iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

There are definitely some one-star books I'll lowering to quarter star. Finally! Some of those book club nightmares can go even lower...

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Oooooo! Goodreads now has half - and quarter!! - stars? Fun! It's probably too much agonizing work to go back and adjust 19 years worth of ratings, but I might at least start with this year. www.goodreads.com/blog/show/3199

goodreads.com

The (Half) Stars Have Aligned

Half stars are here! And quarter stars, too. More ways to say exactly what you mean.Every reader has their own opinions about rating: You...

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

What can I say? I've purchased a few things for work on Amazon:

From the Amazon About You for me:
Brands
Prefers Ticonderoga for writing supplies

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In this week's episode of @itsgotstartrek.bsky.social @dang-bitz.bsky.social melted my brain by making what must (MUST) be the first ever reference to DS9's episode Allamaraine as the positive side of a comparison (around 52 minutes, "At least in Allamaraine...") 🤯🖖💀

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Somehow this has become my most ever viewed photo on Flickr (I feel certain that they'll realize they've made a mistake and will remove my photo). Just gonna put it here that I simply pointed my shitty-ass cell phone camera at mother nature. She did all the heavy lifting. flic.kr/p/2smhBoe

flic.kr

More from the caribou herd

A great way to start our day on the Dalton Highway

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Awwwwe! I remember a time when the National Weather Service had sufficient staffing to predict things like rain.

Raindrops caught on a screen window. Too bad nothing about this rain was predicted in the forecast or even shown as currently happening on the weather app.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Beautiful! Your cos play skills are amazing!!!

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Almost as impressive as how quickly Target burned decades of goodwill with their corporate choices since Jan 2025.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

White is really the grossest color for a mousepad. But my heart is tickled every time I see it. literally zero of the peeps I work with have mentioned it nonetheless...

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

School is back in session and we're back in person at the "reference desk." I was delighted to see this wee accoutrement that I'd forgotten I'd put at the desk months ago. 🖖🏻

Mouse pad with text "Zefram Cochrane Memorial Library - Starfleet Academy - San Francisco, Earth" sits with a computer mouse and keyboard partially covering it.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I love it! And yet I think perhaps there are more people who would love this book so I'm sharing again. I both do, and do not want October to arrive already 😅

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I'm more of a borrow from the library first then if I love it, buy it kind of person. But in this case, I'm all in on the pre-order! Join us!

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I read recently that the author said her publisher made her include the first portion of the book - I recommend just getting through it, the chewy alien bits will come along soon enough.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I assume it was this! I love how Cherryh's aliens are just so alien. I will admit I stopped after maybe book four or five in the series though. I would totally re-read the first three though. I mostly loved that CS Friedman book Black Sun Rising just for the cover, LOL.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'm very, very late to the mountain discourse. But I have to say, the Rocky Mountains feeeed my soul. You can have your mountains that eat yours.

Rusted rock in the foreground, pointy Canadian Rockies in the background.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I adore all the details of your costume from the very fancy earrings to the Jamaharon necklace 😍

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I am ready to see all y'alls #STLV posts and I shall not be in the least bit jealous that y'all planned better than I did and are actually attending for the 60th anniversary😂🖖

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Always fun! Are you trying their new stuff and/or keeping to the classics 🕺🪩

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

There were a lot of things I didn't photograph on my trip through the Sacramento River Delta today. This is just one I couldn't resist posting from Locke.

Some sort of old timey machine that says Hot Peanuts. I can't really imagine, let alone describe how I think all the drawers and pipes would lead to such a thing.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I finally finished up a last bit of chair work from that policy committee. AND I dodged being chair of another committee. What a wonderful day 🎉🙌

Seals chilling on some ice floating in the most beautiful, calm waters of Prince William Sound.

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Graham Annable @grickle.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

A crow organizing their collection of crinkled gum wrappers. #grickledoodle #crow #gum

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Gates of the Arctic National Park, you are breathtaking 💙⛰️

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Just chilling in the Arctic enjoying the wildlife. Lol, chilling as in relaxing, it's like 60-something out there.

Two adult musk ox (oxen?) nosh on grass with two babies nearby.

Attic swans out hanging about in the water with some ducks.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Bsky ate my post so have this one shot of a raft of sea otters living their best otter lives in Prince William Sound - now with a glacier in the background!

