iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A fellow member of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer forum (I think) shared a download of it, and I have had it on my iPod for approximately 20 years. A delight.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 4h

I really hate hearing stuff about how the UK is "world-leading" in whatever things. I don't want it to be about one country being the best! I want us all to have good things!

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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 10h

Punching my ticket to Kalamazoo

Graphic labelled "Types of Medievalist Paper" based on xkcd.com/2456/. 12 pictures of 'papers' appear with overlaid titles:

You Won't Believe What Nuns Were Up To
HEY, I FOUND A TROVE OF OLD RECORDS! THEY DON'T TURN OUT TO BE PARTICULARLY USEFUL, BUT STILL, COOL!
The Silk Road Is Not Just A Website for Buying LSD
Niche Tax Documents in Provence, 1370-1373
Everything That Happened in Asia, 622-1914
Ships Might Be Very Important
Introducing "Spatula' The New Journal for Medieval Studies
Globalizing the Middle Ages: An Examination of England *and* France
How l Got the University to Pay for My Trip to Venice
Did You Know? Arabs Had Science and Culture Too
We Remembered Spain And It's Right Where We Left It
More Viking Shit Found in Unexpected Place

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 7h

Same. "Why would you have fireworks in July? You have to wait for long for it to get dark enough."

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Reposted by Verity

Graham 🏳️‍🌈 - UKTM @uk-tank-markings.co.uk · 07/10/2026

Found the bit in my Amazon account where it lists what their algorithm knows about me, and it might as well just come out and call me autistic.

Screenshot from Amazon on what it knows about me:

"Systematically collecting complete book series"
"Building comprehensive craft supply collection"
"Studies railway history actively"

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Reform's candidate: "Hello, I do not even have the most cursory understanding of the recent history of Kings Cross".

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

(And/or the chickens who live in their garden.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I could go and commune with the wagons on my lunch break.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I could cycle there and back and it would be so much cheaper.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Don Draper, with gravity: "All you want ... by Whiffling".

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I was looking up Milton's epitaph on Shakespeare (an English tutor at my college wants to show his students our copy of the Second Folio, which contains it), and found this comment on AllPoetry: "well done in rhyming. very fun tor read[.] Nicely done". Yeah, I'm sure Milton really needs that.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Contemplating looking for a job at the University of Reading for similar reasons. My current job stresses me out for many reasons, but the unreliable train journey to and from it doesn't help. (I do get lots of reading done on it, though.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I know you've probably already had someone point this out, so apologies in advance, but just in case: the emails about this say the date is Sunday 22 November in one place and Sunday 6 November in another. (Sunday 6 November is not going to happen this year, so I assume the 22nd is correct.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This morning I was imagining Don Draper coming up with Death Bredon's campaign for Whifflets.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Now that it's getting cooler Katie is demanding more lap time. Maybe I had things to do, Katie! But right now those things are "sit in an armchair and let the cat snooze on my lap".

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

(I like food! It's just hard to make nice things sometimes.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Conversely, my chosen breakfast/lunch as a child and teenager was often dry toast (or bread) and water, like a Victorian prisoner.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Taking the risk of buying some skirts advertised as "midi-length", which which luck means they might be ankle-length, but might mean they trail on the floor. I'm not even that much shorter than the average UK woman! 5'0" is a reasonable height to be!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I have been meaning to get one of those. (Telescopic lopper, not cypress.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

There are also a lot of pop-up ads.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Some of the example sentences given by an online BSL dictionary (written to show the word in context, not example signed sentences) are slightly odd, gender-wise. For "woman": "the woman kept house while the man hunted". Work: "My wife never worked". Car: "he needs a car to get to work".

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Almost all the delivery people I see on motorbikes have L-plates on their bikes. I don't want someone who's still learning how to ride a motorbike to have an incentive to move fast!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I feel like it was an awful thing to do to his friends and family, even without Harriet in the picture!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Quick: www.theguardian.com/crosswords/q... Quick [beginners'] cryptic: www.theguardian.com/crosswords/q...

theguardian.com

Quick crossword No 17,595

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Last Saturday Rob and I completed the Guardian quick cryptic without too much fuss, but it took us until yesterday to finish the so-called "quick" crossword (non-cryptic clues). It should be the other way around!

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Reposted by Verity

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 01/10/2026

Attention everyone I know! Perfectly accurate, no notes. (Forwarded to me; ultimate source unclear.)

Image headlined "WHAT YOUR FAVORITE OBSOLETE ENGLISH LETTER SAYS ABOUT YOU", with thumbnails of MSS focusing on thorn, eth, wynn, yogh, ash, insular G, and long S; each one has the label "You are a nerd."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

At least Chloe and Issy are there.

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Reposted by Verity

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 01/10/2026

If I went to Switzerland and won a Swiss watch precision contest, I would literally never talk about anything else

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"The practice of rigging lavatories with a disco soundtrack and flashing lights activated by a button [...] is so commonplace that it has almost become a cliche." Oh, yeah, the disco toilet, I'm so familiar with that.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Where once restaurant toilets tended to be a boring, unglamorous afterthought, in recent years, they have emerged as arguably the most unexpectedly attention-grabbing room in the building: atmospherically distinct sites of creativity and muscle-flexing design [....]"

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I know I am extremely out of touch, but reading a feature about restaurant toilets really hammered it home.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I worry about losing my institutional access to academic resources if I ever quit my job.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I had just started sixth form, and asked my Chemistry teacher politely if it was okay if I missed his lesson that day, as I needed to be on a train to London, and also could I borrow one of the lab coats for dressing-up purposes? (He said yes to both.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Exactly twenty years ago I went to my first in-person fandom meetup! It was a signing of Green Wing DVDs at the Virgin Megastore flagship in London, and I met up with people from an online forum. I still have my signed DVDs.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

(I would not have tried to cheat; I would have just delightedly started memorising.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is also how I felt about tonight's "memorise a list of countries and recite them under exam conditions" task. A nice enjoyable task for the contestants after they have to do stressful things like "write and perform a song" and "eat stuff".

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I imagine myself still sitting to one side by myself while everyone else forges close bonds and the prospect is chilling. If I failed to make friends there it would be such a damning indictment of my capacity for friendship, and it would make me really sad.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One thing that puts me off ever going on GBBO (in addition to the facts that I'm only a so-so baker and would find it incredibly stressful) is the way it's presented as such a lovely friendship opportunity;

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It includes a photo with the caption "In 1993, Mr Blobby was a popular figure who loved to get in on a giant cheque photo opportunity". The individual in the picture is not Mr Blobby! It's a polka-dotted imposter! I lived through the 90s; they can't pull the wool over my eyes like this.

Screenshot of the photo: a group of young people in early-90s clothing are pictured holding a giant cheque, accompanied by a Mr Blobby-alike.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The BBC News website has a feature on "why do charities still use giant cheques?" (never say they don't have their finger on the pulse). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Why charities are still clinging to using a giant cheque

Despite bank transfer and internet banking, the giant cheque photo opportunity refuses to die.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Our alumni are probably thinking of us right now! We need to capitalise on that."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

@ithadtobewho.bsky.social Today's University Challenge had a round on names of holds in climbing/bouldering and I thought of you!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

She was right on more than one occasion and the captain didn't go with her answer! Infuriating.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

(I'm sure the captain and other male members of the team are fine! I don't think it's necessarily bad that the women's colleges are no longer women's colleges! But it looks bad.)

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