iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 05/10/2026

I did a tiny bit of luthiery, too. Filed slots in a black Tusq (tm) nut and then sanded/polished it to 3000 grit. It’s looks pretty nice!

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 30/09/2026

Found out about a surprise Descendents show tonight in Berkeley, CA. So tonight this aging punk is going to the punk rock show! The shirt does not fit me quite as well as when I bought it…

A middle aged white man with glasses, wearing a Descendents T-shirt and an Author & Punisher hat stands in front of a closed storefront.

The marquee of the UC Theatre in Berkeley, CA.

At the top of the billing is “9/29 Descendents”

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 04/09/2026

Mine makes sense. Spent the first -20 years of my life in MI, grad school in KCMO for 4.5 years, then here in CA for the last 21 years:

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 19/08/2026

It was Christmas morning 1991 when I received my first CD/dual cassette boombox and my first CDs: Boyz II Men: Cooleyhighharmony Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Hook (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

An 11-yr-old boy with messy curly brown hair wearing a black sweatshirt, with a bookcase behind him. In the foreground are some Christmas tree boughs.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 23/07/2026

When proselytizers show up at my front door, I just open the door, glower at them, and tap this sign:

A spooky looking sign with the following text:

NO SOLICITING
violators will
be sacrificed
to the
OLD GODS
not the new

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 26/06/2026

I am victorious, I think... Is there a level two?

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 30/05/2026

LOLs from the neighborhood UPS store:

An aluminum dolly, with a photo of Dolly Parton zip tied to the frame.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 29/05/2026

Sweet merch spoils from this evening’s metal show: Sepultura, Exodus, Biohazard, and Tribal Gaze. Excellent show; I’ve been wanting to see Biohazard and Sepultura since the mid-1990s…

Photo of a black T-shirt with an indigenous person wearing a feather headdress. Their neck is a mass of red roots/red veins.

The text reads:
SEPULTURA
THE PLACE

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 23/05/2026

As promised: The counterfeit Q-Tips. Easy to spot if you look at the poorly proof-read copy on the back of the package…

A box of knock-off/counterfeit Q-Tips sits on a rough wooden workbench.

A box of knock-off/counterfeit Q-Tips sits on a rough wooden workbench. The text is error-ridden, including misspelled words like “wwab”.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 16/05/2026

Nice! That’s coming together!! Saturdays are for sanding here in the Devil Mountain Guitars shop. And soon, grain fill…

A figured white oak telecaster body sits atop a green pad on a workbench. Next to it is a Bosch random orbital sander.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 13/05/2026

Arya has already forgiven me, and has returned to her favorite spot, nestled between my backside and the back of my desk chair. Velcro cat, for sure!!

A black cat sits nestled behind a human in an office chair. Her right paw is outstretched in a relaxed pose.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 19/04/2026

I don't know what I need, but I do know that I don't currently have it in my life. Thankfully my velcro kitty and lumbar support cat, Arya, still loves me, and wants to be as close to me as feline-ly possible:

A short-haired black cat with green-yellow eyes sits on an office chair, cozily nestled between a human butt and the back of the chair. The human is wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 15/04/2026

Here’s why I didn’t get to sleep at a reasonable hour last night in my hotel: Tornado Warning!

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 29/03/2026

I saw something like the striped hawk moth last night! It was so big I thought it was a hummingbird at first! It was eating pollen from the jasmine blossoms:

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 14/01/2026

Our dear fluff-for-brains floofus, Sansa, makes similar squeaky noises, but not quite that high...

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 13/01/2026

My home river is the mighty Huron river! Named after the Huron band of native Americans, also known as the Wyandotte tribe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huron_R...

