iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Not my home but I know my way around

An animated human girl sits next to a white squirrel. A red fox with sunglasses is near them. They’re in front of the city hall building in the Animal Crossing game.

Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Oh hey, federal employees and anyone else whose work supports the Trump admin: spuddle your way out of helping fascists.

Word of the day is
'spuddle' (17th century):
To work ineffectively; to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I’ve got three books going—a sci-fi fantasy (Dungeon Crawler Carl is fucking fantastic!), a mystery, and the one I’m waiting to arrive, by @mskellymhayes.bsky.social and @prisonculture.bsky.social.

Book cover: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, by Matt Dinniman

Book cover: Mercy Falls, by William Kent Krueger

Book cover: Let this Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

“Pay attention. Keep record. Do what you need in order to retain possession over your own imagination.”

And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak.

If you’re feeling a kind of bone-deep, soul-body exhaustion today, please remember that is by design.

However futile resistance and goodness and beauty feel today, do not surrender your appetite for them.

Pay attention. Keep record. Do what you need in order to retain possession over your own imagination.

- Cole Arthur Riley

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake.”

- Martin Luther King Jr

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now… over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.”

- Martin Luther King Jr

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

I’m hearing that the Navajo Nation has sent their hotshot crew to LA.

Photo of the Navajo Nation hot shot crew, taken in 2021. Pictured: 18 people in yellow shirts, wearing hard hats, pose in front of a fire truck.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

This is a touchstone for me for 2025. Cultivating joy and community. Artwork by Ricardo Levins Morales

Text on artwork reads:

Laughter is the sound of hope. Hope is the seed of power. Power is the combined force of a multitude of voices joined together… that began as a mere whisper, lost in the immense darkness and the ferocious old and only kept alive by small, improbable notes of laughter.

Artwork, by Ricardo Levins Morales, has earth-toned, stylized human faces with mouths open, and in the center is a blue human form, arms up and feet spread in a triumphant stance.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Without downloading any new pics what's your energy going into 2025

Photo of a small dog sitting on a subway car. Text reads “she took the midnight train going anywhere.”

Illustration of Moo Deng, text reads “I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds.”

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

“I never thought the leopards would eat my face…” Look. I don’t want people to suffer. I also want to underline the fact that anyone with a fucking smidgen of common sense knows he will throw you all under the bus. Solidarity or we all die, y’all. Whiteness and uniforms won’t save you.

Fox News headline reads: Firefighters union praised for ‘significant non-endorsement’ after backing Biden in 2020: ‘Huge win for Trump’

Headline reads “NYC firefighter unions demand Congress fully fund 9/11 health care, and ‘never forget’ sacrifices of those who worked during recovery”

Screen cap from article reads “Tucked in a giant, year-end budget deal in Washington this week was a priority that New Yorkers in both parties had sought: permanent funding for a program that aids ailing 9/11 responders.

But the agreement hatched by congressional leaders had collapsed by Thursday at the urging of President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk. And with it went the 9/11 health care funding that seemed a sure thing just a day earlier.”

December 19 Newsweek screencap:

“9/11 advocates cheer funding deal—until Trump, Musk step in”

Photo shows a bunch of men in suits, including Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and other firefighters union people, and House Speaker Mike Johnson—Republican who does the bidding of Trump and Musk

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

This apple pie was a collaboration between my 20-year-old, who doesn’t mind peeling and cutting the apples, and me, who doesn’t want to peel and cut the apples.

A perfectly browned apple pie sits on top of a cooling rack in a messy kitchen.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Here’s one you may want to block ahead of time.

Screen shot of Bluesky account: liberal-militant.bsky.social

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

It’s truly wild that it’s controversial to state the obvious: Israel is an apartheid state.

Israeli soldiers arrest children in the West Bank

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Without downloading any new pics, where are you mentally?

A grey tabby cat sits with their elbow perched on a counter with a blue cocktail sitting to the side. The cat looks unimpressed.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Is me up on the roof of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix, hanging papel picado for our Emma’s Revolution concert to benefit UURISE.

Colorful paper flags hang from posts in an outdoor patio at UU congregation of phoenix.

Two middle-aged white women, one with long dark hair and the other with long blonde hair, smile into the camera. Behind them, another middle-aged white woman smiles down from the roof of a building, showing a peace sign with her hand.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Being the star of the farmer’s market is exhausting.

A small orange, green and blue parrot has her head tucked back in sleep position on a person’s knee.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Heading to Phoenix for this fabulousness! You can join us in person or virtually. Tix at UURISE.org. Unitarian Universalists, we’d love your support. ❤️

Tix: UURISE.org

Emma’s Revolution
A concert to be for UURISE
Sunday, December 8
2 pm PT
5 pm ET
Live in Phoenix and via livestream

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Attending a fabulous zoom workshop by @socialmovetech.bsky.social on using BlueSky for movement orgs.

A computer screen with the heading “the algorithm, feeds, lists and starter packs - what to use when, and smaller text that is hard to read

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Tell me five songs for this moment (which may mean a culmination of this year, or of this time, such as it is), for you. It might be your favorite five songs of all time, or the last five songs you happened to listen to. Maybe they’ll change tomorrow, or in five minutes. What are yours, right now?

