iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is where I'm at with my novel. (Well, that and posting on Bluesky about it, to avoid actually writing the blurb). Why is writing 100,000 words easy, but 200 is impossible? #Booksky #writing

Smeagol: We must write the blurb.
Gollum: But we HATES it.

(Not in picture: so do I Gollum, so do I)

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Reposted by 𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃

Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Things that help calm the nervous system, quickly: - Box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, repeat) - Immerse your face in cold water (activates mammalian dive reflex) - Humming (stimulates vagus nerve) - Exercise (anything helps, outside even better) - Impeachment and removal

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

A tale as old as time… “If Croesus makes war on the Persians, he will destroy a great empire.” You’d think a lesson 2,500 years old might be worth heeding. But no.

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Just finished reading “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies“. Grim reading, but very clearly articulated. The AI bubble popping and smashing the economy is the least of the problems we face from AI…

Extract from the book:
“If anyone builds it, everyone dies.

It doesn't matter whether it's built by benevolent corporations or selfish ones. It doesn't matter whether it's built by researchers in the East or researchers in the West. It doesn't matter whether it's built by reckless optimists or people who say they respect the problem. Nobody has the knowledge or skill to make a superintelligence that does their bidding.”

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

PSA: if you’re old enough to remember when Star Wars first came out, lived in Australia and accepted sunburn as the price of enjoying summer, make sure you get any unusual lumps and bumps checked out by a doctor - pronto!

media.tenor.com

a cartoon character walking on a beach with the words slip slap and slap behind him

ALT: a cartoon character walking on a beach with the words slip slap and slap behind him

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Oh no, I can no longer use the Bluesky messaging service as I *might* be under the age of 16. The fact that I’ve used a hotmail account to set up Bluesky should be all the proof they need that I’m at least 40! (Never mind that I can still post here just fine…)

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Watched a video about the top 15 songs in Australia in 1987. All the bangers from my second year of Uni, and all classics (obviously). And as far removed in time from now as 1948 was to my second year of Uni. FML, I'm old!

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

After a year of avoiding making necessary edits to my novel based on beta readers’ feedback, I finally seem to have found the spark I needed to ”get it done”. Many darlings killed along the way. RIP. Looking forward to completing this and maybe, just maybe, getting it out into the world…

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

One of my goals for 2025 was to read 50 books. I overshot a bit, reaching 114... The most impactful were: On Freedom, One Day Everyone..., When Breath Becomes Air and American War. Enjoyed @scalzi.com, @birmo.bsky.social, G Haigh, @marthawells.com, C Doctorow. New goal: Read ONLY 50! #booksky

List of 114 books read in 2025. Unfortunately, this list is too long for alt-text...

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

My reading rate has dropped right off. After getting through 98 books by the end of September, I only read 11 in the last couple of months. Standouts were American War and Coming up Short (which are strongly linked, despite one being fiction and one being a memoir...). Now at 109. #booksky

Books read in Oct/Nov:
October:
1. Mathematical Mountaintops: The Five Most Famous Problems of all Time - John L. Casti
2. The Art of Batting: The Craft of Cricket’s Greatest Run Scorers - Jarrod Kimber
3. The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue
4. American War - Omar El Akkad
5. Mind over Money - Evan Lucas

November:
1. Spook Street - Mick Herron
2. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
3. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of my America - Robert Reich
4. Stillness is the Key - Ryan Holiday
5. Before the Coffee gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi
6. Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket - Christian Ryan

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

After 1,405 games, I am finally getting the knack for Wordle… Wordle 1,603 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #wordle

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I *think* I may finally have Linux Mint working… Hoping I can move on from Windows entirely. Some things easier than expected, some things took a bit longer… #linux #linuxmint

Meme showing an iceberg. Above the waterline, text says “Beautiful Linux Mint Installation”. Below the waterline, text says “ Video tutorials, Linux forums, googling, invoking deities…” and “ Trial and error, rebooting, sudo-ing, changing settings I don’t really understand…”

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Make a book title edible: The Catcher in the Rye Bread Life of Pie War and Pizza #booksky

Words on a background of blue sand dunes:

“Make a book title edible. I’ll start: Lord of the Onion Rings”

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

I’d thought the practice of recipes being preceded by a rambling personal anecdote was a relatively recent one, but I was proved wrong by this account in a book that’s been in our family since 1890 (Dr. Chase‘s Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book). A story dating back to 1839… #booksky

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

My September reading list. Only got through 7 books last month. Just missed out on reaching 100 for the year. 98 at the end of September, 99 today… #booksky

1. Numbers don’t lie - Vaclav Smil
2. The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Risk and Luck - David Spiegelhalter
3. Uncanny Valley - Greg Egan
4. Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life - Beth Kempton
5. Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso - Jeremy Egner
6. For Her Eyes Only - John Birmingham
7. A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? - Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

My 2025 reading binge continues… 12 for the month, 91 for the year. “When Breath Becomes Air” was the standout. Beautiful and heartbreaking. “Decline and Fall…” was very well written, and very sobering. Ongoing progress through Scalzi, Murderbot and Slow Horses. #Booksky

List of books read in August:
1. Lock In - John Scalzi
2. Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Neil Gaiman
3. Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe - Ken Krimstein
4. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells
5. World War 3.1: Axis of Time - John Birmingham
6. The Last Town - Blake Crouch
7. System Collapse - Martha Wells
8. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
9. Real Tigers - Mick Herron
10. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species is on the Edge of Extinction - Henry Gee
11. Head On - John Scalzi
12. World War 3.2 - John Birmingham

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Sign at a nearby cafe. Is it wrong that I think the free glass should be provided to all the other patrons?