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Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 13/06/2026

who in Toronto wants 8000 pounds of free Star Trek rocks because TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY DAY readysetrecycle.net/advert/free-...

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I'd consider it a miracle if I finished even one book on this, my latest physical TBR pile 😅📚

From top to bottom, these are the books in the pile in the photo:
[A tan book] Space in Medieval Painting and the Forerunners of Perspective
[A purple book] Pronoun Trouble
[A teal book] Useless Etymology
[A red book] To Shape a Dragon's Breath
[A pink book] Knight of a Trillion Stars
[A blue-green book] The Unicorn Quest
[An orange spine of a white book] Stony the Road

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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I keep looking for mitigating factors, or ways the impact of these new policies (which are already being applied, at least in part, per recent anecdotes/reporting) might have been overstated. And I have found none. This is a genuinely extreme, extraordinarily, and immensely dangerous development.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I'm sure people are capable... doesn't seem like publishers agree, sadly.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 29/05/2026

It’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I just happen to be reading a 1994 Anne Stuart romance where I'm seeing mentions of internet, satellite radio, and Taylor Swift. I don't know why I'm so shocked anybody would take the time to update a category romance which - trust me - is still mired in all its 1990s-ness even with the tweaks.

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Alan Sepinwall @sepinwall.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Love it: the night after he was kicked off of CBS for good, Stephen Colbert hosted a public access show in southeast Michigan.

youtube.com

Only In Monroe --- May 22, 2026

YouTube video by Stephen Colbert

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

While at the theater I noticed the new Avengers and Dune 3 movies are dropping the same day?!?!! Sheesh, can't these studios spread this shit out a bit??

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

There was very little there there but at least Grogu and the wee alien peeps were cute and funny as ever. Heartfelt awwes all around!

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

2019 was the year my trusty DragonCon companion and I went to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. LOL, where I saw and dubbed this the Death Star in Glass.

A glass orb sitting on a white surface is shown; it has a vague resemblance to the death star as portrayed in Star Wars.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Hmmm, my now that my worst committee commitment has concluded, I'm pondering DragonCon again. I'm just gonna post this photo to inspire me into some action soon (this is the awesome shit that DragonCon delivers).

2019 DragonCon panel hosted by Garret Wang featuring Mary Chieffo, Shazad Latif, and Ethan Peck.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

It's amazing to me how many people who live in California have never been. In my heart it's so much more awesome than Yosemite.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I definitely want to hear the soundtrack on the sweet movie theatre sound system 😍🎶

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Oh autocorrect, you bike while I'm not brave enough.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I love that a local brewery whipped up a few special beers to help the local food bank celebrate its 50th anniversary. Lol, too bad I wasn't bike enough to ask for a can to take home to add to my collection 😁🍺

Two beer cans with light blue labels with text reading
Urban Roots
50 Years
Nourish 916
West Coast IPA

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

LOL! I salute you for being able to hold out against the library-ness of it all 🖖

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Perhaps the first time in my life (ever!) that I'm aware of all the parties involved. Which, really is why I'm so unwilling to fully engage in fandom (people are exhausting!) Nonetheless, not as exhausting as Star Trek writers who can't/don't/won't take the time to understand their source material.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Along with that, I also got the Starfleet Academy Zefram Cochrane Memorial Library* mousepad. And yes, my friends, yesssssss! I'll be installing that mousepad at the reference desk at my library 🤓🖖📚 *I opt to believe the Zefram Cochrane Memorial Library is based on the CSU Northridge library.

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sparklebeam.bsky.social @sparklebeam.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I held out as long as I could, but today I succumbed to the library-ness* of it all and bought what is, to me, the sole piece of awesome official Starfleet Academy merch. *Some of the exterior shots of Starfleet Academy from 2009's Star Trek were taken in front of the library at CSU Northridge

Image of a sticker with text that says Zefram Chochrane Memorial Library Starfleet Academy San Francisco, Earth. On top of the text is the image of a library that has a passing resemblance to the front of the CSU Northridge Library with the Golden Gate Bridge lurking in the background beneath a red sky filled with stars.

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

The Voting Rights Act is essentially dead and it’s quite possible that we will, like when a similar SCOTUS gutted civil rights at the fall of Reconstruction, see a disappearance of much of the Black congressional representation, especially in the most heavily Black states, which are in the South.

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