Matthew Kollmer
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matthewkollmer.com
Matthew Kollmer
@matthewkollmer.com
4.1K followers 1.8K following 470 posts
PhD student (info sci at UIUC). Research in DH, NLP, AI, cultural analytics. Background in 19th/early 20th century US lit, creative writing, writing studies: https://matthewkollmer.com

I also own and operate a rare book firm: https://eveninglandbooks.com
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matthewkollmer.com
Wedding photos. Elvis showed up!
Kristina and I kissing at the end of the aisle outside at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. Behind us is a blue clear sky and the Lady Luck sign. Folks are cheering and clapping around us. Kristina and I kissing between two Las Vegas showgirls in pink and Little Elvis in gold and black standing in front of us. My father and I getting ready in the hotel room. He is adjusting my tie. I am smiling at him in my blue suit. Kristina and I standing in front of the neon signage of old casinos. She's in her wedding dress, throwing the peace sign and kissing. I'm in my blue suit with a copper orange tie. I'm facing the camera, shrugging and holding out my hand.
November 13, 2025 at 3:01 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Best outfit #nokings
October 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
matthewkollmer.com
More best signs
A sign that reads “honk if you’re no in the Epstein files” A sign that reads “no kings no fascists no nazis”
October 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Best signs
A sign that reads “little dictator energy” with a cartoon trump wearing a pad on his ear A sign that reads “science it’s like magic but real”. There’s an image of an atom in the corner A sign that reads “same shit different hat” with nazi, kkk, and maga hats together A sign that reads “revered American kings” with images of Elvis, Stephen king, and MLK with checks next to them while an image of trump has an x next to it
October 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Chambana showed up for #nokings
October 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Just tested out Google AI Mode by searching my name

It was accurate–extremely specifically accurate about my lack of relevance to the sport of baseball?
September 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Sir Francis hitting me with that “don’t you dare get up” stare
Sir Francis Bacon, my bug-eyed Boston terrier, looking over his shoulder, sensing that I am going to rise from my seat and disturb his comfortable spot in my lap
August 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
matthewkollmer.com
It me every time I try to draft a political post this past week
The classic “two button” meme—a comic with one box showing a hand choosing between two buttons. One button reads: “refusing to entertain conspiracy theories”. The other reads: “calling out Trump for Epstein files”. In another box, a cartoon man is sweating profusely and wiping his forehead with a cloth because the decision is too hard.
July 23, 2025 at 5:05 AM
matthewkollmer.com
@kristinaintin.bsky.social and were feelin’ crunchy, so we built a raised bed and planted veggies, complete with gates and fence to keep out those pesky groundhogs.
I am standing awkwardly in front of our raised bed vegetable garden
May 11, 2025 at 8:28 PM
matthewkollmer.com
I've been pushing myself through Deleuze & Guattari, unsure why. But then I found this passage wherein they compare the processes of evolutionary biology and DNA to the processes of social and cultural change, and vice versa. And suddenly it clicked.
"How, starting from this domain of chance or of real inorganization, large configurations are organized that necessarily reproduce a structure under the action of DNA and its segments, the genes, performing veritable lottery drawings, creating switching points as lines of selection or evolution—this, indeed, is what all the stages of the passage from the molecular to the molar demonstrate, such as this passage appears in the organic machines, but no less so in the social machines with other laws and other figures. In this sense it was possible to insist on a common characteristic of human cultures and of living species, as “Markov chains”: aleatory phenomena that are partially dependent. In the genetic code as in the social codes, what is termed a signifying chain is more a jargon than a language (langage), composed of nonsignifying elements that have a meaning or an effect of signification only in the large aggregates that they constitute through a linked drawing of elements, a partial dependence, and a superposition of relays.† It is not a matter of biologizing human history, nor of anthropologizing natural history. It is a matter of showing the common participation of the social machines and the organic machines in the desiring-machines." - from Anti-Oedipus, pg. 291 of the Penguin Classics edition.
May 11, 2025 at 3:55 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Morel of the story hehehe
A line of over a dozen morel mushrooms on a glass table
April 26, 2025 at 6:26 PM
matthewkollmer.com
We have found more morels 🍄‍🟫
My hand outstretched, holding out several morel mushrooms. The background shows a lush forest floor of bluebells
April 22, 2025 at 11:03 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Just found a morel mushroom!
A finger-sized morel mushroom popping out of the ground
April 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Is this an arrowhead or am I fooling myself?

Found on a hiking trail near Clinton Lake in central IL.
A triangular piece of pale stone. It could just be a coincidence, but it has two sharp edges connecting at a point that seems to have chipped off.
April 18, 2025 at 11:12 PM
matthewkollmer.com
A film that takes place where you're from
The cover art of the 1990s comedy, Grumpy Old Men. The film was set and filmed in southeastern Minnesota. The cover art features the leading actors–Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margret, and Walter Matthau. They are standing outside in the snow, looking grumpy.
April 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
matthewkollmer.com
No more depressing or volatile graphs today
A line graph titled "Trajectory of Good Things". The x-axis reads "The Passage of Time" from Past to Future. The y-axis reads "Good Things" from less to More. The line travels with a consistent curve upward across the x-axis, meaning there will be more good things over time. At the top right corner, the final line value is labelled as "impending nirvana".
April 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
matthewkollmer.com
One block of protesters surrounding the park
April 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Protests encircling the park in Champaign, IL today—gives me hope
April 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
matthewkollmer.com
a cartoon image of a frog sitting on a lily-pad. But instead of a frog head, it has my head tinted green.
March 18, 2025 at 3:32 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Can we please bring back the aesthetics of early 20th century political posters

Example found at ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/coll...
A WWI political poster from the American Library Association. It features a soldier in helmet and gear climbing up a staircase of books. Above him reads "KNOWLEDGE WINS" and below, "Public Library Books Are Free"
March 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Post an awkward photo of yourself.
A photo of Kristina and I doing our best T-Rex impressions in front of the T-Rex skeleton in the lobby of the Science Museum of Minnesota. The T-Rex skeleton is leaning forward with its jaw wide open as though it were frozen in a charge toward some prey. Kristina and I are trying to capture this posture, but we just look silly. Both of us are bent forward, lurching. We have our hands up, wrists bent, to seem like the puny hands of the T-Rex. Our jaws are also open, but there is no menace there. Just silly, awkward and silly.
February 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Look at this snoring furry angel
Our Boston terrier, sir Francis bacon, sound asleep. He snores.
February 7, 2025 at 3:39 AM
matthewkollmer.com
No cheating. Last saved celeb pic is your therapist.
Black and white photo of Karl Marx.
January 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
matthewkollmer.com
Happy Friday!
After a busy week, our little Boston terrier, Sir Francis Bacon, sits on the rug in front of our bookshelves. He looks to the camera, patiently waiting for someone to play with him.
January 25, 2025 at 1:43 AM
matthewkollmer.com
#booksky is trending, hope springs eternal

Here’s a taste of the appropriately dystopian goodies you may find here
A rare book, a first edition of Hunger Games in the original dust jacket. It’s sitting on a granite countertop. The front cover is black with a sparrow and arrow insignia in gold The half-title page of the first edition of The Hunger Games. It is inscribed by the author, Suzanne Collins, with here leafy twig stamp underneath her signature.
January 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM