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maiainmi.bsky.social
Maia
@maiainmi.bsky.social
330 followers 290 following 2.1K posts
U.S. government has a duty to promote the general welfare. It's right there in the Constitution. #VoteBlue 🌊
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maiainmi.bsky.social
You will be visited by three spirits
The stars of the original TV series Charmed: Alyssa Milano, Shannen Doherty, and Holly Marie Combs. Milano is facing right but with her head turned to look directly at the viewer. The other two are facing left, also with their heads turned toward the viewer.
December 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
If you see this, post your getaway vehicle
The TARDIS, floating at a slight angle with a purple and blue nebula behind it.
November 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
"You'll be visited by three spirits."

The three spirits:
Xena Warrior Princess and Gabrielle, with Joxer standing behind them. Xena and Gabrielle are looking up and to the right with skeptical expressions. Joxer is looking at Gabrielle.
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
“Cook the turkey not your house“ inevitably made me think of A Muppet Christmas Carol.
Scene from A Muppet Christmas Carol, just after Gonzo set Rizzo the Rat’s tale on fire while lighting a lamp. They’re face to face, Gonzo on the left and Rizzo on the right. The caption at the bottom in white italic all caps: LIGHT THE LAMP, NOT THE RAT! LIGHT THE LAMP, NOT THE RAT!
November 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck standing on either side of a tree trunk that has the sign DUCK SEASON nailed to it. Daffy is reaching up to tear the sign off.
November 21, 2025 at 10:42 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
If you see this, post a #StarTrek
Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series. She's sitting at the communications console with her hands on the controls, facing left and looking back over her left shoulder.
November 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
I went to Cranbrook looking for the ores in Ore Cup. I hadn't fully realized before how many copper samples it has. This one is still my favorite.
A sample of ccopper or that looks like a rooster, if you squint. Or if you look at it another way, like a moose bending down to drink.
November 9, 2025 at 3:22 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Post a bird announcing #DickCheneyIsDead
A turkey vulture soaring against a clear blue sky. Its body feathers are black. Its tail and wing feathers are white. Its head is red and featherless.
November 4, 2025 at 7:44 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
This is wonderful! It reminds me of Where The Wild Things Are.
Illustration from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Friendly-looking monsters parade against a background of leaves. The boy Max, dressed in a fuzzy suit, wearing a crown and holding a scepter, is perched on the shoulder of a monster that has a bull's head.
October 20, 2025 at 11:48 AM
maiainmi.bsky.social
When I checked just now, #tugtupite was only 3 votes ahead of #dioptase. Come on, Team Dioptase! Recruit some more voters! #MinCup25
Dioptase sample: Dark green crystals on an oval chunk of pitted brown rock.
September 30, 2025 at 8:44 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
It’s national coffee day! Post someone looking good while enjoying a cup of joe.
Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, drinking a cup of coffee.
September 29, 2025 at 8:27 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
If you see this, post a bridge.
The mighty Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.
The Mackinac Bridge seen from the point of view of someone standing on the shore of Michigan's lower peninsula to the right of the bridge. The bridge is painted green. It's supported on the ends by concrete pillars and in the center by two tall white towers with three cross-braces each. The water is rippling and dark green. The sky is partly cloudy but bright. A white freighter is sailing toward the bridge on its right. The shore of the Upper Peninsula can be seen behind the freighter.
September 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Both #titanite and #thortveitite form crystals, both are found in igneous rock, both can be gemstones.

For me it comes down to titanite being an indicator mineral versus thortveitite being pleochroic. Pleochroism is fun, but titanite is good for science. I'll vote for titanite.

