iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 07/05/2026

My great-great-grandmother ✏️

ERASERS BRING HER FAME
Mrs. Houston, Originator of Rubber Pencil Tips, Brought to St. Louis for Burial
St. Louis, Mo.—The body of Mrs. Mary E. Houston, reputed to be the originator of rubber eraser tips on lead pencils, was brought to St. Louis for burial. Mrs. Houston, who was 85 years old, died at Greenwood, Miss., of apoplexy.
In 1859, Mrs. Houston said, she entered a stationery store in New York city to purchase a pencil. She asked the clerk why rubber tips could not be placed on the pencils. The clerk called several officials of the firm and explained her suggestion. Before she left New York, Mrs. Houston said, lead pencils with rubbers attached were advertised there for the first time. The stationery house refused to admit it was indebted to her for the suggestion.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 12/03/2026

Of course, it is still possible to cheat, though they do a good job of making it difficult! :-P

∆E_OK JND result of 0.000050, achieved by cheating!

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 12/03/2026

This was fun, but now the state of my monitor is *really* bugging me—natural dither from all that dust really doesn't help! What's My JND? 0.0017 Can you beat it? www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd...

Your ∆E_OK JND
0.0017
Either you have superhuman cone cells or you got very lucky. I'm going with lucky. This is absurdly below the theoretical JND. Your monitor is doing something weird. Or both.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 11/03/2026

This thought inspired by a "plan" I got from Claude, which it pretended it had already decided on, that was structured like so:

Excerpted output from Claude Code, in an attempt to generate a plan that it pretended to have already thought about and made decisions about:

Here's the plan: ...

One concern: ...

**Revised approach (Option C)** ...

Wait - this has a problem. ...

Better approach: ...

Actually, the simplest approach: ...

Actually, there's a subtler issue: ...

**Final recommended approach** ...

Here's the concrete plan: ...

Wait - this doesn't solve the thread-safety problem. ...

**Revised Step 1:* ...

Hmm, that's getting unwieldy. ...

Let me take a step back. ...

**Simplest correct plan** ...

Actually, ...

The real question is: ...

But: ...

This is the real problem: ...

**Final plan (concrete)** ...

Wait - ...

I think we need to accept ...

Actually, ...

OK let me write the clean final plan.

...

Does this plan look right to you?

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 18/01/2026

In case anyone needs a timeline cleanse, check out this friend who landed on my knee (twice!) while I was at the park with the kids this week

A mourning cloak butterfly has landed on my knee, possibly attracted by the contrast of the black and white floral pattern of my dress. It has a fuzzy brown body and brown wings tinged with light yellow, with a pattern of iridescent blue spots that are hard to see in this image.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 27/12/2025

Last time it was attempted, the poor guy sitting there got so uncomfortable he turned to marble himself

Statue at the Lincoln Memorial. A stone Lincoln sits on a stone chair with his stone arms on the stone armrests

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 08/11/2025

Quick and dirty—definitely potential!

Modified screenshot with the green court chroma keyed to black

Modified screenshot with the green court chroma keyed out and replaced with a roughly wood court–colored surface

Modified screenshot with the green court chroma keyed and replaced with the surface of the ocean

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 02/09/2025

I thought at first that maybe this weekend just had me in an "I want to believe" mood, but this one is actually true! There is still good in the world!

Search result on Facebook: Mr Bean, TV show, 140M followers

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 02/09/2025

Does anyone know what the current status of Trump's bathroom ban EO is in federal courthouses? I basically can't find anything written recently, just a lot of "we'll have to see how each agency handles this" from like six months ago. Asking for a trans friend with three kidneys 😬

Header from a summons for federal jury service in Los Angeles

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 27/06/2025

Post an unusual sign if you feel like it

Sign on an elementary school bulletin board with the word NOTICE, and traditional restroom-style diagrams for man and woman, and a bidirectional arrow between them.

I still can’t figure out what exactly it’s supposed to mean, but I’m not sure I can contradict it

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 12/06/2025

You have been kidnapped and a character from the last tv show you watched is trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you? (Of course it’s Berwhale the Avenger. So it is written in the Runes of Ollerman Goff.)

Stephen Fry in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, holding a small multi-bladed knife

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 08/06/2025

If any LA folks happen to be in the vicinity of Alameda and 2nd today, two suggestions: (1) be safe (2) come pop in to see us (@transchorusla.bsky.social) performing at Angel City Brewery with Muszette and Ari Tibi! We're on at 4:00 :) P.S. As always, abolish ICE

Poster for the Out Block Party at Angel City Brewery, June 8, 2025, doors open at 11:30 am.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 23/04/2025

I heard on @lingthusiasm.bsky.social that some folks have trouble knowing which way the logo is oriented. Somehow I've never had that problem

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 27/03/2025

Am I just being uncharitable, or does this feel like a lot of words for "we've decided All Lives Matter"?

