iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Finally, for roughly 1-2 year-olds in particular, I love the Rosa and Clive series. Older kids can love these as well but they are great for when a child is just starting to learn how to pay attention to stories. I love Rosa Plays Ball the best because it has so many opportunities for sound effects

Photo of Rosa Plays Ball by Jessica Spanyal

Next, the Mog books. These are older books and have some bad background gender politics, but also. Somehow they understand both cats and children perfectly. And I adore the writing in Mog’s Bad Thing in particular. This is a wonderful book to take some time with

In this book, Frog cannot cope with winter. At first, his friends try to point out the nice things about winter and get him to change his outlook. But they realise that he doesn’t need their encouragement, he needs their help and care. It’s an emotionally light touch story but moving all the same

A page from Frog in Winter where other characters are enjoying the snow and frog is miserable

Next is Frog in Winter by Max Velthuijs. We have all the Frog books now & one of the things I like about them is how the characters can have strong negative emotions without those emotions being the point of the story. They’re just part of life. But Frog in Winter is the first one we got and my fave

Photo of the children’s book “Frog in Winter” by Max Velthuijs

Up next is literally anything by Michael Rosen, but here’s a special shoutout to Chocolate Cake, a story about child!Michael eating an entire cake in the middle of the night. Really fun to read and one of the kids’ favourites. It’s a book that’s easy to abbreviate or take a long time with as desired

Photo of the book Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen

Photo of three additional books by Michael Rosen. These are all from his collection, “Poems for the Very Young”, which is itself highly recommended

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 27/07/2026

Easily the best children’s book I’ve read is “We’re Going to Find the Monster” by Malorie Blackman. The text is so fun to read, the rhythm is excellent in some unexpected ways, and I love how the story captures how kids can turn mundane settings into big exciting worlds

The cover of the book “We’re Going to Find the Monster!” By Malorie Blackman and illustrated by Dapo Adeola.

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Almost every Ursula K Le Guin book I own, for a variety of reasons including lending them out and not getting them back, an ill-advised purge when I moved country, and being tempted by cool new editions

Photo of a bookshelf with about 30 books by Ursula K Le Guin

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 08/07/2026

This pic shows how the direct morning light shining through our kitchen window was attenuated by the yoghurt. No smell that I can detect. Last time it cleaned off with soap and water. It’s not a miracle and obvs mainly for ground floor windows, but it definitely helped.

Photo of a house window from the inside. There are several plants and other items on the windowsill. The window looks like it has poorly-applied glazing on it which blocks the sunlight from shining on the sill

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 08/07/2026

The heat wave has now hit Leeds (though not nearly as bad as last time or as in the south), so I re-yoghurted the windows. First pic is when I applied the yoghurt yesterday evening and it was still drying. Second pic is how it looked this morning.

Photo of a window and glass door on a red brick house. The glass has uneven white streaks completely covering it

Photo of the same window and door but with the streaks looking less white and more like poorly-applied glazing

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/07/2026

More from Connie’s birthday photoshoot. I can’t believe she is five!

A tricoloured tortoiseshell cat jumping onto a green shed

A tri-coloured tortoiseshell cat standing and looking down at a camera, looking like she would slightly prefer to be left alone

A tri-coloured tortoiseshell cat lying on her side looking at the camera

A tri-coloured tortoiseshell cat lying down in an outdoor location looking at the camera

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/07/2026

Connie hiding from the paparazzi on her 5th birthday

Photo of a mostly ginger and black cat with a white nose and single visible white paw. She is lying down on the roof of a small shed and is partially obscured by old magazines that are stacked below a small plant in a seedling tray.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 26/06/2026

These two albums ended up next to each other on my downloads list and I love how they look together

Screenshot of two albums side-by-side. On the left is LUX by ROSALíA and on the right is Love Deluxe by Sade. Both covers have the artists in similar poses, with their arms folded as though they are hugging themselves and their heads to the side with their eyes closed. They both have long flowing hair and both images have simple solid-colour backgrounds

