iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 21/09/2026

It's been a while since i've posted my reading log. just finished Red Rising and am starting Golden Son.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 20/07/2026

my kids game me this mylar mario for my birthday… in 2018. if it was sealed well, you might be waiting a while.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 28/12/2025

2025 stacked. 52 finished. Not pictured: book 3 of the poppy war trilogy since i donated my paperbacks in anticipation of the 3rd book’s deluxe edition.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 07/10/2025

i'm sorry but a 2000 mustang GT is not a "historical car". i am not OK with this.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 23/09/2025

next up, the once and future king by t.h. white. i grabbed this while reading @levgrossman.com ‘s “the bright sword” earlier this year (which was amazing) and i’m in the mood to dive back into the arthurian thing so here we go. idk if i’ll read it in one shot or break it up into its component novels

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 08/09/2025

Had a 3+ hour flight today and time alone at a hotel, so... I finished Katabasis by RF Kuang (only had like 15 pages to go) and I also had plenty of time to read all of Starter Villain by @scalzi.com (who has quickly become one of my favorite authors). Both were different kinds of fantastic.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 30/06/2025

halfway through the year, not bad so far. 33 down, 1 DNF. 14313 pages, 80/day on average.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 21/06/2025

terry pratchett had this habit of writing a series of words so ridiculous that, before being written, had no business being placed in that particular order, but he did it anyway, to great success.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/05/2025

oh and if you haven’t already go read the dungeon crawler carl series by matt dinniman. just finished book 5, book 6 hardcover arrives in 10 days, book 7 hardcover out in september, and he’s started on book 8. these are spectacular. funny but dark and getting darker.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/05/2025

1/3 of the way through 2025, 19 books completed, 1 book abandoned. 8611 pages read so far. the backlog grows, i keep finding stuff i wanna read.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 13/04/2025

is it tuxedo cat picture time? i think it’s. meet toaster.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 31/03/2025

this vonnegut fella, turns out he was quite good with words.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 09/03/2025

2025 reading log as of today. i'm on pace for 60 books this year, which not bad considering I don't think i'd read more than 1 or 2 in a year since 2007, and most of those years I didn't read any actual books.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 07/03/2025

that chorus on true believer got jason like

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/03/2025

a few more faces and words for the engraving

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 25/02/2025

MLB actually said they think the "art of pitch framing" is a reason NOT to have ABS just call all balls and strikes. literally "catchers spend a ton of time learning to fool umpires (who are completely unaccountable!) and they don't want to lose that." also, "there are more walks with full ABS"

Why the challenge system and not full ABS?
Minor League (MiLB) testing revealed a clear preference among fans, players, managers and other personnel for the challenge system. The reason, in so many words, is that fans and baseball people still desire a human element of umpiring that involves feel for the game. In MiLB games featuring full ABS, walks were more prevalent, causing games to drag on (and countering the improvements in pace made by the pitch clock).
Also, the art of pitch framing -- a craft catchers have studied and in many cases mastered -- would go away with full ABS. This is a change the players generally do not support.
Were full ABS to come to the big leagues, it would be hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. The challenge system is seen as a way to get more of the most important calls correct without dramatically altering the sport overnight. It is a middle ground between full ABS and tradition.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 22/02/2025

just finished “dr. no” by percival everett. it was good. not my favorite book of all time. took some effort to get through parts of it because of how it was written, a lot of theoretical math jargon because of the main character being a mathematician of sorts, but was still good.

A sly, madcap novel about supervillains and nothing, really, from an American novelist whose star keeps rising The protagonist of Percival Everett's puckish new novel is a brilliant professor of mathematics who goes by Wala Kitu. (Wala, he explains, means "nothing" in Tagalog, and Kitu is Swahili for "nothing.") He is an expert on nothing. That is to say, he is an expert, and his area of study is nothing, and he does nothing about it. This makes him the perfect partner for the aspiring villain John Sill, who wants to break into Fort Knox to steal, well, not gold bars but a shoebox containing nothing. Once he controls nothing he'll proceed with a dastardly plan to turn a Massachusetts town into nothing. Or so he thinks. With the help of the brainy and brainwashed astrophysicist-turned-henchwoman Eigen Vector, our professor tries to foil the villain while remaining in his employ. In the process, Wala Kitu learns that Sill's desire to become a literal Bond villain originated in some real all-American villainy related to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. As Sill says, "Professor, think of it this way. This country has never given anything to us and it never will. We have given everything to it. I think it's time we gave nothing back." Dr. No is a caper with teeth, a wildly mischievous novel from one of our most inventive, provocative, and productive writers. That it is about nothing isn't to say that it's not about anything. In fact, it's about villains. Bond villains. And that's not nothing.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 21/02/2025

ha, just the order i saw them in on the bookshelf.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 21/02/2025

Wanted to make a concerted effort to read more books, and really started in earnest this year. Here's where I am so far, and here's my backlog.

List of books currently read, including pages, dates, days to read, and pages per day.

