iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 4h

Any time I start a response with "oh honey" that's probably time to delete the response before posting it and close the tab. Anyone who'd be convinced probably already has my response in their head already anyhow.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Huh! I did not know that linking from a bsky post doesn't need the actual URL in the post and (more importantly) that in that case it doesn't count towards the character limit.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Honorable mentions for "covered well" are Joni Mitchell's stunning performance of "Summertime" for an awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in 2023, and for "transformative" (besides Johnny Cash) is Laibach's cover of the entire "Let It Be" album minus the title track.

youtube.com

Joni Mitchell sings "Summertime" - LIVE, MARCH 1, 2023 - Gershwin Award Ceremony

YouTube video by Samuel Stone

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Sometimes it is a stealth cover, like Joni Mitchell's "Twisted" (first recorded by Annie Ross). Sometimes it's something covered well, like Cee Lo Green's cover of "River" (which Joni Mitchell did write) or Kylie Minogue's cover of "The Loco-Motion". But usually it is www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHC...

youtube.com

Johnny Cash - Hurt

YouTube video by JohnnyCashVEVO

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

Oh, so sad. I'm sorry for your loss.

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Reposted by Nicholas "phi" Shectman

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Highly recommended for all language lovers!

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

But you need an odd number of hops to win! This sequence give me Eurotunnel and the victory.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Dreamt that I was taking the train from my house to somewhere in the north Boston suburbs and had to change at Paris La Défense.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Occam's razor says it *is* Capone's antique dildo collection, only he didn't collect those.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Anything by Orson Scott Card, really.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Agreed that this is a vous situation, unless the reader is a child. But mostly I came here to share this guide, which is 100% correct and also hilarious for its weird specificity: www.talkinfrench.com/wp-content/u...

talkinfrench.com

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

xyzzy only works in two locations, the wellhouse and the debris room. Did you try "plugh"?

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A restaurant in Mexican Hat, specifically.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I definitely have terrible movies that live in my head in precisely this way! Just not from when I was 13. We can start with Buckaroo Banzai.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'd like to say something like Rumble Fish, but I was not nearly cool enough at 13 to be seeing something like that. So instead I think the closest thing is Repo Man. Which is a fantastic movie, but maybe some of why it's so fantastic is how absolutely rough it is around the edges.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Oh those people. Not to downplay criticism of their opinions on AI, but as sex cults and communes and fanfic go this is not the crazy stuff and the attempt to sensationalize it to make a point isn't really working for me. Maybe I am just jaded, as a resident of Somerville?

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Tricky, because early voting starts as soon as *this Friday*.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The real advantage, though: Menswear, especially fancy menswear, is *comfortable*, even when it looks like it must not be. Because rule one of this wretched society is don't make rich men uncomfortable.

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

IDK, Laura Esquivel was pretty readable.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

That is a completely brilliant song, one of my favorites ever. And I know about it because the scion of an absolutely sociopathic billionaire family played it at a party he was hosting my first semester at Harvard. So the Trump thing? I'm surprised he has that much taste but it otherwise tracks.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Bank of America irrevocably associated one of the original officers with Arisia's accounts and after trying about a dozen times to change it we finally just closed the accounts and went elsewhere.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The big banking problem nonprofits face is that many banks, even large ones, want there to be an owner whose identity never changes. Nonprofits don't have owners and many of them change officers frequently. A bank that's used to infrequent changes of control probably hasn't optimized that process.

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

There's a solid argument that the biggest impact of your choice of banks is not actually the org's actual interaction with the bank. SOS banks with Somerville Federal Credit Union to keep the money in Somerville. For Black owned banks, OneUnited is the best. Online-only, Mercury is the least bad.

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

None of the many nonprofits I've helped run actually used Eastern, for all differant reasons. I see that they are no longer quite as nonprofit oriented as they once were. But they have a decent business checking offering for orgs, nonprofit or otherwise, that do fewer than 100 transactions a month.

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

I have rather a lot of experience with this. These days the bank that is probably the intersection of "good for nonprofits" and "good at bank" is Eastern. Bank of America is a fairly close second at both of those but is evil and there are a few places where they are surprisingly bad at bank.

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

I learned at the 1992 Worldcon that hell consists of strip malls in Florida in August. I hope September was at least an outer circle.

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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.

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

yeah that was a recruiting event all right. Just not for them.

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

I don't know if they carry this food specifically but you might try the vet on Highland Ave near Cherry St as they do stock some prescription foods and wouldn't have the same lead time problems. callananveterinarygroup.com/somerville-v...

callananveterinarygroup.com

Somerville Veterinary Center for Dogs, Cats, and Other Small Animals

For over 20 years, the doctors, techs, and support staff at Somerville Veterinary Center, located in Union Square, have provided top-notch pet care.

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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

Captcha Check

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

I went to a red sox game there one time and I remember two things: how good the views were from the upper deck, and how friendly the Angels fans were.

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Reposted by Nicholas "phi" Shectman

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 · 26/08/2026

I did not know that either! And I was certainly, ah, familiar with the image.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Genx isn't moving towards AI, we're moving away from engagement with the question. Seems pretty much on brand.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I do appreciate both! And I generally like Terry Gilliam as a director.

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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

I actually haven't seen that one. Maybe I should.

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

I'm pretty sure I could get phone numbers for Kip Thorne, Tim Berners-Lee, or Larry Niven.

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

I still have mine! It is a Partners M9621BF, available from Staples and Zoro among other places.

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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 · 15/08/2026

I love all the things about that movie that everyone else apparently hates. Which is pretty much everything about the movie

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Hmm. Some of there cartoons are more about someone being incompetent or out of place rather than an asshole per se, and I bet those could have better captions than this. As could Trump's portrait, or Harding's. Wilson, on the other hand? Christ, what an asshole.

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Nicholas "phi" Shectman @totient.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

No I don't think they ever were but that's a brilliant answer.

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