iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

rob @zverina.com · 07/09/2026

i spend way too much time on this shit: www.zverina.com/2026/0819.htm this page prompted me to make not one but two music videos as footnotes. to what end? #pictureoftheday #since1997

picture of sole surviving spindly tree standing in the slash of a clearcut: https://www.zverina.com/2026/0819.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 17/08/2026

i think of #Galapagos by #KurtVonnegut when i dive into the sea #naked and see how long i can #swim before coming up for air, part of my quest to evolve into a true #marinemammal #bikelove #skinnydip #SalishFjord #noncompete #cycling www.zverina.com/2026/0815.htm

photograph of a 10-speed bicycle on a beach at sunset with caption:
this bike was vintage when i bought it used for $90 and i'm still cranking on it 25 years later.
it only takes a few minutes to walk to the beach but that adds up when you're as busy as i'm not,
so when i'm racing the tide and/or sun i'll hop on for that little inimitable thrill where balance meets
momentum. still dressed in work clothes, i bundled and bunjeed a bathing suit to the rack, but hoped
i wouldn't need it. the tide was high enough to swim on the back side away from prying eyes and there
was no one in sight to be scandalized when i discreetly disrobed, obscured by a big drift stump that hasn't
moved in months. there's no freer feeling than skinny dipping in the ocean, completely unencumbered, one
is distilled to pure animal essence, a floating bag of protoplasm adrift in the planetary womb that spawned us.

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rob @zverina.com · 24/07/2026

i thought we were on bsky as an alternative to these guys?

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rob @zverina.com · 02/07/2026

in praise of #bedrotting #tangping #hikikomori www.zverina.com/2026/0608.htm

screenshot of this webpage: https://www.zverina.com/2026/0608.htm

it depicts 2 cats cuddled up napping together, overlaid with this text:

maybe it was the weather, maybe it was just a poor night's sleep.
maybe it was yesterday's travel and spending all day on my feet.
maybe it was the weight of world, every headline spelling defeat.
maybe it was the overflow at last, a lifelong steady drip of grief.

was it a protest or is it pathology, tang ping or hikikomori?
am i depressed? do i need a diagnosis? or am i just lazy?
i spent the day bedrotting, eyes closed and listening,
kept company by my mentors, sunny and patchouli.

when worth is measured by how much you achieve,
doing nothing might be the only way to stay free.

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rob @zverina.com · 05/06/2026

the first time i saw a bikelane was in madison, WI in 1988... www.zverina.com/2014/0809.htm i got a sense bikes belonged in the city and that a city could belong to bikes all it took to open my eyes was a line of paint defining a strip four feet wide

webpage screenshot: picture of an older gentleman wearing sunglasses and a boat captain's hat pedaling a beach cruiser bicycle along riverfront path; he has improvised a large sun shade attached to frame of bike and sports a wicker basket between handle bars. the caption is a true story poem:

the first time i saw a bikelane
was in madison, WI in 1988

it seemed a little strange
but also so great

i was visiting a college friend
in summer session for a few days

on hot nights we borrowed bikes
and rode vacant lanes to the lake

i'd been braving traffic on 2 wheels
since i was 5 but this was the first time

i got a sense bikes belonged in the city
and that a city could belong to bikes

all it took to open my eyes was a line
of paint defining a strip four feet wide

visit the original page:
https://www.zverina.com/2014/0809.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 29/05/2026

great record! here they are working on it...

screenshot of Paul Williams and William Finley in Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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rob @zverina.com · 28/05/2026

first 🍓 of the season. then i went to the beach. been posting pages like this now for 28 years... www.zverina.com/2026/0527.htm

picture of first red ripe strawberry of the season, next to a green one.
caption with links here: https://www.zverina.com/2026/0527.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 28/05/2026

just doing my part to keep #TheyLive in the zeitgeist would you like to learn more? www.zverina.com/2026/0521.htm #LSD #LifeSavingDevice #Hofmannlenses #😎

screenshot of Picture of the Day website May 21 2026 depicting ferry approaching Seattle with Space Needle prominent with this caption:
sarah and i literally two ships passing as i head in and
she goes away. extra warm and sunny, those snowless
mountains don't bode well. the ferry is usually a dead
stable ride but this time we caught a swell,
heaved and lurched unlike i've seen. the liferaft pods on the left
seem to be advertising LSD, which is fitting as i was going in to
screen They Live, where the glasses are called Hofmann lenses.

for active links, visit https://www.zverina.com/2026/0521.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 27/05/2026

Q: when is a #dog #notadog? A: after it's been run through #nightshade nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html it looks like a dog, but to those creepy #ai crawlers, spiders, and scrapers, it's anything but.

a photo of romping husky dog on a lawn, but "poisoned" with Nightshade app to confound data scrapers.

