iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The new battery icon in macOS Golden Gate does NOT look like a battery.

A row of small menu bar items, in the middle, a baby's bottle.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I ran across this monstrosity the other day.

A blue dirt bike with a very small human in a leotard riding it. Probably an AI image. It looks like an adult in a child's body, kind of? Rather creepy looking and in the uncanny valley.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I spent most of the day string trimming and mowing and working on other chores. Hot but tolerable. I drank a half gallon of gatorade. I also found these oyster mushrooms! Those are going in the dehydrator tonight.

A photo of a woodsy scene, a pickup truck and a small red UTV sitting side beside between some trees. In the background, rows of pine trees. On the right, a small shed with a porch.

A fallen log crossing a small creek, loaded with oyster mushrooms.

A gravel logging road, mostly taken over with grass, but neatly mown. The path is flanked by pine trees and goes up and turns a corner to where you can't see. The sky is blue with fluffy white clouds.

A low creek with a rocky and sandy shoreline. The water is in shade with a few patches of sunlight, not moving fast, looks rather tannic. Dark brown/green water. In the background, a streambank and trees.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Today was a good day to remove Tree of Heaven! We have a few patches here and there around the property. I have been using a herbicide called Pathfinder 2 with an added red dye to see where I have treated. If you just cut them down without herbicide, they will sprout back up all around.

Tall trees with distinctive small leaves (Tree of Heaven) outlined with a black marker.

A skinny tree trunk with a bit of foliage at the top, cut down and on the ground.

A gloved hand holding a leaf of the Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima.

A bunch of Tree of Heaven branches all over the ground, with some larger stumps painted red with dyed herbicide.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The context menus are not OK.

A ridiculously long context menu from Apple Notes. It has 15 sections, 11 submenus, and 28 top-level items.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Some trailcam pics from lately.

A skinny brown coyote staring at the camera. Green scrubby forest with some mowed paths.

Two gray foxes (with bright orange heads) walking through the grass.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

reminds me of my Devin Nunes observation from 2018

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I love the fancy crossed paws.

A tan dog with up ears, sitting on a red rug, with front paws crossed in a fancy manner.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Ugh, 2013 called and wants its password policies back.

"What to expect"

Starting February 15, users will be prompted to reset their password on next login to meet the new security requirements. Future password resets will be required every 90 days for all account types."

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Such great colors out there right now.

A ginko tree with bright yellow-green leaves, backlit. Some brown vines drape down in the foreground.

A tree-lined asphalt street curving into the distance, with a carpet of red and yellow maple leaves on the left margin, and a bright green-yellow moss shoulder on the right. The colors over overall very yellow, yellow-green, a bit of a bit reddish orange. The sky is overcast, and the asphalt is wet indicating recent rain.

In the foreground, two small buckeye shrubs with very bright yellow foliage. In the background, a southern magnolia (still glossy dark green), and other plants and trees.

In the foreground, yellow and brown leaves, a small patch of River Oats grass (Chasmanthium latifolium) also turning yellow. The grass plants are upright in a cluster, and the leaves are draping down towards the ground. In the foreground, tree trunks and some assorted understory.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

My favorite part of all of this, from the town's website: www.townofchapelhill.org/government/d...

A diagram of a 3 by 3 by 9 foot pile of logs, illustrated using golden retriever dogs for scale.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Hey NC friends, I've recently gotten involved in a new project called the Triangle Central Kitchen, a social enterprise fighting hunger and food waste, and we are launching on Sept 24 at Namu in Durham. Want a great dinner for a greater cause, check it out! trianglecentralkitchen.org/tck-launch-p...

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Blowing some fire lines for a small burn this evening. #rxfire #goodfire

A photo of a forest floor, half of it cleared to the duff underneath, the other half covered in pine needles. Green trees in the background.

A black dog wearing a fluorescent yellow and orange safety coat, prancing near a big pile of logging slash.

A black dog wearing a fluorescent yellow and orange safety coat, with a wild look on her face. She’s barking.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

And this Baptisia alba (White Wild Indigo)! This is the second Baptisia species we've found on the property.

A plant in the foreground with small, long, oval leaves, with a bean-like vibe. A flower stalk is emerging upwards, with small white flowers in the process of opening up. Towards the top, closed buds. In the background, trees and grasses. Blue sky.

