Don Sheldon 🌱

@donsheldon.bsky.social

333 Followers 205 Following

My family revitalizes abandoned homes, maintains them, and rents them fairly. I'm very proud of our work. We also play games of all descriptions, especially on a table. I like math and science most, but am interested in everything. He/Him/His

A bumper sticker showing George W Bush waving and saying "Miss me yet?" These were sold during the middle of Obama's presidency.
Rosie the robot maid from The Jetsons
A New Yorker political cartoon shows, sitting around a campfire in an otherwise blasted, empty landscape a man in a torn suit telling three children "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders." — By Tom Toro, 2012
50 Years of Mad Libs (The word game, but, y'know.)
A rad white-on-blue tryptic of an octopus hanging above a fireplace.
A melted power strip. It looks like a burned marshmallow with black cords coming out.
Google Maps screen capture showing two (and a half) paths around the closed Squirrel Hill Tunnel. Two semi-random locations have been chosen on opposite sides of the closure, which is marked in a sad, dotted red line. Terrain in the area is shown, it's not impossibly steep, but it's steep enough that no one wanted to build roads over it so we dug a four thousand foot tunnel through a mountain (ok, a hill, but it *feels* like a mountain). They're not long detours (modulo traffic) but they sure look silly going that far around and, in one case, over the same river twice.
A mimosa tree in fantastic full bloom. You can literally reach out and pick the flowers by opening the window. There are two more of these windows and the tree wraps around the corner to them all.
Monroeville Mall visitors under 18 are required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian 21 years or older on Friday and Saturday evenings after 4 PM, or at any other time the policy is in effect.
Tiny ripples of repeating colors at the inside edge of the primary bow. This is the only way to see pink in a rainbow (when the blue and red from multiple contributions overlap). It's pretty rare and only happens when the air has especially small and uniform water droplets.
Twelve metal pipes of different diameters and lengths bundled together and chucked on my basement floor.
Western Psych at UPMC. It is less photogenic than the other building. By a lot.
A potted, young tree standing in our stairwell/hallway. It's wrong. But also so right.
A cookie fortune that's ¼ its normal height. It kinda says "learn Chinese" if you squint.
Homer Simpson proudly holds up a certificate officially declaring that he is "Not Insane."
Percy Bysshe Shelley Birth: August 4, 1792 Death: July 8, 1822 Mary Shelley Birth: August 30, 1797 Death: February 1, 1851 Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) Birth: January 22, 1788 Death: April 19, 1824 Ada Lovelace Birth: December 10, 1815 Death: November 27, 1852
A Google-generated travel map from Troy to Ithaca. Dude shoulda walked.
"NO!" upside-down.
An 18-wheeler has run up on the curb while trying to turn and its load is leaning a disturbing amount. Really messed up traffic too.
Something wrapped in foil, on a roasting pan, balanced on a glass tray, sitting in the fridge. It's shot from a weird, low angle to make sure the pan is visible, so you can't see evidence of the roast, but it's there.
Michelle Obama with, oh god no, bare shoulders! From like 2009 or something.
Chart of what percentage of global energy comes from each source over time. Coal's been steady for about 40 years after contacting immensely.
Wide view of two old newspapers. One is Pearl Harbor, the other is the defeat of Hitler.
A sky with two contrails perpendicular to each other and strangely high contrast against the surrounding clouds divide the scene into quarters. It's hard to see without zooming in.
Marshal Meowthers is a very long-haired cat. This crazy claw-looking anti-shed brush we got from Aldi has torn out a massive, and kinda disgusting, pile of hair. He's smileowing.
A terrible but meaningful picture of the moon. No details are visible because the relative brightness washes it out, but you can tell it's waxing gibbous. There are power lines and rooftops in the foreground. In 2012 camera phones just weren't as good as they are today, ok?
A LEGO Number Blocks scene. Nine (left) is beginning to sneeze. Then Eight (right, rear) separates from One (right, front).
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.
A (very nice) table and chairs. Quite warm an inviting. Waiting for more players.
SisTers PGH, a Black trans-led nonprofit, is opening The Stonewall Inn PGH in downtown Pittsburgh (211 Smithfield Street) with a grand opening on March 31, 2026, coinciding with the Trans Day of Visibility. This drop-in center provides essential services, including food, clothing, showers, laundry, and behavioral health support for the transgender and nonbinary community. Sisters PGH Sisters PGH +3 Key Details About The Stonewall Inn PGH Purpose: A safe, gender-affirming, and accessible space providing emergency resources and community support. Services: The center offers laundry services, showers, hot meals, hygiene products, case management, and peer support groups. Location: Located in the Emerald City building downtown, in a space that offers, and is adjacent to, community resources. Opening: The official grand opening ribbon-cutting is scheduled for March 31, 2026, at 5:00 PM, followed by a benefit showcase. Mission: Founded by SisTers PGH, which was founded in 2013, the project honors the legacy of the 1969 Stonewall Riots by focusing on safety, housing, and dignity for the trans community.
