen.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

"Liebe Fahrgäste, bitte beachten Sie, dass das Rauchen im Zug verboten ist! Wer sich ab dem nächsten Halt in die Tür stellt, kann von da an Wanderlieder singen." (Terrorhexe) #BahnAnsagen

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Bonjour, goedemorgen, Guten Morgen to Belgium in particular.

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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Pope Alexander VI would've loved this image

Spain on one side of the midfield line, Portugal on the other

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The nerve of men dismissing the idea of Sarina Wiegman for Oranje, now the team's out of the World Cup and out a manager. Like she isn't better off sticking with the Lionesses who let her dance with Burna Boy anyway. hmph

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BahnAnsagen @bahnansagen.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

"Liebe Fahrgäste, unsere Lok ist zu heiß gelaufen und braucht – wie wir das heutzutage sagen würden – eine 'hydration break'. Nutzen Sie die Pause gerne auch, um was zu trinken! In so 5 Minuten geht es weiter." (@Lili@zug.network) #BahnAnsagen

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KimV @sierrakim.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

21ºC, 85% humidity. Weather like this always reminds me of the parable of the boiling frog. Still, an hour later and I feel better for having done it, as always. #running

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