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tacomaven.bsky.social
@tacomaven.bsky.social
590 followers 630 following 180 posts
Collage, photos
https://substack.com/@mistressofdoom
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tacomaven.bsky.social
Our lil 150-seat movie theatre down the street did a midnight showing of RHPS. Only 4 people showed up- us and our neighbors! Still fun, still hilarious. Tim Curry is the GOAT.
Dark movie theatre with mouth on the screen wearing red lipstick and showing white teeth, the opening of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Red light is reflected up into the ceiling rafters of the theatre.
November 1, 2025 at 8:28 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Everything is terrible 🫠🫣😩 but today was beautiful. The rabbitbrush is in bloom. The shrub steppe is yellows, browns and greens. And my reading slowed in September but October should pick back up. 78 books finished this year so far.
#52bookchallenge💙📚 #BookSky8
The edge of a lake as seen from the cliff above. The sparse vegetation is yellow, green and brown. Sandy/rocky soil. Low mountains are in the foreground. The sky is blue with white clouds which are reflected in the blue green water. An old road now used as a Sandy and rocky trail with rabbitbrush blooming yellow on either side. There are low mountains in the near distance with a partly cloudy sky. Rabbitbrush in bloom, spiky looking bright yellow flowers with green and gray branches inside the plant. Looks similar to sagebrush. tacomaven’s October @thestorygraph reading recap - 6 books read, 1,705 pages, average rating 3.71. Highest rated reads were all audiobooks: Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi (5/5⭐️), Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M Morris (4/5⭐️), and Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan (4/5⭐️). Bar, pie and line graph below breaks down genre, format and pages read per day.
October 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
August 2025 @thestorygraph.com recap - I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman was bleak but good. Harlem Shuffle fulfilled “book with a heist” for #52bookchallenge. The Mighty Red was just good Midwestern family drama. 💙📚 #BookSky (71 books finished so far this year.)
Tacomaven’s August 2025 recap from The StoryGraph - 7 books finished = 2,462 pages, average rating 3.82/5. Top rated books: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (5/5), The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (4/5), Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (4/5). Average book length: 385 pages, average time to finish: 16 days. Pie, bar and line graphs breaking down genres, formats, and pages per day.
September 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Tomato harvest coming up. Pretty proud of our efforts this year. Seeds saved from last year’s 4 plants.
#principeborghese #growyourown #seedsavers
August 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Summer garden by the SX-70
#sx70polaroid #summergarden #containergarden
Cherry tomatoes with a cage on Polaroid film Containers of tomato plants and a planter box of peppers in front of yellow house on Polaroid film Red/orange peppers with an unripe green one in the background on Polaroid film Out of focus Border Collie in front of container tomatoes, left 1/3 of the picture is undeveloped black, on Polaroid film
August 17, 2025 at 6:45 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
July @thestorygraph.com wrap-up: 10 books finished. Chaos was extremely interesting and deeply researched. Bat Eater was mysterious and emotional, so was Model Home. Recommend all 3. #booksky Brings me to 64 books finished in 2025 so far.
@tacomaven’s July 2025 wrap-up from The Storygraph app. 10 books finished. 2,652 pages read. Average rating: 4.15/5. Highest rated reads: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker (4.75/5, thriller/horror), Model Home by Rivers Solomon 4.75/5, queer horror/family drama), Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill (4.75/5, political history non-fiction). Average book length: 261 pages, average time to finish: 8 days. Bar, line and pie graphs depicting other stats like pages per day, genre and format.
August 4, 2025 at 6:21 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Went to pick up my hold for Harlem Shuffle (fulfills “heist” spot in #52bookchallenge) and our librarian had put this new one from @sgj.bsky.social on display - who can resist books with matching colors? The Babysitter Lives is the book on the flip side of Killer on the Road. Cool format. #booksky
Left book is Colson Whitehead’s novel Harlem Shuffle which has blocks of yellow, read and green and black text making up the cover. Right book is Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones which has a black background with the title in large red letters and the main image is a woman’s face on monotone yellow with a small red car driving diagonally across the image to “rip” her face with a green skull revealed in the wake of the car. The author’s name is in smaller yellow text at the top of the book, which is a double saga meaning you flip it over to read the other novel in the reverse direction - The Babysitter Lives.
July 26, 2025 at 12:20 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Canada was a nice place to spend the Fourth sans fireworks. Saw a big “Fuck Trump Fuck the US” sign not far over the border which was welcoming, too.