Rachel’s five songs:
Times like these by Lachuné
In my life by Johnny Cash
The storm is passing over by Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir
My joy is heavy! By the Bengsons
People get ready by the Blind Boys of Alabama

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

This movie is so good. Having raised a kid with a disability, and facing the shitshow of IEPs and public schools, this story was so real and also so satisfying.

Movie poster featuring a young woman with light skin and brown hair in a power wheelchair, smiling with her arms raised in the air. The text reads “Disney Original Movie” and “Out of My Mind”

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy that isn’t a selfie.

A small brown and black, derpy-looking dog

Tweet from tigersgoroooar: I refuse to ever teach my daughters the archaic concept of “losing one’s virginity” as if some baby-dicked boy who drives a Honda Civic is really taking something special from you lmaaaoo grow up and overthrow the government

An array of glossy, shiny, colorful stickers that all read FUCK

Photo of a “three-capybara moon” t-shirt, depicting three thoughtful capybaras gazing at a full moon

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

It was a glorious couple of days in the Anza-Borrego desert. Buying a travel trailer 10 years ago was one of the best things we ever did.

A rocky hillside frames a beautiful desert valley view. Blue skies with a thin band of clouds fill the top half of the image.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Spectacular clouds in the desert when we arrived at our campsite last night.

Cotton candy clouds peek out from behind a small mountain in the So Cal desert, with a white SUV in the foreground.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Buddy (center) is staying with his cousin Resa (left) and his new friend, Tito Burrito, for the weekend. The vibes are vibing in pup world.

Three small dogs look up at the photographer. One is a fluffy white dog, one is a fluffy brown dog, and one is a short-haired white and brown dog with a raccoon mask face. They are extremely cute and have the look of a trio that expects a treat soon.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

This is a ridiculous animal. Her name is Tamarin, and she is a lovable menace.

A small orange and green parrot naps on her side in a bed 300 times her body size.

A small orange and green parrot peeks out from behind the wooden foot of a human bed, ready for trouble.

A small orange and green parrot yawns wide, as if she is tired from living a life of leisure.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

This is a song that I have on repeat these days, and this particular passage cuts straight through me every time.

I’m not trying,
no, I’m long past trying to mend,
to mend this broken heart.
No, I am just trying
to hold all the pieces,
and honor every part
of this cracked open geode
that lives inside of my chest
it is a home for a phoenix,
or for an animal,
for any animal
in need of rest.

From “My Joy Is Heavy,” by The Bengsons
heart illustration by Richard Cartwright

[text is on a black background with an illustration of an anatomical heart with flowers growing out of it]

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

This little bit of holiday joy is going to be in my yard soon.

Photo of a box containing a “tinsel dinosaur:” a small green Dino with colorful light bulbs down its back and a Santa hat in its head. The box says it is 15 inches tall.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

You can use this nifty call tool from the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Side With Love program to auto-call your senators. We still have some time to push Biden and Congress to stop enabling the genocide in Gaza. secure.everyaction.com/wkjUl4D4ckiY...

Not another bomb
End weapons to Israel Now

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

This works for internet trolls as well as people doing narcissistic bs to you in person. Starve them of your emotional energy.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I knew the bird people would be here.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I’m going to start a crafting group at my #UU congregation. I want it to be grounded in relationship and one of the small seeds of resistance to fascism.

Crocheted blanket: a field of colored hearts on a white background.

Crocheted stuffed unicorn standing on a bed. Unicorn is white with tiny gold wings and a dark, multicolored mane and tail.

Crocheted Venus of Willendorf; she is voluptuous!

Interior of a yarn shop in Montreal; skeins of yarn in many colors hang from racks and samples of handmade hats and sweaters are on display.

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

A PRAYER FOR DESERT TIMES By Margaret A Keip

Text on a blue sky above a sandy landscape:

A prayer for desert times

The journeys of our lives are never fully charted. There come to each of us deserts to cross—barren stretches—where the green edge on the horizon may be our destination, or an oasis on our way, or a mirage that beckons only to leave us lost.
When fear grips the heart, or despair bows the head, may we bend as heart and head lead us down to touch the ground beneath our feet. May we scoop some sand into our hands and receive what the sand would teach us:

It holds the warmth of the sun when the sun has left our sight, as it holds the cool of the night when the stars have faded. Hidden among its grains are tiny seeds, at rest and waiting, dormant yet undefeated.
Desert flowers. They endure. Moistened by our tears and by the rains which come to end even the longest drought, they send down roots and they bloom.
May we believe in those seeds, and in the seeds within us. May we remember in our dry seasons that we, too, are desert flowers. Amen.

By Margaret Keip

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Do more for trans folks. Buy them a coffee, tell them they’re cute, and commit to keeping them safe, no matter what.

It’s trans awareness week and trans folks deserve more than your awareness

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Rachel Keating Rott @turnsmith.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Here is the back of Buddy’s head to lift your spirits

The back of a cinnamon-colored dog whose head is covered in perfectly chaotic sworls of unkempt fur. His ears are slightly perked.

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