iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 02/09/2026

Apple may have a new CEO but I guess the new guy is spineless too. 🤬 Change it back!

Screenshot from Apple Maps, taken 08/30/26, showing Lake Ontario.

Screenshot from Apple Maps, taken 09/01/26, showing Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America.

Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 27/07/2026

Doing my second playthrough of #Satisfactory with randomized nodes. Node location is the same but content is random. This makes exploration worthwhile but also sometimes anticlimactic, like when you get to the top of the Western Dune Forest spire and the pure SAM node is now... Limestone. Meh.

Screenshot taken from the video game Satisfactory. Image depicts the top of a large stony spiral that looks the fossilized bones of a huge creature. In the center of the spire is a plateau that normally contains a pure node of Strange Alien Matter (SAM) but, in this playthrough, only contains a mound of dry Limestone.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 04/07/2026

Today, we bid farewell to an old coffee mug, for we have collected too many. This one is a bit faded but still in fine shape… it will be sent to Goodwill and hopefully find a new life in a new home. May it amuse someone else as it has amused me for many years. So long, you good old cup. 👏🏻

A purple coffee cup with an energized cartoon cat on one side — the caption reads “catffeinated”.

A purple coffee cup with a sleeping cartoon cat on the other side — the caption reads “decatf”.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 04/05/2026

I put out the gnome yesterday, when the weather was only marginally fair. But today, it’s brilliant out there… a great day, not too hot, not too cold. So very nice! ☀️ Coincidence? Probably not. Gnome did it!

A simple garden gnome on an old wooden bench, sitting across from a little birdhouse.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 03/05/2026

The gnome has been deployed, and thus has springtime been officially recognized this year.

A stone garden gnome sitting on a white bench outside my house.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 30/04/2026

Came close to a 5-tile word in Quartiles today — only 2 issues: - Missing an IT tile. - I doubt SH!TGIBBONS is actually in the game’s lexicon.

A game of iOS Quartiles in play. Four tiles are selected: SH, GI, BB and ONS.

A screenshot of a Google AI search overview of the vulgar British word “shitgibbon”. The term was coined in 1988 by David Quantick, and has been frequently used to describe a certain cheeto-faced nitwit.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 20/01/2026

Someone took all our degrees. Rude.

A weather report for South Bend on January 20, 2026 that shows 0° temperature.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 20/01/2026

Spent the afternoon sitting in my recliner while using a Kodak Slide N Scan to convert 20-year old negatives to digital. No, this isn’t a live feed… it’s history repeating itself.

A person wearing slippers sits in a recliner with a Kodak photo scanner in his lap — the screen shows a similar view of a pair of slippered feet in a photo taken over 20 years ago.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 30/12/2025

Apple's Health app is trying to make me feel guilty about taking a vacation. Sorry, but not sorry.

A screenshot from Apple Health app showing average number of exercise minutes over a 4-week period — for the first three weeks, the average is 33 minutes but for the most recent week, the average is only 6 minutes.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 15/12/2025

I know he had an amazing career but the only thing I can think of is his cameo in "30 Rock" as a congressman murmuring simulated crowd noise. Why is this what comes to mind? No idea. But the scene gives me a smile every time I see it. He made Earth a better planet, and I'll miss him.

Rob Reiner portraying a congressman in an episode of "30 Rock" — closed captions read "Peas and carrots, rhubarb, rhubarb" which are words that actors will say when they are in the background of a shot because it makes it look like they are having actual conversations.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 16/11/2025

Sorry, gnome… winter is coming. Time to make a strategic retreat into the garage. We’ll see you and Buddha in the spring! 🌻

Three yard knickknacks: a quaint birdhouse, an eroded stone gnome and a classic Buddha bust.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 28/10/2025

Spent a few days in Indianapolis, and made sure I paid a visit to St. Elmo Steak House, home of the "world-famous, sinus-clearing shrimp cocktails". Oh yeah, that is some mighty fine horseradish — if a shrimp cocktail doesn't do damage to your sinuses, it ain't worth eatin'. Bravo!

A three-picture series — I pick up a shrimp, I eat a shrimp, and you can tell by the look on my face that I definitely paid for that shrimp. Word of advice: when eating shrimp cocktail, avoid inhaling. Airflow only makes it hurt more.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 30/09/2025

Yesterday, I hit a milestone. ¡Uno grande!

Colorful Duolingo owl saying that I’ve completed 2,000 days of Spanish lessons.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 20/09/2025

The last thing my iPhone always sees is its successor. So long, soldier… your replacement has arrived. Time for me to meet the new recruit!

A scene in a comfortable den. Foreground: a new iPhone 17 alongside its owner, who has kicked back to relax for the afternoon. Background: chairs, table and an image of Mortal Kombat’s Frost on TV.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 20/09/2025

Shared this with my brother, so credit to him to making me burst out laughing.