#MinCup25
Titanite sample: A rock that's oval except for being slightly pointed on each side, with six dark yellow-green crystals of varying sizes on a background of tiny yellow nodules or crystals. (My photo, from the Cranbrook Institute of Science.)
September 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
maiainmi.bsky.social
In last year's MinCup, #dioptase vs. #wavellite was a tough call. It's tough again this year. It'd be shallow to decide based on liking deep green better than yellow-green... but dioptase is a pyroelectric desert beauty, and it can be a gemstone or a pigment. I vote for dioptase. #MinCup25
Dioptase: A chunk of rock that's all sparkly translucent crystals, deep green with a hint of blue. It's shaped sort of like an arrowhead pointing right. (From the mineral collection of the Cranbrook Institute of Science.)
September 10, 2025 at 12:49 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
I'm voting for #azurite because I love it, especially because it's often found with malachite, which I love even more.
#MinCup25
Azurite sample: An irregularly shaped rock covered mostly in deep blue, fuzzy-looking nodules. Along the right side, the nodules are bright green malachite. The side and bottom of the rock are lined with small, bright orange chunks.
September 9, 2025 at 11:54 AM
maiainmi.bsky.social
I'm Team #Hematite all the way. It makes Mars red. Humans used it for drawing and decoration earlier than any other material, more than 160,000 years ago.

#MinCup25
Hematite sample: a roughtly semi-circular rock displayed on a stand so that the flattish side is to the viewer's left. The top half is a glossy black with faint streaks of red. The bottom half is banded in shades of red. The surface is smooth but irregular, with jagged edges forming a few vertical lines on the top half and rounded black-and-red clumps on the bottom below the bands of red.
September 7, 2025 at 1:13 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
This is a tough matchup. I'm fond of calcite, in all its varieties. But perovskite is star stuff! And the future of solar technology! So I'm voting for perovskite.

Even though the Assyrians never carved bas-reliefs in perovskite, as they did in alabaster (which is calcite).

#MinCup25
Assyrian bas-relief carved in alabaster of a winged man from the chest up. He is facing right, his arm raised so his hand reaches out at eye level. His hair and beard are curled but also hang straight with geometric precision. He is dressed in a short-sleeved tunic and wears a round helmet with what looks like a tiara on the front, a cylindrical earring, and a wrist bracelet with a round ornament carved in a daisy pattern. The hilt of a sword juts up around his armpit.
September 4, 2025 at 1:12 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
I've never been a pastel kind of person, so I'll vote for the fluorescing phoenix #Haüyne. #MinCup25
Hauyne sample (pronounced hah-WEEN): an irregular. vaguely oval chunk of pitted gray rock, with the shiny, translucent, bright blue mineral embedded in the center. Photo from Wikipedia.
September 3, 2025 at 11:32 AM
maiainmi.bsky.social
What about this Egyptian bowl? (Original is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.)
Egyptian artifact, a small red-glazed bowl standing on two human feet. The feet make it adorable.
September 2, 2025 at 6:47 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Spiky stibnite or fluffy okenite? I've seen samples of each in museums and they're both appealing. But okenite is new to #MinCup25, so I'll give it a boost.
Okenite sample: A mottled gray basalt geode filled with nodules of okenite that look like cotton balls. The geode looks a bit like a cartoon clam.
September 2, 2025 at 12:22 AM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Mineral Cup #MinCup25 begins September 1! Follow @mineralcup.bsky.social to play along!

And vote for azurite when its bracket comes up.
A chunk of azurite, a dark but not really dark blue mineral. It has a rough surface but also seems slightly glossy.
August 29, 2025 at 6:20 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Drop your favourite animal just for the sake of it.
A red panda standing on a branch of a tree that is bare of leaves because it is winter. Its forepaws are resting on a slightly higher branch, and it is looking toward the ground over its paws.
August 2, 2025 at 3:21 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
Also Viola Liuzzo, from Detroit.
Black-and-white photo of Viola Liuzzo, Civil Rights activist from Detroit, who was murdered by racist terrorists during the Freedom Rides era. She has pale skin, wavy shoulder-length blonde hair, a straight nose, and finely arched eyebrows.
June 14, 2025 at 7:43 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
"Describe a favorite movie in the most misleading way possible."

British archaeologist has adventures in the desert.
Screenshot from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. T.E. Lawrence, dressed in white Bedouin robes, is in the foreground. Shown from the waist up, he is riding a camel, with other riders behind him and a brown cliff behind them. Men on horses line the top of the cliff.
June 11, 2025 at 7:35 PM
maiainmi.bsky.social
#GNUTerryPratchett #Glorious25th #Discworld #TruthJusticeFreedomReasonablyPricedLove
A large irregularly shaped clump of lilac blossoms with the bush's leaves as background.
May 25, 2025 at 7:29 PM