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rob @zverina.com · 19/05/2026

Plato's chaise... www.zverina.com/2026/0504.htm

photo of 2 metal and strap patio chairs with beguiling shadows.
caption reads:

we're in the season of ascent
the days are gathering length
☀️
Sol doesn't move across our sky
but seen from here its arc is wide
🌍
in broad daylight, shadows thrive
and everything looks twice the size

follow link for even more links!

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rob @zverina.com · 19/05/2026

the front is even better www.zverina.com/2022/0217-be...

HP Lovecraft hardback held in hand on a Maui beacg

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rob @zverina.com · 17/05/2026

i too love ferries and spirals. i don't know why any decent person is still on twitter. let the fascists have their sandbox and fill it with turds. good for you for cutting it loose. zverina.com/2026/0302-mo...

screenshot of this webpage: https://zverina.com/2026/0302-moonchaser.htm

picture of 5 people on pickle fork of ferry approaching seattle with full moon over city skyline at dusk

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rob @zverina.com · 14/05/2026

www.zverina.com/2020/0326.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 07/05/2026

it's spring and sure enough the northern alligator lizard is out there getting it on www.zverina.com/2026/0502.htm

real life photo of a stony beach with evergreen trees behind it. two empty chairs perch on a promontory, a person in yellow shirt, green shorts, and bright red sandals lies on the hot smooth rocks under an immaculate clear sky. there is a long text caption replete with links; read it here: https://www.zverina.com/2026/0502.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 05/05/2026

who wore it better?

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rob @zverina.com · 30/04/2026

My website was 3 years old by the time Homer made his first page in 2000...

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rob @zverina.com · 28/04/2026

for your #latenightlisteningpleasure www.zverina.com/2018/0322.htm

lead singer of Pussy Riot in pinnk ski mask performing on microphone at Crocodile, Seattle. follow link for text--it leads to a quirky mix tape!

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rob @zverina.com · 20/04/2026

replacing every worker with a machine does not make good economic sense. it will be cheaper and more efficient to build robot overseers of human slaves. so there's that to look forward to! in the meantime, i scored a point for humanity: www.zverina.com/2025/1114.htm #sendmoney #fuckai #qrcoded

image of a hand drawn qr code with adjacent caption: they say machines are
coming for all our jobs,
so it seems only fair to take
at least one task away from
them, so i drew this qr code
by hand for the merch table
at tonight's Le Sang Song
LP release at Clockout
Lounge. (i was selling the
7" i put out recently and
still have lots of, hint hint.)
Iro Iro broke the night open
with motorik rhythms, synth
undulations, bent guitar, and
ethereal theremin. next up:
Idol Ko Si, who disappeared
into the graphic fodder of
drummer matt ford, conjuring
a sound palette that at times
blurred the line between music
and noise but always with a
deft touch for every texture.
in contrast, Le Sang Song
closed with harmonies sweet
as a kiss--until you tune into
the lyrics and feel the bite of
teeth sharpened just for this.

link: https://www.zverina.com/2025/1114.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 18/04/2026

what curious juxtaposition lives on your shelves at this moment? i alphabetize my rock albums, indiscriminately mix eras cz it's all the same day, man. i was flipping through the covers and found these two neighbors, which struck me as cute, from text to poses. kinks and kinski, two great tastes...

2 LP album covers side by side. Kinks "Greatest Hits" on the left; Kinski "Accustomed to Your Face" on the right. Each cover features 4 people striking similar poses.

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rob @zverina.com · 11/04/2026

when i self-published BUZZ in 2012, i took care to avoid amazon but it didn't matter--they absorbed the company and i've been stuck there ever since. i loathe them. can anyone recommend a printer for a relatively short run of books ?meantime, hypocritically, buy my spacey book here: amzn.to/41sfRMZ

cover of novel BUZZ by Robert Zverina, featuring a 1968 Oldsmobile floating in space with dark side of moon in background.