Someone is holding the flower stalk with the white bean-like flowers.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

And this Amianthium muscitoxicum (Fly Poison or Crow Poison).

Someone is holding the stem of a flower stalk. At the end of the stalk appears to be a clustered dome of small white flowers. The dome is maybe a couple of inches in diameter. At the base of the plant, strappy narrow leaves. There are some other plants on the ground, as well as some bare earth.

A closer look at the flower on the end of the stalk, with someone's hand behind it. It's egg shaped, made up of tiny white flowers. Most of the lower flowers have already opened, but towards the top of the stalk there appear to be buds still in progress. The background is more greenery and some bare earth.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Such great botanizing out there right now. From one spot in the Uwharries, we've got this Matelea carolinensis (climbing milkweed) 😍

Large, round or oval shaped green leaves in the foreground, with small, 5-petaled dark maroon flowers. It seems to be a vine, climbing up a small tan stem of another plant. In the background, more green plants and perhaps some sticks and small tree limbs.

In the foreground, a cluster of small, 5-petaled, deep maroon flowers. The petals are delicate and are curved. In the center of one flower you can perhaps see some yellow color. Behind the cluster of blossoms, large oval shaped leaves with pointed tips appear to twine up the small stem of another plant. In the blurry background, a small tree trunk fallen over, other branches and grasses and other plants.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Quick little growing season #rxfire in the Uwharries. Goals: clear out some accumulated fuels and reduce hazard near our storage shed.

A scrappy young pine forest, the forest floor is on fire on the right hand side. Downed saplings and pine needles and ferns on the left.

A small stand of pine trees, the forest floor on fire, smoke rising and obscuring the sun. Foreground is a dirt road. Some handheld equipment can be seen.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

If you smelled smoke in Chapel Hill today, it might have been from a prescribed fire. We burned several meadows at the NCBG's Mason Farm unit behind the golf course. #rxfire #goodfire

A medium distance photo of several humans standing around a vehicle, chatting. They are wearing yellow. In the foreground are green plants, grasses, shrubs. The people and vehicle are framed by two dark tree trunks in the foreground.

A green natural area, with shrubs, grasses, and other plants, on fire.

Smoke and fire moving to the right, across an open green meadow. On the right, flames. On the left, two people standing in the shade of a tree. They are holding metal drip torches. One is wearing a hard hat.

Smoke rising into the blue sky with a few white clouds. A black burned area and some surviving green trees in the foreground. To the right, a green grass and gravel two-track road. You can just barely see some people and maybe a a vehicle at the end of the road.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

There is some excellent botanizing (and other kinds of izing) out there this spring!

A photo of a very large moth, a Callosamia angulifera (tulip tree silkmoth), mostly black in the center, with prominent fuzzy antennae (a boy?), and lighter gray and cream colored fringes on the edges of the wings.

A photo of a small purple iris, Iris cristata (Dwarf Crested Iris), with other greenery and some brown leaves around it.

A photo of some very delicate and filamentous white flowers from a blooming Chionanthus virginicus (White Fringetree).

A flower on a Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxter Flower) shrub.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Nasty looking fire in Kernersville, apparently it is a metal recycling plant on fire. The same plant caught fire in 2023.

A photo taken from a car, on the road, a four lane boulevard with a grass median. In the distance, plumes of gray smoke are visible.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Great turnout at Chapel Hill NC's Hands Off protest! I don't know, maybe 2000 people?

A lot of protesters holding signs, many wearing hats.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Fire lines are often plowed or disced, but that can damage the structure of the soil and makes it hard to walk. So these are hand lines: mowed, leaf blown, and raked clear of flammable material. The goal is to create a 10ft+ wide lane that won't carry fire.

A path in the forest, leaf-blown down to bare earth, with some clumps of grasses and other plants.

A view of a path in a forest, with a backpack leaf blower sitting on the ground in the foreground.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

We are prepping a small 10-acre area of young pine trees for a hot burn this spring. This is a Kunz tow-behind mower that we're using to mow the fire lines--it's huge and heavy, 600lbs with a 27hp engine. I fired it up for the first time yesterday and only got it a little bit stuck twice.

A 4-wheeled tow-behind mower painted gray (but covered in leaves and pollen already), with wheels mounted on rails above the mower deck. In the background are young pine trees and brush.