Cafe sign: Free glass of wine with any kids meal

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

The 12 books I read in July (79 for the year). Corruptible was the most depressing (given state of the world), but very well written. I can now see how great a job they’ve done of adapting Slow Horses for TV - Gary Oldman IS Jackson Lamb. #booksky

Books I read in July:
1. Wayward - Blake Crouch
2. Picks and Shovels - Cory Doctorow
3. On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything - Nate Silver
4. Slow Horses - Mick Herron
5. Revenge of the Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
6. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
7. Dead Lions - Mick Herron
8. The Last Man in Europe - Dennis Glover
9. The Lost Cause - Cory Doctorow
10. Test Cricket: A History - Tim Wigmore
11. Sleeper Agent: Nemesis - John Birmingham
12. Corruptible - Brian Klaas

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Just read Brian Klass’ book “Corruptible” (2021). Very well put together, but increasingly depressing as you see how the real world is playing out.

Front cover of “Corruptible” by Brian Klaas.

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Vale Tom Lehrer. Very glad to have been introduced to his music in my uni days, back in the 80s. We’ve been married almost 35 years - we found this song more amusing back then we do today 😂😂 m.youtube.com/watch?v=8NOZ...

m.youtube.com

Tom Lehrer - When You Are Old And Gray

YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Hearing the music of your teens (early 80s) being played as the backing track for your oldies aquacise class feels like a real “circle of life” moment…

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The appalling news about Stephen Colbert today reminded me of this beautiful interview he did with Joe Biden on only his third show hosting The Late Show back in 2015. Some touching moments as they discussed loss and Beau. m.youtube.com/watch?v=opVa...

m.youtube.com

Vice President Joe Biden Interview, Part 1

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Oh dear. I have The Salt Path in my pile of books from the library, but based on this news, think I’ll just shove it through the return chute unread. The 1-star Amazon reviews from years ago seemed to be onto the deception early… observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

observer.co.uk

The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal that the truth behind it is ve...

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Someone asked me today how my novel was going. I just saw the response that sums up my feelings... #booksky

Meme with depressed looking owl. Text:
Them: how's the novel writing going?
Me: [picture of the owl]

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Another 15 books read during June, taking my total to 67 for the year (against a goal of 50 for the entire year...). Anything to avoid actually finishing writing my own novel! #booksky

Books I read in June:
1. Courage is Calling - Ryan Holiday
2. The Season - Helen Garner
3. What is Life? Understand Biology in five steps - Paul Nurse
4. The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt - Ken Krimstein
5. The Siren’s Call: how attention became the world’s most endangered resource - Chris Hayes
6. The New Tao of Warren Buffett - Mary Buffett and David Clark
7. Australian Football’s 100 Year Club - Andrew Clarke
8. Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty - Adam Kucharsk
9. Ganbatte! The Ancient Japanese Art of Always Moving Forward - Albert Liebermann
10. One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This - Omar El Akkad
11. Orbital - Samantha Harvey
12. This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
13. The Shortest History of AI - Toby Walsh
14. Radicalized - Cory Doctorow
15. The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Feels like a missed opportunity. Why not go for Wes Anderson to direct the next James Bond movie? With Jeff Goldblum as Bond of course.

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

An interesting diversion from things. Going through the various “best of” lists to compile my selection reminded me of all the great films that I keep meaning to watch and still haven’t…

My selection of 10 best films from the 21st century. Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Brokeback Mountain. The Cabin in the Woods. Get Out. Dune: Part 2. Arrival. Inception. LOTR: The Return of the King. The Dark Knight. Children of Men.

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Nice little win this weekend. Have had a website for a few years, and was always disappointed I couldn’t get “my” domain name for it, as someone had been squatting on it forever. Until now! tonyneilson.com now points to my author website. Huzzah!

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

At the start of the year, I set myself the goal of reading 50 books, now that I’m no longer working, and wanted to do something more constructive with my time. Turns out that I aimed too low, and have already passed that target - 52 books by the end of May… #booksky Here’s the May list:

Books read in May 2025:
1. Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor - Donald J. Robertson
2. Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
3. The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning - Margareta Magnusson
4. Old Man’s War - John Scalzi
5. Exit Strategy - Martha Wells
6. When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi
7. Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia - Andrew Leigh
8. Starter Villain - John Scalzi
9. Pines - Blake Crouch
10. The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi
11. In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems - Giorgio Parisi
12. Warne in Wisden - edited by Richard Whitehead
13. The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
14. Network Effect - Martha Wells
15. The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos - Lawrence M Krauss

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

“For we are always what our situations hand us It's either sadness or euphoria.” Wishing the best for Billy Joel after hearing his news. I hope he has the chance to totally muck up the layout of my office wall…

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Reposted by 𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃

Keith Taylor @mrkeithtaylor.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

If I lay here If I just lay here Would you lie with me and just forget the world? Nice try, Snow Patrol. I know a trolley problem setup when I see one

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Just watched Megalopolis. Weird. The best part about it was that I borrowed the disc from the library, so I wasn’t out of pocket. Just the 2+ hours of my life that I’ll never get back.

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𝕋𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕠𝕟 🇦🇺🏏✍️📚🥃 @tonyneilson.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Sigh. This is why we can’t have nice things. Why would anyone want to listen to an AI generated audio book?

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