An aerial photograph of a beautiful bend in the Huron river. Fall color is visible on the trees surrounding the river. In the distance, bridges cross the river.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 10/01/2026

Purring lap cat makes this noise when the belly rubs stop:

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 10/01/2026

Damn near everything in the world has gone to shit at the moment… But, tonight my sweet former feral kitty Arya stayed on my lap and fell asleep purring for 45m. That’s the longest she’s done that for me.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 04/01/2026

Meanwhile, I'm getting served ads on FaceBook about seeking asylum in Canada:

An ad with the following text above it:
"Seek a Safe Haven for Your Family? 🇨🇦
Discover if you're eligible for Canadian immigration & secure your family's future.
Find out now >>> 🇵🇱🤝🇨🇦
Experience Canada's welcoming environment, designed with families in mind.
A stable home awaits."

Ad reads: "Canada is Looking for You"

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 31/12/2025

I’m glad I brought my earplugs. HoF is definitely putting this D&B Audiotechnik PA system through its paces…

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 31/12/2025

Super stoked to see my Oakland thrash metal god heroes, High on Fire, tonight at GAMH. The scene of tonight brutal riff carnage:

A stage at a dimly lit medium sized music venue. A PA system is visible above the stage. Several bands’ worth of drums and backline gear grace the stage. The lighting is delightfully bisexual.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 27/12/2025

If you see this post, share a smile.

020

Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 23/12/2025

In optimistic/non-doom news, I'm approaching the finish line on two different luthiery projects: 1) A white oak Telecaster, mostly made from my brother Sam's felled white oak from his yard in IL. 2) A multi-scale 5-string bass, with a crazy myrtle burl top. Hoping to have both of these done soon.

Two guitars, one Telecaster-style guitar and one fan-fret multi-scale through neck bass guitar, sit on a workbench in various states of completion...

A through neck multi-scale bass guitar with a wild figured myrtle burl body top sits on a workbench, in progress...

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 19/12/2025

Waiting for my colonoscopy appointment at Kaiser. If I die under anesthesia, I loved you all. Yes, you too! See you on the other side.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 30/11/2025

This year, I got the Christmas lights up on The Music House right on time. (Far better than last year where I didn’t manage it until 12/22!) I love coming home to the house looking so bright and festive!! And I love our Pride flag! 🏳️‍🌈❤️🎄 #TheMusicHouse #ChristmasLights #Pride

A beige and light green two-story house, adorned with warm-colored Christmas lights. A garland of multi-colored lights are hung on a second-story balcony, with a Progress Pride Flag hanging above them.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 16/11/2025

My Velcro kitty, Arya, is similarly velvety. She sends purrs and anxious squeaks.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 31/10/2025

It's not exactly hope for the future, but it's a little delicious metal as a treat... New album from Avatar, "Don't Go In The Forest" dropped tonight!! Fantastic metal album. Well-written and produced. Melodic, haunting, but also brutal as fuck. avatarmetal.com

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 22/10/2025

Found it!! One of them was perched above the power transformer that feeds our house, just hangin' out, being silhouetted!

A telephone pole with power lines and a transformer on it, silhouetted against a grey sky. Perched atop the pole is a great horned owl, also in silhouette.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 22/10/2025

Went looking for a Great Horned Owl photo in my massive photo library... Couldn't find the picture yet. But, Apple's built-in image search mis-identified our lovely semi-feral backyard kitty Athena as an owl!

A fluffy tortoiseshell cat with yellow eyes and alert upright ears sits in an apricot tree, amidst a bunch of blossoms. She looks a little bit like an owl.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 15/10/2025

Bastard’s at it again. I know it’s likely not his fault, and that someone else made the shitass decision to request this work happen, but FUUUCK all of them. It’s fucking 1:30AM.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 12/10/2025

Sansa is a very good girl!!

A fluffy black cat sits on a round pillow, covered with a red towel. She is looking behind her, lovingly, her front paws rest on the sill of a window nearby.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 03/09/2025

Waking up every day anxious, angry, and in physical pain isn’t how I want to spend the remaining years of my life. But at least there’s coffee, and cute cats.

020

Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 23/08/2025

Today’s an all-Mastodon day in my earholes. Currently blasting their ferocious 2002 release, Remission, while doing some fret prep work in the workshop. Such groundbreaking guitar work. R.I.P. Brent Hinds.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 17/08/2025

On the upside, at least this cat loves me:

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 14/08/2025

She’s perfection in tiny panther form. My voidling familiar, Arya, sends you both tiny purr-chirps of greeting:

A shorthaired black cat with yellow-green eyes sits on a grey futon, in “loaf” pose.

020

Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 09/07/2025

9 years ago today, I was in Caracas, Venezuela, supporting my colleagues in tuning a Constellation active acoustics system in the Teatro Teresa Carreño, their national performing arts theatre. Today I am exchanging emails with an audio tech working there, trying to help with a hardware issue.

A futuristic theatre complex, composed mainly of brutalist angular poured concrete and glass, surrounded by lush tropical greenery.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 04/07/2025

Always a good call, especially Wake of a Nation! Z&A is probably my favorite heavy music artist of the last decade. And Manuel Gagneux's lyrics and genre-bending juxtapositions are always deeply compelling. Here's a clip of "Blood in the River" from when I saw them in Berkeley last December:

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 02/06/2025

These things: I don’t even know what frequency band they’re in…

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 19/04/2025

This is a Paul checkpoint, post a famous paul or do not pass go...

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 07/04/2025

After a few unwelcome rude salespeople and annoying religious messengers, we decided to take measures here at The Music House…

Close-up on the wall of an off-white house with green trim. Between a porch light fixture and a mailbox is a black sign with wood grain colored text reading: "NO SOLICITING violators will be sacrificed to the OLD GODS not the new"

A black sign with wood grain colored text reading:

"NO SOLICITING violators will be sacrificed to the OLD GODS not the new."

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 02/04/2025

Aww, they're perfectly adorable! I also have a mismatched set of black kitties, Arya and Sansa. They're littermates, but couldn't have more different personalities. And I also refer to them as #Panfurs. #CatsOfBlueSky #BlackCats #LapDragons

A short haired black cat with light green eyes relaxes on an off-white Ottoman.

A medium-haired fluffy black cat with golden yellow eyes lounges on a pillow covered with a red towel. Her front paws rest on the edge of a window.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 14/02/2025

I loved our house already, but now I love it even more. Flying pride front and center. #pride #loveislove #antifascist #fucktrump #fuckelon

A progress pride flag hangs from a steel balcony railing, on the second level of an off-white colored house.

A man in black clothes is visible through a window, hanging a progress pride flag on a metal balcony.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 11/02/2025

Okay, so this particular bootlicking ass-hattery was apparently my last straw. I'm ditching all Google's services for good. Looking for a new email hosting provider. Ideally one with E2EE, and one that can easily ingest all my gmail messages. Recommendations and horror stories welcome.

A map of the Gulf of Mexico on Google maps, unfortunately mislabeled as "Gulf of America".

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 11/01/2025

It may be time to purchase and post the sign I've been thinking about:

A wooden sign, with the following words carved in it:
"NO SOLICITING. Violators will be sacrificed to the OLD GODS not the new."

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 10/01/2025

Sansa has biiiig floof but a tiny high-pitched voice. She mostly communicates in little trills and squeaks. Sometimes her mouth opens but no sound comes out. We’ve decided that is when she’s gone ultrasonic.

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 30/12/2024

Neck and headstock are routed to shape, and the fretboard binding strips have been cut off the fretboard blank’s edges. Next up: Sawing the fret slots, gluing the fretboard and binding together and then gluing the fretboard and veneer to the body...

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Tom Cavnar @sonusexmachina.com · 30/12/2024

Oakencaster progress update: The book-matched flamed white oak top is jointed up and rough cut to shape; the black veneer is glued to the its back. The f-hole has been sawed and routed through the top and tidied up, and chamfered inside the body. #luthiery #telecaster #oakencaster #scratchbuild

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