iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

tom brandt

@twbrandt.net

722 followers 449 following 4.1K posts

PC(USA) elder, deacon. Retired software engineer. UMich grad. He/him. Jackal (IYKYK). Dearborn, MI. Technical Canadian. 🏳️‍🌈 “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott twbrandt.net/about

Posts Replies Media

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 06/10/2026

I’d love to know whoever it was managed to tag that turret. (High Street, Dundee, Scotland)

Graffiti on a building turret several stories off the ground

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 04/10/2026

This view shows why Edinburgh Castle is located where it was. Difficult to attack, easy to defend.

This view shows why Edinburgh Castle was located where it was. Difficult to attack, easy to defend.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 03/10/2026

Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh

A small pond with green vegetation floating on top. It is surrounded by trees and other plants.

A sign reading:

The National Memorial for Organ and Tissue Donors in Scotland
Taigh: a wilding garden
Ale@finlay, commissioned by The Scottish Government,
in association with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
I EDINBURGH
SCULPTURE
WORKSHOP
Royal
Botanic Garden
Edinburgh
The Scottish
Government
Riaghaltas na h-Alba

Welcome to this 'wilding' memorial garden, a place for donor families,
transplant recipients, and those whose lives have been touched by donation
or transplantation to come for quiet reflection.
The dry-stane Taigh (Gaelic for 'house') draws on traditional Scottish dwellings
such as Taigh na Caillich in Glen Lyon. Under its foundations, a book containing
the handwritten name of every organ donor in Scotland is buried in an oak kist,
along with a surgical scalpel and anti-rejection medication commonly taken by •
organ recipients. 'Organ'-stones, collected from the River Lyon (pictured) and
woven with Soft Rush and Purple Moor-grass, are embedded in the turf-roof.
A font contains 'offering' pebbles gathered from beaches around Scotland.
"The wilding garden and Taigh is a work of remembrance: it was made for the dead,
the donors and their families, and those who are alive today through the gift of
donation. Organ and tissue donation touches many people: as an act of giving that
passes between the dead and the living it speaks to our values as a culture. A memorial
artwork that is made for a particular community will, if it has resonance, inevitably be
taken on by others over time, each tying on their own thread of meaning." - Alec Finlay
A book documenting the project records the many individuals and groups
that contributed to the memorial, including makers, gardeners, donor families,
transplant recipients, and clinical staff.

Alec Finlay
with Norman Haddow, Luke Allan, Caroline Dear, Amy Todman,
Hanna Tuulikki, Galgael, Neville Rae & Scott Laverie, StudioLR,
Brodie Sim, and staff of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Information on organ and tissue donation:
www…

A dirt path among small trees.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 02/10/2026

Isle of Mull, Scotland

A blue ocean with a boat and buoys in the foreground, rocky hills in the background.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 29/09/2026

On the Isle of Mull looking across to the Isle of Iona, panning back to Mull.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 25/09/2026

Random pictures from Glasgow

A red brick bridge arched over a river. There is greenery on either side of the river.

An old building with arched windows and turrets on the four corners.

A red sandstone building

A building with intricate design

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 24/09/2026

View from my hotel room.

View from the 9th floor of a hotel. There are trees in the foreground, a river in the middle ground with a brown sandstone building on the other side of the river. There is a bridge on the right side of the building.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 23/09/2026

Repost with image of favorite James Bond (wrong answers only)

Donald Sutherland looking particularly unhinged

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 08/09/2026

What‘s the example of perfect casting?

John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski

000

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 04/09/2026

I’m apparently from Traverse City? Got the state correct at least.

Dialect map showing the region I most sound like.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 02/09/2026

Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie that came out when you were 20 years old?

A man fighting off a great white shark.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 02/09/2026

Fuck you, Apple

Screenshot of Apple maps incorrectly labeling Lake Ontario.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 01/09/2026

“Oh Christ, it’s this asshole again.”

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 30/08/2026

on my iphone too

Google maps incorrectly labeling Lake Ontario

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 30/08/2026

Apple Maps still calls it by the correct name

Screenshot of Apple Maps calling Lake Ontario by its correct name.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 28/08/2026

iPhone did what it could

A blurry picture of a partial lunar eclipse.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 24/08/2026

No cheating. Share the last photo of the sky on your camera roll.

West arm of the Grand Traverse Bay, Traverse City, Michigan.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 13/08/2026

Ann Arbor Mentioned meme

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 11/08/2026

Spotted in Leland, MI (of all places). I’d love to know the story behind this.

A tiny Suzuki truck with an open bed. It is painted red with Japanese characters. It looks like it was for firefighting.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 11/08/2026

Parked next to me

Google street view car with camera equipment mounted on the roof.

100

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 09/08/2026

Rouge River Monsters at the Sandtrap in Riverview, MI. #LiveMusicIsTheBestMusic

A nine-piece band on a stage

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 05/08/2026

No cheating, post your lock screen.

My lock screen showing several waterfalls flowing into a river in Iceland 🇮🇸.

100

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 31/07/2026

RCP rates AES vs Rogers a tossup.