Alley painting of a profile of a person with a crow head, arms clenched to chest and mouth open. A circle rainbow goes around their upper body. Below that are painted a variety of play names and dates when they were performed including The Age of Aquarius, Oliver, Godspell, Annie, and Sweeney Todd. Grassy park with lake and mountains in the background. A tall bronze post is topped with a sculpture of a heron head. A park bench is on the left facing the water. Border collie dog with stick in her mouth is wading out of the water toward shore after swimming to fetch it. Forested mountain in the background. Brightly colored kaleidoscopic alley painting of a small moose or caribou calf touching noses with an adult of the same species. Where their noses touch is the corner of the building. Yellow, blue and green and the predominant colors with pops or red and other colors.
July 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
June wrap-up from @thestorygraph.com - currently at 54 for the year.
💙📚
#BookSky
#Books
June 2025 The Storygraph wrap up for @tacomaven - 7 books finished, 2,645 pages, average rating 4.18/5. Highest rated - One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (5/5), Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (5/5), Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1) by Matt Dinniman (4/5). Average book length: 317 pages. Average time to finish: 9 days. Bar graphs and pie graphs breaking down formats and genres, line graph breaking down pages per day. @tacomaven’s June2025 reads. Clockwise from upper left: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (3.75/5), Frankenstein (abridged) by Mary Shelley (4/5), Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (5/5), The Lamb Lucy Rose (4/5), Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (4/5), One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (5/5), Serial Killer Support Group by Saratoga Schaefer (3.5/5)
July 3, 2025 at 4:49 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Tomatoes are going strong 🤞
18 black fabric bags on grass in a backyard, with at least one tomato plant in each bag but sometimes 3-4, there are more plants in the background on a bank with wood planks holding the dirt back
June 23, 2025 at 1:23 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
I know there’s a lot going on right now, but it brings me a small amount of joy that all of my current reads have similarly colored covers. @thestorygraph.com 💙📚
#BookSky
Book covers with red/black: The Lamb by Lucy Rose (black cover with a red steak featured in the middle, red title on top and red author name at bottom); One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (bright red cover with rough illustration of a bomb falling on a girl with her arm raised in black, with title and author name in black on the bottom); Serial Killer Support Group by Saratoga Schaefer (red cover with black items alternating with white words of the title vertically down the center - knife, hammer, hack saw, cleaver - and author name in smaller white text at the bottom)
June 8, 2025 at 3:53 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Ok but Sturgill is the man and he’s current - doesn’t get radio play but his last 2 tours (Johnny Blue Skies) were 🤘💥.
Sturgill Simpson is grinning like a little boy wearing a white helmet on a parked scooter with his arms wrapped around John Prine (RIP) who is wearing sunglasses, no helmet.
June 4, 2025 at 3:35 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
May 2025 reading wrap-up courtesy of @thestorygraph.com - 8 books finished, makes 47 for the year so far.
May 2025 reading wrap up for tacomaven- 8 books, 2,608 pages, average rating 4.07/5. Top rated: Honor by Thrity Umrigar (4.75), Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson (4.5), Telephone by Percival Everett (4.0). Average book length - 318 pages. Average time to finish - 13 days. Several graphs showing genres and pages per day, fiction vs non-fiction. May 2025 finished books left to right, top to bottom: Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets and the Fever Dream of the American New Age by Leah Sottile; Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson; Honor by Thrity Umrigar; The Ferryman by Justin Cronin; The Testaments by Margaret Atwood; Telephone by Percival Everett; Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith; The Stranger by Albert Camus.
June 2, 2025 at 4:52 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Douglas, WA (ghost town)
White corrugated tin scale shack with telephone poles and grain silos in the background, it’s been disused for a while; the scale in front of the shack is a cement pad with a metal rim surrounded by gravel; blue sky has wispy clouds
May 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Growing enough tomato and pepper plants for the whole neighborhood is a way to resist. ✊
3 boxes full of cups with tomato and pepper starts in them, at least 50 altogether
May 5, 2025 at 3:04 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Only finished 6 books last month, but they were good ones. Recommending It Can’t Happen Here (1935 😳) to everyone I talk to. Cheap Land Colorado was non-fiction with great characters and especially interesting considering we almost bought 5 acres on “the flats” in 2020 - hey, it was a weird time.