Screenshot of comments to this post:
Me: We live in troubled times.
Jeff: The shooping is still tolerable.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 27/04/2025

Gnome deployed. Spring is now officially recognized in our area.

Adorable stone gnome sits in a flowerbed next to a solar walkway light.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 11/04/2025

"Sure, what could go wrong?"

Screenshot of NBC News report on helicopter crash which reads "No reason is given in the report for why the penguin was on board, only that a specialist conducting the survey asked that it be brought back and the pilot agreed."

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 07/04/2025

¡Cinco años de Español! Like the Energizer Bunny, I just won’t quit.

Duolingo award for 1,825 contiguous days of practicing Spanish.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 06/04/2025

Solved my first "challenging" difficulty Sudoku puzzle today — only took me a bit more than 2.5 hours. I think I may have overheated my brain. Better do some mindless work around the house for a while and let it cool off.

A solved sudoku puzzle showing a completion time of 2 hours 40 minutes 34 seconds.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 02/04/2025

Bravo, Senator Booker! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Senator Cory Booker at 24 hours, 19 minutes into his speech, breaking Strom Thurmond’s filibuster record.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 18/03/2025

On a chilly morning ten years ago today, I walked through the east entrance to the Hesburgh Library and started my new tech support job. I've said it many times since but I've never worked anywhere that had such a collection of kind and brilliant people. I'm really glad they welcomed me aboard.

A picture of the east entrance to the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame, taken on a chilly morning ten years ago today.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 05/03/2025

My biggest takeaway: - No one should have ever given a single damn about what this guy thinks about anything.

Screenshot of a news article titled “The biggest takeaways from Trump’s address to Congress”.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 02/03/2025

If you want to shrink the government, I suggest we start with removing whatever logic was used that causes questions like this to be asked when you prepare your taxes.

Screenshot from a tax preparation program that asks this question: “Did you receive a distribution of an excess accumulation from any qualified plan during the correction window? Note: You can answer both Yes and No.”

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 11/02/2025

I can't figure out all the steps in between but we can hope.

The "domino effect" meme shows a man about to knock over a small rectangle that will lead to knocking down a series of ever-larger rectangles — in this use, we start with Maura's observation today that "more people used to like that dickweed" as a small improvement, and we end with "Musk goes to prison" as the final, largest domino. The intervening steps are not labeled.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 08/02/2025

Shuffle gave me this anthemic song, and it just made feel even sadder that we aren’t living in the Harris presidency today. This should have been her time. America was robbed. (reposted to fix error in alt-text)

Cover art for Aretha Franklin’s 1985 album “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” — track being played is “Sisters are Doin’ It for Themselves”.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 06/02/2025

Remembering my dad, Larry, on what would have been his 81st birthday. This is a 2006 Christmas pic — I'd just set out to take a normal picture but got an artsy motion shot because I only had a 5 megapixel camera back then. It's one of my favorite pictures of him — a real "preserved in amber" moment.

A picture of my dad opening a Christmas gift about 19 years ago — it's an action shot taken with a 5 megapixel camera so much of the image is a swirl of color that makes it look more like an art piece than a regular family photo.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 25/01/2025

Need a bit of ASMR to get through the day? Enjoy “deer walking through crunchy snow in my back yard”.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 24/01/2025

Flying out of Edinburgh last year — the Queensferry Crossing, Forth Road Bridge and Forth Bridge all seen in the distance.

Three bridges over the Firth of Forth — a bit northwest of Edinburgh — as seen from the window of our flight out of the city in 2024.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 22/01/2025

I joined Bluesky a little over a year and a half ago but I've pretty much just been lurking. Finally decided to give Facebook the heave-ho and make a fresh start here.

Just a guy who shaved his head and likes how starting over feels.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 28/12/2024

My energy is “cat at the vet, on high alert — not sure what’s coming next but it’s probably not good so keep your eyes open!”

Our cat, Shrimpie, crouched down on the vet’s table, eyes wide open, looking all around.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 27/11/2024

I posted Shrimpie earlier. We have a second cat named Mr. Guppy. He’s named after a lawyer in Dickens’ Bleak House. We first heard the name in the excellent 2005 miniseries and thought it was hilarious.

This is a fine tuxedo cat named Mr. Guppy.

A lawyer in Bleak House, this version of Mr. Guppy was portrayed by Burn Gorman.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 27/11/2024

Shrimpie, named after Robert’s cousin in Downton Abbey.

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 17/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #130,337! There are many numbers, but that one is mine. 😁

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Chris Bailey @thislivetest.com · 19/10/2023

Just doing Spanish but I’ve kept it up for 3.5 years now. Tempted to add Math but haven’t yet.

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