We are now refining one of USC’s Unifying Values by broadening “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)” into “Community.” The term “DEI” has evolved to encompass so many interpretations as it has increasingly become embroiled in broader cultural and political disagreements. The value we place on “Community” very clearly underscores our commitment to maintaining a campus culture in which every Trojan is valued, respected, and supported. Recent evolving federal legal guidance further reinforces that our language and actions must be both precise and unambiguous.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 23/11/2024

I’m glad nobody ever tweeted about being on Twitter

Tweet from Jack Dorsey: “just setting up my twttr”

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 14/11/2024

Waffles, Peanut, and Mochi greet you in the manner of their people

A tuxedo kitten improbably perched in a storage tray that spans across a bathtub

A calico tabby kitten peeks out from a partially closed and quite messy dresser drawer

A silver tabby kitten, nestled awkwardly between my knees, mugs for the camera in a way that looks like she is demurely waving hello

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 25/10/2024

I'm so excited I can finally post about this! Months ago I got to sing with some other members of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles on this track by jasmine.4.t, produced by boygenius, and the single is finally out! jasmine4t.lnk.to/elephant

Members of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles pose for a group picture in the recording studio with folks from the songwriting and producing team. jasmine.4.t and Phoenix Rousiamanis are in the back, and TCLA music director Corinne Burch looks like they're exploding internally while Phoebe Bridgers rests her head on their shoulder.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 05/10/2024

This is what @jenwang.com and I get up to on the way to the doctor’s. (Excerpted because 60s limit)

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 14/09/2024

Mochi has mixed feelings about finding out we have video now

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 11/09/2024

People are saying I have the most perfect hands

Closeup of Trump's clasped hands in an AI-generated image. Most of the fingers are not attached to either hand, and some are entirely missing fingernails.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 05/09/2024

Costco Optical's special lens coating will let you see gay people, but will block bisexuals from your vision.

Screenshot of a diagram from Costco Optical intending to illustrate blue/violet/ultraviolet light being blocked by their lenses. A large rainbow arrow is pointed inward toward a glasses lens, and a smaller pink/purple/blue arrow is pointed back outward.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 03/09/2024

It seems I’m not going anywhere for the time being

A small silver tabby kitten sleeping on my arm

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 17/08/2024

My new symbiont is hard at work! 🥰

A graph of my kidney function (eGFR) over the past month. Pre-transplant, it sits around 6-7; in the week and a half since transplant, it shoots up dramatically, to 50. (Normal is >59.)

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 12/08/2024

It’s been almost a week since my last dialysis! Now just getting used to this med routine (these are last night’s)

An open palm holding 12 capsules, 6 tablets, and a gelcap

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 05/08/2024

Who has two needle wounds and just finished her last dialysis session?

Siobhán pointing to herself with a thumb, showing bandages over the dialysis access on her arm

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 22/07/2024

I feel like AP and ABC News are making fools of themselves by not retracting this. Both because it VERY quickly proved false, and because they had so little to go on that the entire article is just the exact same text three times (verbatim in headline, subhead, and body)

Biden doesn't immediately endorse VP Kamala Harris, throwing Democrats into chaos months before election against Trump

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 22/07/2024

🚨 THERE ARE TINY TOE BEANS IN OUR HOUSE 🚨 🚨 THIS IS NOT A DRILL 🚨

A tiny silver tabby kitten sleeping belly-up on a folded-up towel in a carrier

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 22/07/2024

I have solved the age-old quandary of which to make for dinner, please clap

A large purple plate with a stack of pancakes on one side, a stack of waffles on the other, and a spatula resting on the edge

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 15/07/2024

Came back from vacation to find this in our vegetable bed. As far as I know the nearest lantana is a block away, so no idea how this volunteer came to visit!

Close-up of a lantana blossom cluster, with yellow flowers in the center and orange around the outside

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 22/06/2024

Take a good last look! I've been trying to wear this thing proudly as a visible sign of my disability, but tbh I'm looking forward to getting my collarbones back. More than that, though, I'm getting sick of the skin necrosis and the inability to move my shoulder without pain.

I'm outside wearing a strappy blue floral dress that exposes my dialysis catheter and 4x4 dressing. The dressing is over my right collarbone and the catheter is wrapped in gauze and extends about 4-5 inches below the dressing.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 17/06/2024

Ah yes, the three genders. (courtesy of MuseScore's vocal part selection)

Three lines that read "Women", "Men", and "Kazoo"

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 02/06/2024

Also, it popped up first in my Apple Music suggestions, and fourth on their Pride playlist

Screenshot of Apple Music suggesting The Village as performed by Wrabel and the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles

Screenshot of Apple Music’s Pride playlist. Forth on the list is The Village as performed by Wrabel and the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 08/03/2024

About to celebrate International Women’s Day by heading into surgery with what appears to be an all-women care team 🎉

Selfie sitting on a hospital bed, in a blue gown, a yellow face mask, and a hair net

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 06/02/2024

Hi from the blood salon 👋🩸💇🏼‍♀️

Siobhán undergoing hemodialysis. She has pinkish hair and glasses and is double-masked, and two tubes leading from a catheter in her jugular are carrying blood out to the dialysis machine and back.

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Siobhán Dougall @siobhandougall.com · 24/01/2024

Hello world! I've been lurking here on and off for a while, but I might start hanging around more for real. 👋🏻 (Also I know I don't have to pic-for-the-algo here, but look at this face)

Pistachio, a French bulldog, lying contentedly in a small dog bed with her chin resting on the side of the bed. Her eyes are ope, but she's not far off from falling asleep.

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