Tacomaven’s The Storygraph recap for April 2025 - 6 books equaling 1,952 pages read, average rating 4.1/5. Highest rated reads - It Can’t Happen Here, Cheap Land Colorado, and Lark Ascending. Average book length - 335 pages. Average time to finish - 11 days. Various graphs breaking down genre, format and pages per day.
May 4, 2025 at 3:51 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
First collage in 3 months, letting the juices flow when they can - using a woman from the 2024 Hinterland Empire (PDX) calendar, some Norman Rockwell men, an orange cake from Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cook Book 1967 and a dance motion shot from NatGeo February 1975.
#analogcollage #collage
Collage made up of a woman wearing bib overalls with the front flap down, a dark blue shirt with FERAL in bright yellow letters across the chest, welding gloves and helmet in front of a fancy vintage orange cake with white frosting. The welding torch in her right hand is on the face of an old man peeking out from the bottom corner. Behind her right shoulder is another old man with wild eyes and hair shaking a fist full of dollars while looking back over his shoulder. A burst of pink and tan and white blurred image is the background for the top above the cake, but a few orange leaves from the cake image are left in the foreground.
May 4, 2025 at 12:06 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
The best season for shrub steppe (antelope brush is blooming) kicks off swimming season for Edog. Gonna be a good summer.
Border collie dog is panting (smiling) off trail with sagebrush and rabbit brush in the background, the sky is blue with no clouds Looking down onto the shore of the lake which has trees and driftwood laying on it, along with levels of rock marking different lake shores depending on how much water is in the lake, it’s low for spring season to prepare for summer runoff, the water is a beautiful teal and the sky is clear and blue, there’s some green trees and shrubs above the shoreline Border collie dog up to her belly in water, dripping, coming out of the lake after fetching a piece of driftwood which sits cockeyed in her mouth, the shallow water has sand under it and across the lake are some green trees and shrubs Antelope brush in bloom with small yellow flowers on each of the thorny thin branches, the lake can be seen in the distance, though blurry, and the blue sky is clear
May 3, 2025 at 12:23 AM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Since Duolingo decided to be shitasses and fire more actual workers and prioritize AI, I made the move to LingoDeer. Flash sale = lifetime access for the same price as 1 year of Duo. Adiós, búho.
Screenshot of my Duolingo progress showing a 483-day streak before switching to LingoDeer due to Duolingo’s prioritization of using AI. Screenshot of the LingoDeer app with a yellow header featuring a deer with glasses peeking up and then a dotted winding road of lessons such as Greetings, Introduction, Family, Countries which are grey until completed and then turn yellow.
April 29, 2025 at 2:33 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Scenes from Spokane
Vegan soy protein tacos at De Leon’s, 9/10 🙌 2 corn tortillas with seasoned TVP, cilantro, diced onions, salsa verde on the side $300 taxidermied opossum head at Petunia & Loomis Falafel wrap at Skewer’s, left too full - pink parts are pickled turnips, also came with pita and hummus and a tangy sesame dressing on the side Lazy long dick looking guy @ Cactus house at Manito Park Conservatory
April 27, 2025 at 8:48 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Listening to It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935)… is…interesting to say the least. So many parallels. 🫣 💙📚
#BookSky
#Books #ItCantHappenHere #SinclairLewis
Cover image of audiobook of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, teal background with 3 stylized red-orange men in helmets with shields flipped up who are all pointing rifles in one direction
April 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
America and democracy is dissolving, but at least we have books? For now? #MarchReadingWrapup @thestorygraph.com
💙📚
#BookSky
#Books
March reading wrap up for tacomaven from StoryGraph: 10 books finished, 3,429 pages, average rating 4.43/5. Highest rated books - The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Non-Violent Communication, The Reformatory. Average book length: 412 pages. Average time to finish: 8 days. Graphs below that show fiction/non-fiction and print/audio breakdown plus a daily point graph showing very irregular number of pages read due to reading more on weekends.
April 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
I was so happy to get this brand new audiobook on Libby and, as always, @sgj.bsky.social never disappoints. This one is 😳😳😳! And I’m only 2/3 through. 💙📚
#BookSky
#Books
March 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
28 books finished so far this year (finishing #29 today) and here are a few that were better than good. @thestorygraph.com is better than other reading trackers!
💙📚 #BookSky #Books
March 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
tacomaven.bsky.social
Trying to get at least 3 miles a day in on days I don’t work (those days are for heavy lifting) and I’m really glad for all the easily accessible trails we have along the Columbia River and the lake.
March 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM