iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The fun thing about this post for me is all the different reactions to it from the creatives in my feed.

Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Endorsements for tomorrow's primary elections in Somerville. TLDR: Ed Markey, Diana DiZoglio but no other unopposed statewide offices, Ayanna Pressley, Diann Baylis, Erika Uyterhoeven (but it's a close call vs Christine Barber), Ben Ewen-Campen, and Marian Ryan. totient.dreamwidth.org/200898.html

totient.dreamwidth.org

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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Jennifer Nelson’s entry to this year’s Minnesota State Fair crop art

A localized version of Guernica with a loon at the center and a person holding an ICE OUT sign

“My piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica, a work that was his response to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town. I thought there was a fitting parallel between these incidents about the high price paid by ordinary people when aggressive regimes try out new tactics of war, as well as a fitting juxtaposition of the darkness of living such an experience and the light we shone through it in our own resistance and care for one another. The patterns near Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s mouths are actually their last words in Morse code: ‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’”

Jennifer Nelson

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Earlier today I made a four minute connection at Penn Station. So glad I didn't have to go upstairs to buy a paper ticket. Equally glad that LIRR smartphone tickets are good for any train in a time window even after they've been validated, because it was 30 seconds between validation and departure.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Without naming the film, say a line that would make any true fan immediately recognize the film. "But why"?

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

"In C" by Terry Riley is boring as shit. "Piano Phase" by Steve Reich is boring as shit. Playing the two of them at the same time is actually pretty interesting.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Reading some more Murderbot recently and I think I have the ultimate distillation of why we all love it so. A review that speaks volumes about this series in two short words: "It me".

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Overhead: "Did you work this weekend"? "No, but I work this weekend". Ambiguity in "this weekend" resolved by verb tense. In Chinese the resolution would have been the other way. Language is Huffman coded. Redundancy is optimized away and that's where English "this weekend" ambiguity comes from.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I was on a jury and we took the presence of a police report as proof that this particular crime had taken place because why the fuck else would anyone put themselves through that shit.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Today is the bicentennial of the deaths of two absolutely magnificent assholes, stubborn rivals to the end.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Contemplating whether this comment (about Lars von Trier's 2003 movie _Dogville_) is quite accurate. It is not quite as dark as, say, _Pan's Labyrinth_. That was definitely a worthwhile film and there might be circumstances where I would be willing to recommend it.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Since everyone is all about the Knicks right now: yes, Ossie Schectman is a relation. He was my first cousin twice removed.

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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 12/06/2026

Old and busted: the FIFA World Cup New and ominous:

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Made a custard base ice cream for the first time. I had been feeling weirdly intimidated by it. Turns out it's the exact same process as for Hollandaise but with milk instead of butter. Yes I know that's absurd.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Oh no it's not the open path in front of him he sees, it's his big sister behind him.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

If recipe development is finding a hill and climbing it, the change I am making to my scallion pancake recipe is like walking from one side of the summit of Mount Washington to the other because the top is not quite perfectly flat.

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Sarah 🐈‍⬛ @sareth.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Really recommend watching with sound

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Pick a Bond from photos you already have in your phone. Not a photo but it does get across some of what Bond is about.

The Far Side cartoon with the two chimps in a tree and the caption "Well, well—another blond hair. ... Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" ... signed by Jane Goodall.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

You’re trapped in the last TV show you watched. Where are you? I am standing in a mountain valley somewhere in Colorado carrying only what I could grab with five minutes' notice, blinking at a sun I haven't seen in three years. Not linking the show because this is at least five different spoilers.

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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 12/05/2026

Tired of the widening gyre. The gyre is wide enough

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Once in a while I follow a gift link to a NYT article and it invariably just makes me sad for the newspaper that once was.

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Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

I had no idea that the Renaissance Faire started because a history teacher fired during the Cold War purges wanted to educate the public about history. A great essay about the RenFaire as joy and resistance, by @annamerlan.bsky.social. Only on @flaminghydra.com! flaminghydra.com/issue-553/

flaminghydra.com

Medieval frolic / Nigerian decline

Anna Merlan’s Renaissance reverie; Jídé Salawu on Japa ‘blessings’

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

What is the most cursed object in your home? I have a copy of the 1873 (that is, nearly contemporary) _History of the Great Fire in Boston_ by R. H. Conwell which is sufficiently cursed that I keep it in a ziploc bag on a separate shelf from any other books.

_History of the Great Fire in Boston_ by R. H. Conwell (1873), in the ziploc bag I keep it in to keep it from destroying anything.

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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 27/04/2026

Garden rat slinks along the fence at dusk. "You're an invasive species," I mutter at it. It pauses with a weary expression, as if to say, "Ma'am, so are you."

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Quote post with something good that lasted longer than the Confederacy (1861-1865). The Sugarcubes (1986-1992). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sug...

en.wikipedia.org

The Sugarcubes - Wikipedia

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just announced the induction of Joy Division / New Order. About time. No one likes to talk about this because of how he died but: Ian Curtis absolutely could not sing. I want to celebrate that lack of ability, though! It makes Joy Division songs perfect for karaoke.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

My pants feel so strange without long underwear on.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Lots of discussion in this thread, but even without pots of money like @scalzi.com has I'm getting close. I regularly drive 450 miles and if the car I rent has the range I'll do it nonstop. I've rented electric and see how to do it without it being a pain. My goal is one reasonably short stop. 1/3

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 08/04/2026

Easy ask, happy to support

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Nisi Shawl @nisishawl.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Trying to analyze what makes me deem one person more magical than another and I think it boils down to acting on your internal wisdom and persevering in doing what no one in authority says is what you do.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

"Go to sea with one clock or three, but never two".

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H Munn @hmunn7.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I need to remember this. I could start all the new ideas, but the journey to finish even one of them is the worthier part.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

*Every* problem. The one that most blew my mind when I learned about it was that Truman's 1945 attempt at single payer health care failed in no small part because it would have meant integrating hospitals in the South.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

It's so much more than food: just because Europe (say) doesn't have America's or Boston's or my social circle's particular problems doesn't mean it doesn't have problems. And also, every understanding I have about America's or Boston's or my social circle's problems has come from the outside. 1/3

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I've been following Tse Wei Lim for years in various media, most recently his blog and his book. He writes extensively about Singapore hawker culture and I haven't really understood. Urban Hawker, he writes, isn't it, and having been I saw what he's saying but not quite what the missing thing is. 1/

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

My grandma was a school librarian in Queens for 40 years. Sometimes her husband brought in money too, but very often not. No one lied about this situation to me because he died when I was very young. Who knows what I would have been told if he was still around.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10/03/2026

Oh, nice!

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

COVID is the dot in the Jeremy Bearimy.

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Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Amateurs think about the Roman Empire. Pros think about the Bronze Age city states.

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