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 26/06/2026

We’re getting a nice line of storms that are cooling things off this morning, but this afternoon it’s still meant to get to 34C (93F)—very hot for Yorkshire; I wouldn’t be surprised if it breaks the June record. All I can conclude is that without the rain it would be more like high 30s or 40 😬

Screen shot of a UK Met Office rainfall radar image over the centre of Great Britain, with a location marker at Leeds. A band of rainfall runs through the centre of the country from the southeast to the northwest, with pockets of heavy rainfall especially in the centre and northeast parts. Time stamp is 07:25 local time.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 16/06/2026

Apparently there is an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (the show that Xena spawned off from) in which beloved characters Salmoneus and Autolycus are in drag and then this happens

“I think I mentioned this before, but this episode has a great bit where Salmoneus is sitting in a bubble bath, shaving his legs, when Autolycus comes running in still dressed as a man. He doesn't have time to switch clothing before the Widow Twanky is about to walk in, so instead he jams on his wig and crams himself into the tub opposite Sal, hiding his clothed body with just his head sticking out of the bubbles. Twanky comes in, takes one look, and snarks, "And just who do we think we are? Xena and Gabrielle?" »

Still from a 90s tv show with two middle aged white men in drag with pink dresses and cute wigs. They look very pleased.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 05/05/2026

That’s so interesting! I agree that you don’t have to be queer to be fabulous, but gosh, look at this pic

Photo of Robin Williams, probably taken when he was in his 30s. He is standing under an umbrella gently smirking at the camera. He is wearing a black tight-fitting t-shirt with cap sleeves and beige high-waist pleated trousers that appear to be wrapped around his waist.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 02/05/2026

My partner sent me a photo of this poster yesterday and today it appeared on my street! For context: Leeds is a large-by-UK-standards city with no rapid transit, and our recently-announced trams are probably going to be axed. Also our buses are privatised and absolute shit

Photo of a poster on a wooden pole with the following text in many different and colourful fonts:

TRAMS? WE DON'T NEED TRAMS™
The solution can be achieved with the application of
INTELLECTUAL GUMPTION and our INNATE ANIMAL CUNNING
FOR EXAMPLE:
1# Municipal Sedan Chairs
The feckless can be harnessed to make up for their complete lack of feck. A win for all.
#2 DOMESTICATE THE UBERBOTS
THEY WILL NEWER TURN AGAINST US.
#3 WHEELED FEETS
Absolutely no reason why this can't happen AT SCALE.
GIVE UP ON TRAMS. CONTACT YOUR MP AND DEMAND THE ABOVE

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 27/04/2026

Wild garlic along a stream. Six weeks ago there was very little green along this path. In a few more weeks the vegetation will be taller than me. I love this time of year

Photo of a dirt path with green vegetation growing along the side. There are white flowers in the vegetation, trees at varying stages of spring greeness, and a small wooden bridge in the distance.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 26/04/2026

Bluebells covering the ground on my walk into the Leeds city centre today. I’m lucky to live near this green belt.

A woodland path with English oak trees starting to turn green and a hillside covered with bluebell flowers.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/04/2026

Ok i didn't buy *three* pairs If I'd left the house I'd have worn my silver high-tops and I would have loved it.

Mirror selfie of a person wearing black-and-white checked barrel-leg trousers with a black-and-grey rugby-striped sweater with a white collar. They are also wearing light brown crocks shoes.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 29/03/2026

Last year I joined the Green Party and I’ve been keeping busy with the local elections campaign. It’s been good to get out in the city and in contact with a lot of different people. I took these photos walking home after campaign activities a week or so ago

Photo of a British Victorian building silhouetted against a muted sunset. There are bare trees and a paved driveway in the foreground.