A red UTV towing a large mower, with trees in the background.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Based on this soil map, I think I am seeing the difference between 26 (coastal plain) and 15 (clay-y southern piedmont), but I am not a soil expert. tile.loc.gov/image-servic...

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Look at the two colors of clay on the UTV's tires. Both colors collected within probably a half mile of each other.

A photo of a tire with large treads, the deep portions of the tread have a light colored beige/yellow clay, and the raised portions are covered in red clay.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Here is a closer picture of the lichen(?).

A close up photo, the left hand side is a gray rock with lots of little gray dots on it. The dots have a thin darker outline. There is moss on the right hand side of the photo. It is mostly yellowish green and brown.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

They're burning a big area in the Uwharrie National Forest today. Check out the smoke. The buckeyes and trout lilies are waking up. And check out this weird lichen pattern on this rock!

The leaves of an early Buckeyes (Aesculus) plan starting to open.

Set on a bed of brown beech leaves, there's a gray rock, half covered in a thick moss, the other half of the rock appear to be covered in a bunch of little darker gray dots. Upon closer inspection, they look like spots of lichen forming. But I am not a lichenologist so I am not sure.

A close up of a little yellow flower emerging from a spotted green and purple pair of long, skinny leaves. It's a trout lily, Erythronium americanum. There are twigs and brown leaves in the background.

A view across a field of of young loblolly pine trees to a ridge and the sky. There is a very large distant plume of smoke visible. The sky is half clouds, half blue.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

We had a tiny prescribed fire this week, about a 1/8 acre near our campsite. After the fire I thinned some of the skinny pines, so hopefully this spring with the fire and extra light we will see some ground cover plants come back. This also gives us some defensible space near camp.

A pine forest with a small fire creeping along the ground. On the left, a black dog and a human wearing teal and green, holding a bright red drip torch.

A small stand of pines with a fire underneath, and a column of smoke heading towards the sky.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Thanks for following along! I'll post more to this thread when I have updates and I remember.

A photo of a forest, on the left, a some very young pines with a more established windbreak of older pines in the distance. On the left, a deciduous forest in the winter. In the center of the image, the lights of a small red utility vehicle as it climbs the hill towards the camera. The sky is clear and bright blue, and there's a bit of a lens flare in the upper-right corner from the sun.

Another photo of a forest, brightly lit, the camera is pointed right at the sun through the trees. There is a large holly branch in the top of the frame, and the ground is covered in ferns. The sun shining through the trees is casting long shadows on the ground.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I'm using a handheld brush cutter (like a string trimmer but with a sawblade on the end) to mow down the saplings to widen this path that will be our firebreak. After brush cutting, it will need to be mowed closer and blown free of organic matter. At that point it'll be an effective firebreak.

A two-frame animated GIF showing a before and after of a path being widened. On the left is a young pine forest. On the right, an older forest.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Our goals here are to improve the habitat from a pine monoculture by thinning the forest and letting sunlight onto the ground, and to increase the biodiversity of the property by using prescribed fire. We hope that there is a sufficient seed bank that will germinate once sunlight can hit the ground.

We are looking down a dirt road with young pine trees on both sides. Along the left-hand side of the road, there is a narrow line of fire, burning grass and pine needles. In the distance, maybe 100 feet away, you can see a two people, one wearing a yellow coat and holding a drip torch, dropping fire as she goes. The other guy is wearing an orange cap.

A deciduous forest in winter or early spring (no leaves yet), it looks like it might be a flood plain. It has recently been burned. To the left and the right, burned ground. In the middle of the image, stretching off to the distance, is a ditch or lower-lying wet area that did not burn--it's green and looks a bit muddy. There is a figure wearing bright colored clothing in the background.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

The property is hilly and has a creek running through it, and it has some really nice creekside areas that have been spared from logging. Most of the forest, though, is a monoculture of Loblolly pine. It hasn't been thinned since planting, so the trees are way too dense and the understory is shady.

A picture of a young pine forest with a road cutting through. The trees are densely planted on both sides, only a narrow beam of sunlight cuts through the trees on the left side of the trail.

A picture of two dogs running through a forest. It's a low angle shot, but you can see that the trees are all similar and closely spaced. The ground is devoid of vegetation, it's covered in brown pine needles.

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Timothy Gerla @tybstar.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

I just saw this little cutie on the driveway.

A small Eastern newt in its red eft form, bright orange, on a wet dark pavement surface.

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