iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Since I started tracking runs 11 years ago, I've climbed about 3/4 of the way to the International Space Station. I hope they've got snacks.

screenshot from Strava, with the final number highlighted:
All-Time
Activities 1,491
Distance 15,754.1 mi
Time 2,945h 12m
Elev Gain 1,000,798 ft

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

suggestion for her first feature film

Poster for the 1964 family comedy film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, featuring Don Knotts facing a cartoon version of himself as a fish

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

personal favorite Odyssey adaptation

Cover of Dr. Seuss's picture book I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. In the illustration, a light brown bearish creature perches precariously atop a turquoise one-wheeled cart pulled by a yellow humped Seussian draft animal through a lumpy pink landscape.

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

William Carlos Watterson (not made by me)

Modified Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Edits in brackets.

Panel 1: Susie Derkins wipes away a tear. "*Sniff* That stupid [William] Why does he [steal my breakfast] for no reason? It's just mean.

Panel 2: Susie folds her arms. "I wish I had a hundred [plum]s. THEN I wouldn't care. I'd say, "Who needs YOU, [William]? I've got a hundred other [plum]s!"

Panel 3: Susie holds her hands on her hips defiantly. "Then my hundred [plum]s and I would go do something fun, and leave [William] all alone! Ha!"

Panel 4: Susie sits crosslegged and rolls her eyes. "...And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a [wheelbarrow]"

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

there are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and a galvanized Calvinist

Porco Rosso in his trademark beige trenchcoat, sunglasses, and hat. Next to him sits a blue-suited man I don't recognize because I've never actually seen this film. Caption: I'd rather be a pig than a fascist.

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

happy halvening! enjoy some high-waisted pants

two notable politicians sport trousers cut with a timeless high waist

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

there's a nursery rhyme in here somewhere

According to the dust jacket,

At one time in the Gare Lazare in Paris, seven suitcases of the manuscript were lost—but were retrieved by seven men from Cook's with seven wheelbarrows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_MacIntosh,_My_Darling

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Let me be clear: This is not a pipe.

René Magritte's 1929 painting The Treachery of Images. On a beige background, a side view of a wooden pipe. Underneath it, in cursive, the caption "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." ("This is not a pipe.")

000

Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

from the jazz book, but could serve as a Lydia Davis story

A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY

Some of the terms used in this book will be familiar to some readers.

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

We're sorry to see you go! As a token of our appreciation for journeying with us, please accept this parting gift.

tiktok screenshot with caption: "my professor casually dropped that he went to school with sufjan stevens today, and showed us his chapbook of poems." Photo of a chapbook cover with a urinal on a white wall; in the middle of the urinal is printed "piss poems / Sufjan Stevens" in Courier typeface.

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

my poem on this topic www.bu.edu/236magazine/...

Wuchak

A woodchuck won't chuck any wood.
She hogs the ground, as groundhogs should.
The rodent doesn't warrant blame:
we colonists call beasts our name.

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

In August I ran my fourth 100-miler, using it to steel myself for the final PhD push. With big runs, it's clear how far away the finish line is (this many miles) and how to get there (take a step). With the dissertation, the path wasn't so clear. Which makes it that much sweeter to ring this bell.

A round table with five upholstered metal chairs. One chair sits separate, facing the rest. Light pours in from a window opposite the camera. This is the room in which my defense took place, photographed two hours before the defense began.

Me and my partner Sarah. I'm in the throne-like chair at The Publick House in a burgundy suit, brown tortoiseshell glasses, brown hair past shoulder length, and a beard with a long moustache. Sarah leans in from the viewer's right in a burgundy sweater with a gray(?) scarf. She has brown hair with bangs. We're smiling wide.

My best friend Max takes a selfie of him and me walking along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Behind us, the reservoir has begun to ice over, and the distant trees are nearly bare. The sky looks clear. We're in winter coats: Max's is black, mine is burgundy. You can also see my green embroidered Frog and Toad sweatshirt, a dissertation-defense gift from Max and Ashley. We're smiling.

Table of Contents for the dissertation. Text (as much as will fit) copied below:

Table of Contents
Dedication iv
Acknowledgments v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents viii
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Introduction 1
Methodology 11
Methodology: Psychoanalysis 14
Methodology: Deconstruction 20
Methodology: Animal Studies 23
Critical Contexts and Interventions 26
Chapters 34
AI Declaration 39
Chapter 1. Scene and Herd: Agency and the Distributed Self in Lydia Davis’s The Cows 40
Introduction 40
Context for The Cows 42
Argument: Davis’s Cows are Distributed Selves 52
1. Inciting One Another to Act 56
2. Rapid Coordinated Action 68
3. Play 82
Critical Contexts and Interventions 92
Critical Contexts and Interventions: On Lydia Davis 92
Critical Contexts and Interventions: On The Cows 99
Conclusion 106
Chapter 2. Ferry Tails: Continuity, Coherence, and the Multiple Self in David Ferry’s Dog Poems 108
Introduction 108
“Garden Dog” and “Backyard Dog”: Continuity of Self Through Time 119
“Sammy on the Balcony”: An Unpublished Poem 128
“A Charm” and “Wolf Woman”: Coherence of Self Among Parts 131
“A Charm” 132
“Wolf Woman” 134
“Who Is It?” and “I, Who Am Neither”: Where Continuity and Coherence Intersect 149
“Who Is It?” 150
“I, Who Am Neither” 162
Critical Contexts and Interventions 182
Critical Contexts and Interventions: On Form 185
Critical Contexts and Interventions: On Translation 187
Critical Contexts and Interventions: On Animals 191
Conclusion 193
Chapter 3. To and Fro: Affectivity and the Intersubjective Self in Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad Stories 196
Introduction 196
The Affective Self: Three Component Attributes, Three Key Stories 199
Conceptual Approach: Twoness 202
Conceptual Approach: Anthropomorphism 206
Conceptual Approach: Psychoanalysis 212
Frogs: Duality, Ambiguity, Vitality, Transformation 214
Aliveness: Springing Forward (“Spring”) 220
Aliveness in “Spring”: First Pages 222
Aliveness in “Spring”: Tearing the Calendar 228
Aliveness in “Spring”: Ending 2…

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Daniel Leonard @danielleonard.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Please! Mr. Leonard was my father. Call me DOCTOR Leonard. After 8.5 years, many courses taken and taught, and a 380-page, 100,000-word dissertation, I passed my dissertation defense. I'll graduate from Boston University with a PhD in English literature. Will also answer to Dr. Lit Nerd.