Title Author Pages Date Started Date Completed Days Pages/Day
Dune Herbert, Frank 516 2024-07-01 2024-07-21 20 26
Dune Messiah Herbert, Frank 267 2024-07-21 2024-07-24 3 89
Children of Dune Herbert, Frank 475 2024-08-01 2024-08-23 22 22
God Emperor of Dune Herbert, Frank 473 2024-08-24 2024-10-25 62 8
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick, Phillip K. 224 2024-10-26 2024-12-06 41 5
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons Beagle, Peter S. 275 2025-01-01 2025-01-04 3 92
James Everett, Percival 303 2025-01-04 2025-01-08 4 76
Fourth Wing Yarros, Rebecca 498 2025-01-08 2025-01-14 6 83
Iron Flame Yarros, Rebecca 623 2025-01-16 2025-01-23 7 89
Onyx Storm Yarros, Rebecca 527 2025-01-23 2025-02-04 12 44
The Frugal Wizards' Guide to Surviving Medieval England Sanderson, Brandon 364 2025-02-04 2025-02-10 6 61
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine Hamilton, Peter F. 893 2025-02-10 2025-02-20 10 89

List of books in my backlog, title & author
Title Author
The Bright Sword Grossman, Lev
Dr. No Everett, Percival
Dungeon Crawler Carl Dinniman, Matt
The Last Unicorn Beagle, Peter S.
Dragonfall Lam, L. R.
Off To Be A Wizard Meyer, Scott
The City In Glass Vo, Nghi
Neuromancer Gibson, William

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 15/02/2025

i need to build more bookshelves but i have no clue how to arrange everything in a way that doesn’t get thrown completely askew when we buy new books! this doesn’t even include the other 100+ books in the kids rooms that they bought themselves, or all the science books below in cabinets.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 13/02/2025

next up, grabbed this off the cover blurbs. so far, 240 pages in, it’s pretty neat! hell of a way to hype up an upcoming video game, which i will surely be buying.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 10/02/2025

finishing up “the frugal wizard’s guide to surviving medieval england” by brandon sanderson today, bought it off the cover and title alone, and it went places i did not expect at all. very very engaging, strong recommend.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 27/01/2025

we put some suet caged out with our feeders and get these fellas every day. also, if you're into birdwatching, we got our bird-obsessed son a bird buddy camera feeder. it takes pictures and videos and helps identify what it sees. we got a video of this chickadee yesterday.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 11/01/2025

it’s the perfect @vinny.vinesauce.com / vdub collab stream, unboxing the beach boys funko pops

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/01/2025

picked up "fourth wing" on an impulse buy after the display for the latest book in the series caught my eye. looked up reviews, and a 4.6/5 with 2.3 million reviews on goodreads was good enough for me! will start this as soon as i finish 'james'

book cover for fourth wing by rebecca yarros

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/01/2025

also started 'james' and whew lad this is a banger. super smart retelling of huck finn from jim's perspective, i'm about 1/3 of the way through, strong recommend.

book cover for james by percival everett

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 04/01/2025

some book stuff: recently picked up "i'm afraid you've got dragons" honestly because i thought my sons might like it despite it being an 'adult' book', but I read it first and it's really quite good! not the most difficult or longest read, but i definitely recommend it!

book cover for i'm afraid you've got dragons by peter s. beagle

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 27/12/2024

the clock module is done! we’ll start the actual 6502 project tomorrow.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 20/12/2024

to celebrate me bringing my record player upstairs and getting it hooked up so i actually use it, a little treat for me. also these meze classic 99s doin' the job with these records.

amazon order status showing better oblivion community center vinyl arriving monday

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 05/12/2024

listen, just look at this guy. he's going without anesthesia and he's FINE! people are just too soft!

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 05/12/2024

did dodge have a tempo? i know ford did, my family had one for a few years.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 02/12/2024

Got the ben eater 6502 kit for my oldest for christmas. was GOING to get it for me, but he seemed pretty interested when I had the 6502 build videos playing on YouTube the other day so here we go. considered doing the full 8-bit computer kit but this seems to be an easier project to bite off.

three boxes, one containing the ben eater 8-bit breadboard computer clock module, one with the 6502 computer kit, and the last with the 6502 serial interface kit.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 28/11/2024

turned a boring empty alcove to into something that actually looks nice. didn’t take a before picture until i had made some progress, we never figured out what to do with it so just left it green from the previous owners until now. (still gotta finish the trim, but…)

hall alcove painted an ugly celery green that we never got around to repainting or redecorating, with the start of the woodwork for the new alcove.

the alcove, rebuilt in a white shaker style with shoe cubbies, a bench stained walnut brown, shoe hooks, and three cubbies at the top.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 18/11/2024

any chance @vinny.vinesauce.com has $1200 burning a hole in his pocket to do the funniest thing?

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 17/11/2024

barely listened to the browns game. worked on this instead. i chose wisely.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 16/11/2024

the goal is something sort of like this, but the top will be a walnut-stained flip top bench with storage under it, similar to the top of this bench i made a few years ago.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 16/11/2024

day one of turning this alcove into something pleasant to look at. it’s a slightly trapezoidal opening which is highly annoying.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 16/11/2024

here in ohio, we have smart fourtwos with lift kits, noisy pipes, and extra wide tires. very impressive.

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 16/11/2024

84% shooting seems hard to stop!

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 09/11/2024

what a flop by the ref! tuck and roll!

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stephen, in real life. @stephenmartin.io · 29/09/2023

how the hell did you knock this one out that quickly? something about the major clues and puzzle theme must have just clicked with you. also, that streak is... ungodly. I just started and am at 19 days. also if you're an Apple News user, they added crosswords as well, so now I have two to do!

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