iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My last beloved cat was a very good mouser and would sit patiently staring at the stove for like an hour (I think they were getting in behind there, it backed up to an outside wall). Maybe little sounds were resetting his concentration but he was f o c u s e d.

A tuxedo tabby cat in alert sphinx pose staring at a stove.

A tuxedo tabby tucked under a kitchen island, feet gently crossed at the wrist, staring alertly at the stove just outside the frame to the right.

040 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

i know this place!! just off the train near the morgan stop?

probably? the same sign saying YES but shot at a darker time so very little of its surroundings are visible

380 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I was extremely delighted by this photo opportunity (northern NM)

an open book with the chapter heading “the individual and the species“ and a drawing of a tarantula under it lies on a brick floor next to a live tarantula about the same size as the drawing

0260 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It may be her last night, and she has dwindled to well beneath the naked-eye-visible level, but she still lives. five and a half weeks.

an almost entirely black image. the palest ghost of a light stick, no longer even reddish, is visible slightly off-center to the right

140 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

inspiring! i even have the same garam masala. did mine on untoasted fresh baguette, and added some sliced almonds for crunch.

closeup of an open-faced avocado sandwich with almond slices on one half

010 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Today I learned of the red-crowned roofed turtle. What a looker!

A male red-crowned roofed turtle gives the camera an intense golden-eyed glare. He has a yellow lower face, a red forehead to his snout, and blue patches extending backward from his eye. His neck is red-and-white striped. A small section of his shell is visible, also mottled red.

091 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

ok, so. i had to take a business trip, and was so sad i was going to miss its last hurrah, but i just got home and my glowstick lives. the phone’s doing the thing it does during aurorae, exaggerating something barely visible, but. three and a half weeks.

the miraculous glowstick, still red but glowing so faintly it doesn’t illuminate anything else on the table.

170 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The fountain pen people, specifically @carlbergstrom.com, sniped me again. Sailor Manyo Shirakashi & Sailor Manyo Yamabuki. I really like them both!

an abstract design in two colors to test inks. shirakashi makes longer curves and zigzags, and yamabuki fills in with short straight lines and small dots.

140 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

i honestly cannot believe this thing. it has been TWO WEEKS. she’s very faint, but she’s still here.

a red glowstick in the darkness. it is the same glowstick. it is eternal.

060 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

i am just so happy. it’s been more than 4 days.

the same red glowstick in the dark, just a day later. rocky horror was saturday night. it is wednesday. it is a tiny miracle.

190 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

it has been 48 hours and this is still happening the phone exaggerates, but she’s still alive

a slightly blurry image of a red glowstick on a table in a dark room. it’s reflecting faintly off the table and some indeterminate objects nearby (not distinguishable, but for the record: an alarm clock, a lamp, and a glass of water)

1111 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

this is jumping spider SLANDER

A screenshot showing that the contains Trump’s face label has been automatically applied to the two adorable jumping spider photos above.

010 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

They don’t seem real. This picture wasn’t edited, it’s just a surreal color to begin with and phone cameras overreact a bit to blue.

Looking down on an artichoke flower at dusk. It appears to be literally glowing electric purple against a tangle of dark, spiky leaves.

16417 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

It's ok to let an LLM or other machine learning system take a first pass to weed out the extremely obvious and traumatizing CSAM, gore, and violent slur-fests. There are many many questionable applications for this tech, but moderation is not one of them.

Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech painting

3140 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Search your camera roll for “hell”

A collectible painted porcelain plate with two adorable kittens in antique greeting-card style. One is a black tuxedo and the other is white, and they’re both wearing ruffly bows around their necks. The motto on the plate says “Get the Hell out of our House” in fancy black script.

1194 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I found a few pictures that might work.

sunset scene overlooking the sea from a bluff. there’s a large tree silhouetted on the right, and a few scattered black rocks among the waves.

a dirt path next to a fence curves away from the viewer. it runs through tall wild grass fields toward a small stand of trees. the sky is full of small clouds.

A backlit bamboo fence with an old door set into it. Behind the fence the trunk of a tree is clearly visible, and its branches fall over the front of the fence.

Tall spindly trees on a streambank silhouetted against a gently cloudy sky. In the distance, mountains.

150 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

this is the pan, came out exactly like that

post-baking pan for the cake, with the barest few crumbs clinging to the incredibly complicated mold

000 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

check out this absolute beauty!

an unmolded golden-brown cake cooling on a wire rack. it is a vision of sharp cut-crystal art deco facets, no sticky bits missing.

3171 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I suppose this *does* look rather therapeutic.

Image: Indiana Jones punching a Nazi.

Text: I came here to study the humanities and punch Nazis. And they just cut funding for the humanities.

000 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Intrusive thought: is it possible to do this fish's portrait as a literal carpet?

A picture of a blackbellied anglerfish (Lophius budegassa) lying on the seafloor. Nothing in the image really gives us the scale, but Wikipedia says the max recorded size for this species is about a meter and most are half that. This is somewhat comforting because frankly a meter is already uncomfortably large. It mostly looks like a mossy green seafloor-carpet with a fernlike fringe, except it also has bulgy eyes and a rather disturbingly wide dark slit of a mouth with a bit of visible tongue inside. The lips are also fringed. It's got its lure laid back between its eyes, but it's an anglerfish so you best believe it has one.

1101 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

i do not have a cat, but that doesn’t stop me!

pallas cat aggressively nibbling on a jack-o-lantern

000 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Part of restoration and repair has to be making people like Kathleen Walters whole. (via this Atlantic article, archive link because paywall: archive.is/rl4vG)

The decision to leave the IRS was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and yet the easiest decision. We all have boundaries in life. I had a clear one, and I was committed to it. So that made it easy. On the other hand, I also am the mom to a 9-year-old, who I’m responsible for caring for and paying for. I was 23 days shy of qualifying for early retirement, which would’ve given us some payments monthly and health insurance for life. So I had to tell my daughter what was going on, and I said, you know, We are gonna have to not spend as much money. We’re probably not gonna go out to eat much. But this is what I did and this is why. And it still chokes me up. She said to me, Mom, even if we have to live in a tent in someone’s yard, you made the right decision.

051 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I love these little fuzzy gremlins SO MUCH

Two very young and fluffy bald eagle chicks, conked out because they just had a meal of fish (the remainder of which is lying beside them in the nest). They look like gray-white skeksis except less focused on power and the Dark Crystal, and more focused on More Fish Please.

A parent is partially visible at the bottom of the image.

120 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Grabbed you the recipe proportions for the brussels sprouts:

1 large lemon
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs dijon mustard
2 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed & cut in half
salt and pepper
1/4 cup capers, rinsed well if salt-packed

110 0

whetstone @whetstone.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Very odd. Here's what I see on the same profile page. The pronoun labeler I subscribe to is opt-in, so I'm pretty sure it should be right, but you can choose multiple options. Maybe the one you subscribe to only lets you choose one?