iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I am ‘DGAF years old,’ so I got the colorful glasses. Also, I always have a tilt to my head, in all the photos and videos, which is apparently me compensating for the fact that the bulk of my vision is from my left eye.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Today’s impulse buy: 🍑 and 🍌 candy

Runts candy, in the shape of peaches and bananas. I am a very mature adult, who is going to refrain from the inevitable jokes.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Also, they offer tours in historic red buses. They fill up fast, but my son would have had a meltdown if we hadn’t been able to go on one. He absolutely loves cars, of all types. He even convinced the tour guide to pop the hood, so he could look at the engine

An old red vehicle, with the hood popped, to show the engine.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

These are the kind of vistas you get spoiled with, when you visit.

A mountain, framed by a lake and a forest. This is in Glacier National Park.

A mountain, framed by a lake and a forest.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

This is the hotel we stayed in, called Many Glacier Hotel. It was a one-of-a-kind place to stay in, which meant I had to book it a year in advance.

An old-fashioned Swiss-style hotel, seen from a distance, and set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The sun is setting.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

My family is Mormon; they practiced sustenance farming when I was younger; and I have a brother and sister who were ballet dancers. Here is an old clipping of a feature that was written about my family, before I was born. So yes, this is a familiar world.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I recently posted a cat video to Tiktok which is gaining some traction, which means I’m starting to get comments from corporate accounts. Anyway, here is the video, for your viewing pleasure. My little void cat, Sabrina, is fond of giving me tap-taps whenever I work too hard.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

My Sabrina can be very sweet, when she wants to. I just can’t predict when she wants to. Very classic black cat energy, I suppose.

A black cat is sitting on a coffee table, staring at you. She is not amused, and not impressed.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I call this “the calm before the storm.” Someday, the cats will forgive me for getting a puppy, but that day is not today.

An orange cat and a black cat are sitting on a black couch, close to a tan and white dog. The cats are not amused.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

It’s my son’s birthday, so I sent him to school with cupcakes for his class. Turns out it’s another one of his classmate’s birthday today, so all the kids got TWO cupcakes. Oh, and my son got a puppy for his birthday, as if life wasn’t already pure chaos.

A tan and white shepherd-hound mix is sitting in the backseat of a car.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Costco has a way of making this seem like a good purchase. Who wouldn’t want a 40 ounce bag of cottontail gummies?

40 ounce bag of Albanese cottontail gummies.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I went to a local coffee shop this morning, where I met this icon

A grumpy long haired cat is sitting patiently on his human’s lap, in a coffee shop. The cat is wearing a dinosaur hat.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

I took a wrong turn on the way home, and there was a train…coming through a bunch of townhomes. The train looked like it’d also gotten lost on the way home. I would not want to live in one of those townhouses.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

2025 Unwrapped: Oura is telling me I took 213 naps this year, which means I’m going to call 2025 my year of rest. 2024 ended on a pretty bad note, with a COVID reinfection leading to my worst crash to date. I’m happy to report I’ve recovered, and am better than I have been in years.

Screenshot of the Oura app, saying I took 213 naps in 2025.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

My son is currently obsessed with snakes, which I am perfectly happy to be a father-son bonding activity. My son gets to hold snakes; I get to stay home. It works for everyone involved.

A boy in a red shirt is holding a snake. His mom, who is terrified of snakes, is nowhere to be found.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

You can never go wrong with a house panther. Mine says hello.

A black cat is sleeping on a puzzle of the solar system.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

I’m headed to a Halloween party at the Children’s Museum with my son, and my costume is quite on the nose.

A woman dressed in overalls, a pink shirt, and a pink bandana waves at the camera.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

I've been doing some historical research lately, and came across this old profile of my family from 1979, which was six years before I was born. My mother was basically the OG tradwife, except without money, and boy, did my parents make it sound a lot more idyllic than it actually was.