Chart showing the incredible drop in childhood blood lead levels. From 1978's average of 15, to 2016's 95th percentile around 2.5.
Looking out a window over a small town nestled in a valley. The front yard descends thirty feet down to the road and it just keeps going down from there. There's a factory, a train, and lots of row houses.
Bartholomew Cubbins wearing a simple red hat with a single feather in it.
In the Dune Font the word Dune looks like the mathematical symbols for Superset Union Intersection Subset (with a weird dot) so this is the Dune 3 poster with those four words and the subtitle "It's a math joke."
A child's imagined Pokemon
Flip it over. The battery is underneath and has a release handle toward the front. Lever it forward then pull up and away. At least in older models, who knows now.
Snow. In my side yard. Today. And you can see my neighbor's house.
A full page ad written by Donald Trump and published in several major newspapers in May of 1989. It says in part: Many New York families - White, Black, Hispanic and Asian - have had to give up the pleasure of a leisurely stroll in the Park at dusk, the Saturday visit to the playground with their families, the bike ride at dawn, or just sitting on their stoops.... Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer ... Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will. ... How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their Civil Liberties End When an Attack On Our Safety Begins!
A Venn diagram of three circles. At the center is "Hey Buddy," the main circles are "Starting a Fight," "Consoling a Child," and "Petting a Dog." There are secondary overlaps but they don't add enough to the joke and I wish they weren't there.
Ibn Nafis' description of circulation. I assume. I can't read Arabic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute
Slightly overgrown grass with a clear ring that is substantially longer and darker. Roughly three feet across.
Classic, iconic image of two gloved fists raised at the Olympics.
[ which European jerks colonized Jamaica? ] Jamaica was primarily colonized by Spain and Great Britain, causing immense suffering to indigenous Taino people and enslaved Africans. Spain, led by Christopher Columbus, claimed the island in 1494 and began formal colonization in 1509. Great Britain later captured the island in 1655, transforming it into a brutal slave-based sugar economy. Spanish Colonization (1509–1655): Known as Xamayca, the island was used as a supply base by the Spanish, who decimated the Taino population through forced labor and disease. British Colonization (1655–1962): An English expedition, under Oliver Cromwell's Western Design, seized the island. They established a plantation economy relying on enslaved African labor, with the island becoming a leading sugar exporter. The term "jerk" actually stems from the cooking practices of the Maroons—enslaved people who escaped into the mountains to fight back against British brutality.
Trump Charged With Rental Bias March 7, 1978 The Federal Government charged yesterday that Trump Management, which owns 15,000 apartment units in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, was continuing to discriminate against blacks although it had signed a court stipulation not to do go. In a motion for supplemental relief filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the civil rights division of the Justice Department said that officers and agents of Trump Management have not complied with a June 1975 court order by continuing to deny apartments to black persons because of race. The court papers, submitted by an assistant district attorney, Homer C. LaRue, also charged that the company discriminated against blacks in the terms and conditions of rental, made...
The box of some kind of rum that calls itself Planteray.
The very bottom of my garage door, bent outward and partially off its tracks because I tried to back out of my garage without making sure it was all the way open.
The Declaration of Independence which lists, in part, these crimes of the king. ——— He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences
A fine example of the curly edges of kale caused by the plant growing with with more surface than can fit in a flat space.
The gloriously complicated boardgame "Scholars of the South Tigris" somewhere around mid game.
A postcard which reads "Greetings from Nuremberg, PA," which really is a place and, as far as I can tell, the only place in the US named Nuremberg. But I think the postcard might be fake.
It's a phone! A gimmick phone from the 70s. Nicer ones than this can go for almost $100 on eBay.
The aforementioned plinth, closed. It is orange and beneath orange art.
This huge, free standing cabinet (I had to zoom out to fit it all in so it looks smaller than it is) came with the house but I had to hire two guys who almost literally died trying to move it over three rooms. Glass doors rule. I can even lock out the young kids. All the big games go here. Normal big is inside, too big to fit inside is on top.
F.B.I. Inquiry Into ICE Shooting Is Examining Victim's Possible Ties to Activist Groups Former department officials warned that such a broad inquiry raised the specter that forms of political protests could be criminalized.
The same model power strip, but the far end is blackened and has a hole melted through its casing.
On an empty white background a sticker reads: Drugs Only No Food