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rob @zverina.com · 20/03/2026

#ONONONO! zverina.com/2026/0301-ON...

photograph of Livington 7-foot twin-hulled dinghy, sloppily spray stencilled name ONONONO with caption explaining it reads the same right side up as it does capsized

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rob @zverina.com · 05/02/2026

i like how frozen the vehicles look, as if time is not all that fluid i recently read #TheDispossessed by #UrsulaKLeGuin within character limit, who will please explain #Shevek 's unifying theory? www.zverina.com/2026/0125.htm

night scene, illuminated seattle skyscraper skyline, space needle at right, medium dense traffic northbound i5 looking down from aloha overpass, not a single burned out headlight, a sign of totalitarian compliance...
https://www.zverina.com/2026/0125.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 05/02/2026

i'm 6 months behind that feels about right 2026 is the Year of Friction #pumpthebreaks #slowitdown where you're going is already gone www.zverina.com/2025/0827.htm

screenshot of self-explanatory https://www.zverina.com/2025/0827.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 19/11/2025

What a relief! #WallaWallaWallMap is also fun to say. www.zverina.com/2025/1117.htm #PictureoftheDay #creativenonfiction #since1997

screenshot of webpage located here: https://www.zverina.com/2025/1117.htm
depicts bas relief map of Hood Canal, WA as seen from side, photographed on MV Walla Walla ferry

051

rob @zverina.com · 12/11/2025

Happy 103rd birthday, #KurtVonnegut. Wish you were here. Had to retire my overused paperbacks as they were falling apart, replaced with @libraryofamerica.bsky.social box set. Sturdy, elegant, and Sunny loves the ribbon bookmark. www.zverina.com/2025/1111.htm #PictureoftheDay #since1997

An orange cat bats at ribbon bookmark of Library of America hardcover edition of Kurt Vonnegut novels.

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rob @zverina.com · 30/10/2025

#ferries ✊ www.zverina.com/2025/1021.htm

Photo of a ferry worker standing at bow of cardeck, keeping watch as boat enters fog bank with superimposed caption:

this photo encapsulates some of what is right in our society:
a public service staffed by union protected workers, a mass
transit system being operated safely despite often challenging
conditions. here, captain slows the ferry and sets an additional
watch on the cardeck to complement the Chimacum's high tech
sensors as we enter a fogbank en route to Bremerton. seafarers
respect natural limits and prioritize protocol and right action in
times of stress; we passengers sense we're all in this together,
fates entangled and interdependent, trusting in the integrity of
the crew and vessel. on the water, mutual aid is mandated by
maritime law--everyone is obliged to help anyone in distress.
imagine those rules applied to our ship of state: rescue crews
would be plying the streets, spiriting the stranded to relief.

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rob @zverina.com · 19/10/2025

ai is really helping you nail that germany 1940 aesthetic. can you please share your prompts so i can make some, too?

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rob @zverina.com · 23/08/2025

#screentime www.zverina.com/2025/0728.htm

Unretouched photo of woman in one-piece bathing suit and broad-brimmed hat lying prone on a white painted picnic table bench looking towards camera as seen through screened porch door, towels and bathing suits hang on laundry line in background, with overlaid text:

"something
about salt damp
towels hung out
to dry takes
me back to
when this
counted as
screen time"

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rob @zverina.com · 04/07/2025

anyone else receive this fucked up email from the social security administration?

screenshot of social security administration email "applauding" the passage of Trump "big beautiful bill"

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rob @zverina.com · 05/04/2025

☀️🔥 www.zverina.com/2025/0404.htm

photograph of campire at sunset with silhouetted trees reflected in calm narrow channel of water with this text overlay: turned the compost, potted lemon tree that arrived in oblong box earlier this week, sanded and oiled front porch bench built only last year but already weathered. just puttering, trying to overcome the tendency to see time as a grid, each day nothing but a box to be X'ed off the calendar. slavko invited me to backyard campfire cookout and i arrived a bit before sunset, flames barely visible in daylight. i got to thinking how wood is embodied solar energy (as are we), and this crackling fire was yesteryear's sun being released, a tiny star at my feet. then i noticed i was smoking, fat ember in lap burning a hole in my pants, flicked away just as i felt the first sharp kiss of heat on my skin, brought down to earth again.

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rob @zverina.com · 03/04/2025

feeling something, i guess #nachtybynature #night #Lichtfresserin #nightynight www.zverina.com/2025/0401.htm

bare limbed tree silhouettes at dusk; shiny water, a ridge line, and billowing clouds in the distance.

