iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Further to my reply to Tim, here is a map with Calgary shifted 114 degrees eastward. The top half of the map shows greater London while the bottom half shows Calgary. The red dividing line is 51.25° N. The northern part of Calgary's ring road (Stoney Trail) is […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

These poll questions discussed in a recent Atlantic magazine article remind me of @evan polls. I assume the article is about the atomization of American society under neoliberalism (I barely skimmed the page)

Two graphs of percentage of Americans social activities over the last 50 years.

One shows declining percentages of people who do various activities 12 times per year (ie monthly). The other shows increasing percentages of people who do the activities zero time in the year.

101 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

Level 23 is the next hard one and it is significantly harder. 443 arrow vs 366, but more importantly it has double-headed arrows, which means if you don’t look at the whole arrow (it goes around the corner) you rush there being another head that is blocked. The […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Screenshot of cube/arrow game. Hundreds of intertwined arrows occupy the surface of a cube. The arrows have orthogonally-bent shafts that snake around an invisible grid.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

This is how I roll.... I've been running Debian 13/trixie (and previously 14/Forky) with relatively current kernels (from Zabbly) and relativly current Nvidia and OpenZFS drivers provided via DKMS. Its a bit of an annoyance to have compilation on every kernel upgrade, but it's been pretty reliable.

Screen capture showing dpkg -l output for the Linux kernel, NVidia driver DKMS, and OpenZFS DKMS packages

linux-image-7.2.4-zabbly+ 7.2.4-amd64-202609071847-debian13
linux-image-7.2.5-zabbly+ 7.2.5-amd64-202609111546-debian13
nvidia-kernel-open-dkms 615.71.09-2
openzfs-zfs-dkms 2.4.4-amd64-202608251644-debian13

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

You gotta wonder if Trump will stop reporting the stock level of the US SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve). Most current report: 2026-Sep 09/04 285,360,000 barrels Last time it was this low: 1982-Nov 11/05 284,906,000 and 11/12 286,198,000 This was when it was […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Screenshot of graphical plot from linked web site showing SPR level in thousands of barrels (axis 0 to 1 million representing 0 to 1 billion barrels) as a function of date from 1982 to present. The entire plot is between 250,000 and 750,000.

There is an initial slow climb from 1982 to 1990, then a hold until 2001 when there was a faster climb until 2005. A rapid drop from 2021 to 2023, and then this most recent fast drop from March of this year, with a short climb in between.

The beginning and end are roughly at the same level just over 250,000 with the bulk of the time being above 500,000.

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

I've never seen Google Maps use a route colouring like this. Is it perhaps a Pride Easter-Egg?

Screenshot of a Google Maps route plant with two options.

One is the normal dark blue with one section of orange-indicating a traffic slowdown.

The other is coloured in sections of several shades of pink and purple, reminiscent of what I think is the Trans Pride flag colours (?).

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026

@AmeliasBrain @keithzg As they say, the best time to plant a tree is 30 years go while the second-best time is today. My favourite individual trees: The first is a Bur Oak, planted in our back yard 30 years ago this summer. Its trunk is about 8 inches at the […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

WTF? This is the second Florida political email I've gotten... I'm Canadian and there is zero chance I accidentally signed up for something. But also this doesn't seem like your garden variety spam or phishing. /shrug?/

Sorry, I'm too exhausted to switch back and forth through some skinny social-media web-based ALT-tag editing interface to properly describe this screenshot of a fund re aiding email from Florida.

Sigh.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@rubenbolling/11641… I like that Australians and Canadians use both meanings of the word pissed:

Screen capture of part of Wiktionary page for the word "pissed".

Adjective:
pissed (comparative more pissed, superlative most pissed)

(UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, mildly vulgar, colloquial) Drunk.
(chiefly US, Canada, Australia, mildly vulgar, colloquial) Annoyed, angry.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026

@evan @johnefrancis Both boosts only happened, as far as my notifications show, *after* my quote post. That is, the first post was ignored until the second one.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/04/2026

Its been well over 6 weeks since our local weather rodent predicted 6 more weeks of winter and I'm wondering when it will go. #yyc #weather

Screenshot of Weather Underground app showing more than 15 cm on new snow in the next two days in Calgary.

101 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2026

Monday is the end of the 6 weeks and perhaps it is the end of extended cold spells. Of course we will still likely have snowfall in April, May, and June. But from now on it won't feel oppressive.

Screenshot of the Weather Underground weather app showing high temperatures of -1, 8, 14, and 15 degrees Celsius in Calgary for the next 4 days: Sunday through Wednesday.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2026

Calgary definitely got its six-more-weeks-of-winter. Thanks Balzac Billy.

Picture of a back yard in a residential neighbourhood in Calgary. Snow covers everything. There's adeck with a solar light, patio chair, and table in the foreground. There's a shed with an unused chaise next to it sitting beside a birch tree with a small wood-carved black bear holding a Canadian football, wearing a Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey, underneath.

The scene is very bright white because of the sunlight and snow.

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 28/02/2026

snakes.run throwing some shade at terminal.app:

Screenshot of info panel of snakes.run ssh site:
+---------------------------+
| why does this look bad? |
+---------------------------+

This game makes use of Unicode Block Elements to
squeeze 2 pixels of color into terminal characters.

Since Block Elements are a new addition to Unicode
(added in 1991), some terminals do not support
them as well as they should.

Terminal.app is the primary offender. In its
default font, Block Elements are too small,
leading to visual glitches.