Screenshot of Real Clear Polling average showing Abdul El-Sayed up by .5% over Mike Rogers.

200

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 20/07/2026

Heh. SpaceX IPO’d at $135.

Graph showing a 24.00% decline in value of SpaceX stock from its peak.

000

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 19/07/2026

pausa de hidratación

A can of Cheboygan Brewing Co. Dark Cherry Blonde Ale.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 16/07/2026

Air quality index of 438 at 7:06am in Dearborn, MI.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 07/07/2026

heh

A graph showing a steep decline in the price of SpaceX stock

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 07/07/2026

pausa de hidratación

an old fashioned drink with a large ice cube in a glass.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 06/07/2026

That’s one one heck of a follower/following count

A screenshot of Isaac Chotiner’s Bluesky account showing he has 28.5K followers and is following only 11.

000

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 04/07/2026

pausa de hidratación

A glass of beer on a green coaster on a wooden bar

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 26/06/2026

I’m Zohran britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...

Results of a quiz showing my closest political match is Zohran Mamdani

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 26/06/2026

heh

Graph showing a sharp decline in the share price of SpaceX in the space of one week.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 24/06/2026

Every hometown’s got the ominous megastructure, what’s yours’?

Giant tire along eastbound I-94 in Allen Park, MI.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 20/06/2026

Had dinner in the Corktown neighborhood in Detroit this evening, so had to grab a pic of the Michigan Central railroad station. The bike infrastructure is pretty good, I think, with the bike lane separated from the traffic lanes by parked cars.

Michigan Avenue in Detroit. The bike lane is separated from the traffic lanes by parked cars.

Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 18/06/2026

Got my license, babe.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 10/06/2026

Screenshot of the shipping notification for the book “A Pox on Fools”

100

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 05/06/2026

Don Knotts as Barney Fife

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 23/05/2026

The quiz thinks I’m an Episcopalian, which fits, although I’ve been a Presbyterian (PCUSA) all my life and very much like my current congregation.

A graph showing my cultural tastes are closest to those in the Episcopal church.

200

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 26/04/2026

Rouge River Monsters at the 342 Bar & Grill in Dearborn Heights, MI. #LiveMusicIsTheBestMusic

10 piece band on a stage in a bar. Band includes guitars, percussion, keyboards, and brass.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 20/04/2026

Scoreboard showing Michigan is leading Ohio State in the Charity Bowl $5,347 to $779.

000

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 19/04/2026

Hilary Clinton: “And then... No wait, listen...
And then they told the Pope he doesn't understand the Bible before quoting a fake Bible passage from 'Pulp Fiction."

Barak Obama: "Girl, stop... I can't."

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 15/04/2026

A couple of friends sent me these pictures of damage in Ann Arbor from last night’s storm.

The sign outside Knights restaurant on Dexter. Half of it is missing.

A photo of Yost Ice Arena taken from across State Street. Much of the roof is torn off and laying on the ground.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 28/03/2026

Good turnout for No Kings in Wyandotte, MI today.

Crowds of people lining the street for the No Kings rally in Wyandotte, MI.

Crowd of people in front of the city hall in Wyandotte, MI. One sign reads “Iran from the Epstein Files”.

Crowd of people in front of the city hall in Wyandotte, MI.

Crowd of people in front of the city hall in Wyandotte, MI.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 27/03/2026

Things are going swimmingly in Donald Trump’s economy.

Screenshot showing the major stock indexes are all down, tech and manufacturing stocks are down as well.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 21/03/2026

Rouge River Monsters at the Sandtrap in Riverview, MI. Live music is the best music.

10-piece band on a stage

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 20/03/2026

Shadow says hi

A black cat with yellow eyes sitting on the back of a sofa.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 18/03/2026

The Goog is getting nervous.

An email from Google:

Tom,
Lawmakers in state capitals across the country are back in session - and they're already proposing regulations that could make it harder and more expensive for you to reach customers online. You can stay up to date on potential regulatory changes and make your voice heard on these topics by signing up below.
Sign Up for Important Updates
(Google will let me know about legislative and regulatory issues, events and advocacy opportunities related to my business.)
America's small businesses should have a voice in these discussions, and staying informed is the first step. From weighing in on state data privacy laws to helping influence the future of artificial intelligence (Al), your perspective can make a difference.
Sign up to stay informed about proposed regulations that could impact your business and to hear about opportunities to weigh in on these proposals. You will receive an email roughly once a month about key moments for your state.
Sign Up for Important Updates
(Google will let me know about legislative and regulatory issues, events and advocacy opportunities related to my business.)
Thank you,
The Google Customer Solutions Team

000

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 11/03/2026

Excuse me?

Next 24 Hours
Rain this morning, continuing until this afternoon, possibly turning to a chance of light snow this evening. Wind gusts up to 36 mph overnight. Today will feel significantly cooler than yesterday.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 10/03/2026

Post your favorite Lord of the Rings character. Wrong answers only.

Carrol O’Connor as Archie Bunker.

tom brandt @twbrandt.net · 27/02/2026

Gullfoss, a waterfall in Iceland.