Photo of a field of daffodils with a grey sky and bare trees in the background

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 05/03/2026

my beloved grandpa was a logger -- here is a photo of him with my mom on his truck

black and white photograph from the 1950s. In the foreground is a truck with a man in a white t-shirt sitting on the wheel and a baby in his lap. In the background is a coniferous forest and small mountain.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 22/02/2026

“Your last saved picture of a celebrity is your therapist “ in other words I finally found an excuse to post this photo of Renee O’Conner aka Gabrielle

Photo of a thin blonde white woman sitting in a tall chair holding a glass of red wine. She is sitting in a somewhat masculine posture and has tattoos on her bare arms.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 22/02/2026

My phone reminded me that this picture exists (from 2022)

Photo of a ginger cat lying calmly on a blue and green knitted blanket in the foreground. In the background a calico cat is sleeping in an awkward position.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 17/02/2026

This is a CAT checkpoint. Show me the most recent cat image on your phone.

Photo of a tortoise shell calico cat sitting on a white windowsill. The pant legs of a pair of trousers hang on either side of the cat. The cat is looking interestedly at something outside out of frame.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 24/01/2026

The best cloud formations are almost always seen from space, and I love a good classic marine cold air outbreak. Here is a storm from late December last year; they are pretty much ubiquitous in the winter in both hemispheres so I only had to scroll back a bit to find a really nice-looking one.

visible satellite image of a complex of clouds associated with a large storm off the coast of Nova Scotia

a doppelgangers multi vid! I really want to do this, I think it's my most galaxy-brained vid idea yet, but I'm struggling with vidding motivation right now and it's an ambitious project

Screenshot of a discord post by me from 31/03/2025, with the following:
"Me the last few weeks: it’d be cool to make a multifandom doppelgänger vid, but what song?

Also me, the last few weeks: it’d be fun to vid Always be my Baby by Mariah Carey, but what source/concept?

Me just now: wait a second"

I am very sorry Seratones, you need better listeners

A picture showing that I’m the Seratones’s “32nd biggest fan”

I do find their microgenres or whatever to be a lot more intuitive than Spotify’s got. Like if someone said “would you like to listen to a neo-soul grooves playlist” I would think they were a bit pretentious but I’d have an idea what they meant

A list of my top genres according to Tidal, the main ones being “soulful r&b”, “vibrant global fusion”, and “Introspective Ballads”

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 31/10/2025

My first Tidal Rewind! The Children finally made their mark on my listening stats lol

A list of my most listened-to artists on Tidal which is mostly RnB but has Danny Go!, a children’s song artist, at No 6

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#UKpolitics a bunch of councillors in Nottingham have left the labour party and formed a new local group called Nottingham People's Alliance, and their logo has a bow and arrow. no notes

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/07/2025

Today is Connie’s fourth birthday! Her favourite things are climbing ladders, shelves, buildings, and trees; chasing her tail; and sleeping near her favourite humans without being touched, spoken to, or looked at.

Photo of a room with a ladder built into the wall going almost to the ceiling, with a cat at the top of the ladder

Photo of a tortoise shell calico cat facing the camera with its eyes closed because it is squinting at the person holding the camera

Photo of a tortoise shell calico cat sleeping awkwardly on its side

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 13/06/2025

It depends on how easily my kidnappers are swayed by singing You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you?

Promotional poster for Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born, a Korean drama about a young woman who joins an all-female Korean opera troupe in the 1950s. It’s a photograph of five women in a wood-panelled room with Korean text overlaid.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 19/05/2025

Take the fictional characters quiz and post the first four you know.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 16/03/2025

No cheating. Post the most recent photo of your pet.

Photo of a tortoise-shell cat with a white belly lying stretched out on a gray blanket. The cat is lying on the photographer’s legs, so is stretched out with its head pointing away from the camera.

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 15/03/2025

Some pics from my local park this week. Spring, wild garlic, and a good climbing tree.

Photo of a small stream with an arched stone bridge and some trees around it. One of the trees is blossoming. There is soft morning light on the back of the bridge.

Photo of a dirt path with small bare trees and lots of sprouting green ground cover (wild garlic).

Photo of a tree with twisty bark and limbs.

