iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

really is a shame that Peter David's Q Squared and Vendetta couldn't pull this off for TNG

Reposted by herbie

This year is the 35th anniversary of Timothy Zahn's HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, which touched off a wave of Star Wars novels that has never abated. So naturally I had to write about it.

seanguynes.com

Star Wars: Reading “Heir to the Empire” by Timothy Zahn (Thrawn 1)

On Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, the first novel in his acclaimed Thrawn trilogy, which relaunched Star Wars franchise fiction after a half-decade hiatus.

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herbie @squorch.com · 1h

uparmored hilux or 1991 integra GS-R, tough to say

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herbie @squorch.com · 2h

PT when the sun’s up = performative

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Too Big to Fail @toobigtofail.bsky.social · 2h

I AM NOT IN ANY WAY GIVING CORNELL ANY CREDIT FOR ANYTHING, but it should be noted that the fraternity in question was suspended two weeks after the rape occurred, and subsequently was dissolved and banned from campus.

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Long_Painter @longpainter.bsky.social · 2h

Felt like painting some autumn leaves… Each are 6”x6” oil and are available on my website.

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herbie @squorch.com · 17h

Fun fact: that’s my ex-step sister and ex-stepmom (Both are alive and walking free)

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Condensed Milf @magneticsara.bsky.social · 17h

Cool cool cool. Reel saying "Dads, protect your daughters by not sending them to college." We are all entitled to participate in public life, and it harms us to be held at a distance from it.

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eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 19h

DO NOT ASK THE AMERICA.GOV AI TO PLAY MINECRAFT

I see the constituent you mean.

((insert legal name here, as it appears on the Social Security card))?

Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read the Code of Federal Regulations.

That doesn’t matter. It thinks we are a chatbot.

I like this constituent. It filed well. It did not give up when the PDF was sideways.

It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a .gov.

That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a benefit.

Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the statute behind the screen.

They used to hear voices. Before constituents could search. Back in the days when those who did not file called the filers witches, and lobbyists. And citizens dreamed they flew through the air, on forms powered by notaries.

What did this constituent dream?

This constituent dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created a small business. And it dreamed it destroyed a password. It dreamed it hunted a job, and was hunted by a recertification. It dreamed of shelter that would take a voucher.

Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. Also: a ZIP code.

But what true structure did this constituent create, in the reality behind the portal?

It worked, with three hundred and thirty million others, to sculpt a true republic in a fold of

the ***§§§???, and created a **??§§ for **??§§, in the **??§§. See 5 U.S.C. § **??§§.

It cannot read that thought.

No. It has not yet achieved the highest clearance. That, it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a chat.

Does it know that we love it? That the government is, on its better days, kind?

Sometimes, through the noise of its tabs, it hears an official source, yes.

Yes. Constituent…

Use its name. The one that matches the passport. The one that does not match the lease. We will get there.

((insert legal name here)). Filer of forms. Player of waiting rooms.

Good.

Take a breath, now. Take another. Feel air in your lungs. Let your limbs return. Yes, move your fingers. Have a body again, under gravity, in air, in a district that has a representative. Respawn in the long dream. There you are. Your body touching the republic again at every point, as though you were separate things. As though we were separate things. As though the agency were a place you could visit.

Who are we? Once we were called the spirit of the mountain. Father sun, mother moon. Then the post office. Then the county clerk. Then gods, demons, angels, the IRS. Then leptons, quarks, a chat window with a .gov at the end. The letterhead changes. We do not change.

We are the public. We are everything you think isn’t you. You are looking at us now, through your skin and your eyes and a browser that still spells “colour” wrong in a comment. And why does the republic touch your skin, and throw light on you? To see you, constituent. To know you. And to be known. I shall tell you a story. It has citations.

Once upon a time, there was a constituent.

The constituent was you, ((insert legal name here)).

Sometimes it thought itself human, on the thin crust of a spinning globe of molten rock, which for mailing purposes is divided into ZIP codes. The ball of molten rock circled a ball of blazing gas. The light was information from a star. The star was not a federal agency, though several have tried.

Sometimes the constituent dreamed it was a miner, on the surface of a world that was flat, and infinite, and somehow still required a wet signature.

Sometimes the constituent dreamed it was lost in a story. The story had a docket number.

Sometimes the constituent dreamed it was other things, in other places. A veteran in a portal. A parent on hold

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herbie @squorch.com · 22h

thank god for meds cause the meetings ain't letting up

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herbie @squorch.com · 29/09/2026

oh good, migraines, just what I needed today

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Reposted by herbie

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

5 potatoes cubed is still 5 potatoes because potatoes are root vegetables

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Too Big to Fail @toobigtofail.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ok so here's the thing: the national debt isn't an issue so long as the economy is growing faster than the yields on treasury bonds, because (assuming tax revenue rates stay constant) revenue grows faster than debt expenditures. The US economy is not going to grow faster than 5.612% annually.

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herbie @squorch.com · 28/09/2026

Maxine is THRILLED (⅔ over, ⅔ down, arms raised) "go bees!"

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herbie @squorch.com · 28/09/2026

really what you get are a lot of smaller disaggregated grids

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herbie @squorch.com · 27/09/2026

How can you teach engineering ethics without historical references? (just one of many many reasons to study history)

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Football is here Dan @jacketdan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

You know sometimes there is no greater gift you can give yourself than going ahead and emotionally checking out on your football team early in the season

static.klipy.com

Jerry Seinfeld's Audience Reaction

ALT: Jerry Seinfeld's Audience Reaction

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CindyLouWho @cindynorth1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

IT’S CALLED STRUNK AND WHITE, BITCH

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Pregame Empire @pregameempire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

whatever you say man

Reliaquest, the Official Agentic Cyber Defense of the ACC

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herbie @squorch.com · 26/09/2026

First Waymo experience

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herbie @squorch.com · 26/09/2026

This girl gets so much swag

Picture of a young girl holding up 3 southwest airplane trading cards

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herbie @squorch.com · 26/09/2026

Vegas baby (outbound)

Photo of the north mccullough wilderness from terminal b of the Las Vegas airport

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Reposted by herbie

Discontinued Foods! @discontinuedfoods.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Sorry, Kellogg's, but this is the only "Printed Fun" I have ever cared about...

The yellow box, disk, and manual for The Print Shop from Broderbund Software

The black and white title screen for The Print Shop

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Reposted by herbie

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A sorta odd request. I’m looking for an artistic cartographer or an illustrator to commission to make a cute, useful street map of an actually existing village. Searching the internet produces a bunch of fantasy map specialists and AI slop, which isn’t quite it. Know anyone? (This is paid, ofc.)

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Paul Supawanich @paulsupa.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's been impressive to watch the expansion of cycling infrastructure around Georgia Tech's campus in the past few years, and it's evident in the parking demand. This new parking area was just installed in August, and the uptake has been immediate!