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rob @zverina.com · 03/04/2025

i was just talking with a neighbor about how dark this winter was--"in mood," he clarified. i knew just what he meant. now the days are getting longer, a little brighter, even as metaphorical clouds gather, and i'm feeling less immobilized. www.zverina.com/2025/0402.htm

7 wet barefoot footprints on wooden stoop of waterfront cabin back deck, four paving stones embedded in the shaggy lawn. accompanying text here: https://www.zverina.com/2025/0402.htm

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rob @zverina.com · 24/03/2025

anyone else hitting a wall? www.zverina.com/2025/0202.htm

Picture of the Day webpage screen capture, Feb 2 2025, photo of guitar player in a music practice room with beams of colored light illuminating fog machine vapor [follow link for text]

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rob @zverina.com · 26/02/2025

time was, people waving chainsaws over their heads this way were rightly considered maniacs #Leatherface

Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre waving a chainsaw over his head

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rob @zverina.com · 26/01/2025

happy birthday to my website 3,001 posts in 27 years so far www.zverina.com/2025/0124.htm anyone else here been blogging that long? i'd like to buy you a lollipop 🍭 any other paul violi fans in the house? let's talk about his poetry 📚 #pictureoftheday #creativenonfiction #urblog

photo of sun low in sky reflecting off dead calm river mouth, following text superimposed: ever get the feeling that everything you've done has been in vain?
long ago, when i was young and the world seemed flat and expansive
as a playing field extending infinitely in every direction, i read a poem
by paul violi that took the form of an index to the biography of an artist,
with a thrice repeated line that's stuck with me ever since: Disavows all his work
the implications of that seemed enormous and incomprehensible to my naive mind,
but it's starting to make sense. and as it follows the rule of three, it's just funny--a cosmic
joke on striving, succeeding, then acknowledging the ultimate folly of all human endeavor.
what am i even doing here? i've been trying to capture feelings, but like fireflies expiring in
jars with holes punched in the lid, they're better off free. as of today, been doing this for 27 years.

071

rob @zverina.com · 24/01/2025

used book seller at flea market turned me on to Ryszard Kapuściński and i'm all in... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard...

photo of paperback book page, quote by Ryszard Kapuscinski from Shadow of the Sun: Maybe he really did not know. Or maybe he did, but his imagination failed him, he didn't properly consider things, acted thoughtlessly. History is so often the product of thoughtlessness: it is the offspring of human stupidity, the fruit of benightedness, idiocy, and folly. In such instances, it is enacted by people who do not know what they are doing--more, who do not want to know, who reject the possibility with disgust and anger. We see them hastening toward their own destruction, forging their own fetters, tying the noose, diligently and repeatedly checking whether the fetters and the noose are strong, whether they will hold and be effective.

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rob @zverina.com · 19/01/2025

ferries are a great example of the perils of socialism www.zverina.com/2025/0110.htm #WAStateFerries #sunset #socialism #freefootferriesnow

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rob @zverina.com · 28/12/2024

end of year vibes www.zverina.com/2024/1223.htm #firewood #treerings #makingtherounds

photo of log cross section showing accretion of tree rings over time with superimposed text reading: each new ring another circle drawn 'round the sun

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rob @zverina.com · 18/12/2024

In It's A Wonderful Life, it's a good thing George Bailey didn't succeed in killing himself because there's no way the insurance would have paid out.

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life, standing on bridge in snow contemplating suicide

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rob @zverina.com · 15/12/2024

as you travel this season, try not to be a nuisance... #Amtrak #VR #oblivious www.zverina.com/2024/0930.htm

screenshot of photo with text overlay (follow link for legible text). photo depicts a grown man wearing VR goggles and flailing his arms like a toddler on Amtrak train

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rob @zverina.com · 13/12/2024

northwest state of mind

panoramic photo of placid waterway on grey overcast pacific northwest december afternoon, clouds predominate, land and sky reflected by unperturbed Hood Canal

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rob @zverina.com · 09/12/2024

took a tour of the #TurnerJoy museum ship in #Bremerton WA to get a feel for our military industrial complex. it was cold and hard, with cramped quarters for the lower ranks, relative luxury for those in command. kind of a microcosm. 🇺🇸 #gunsbeforebutter www.zverina.com/2024/1123.htm

a photo of uss navy destroyer museum ship Turner Joy docked in Bremerton WA with painter Matt Wainwright grinning like a madman in transparent turret of 5-inch deck gun on ship's fan tail, an eagle perched atop the vessel's highest antenna, the sky a battleship grey on a typically cloudy pacific northwest gloomy day, with accompanying text which can be found at link.

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