Article published in the Ithaca Journal on October 31, 1979. Two photos, one of a 13-year-old boy chopping wood, the other of a 6-year old boy feeding chickens.

Article text reads:

A family making do, and happily

By HELEN MUNDELL

Senior Editor

When Ithaca Gun Co. closed its plant last December, Elmer Fairbank, his wife, Ellen, their four boys tightened their belts and "lived out of storage" until the gun company reopened six months later.

Surviving without going into debt was possible because the Fairbanks, as Mormons, follow the church teaching of having a year's supply of emergency food on hand.

They grow most of their own vegetables and can or freeze them for winter. They also have a cow, three milking goats and a flock of 100 chickens. They also have a year's supply of wood on hand for their heating stove.

Stored in their attic are enough of four basic staples to feed the family for a year - approximately 1,800 pounds of wheat, 600 pounds of sugar and honey, 30 pounds of salt, and some powdered nonfat dry milk.

The wheat is stored in 55-gallon sealed barrels, which are dated so the oldest gets used first. Ellen has a wheat grinder, which her father-in-law built, and grinds her own whole wheat flour, as needed.

"Flour has a lot more vitamins, if you grind it fresh," she said, "but grinding is slow and noisy. She turned on the machine, which growled in protest, a mini version of the noise a flour mill makes when working.

Ellen makes whole wheat bread from the fresh-ground flour, adding honey, milk, eggs, salt and yeast.

"I have all the ingredients for that loaf of bread right here, always,” she said, and the bread "has everything you need in it."

She bakes bread about three times a week, four loaves at a time, as needed.

She also makes butter, from the excess milk and cream, a cheese "which tastes like gouda cheese," and a ricotta cheese for lasagna, which is a family favorite.

In addition to buying foods for storage in bulk, Ellen also buys peanu…

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Sometimes I wish I were a cat: These two haven’t moved all morning.

A black cat and an orange cat are lying on a bed, looking very relaxed.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

I’m pretty sure my cats can’t count, but I’m still worried that if I give them unequal amounts of treats, they will smother me in my sleep.

Two cats are staring at the camera. One is an orange cat, the other is a black cat.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Well, I’m not going anywhere any time soon.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Today’s moment of culinary genius: I used garlic bread to make my meatball sub.

Half a loaf of garlic bread, with meatballs piled on top

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

It’s a cold day, which means I’ve got my very own personal heaters.

A black cat and an orange cat are sleeping peacefully on a purple blanket.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Stomach bugs are real fun: All I’ve done these past four hours is lie on the couch and dash to the bathroom as needed.

Picture is from the Visible Health app, which does continuous heart rate monitoring and shows a period of time between 4 AM and 8 AM, with heart rates ranging between 100 and 140 beats per minute.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

My son has been insisting that he doesn’t want to sit in the back of the plane, he wants to sit in the cockpit, and today, for Christmas, he finally got his wish.

A five year-old boy, with black hair, wearing jeans and a blue fleece jacket, is sitting in the pilot seat of an airplane.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

This is the Fitbit data, btw. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Any halfway competent cardiologist should recognize that, and yet, the bar for a competent cardiologist is currently in hell.

Graph of average monthly resting heart rate, taken from FitBit data. Graph shows a period of five years, including two years before getting pregnant, nine months of pregnancy, and two years postpartum. There is a very clear trend of resting heart rate rising in the years following pregnancy.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

They found the alleged shooter’s backpack and…it was full of Monopoly money. www.reuters.com/world/us/nyc...

Text reads: “A backpack resembling the one worn by the suspect has been recovered near a playground in Central Park, according to media reports. MSNBC said on Saturday that police examining the bag and its contents found a jacket and Monopoly money, but no firearm.”

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

It only took a year, but Harvey and Sabrina are finally learning to get along.

A black cat and an orange cat are napping together on a bed.

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Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Cats can be such a comfort when you are sick.

Tired woman in bed, snuggling with a black cat named Sabrina

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