Many terminal emulators such as ITerm2, Ghostty,
Alacritty, Kitty, etc render these correctly.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22/02/2026

I'm proud of my audiobook collection. I'm self-hosting using audiobookshelf.org software. Most titles I purchased via libro.fm where I name Pages bookstore in Kensington in Calgary as my designated local book shop. #yyc

A screenshot of an audiobook library stored in the audiobookshelf.org audiobook library software.

There are 36 titles, represented as "book cover" images, from authors such as Cory Doctorow, Terry Pratchett, and David Graeber among others.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026

Miikka enjoying the great outdoors on a nice warm winter day.

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026

I finally found a good use for AI, with apologies to all talented artists everywhere. Shamefully made using Ad*be F*refly while was using G*ogle G*mini 2.5 w/ Nan* Banana. I tried 3 times in order. I've placed the prompts in the ALT text. The 3rd prompt is […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Please draw, the the style of an editorial cartoon, a group of men standing, posing in a group, holding automatic weapons and wearing bulletproof vests labelled "ICE" and "CBP". However, instead of military garb they are dressed in clown costumes wearing different clown makeup face styles. Place a few cartoon bags of money at their feet. Title the comic "A few good men".

Please draw, the the style of an editorial cartoon, a group of men standing, posing in a group close together like they are friends standing causally for a photograph, holding automatic weapons and wearing bulletproof vests labelled "ICE" and "CBP". They should not all be standing or holding their guns the same way. However, instead of military garb they are dressed in clown costumes wearing different clown makeup face styles. They should look dumpy, dishevelled, and pathetic. Place a few cartoon bags of money at their feet. Title the comic "A few good men".

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026

Today would have been my Dad's 85th birthday. Tom passed away 9 years ago this May. His sister-in-law Barb, in the second picture, passed away just last week. We miss them terribly.

Picture of an older man sitting at a restaurant table holding chopsticks with a dish of Vietnamese vermicelli in front of him and a Vietnamese sub across the table in front of the photographer.

Picture a and older man and woman in a pub, posing for the camera, the woman behind and to the right of the man with her right hand on his right shoulder. The scene is dimly lit and the photograph is grainy.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/12/2025

Electrician question... How can I fix the problem with G9 base bulbs with wire-thin contacts not making contact with the socket contacts? I'm replacing some old Chinese LED bulbs in my chandelier because they're starting to die. I bought Philips brand […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Close up of fancy reflective chandelier, zoomed on one G9 bulb socket.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/12/2025

Irony, thy name is MAGA... Also "MAGA leaders" is deliciously oxymoronic when not talking about his orangitude himself.

Screenshot of summary card or Washington Post article.

Headline: "MAGA leaders warn Trump the base is checking out"

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/12/2025

@mpjgregoire Hey M, have you noticed this Post pening status? I've seen this a lot and assume it's part of the permission workflow for quote posts where the author of the quoted post has to approve the quoting, perhaps? Or is it something else? I ask you since I see it on your post...

Screenshot of a Mastodon quote post (on a phanpy web front end) with the quoted post showing just the text "Post pending"

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/11/2025

The time in June 2015 when I saw a bear in the sky.

Hazy-cloudy sky with muted but bright sun hanging over a giant, moisture-laden cloud in the shape of a cartoon bear.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2025

@mattblaze I was curious how much and it is even more than I expected from you comment. I think I was picturing that the far end was perhaps half as deep as it really is and that the interior of the building was mostly useless even if it was larger than expected […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Screen grab from Google satellite view of the London Thin House and some of the surrounding buildings, streets and railway. The thick end of the house is almost as deep as the remaining houses on the block.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2025

Yikes... At least it's a minority of conservatives?

Screenshot of Bluesky app showing post with a plot of approval/disapproval percentage breakdown of Donald Trump for supporters of various Canadian political parties. All but one is 95% disapprove while conservatives are 55% disapprove vs 45% approve; a stark exception visually.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2025

Sun baby Watson enjoying the late summer sun.

View looking down at a small dog laying in the sunlight on a patio deck.

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2025

The Beech Air 350 looks like it might be following a motorcade. RCMP helicopter at a lower altitude in the area.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2025

US Air Force Stratotanker out of Spokane looping over Kananaskis still, so I'm guessing it hasn't left yet?

Flight radar screenshot showing flight path

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2025

Two passenger jets doing racetracks at 30000 and 36000 inbound to YYC whereas normally they'd be halfway down that far out. I'm guessing Air Force One is preparing to take off?

Flight aware screenshot showing two airplanes running in ovals.

100 1

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 28/04/2025

This is the first time I've seen this... I recall setting a "no advertisements" filter, I assume in my Mastodon user config settings, but I think a recent update to phanpy.social front end must have added this "show that something is filtered" bubble. To be […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Screen capture of a small part of a Fediverse timeline in phanpy.social front end user interface showing a discrete post bubble indicating that there is a filtered post accessible but largely hidden.

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/12/2024

I hit 1000 games in Wordle. Doing the math I've busted 17 times. Including busts as 7 guesses, my average is 3.9, without them it is 3.85. I think my at average was marginally better a few hundred ago. That is, I've been getting worse. For as long as I can […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]

Screenshot of Wordle results:
6 guesses: 57
5 guesses: 182
4 guesses: 376
3 guesses: 291
2 guesses: 77
1 guess: 0

000 0

Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/11/2024

@evan I had a really lucky second guess. My wife said her second guess was the first thing that popped into her head.

Two Wordle results postings. The first guess of the first posting has the second letter correct and no others. The next guess and the 3rd have the last four letters correct. The 4th guess is correct.

The first guess of the second posting has the second and last letter correct. The second guess is correct.

100 1