Photo of a small tree with white blossoms over a wooden fence.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 21/12/2024

I’m so bad at sending holiday cards I still have some I bought circa 2010, and they look it 😅

A photo of two holiday greeting cards with birds on them

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/12/2024

Also oh dear I think that is a higher percentile than last year somehow? And also apparently at some point I listened to only Beyoncé for six days

Spotify image of Beyoncé with text that says “You’re a top 0.1% fan and you spent 5,014 minutes together”

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 04/12/2024

I’m only surprised that Texas Hold ‘Em is in the top 5 and Snooze by SZA isn’t, everything else is as expected

Screen shot of my top 5 artists and songs from Spotify Wrapped. Artists are Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, SZA, the Seratones, and Stromae; top songs are Texas Hold Em, 2 Hands 2 Heaven, Riverdance, Cuff It, and Sweet Honey Bucking

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 23/11/2024

Finally doing this! Because vidding procrastination! Introduce yourself with One book 📚 One movie 🎥 One album 💿 One show 📺

Cover image of The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin. Image is a '70s or '80s era painting of two planets -- one green and mountainous, one red and cratered -- with swirls evocative of magnetic fields between them. Text also reads "Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards! The magnificent new epic of an ambiguous utopia."

Image from Everything Everywhere All at Once. Hotdog-world Evelyn is a minor character played by Michelle Yeoh. She is in an alternate universe where humans have hotdog fingers. She has her hand raised as if to interrupt someone with an important point. She has a short, fake-looking bob, a cowl-neck beige shirt, and is wearing a lot of blush.

Cover image of the album Julie Ruin. A black and white drawing of young Kathleen Hannah standing in a skirt, a button-up shirt, and tall boots, and with a 60s hair style and her hands on her belt. The background is a faded photograph of a library and a pink woman symbol is over her skirt.

A still image from the show Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena and Gabrielle are sitting on a log laughing and looking at each other. Xena's dirty bare feet are in the foreground, out of focus. The image is from the fan-favourite episode "A Day in the Life".

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 06/10/2024

For the record I have never in my life been too scared to ask my crush out and I am way too impulsive to be a perfectionist (I do heve bedhead though) Best personality quiz? Check out my Veggie ID! You can create yours at sophie006liu.github.io/vegetal/

Green MS paint style image identifying me as a broccoli. There is a lot of text on here that I am not able to copy and paste.

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 03/10/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 4

Image of a book cover: it's dark blue with gold and white text reading "Introduction to quantum mechanics, second edition, David J. Griffiths". There is a simple line drawing of a tabby cat sitting with one front paw raised.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 28/09/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 3

Book cover: a realistic painting of a chestnut brown horse with a white stripe on its forehead, standing in a grassy field wearing a halter, looking magestically in the distance, tail blowing in the wind. A young white man in a white button-up shirt with a green wool vest and brown trousers stands nearby holding a lead rope. A white fence and trees are in the background. Text includes the book title, "Man o' War" in large font, with 'by Walter Farley' on the bottom and 'By the author of The Black Stallion" at the top.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 23/09/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 2

Image of a book cover: the title is "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844" by Karl Marx. Cover design is a solid dark blue top third with the author name and title. The bottom two thirds are beige with a classic image of Karl Marx with the full beard -- when he was much older than when he wrote these manuscripts.

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fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 16/09/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge 1

1970s looking book cover of "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K Le Guin, with paintings of a green, mountainous, be-oceaned planet next to a red, cratered planet, with wavy magnetic-field like lines connecting them. Additional text reads "The magnificent epic of an ambiguous utopia -- winner of the Nebula Award!"

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 02/08/2024

How we tidy our (home-based childcare) garden before two weeks of vacation.

Photo of a back yard/garden with a few small trees, a children’s climbing frame, and random tires and things on the ground

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 29/07/2024

Post a movie from the year you turned 18

still from The Matrix (1999), with a straight-on medium distance shot of the characters Trinity and Neo, wearing black leather and power walking through a public building with guns. There is shattered glass and smoke behind them, and the colour grading is very green.

fray 🇵🇸 @uvcatastrophe.eurosky.social · 30/05/2024

Here’s a photo of my cat Connie after she jumped through our skylight/velux window onto our roof

Photo of a calico cat on a window, shot from below the window. The cat is sitting and all four of its paws are visible through the window, with white paws and black toe pads. Its tail is wrapped around it, and its fur is smooshed cutely against the glass.