iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

In a John W. Tukey rabbit hole & absolutely lost it at this YouTube video description: “The final project … was intended to be a biography ... of the work of the great 20th century statistician John W. Tukey. Instead, we took events in his life, fictionalized them, and made them, well, gay.”

A portrait of John W Tukey. He is posing in front of a chalk board making it look like sampled data is going in one ear and out the other, regularized.

010

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Congrats to @xinyiwang.bsky.social on defending her dissertation, "Investigating Environmental and Biological Factors that Shape our Curiosity for New Information", today! 🎉

Me standing beside Xinyi in the lobby of the Annenberg School for Communication building at Penn. Xinyi is holding a bouquet of flowers

091

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

“Everything was always so clear in books and movies. Everyone always knew their reasons. But real life was such a mess.” #booksky 📚💙

The photo shows the cover of the book Release, a novel by Patrick Ness

040

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

“But your book is wrong, Mrs. Strunk, says George, when it tells you that Jim is the substitute I found for a real son, a real kid brother, a real husband, a real wife. Jim wasn’t a substitute for anything. And there is no substitute for Jim, if you’ll forgive my saying so, anywhere.” #booksky 📚💙

The cover of the book A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

030

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Mega Mart asking the important question:

A sign hanging in a supermarket aisle that reads: why?

040

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

This is why we need inter generational friendship because how am I gonna win bingo that has H.R. Pufnstuf as a square?

020

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

“Not so long ago his thoughts ranged more unpredictably, over a longer list of subjects. He suspects he’s becoming a dupe, the willing, febrile consumer of news fodder… It’s an illusion, to believe himself active in the story. Does he think he’s contributing something, watching news programmes…?” 📚💙

A photo of the book Saturday by Ian McEwan. Stacey, a fawn pug, is in the top right corner of the photo

050

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

“To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt. It is the human equivalent of the dog rolling on its back - I know you won’t hurt me, even though you can.” 📚💙 #booksky

The cover of the book Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

3171

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Was walking Stacey this morning and someone passing said: “that’s a cute dog! Well, it’s ugly, but it’s cute.” 💀

Stacey, a fawn pug, walking outside with a leash. She’s looking up into the camera with big brown eyes

030

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

“”You been looking right through women…your entire life! You don’t stop to consider what’s going on inside of us. No, not at all! Why do that, shit for brains? What would be in it for you? That’s why you didn’t bother to notice lesbians have been helping make your world go round…”” 📚💙 #booksky

A photo of the book My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

060

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

“I always feel as if I don’t really know people unless I’ve gone to bed with them; in the same way I’m disappointed by novelists who leave out the sex scenes because they’re embarrassing or “irrelevant” or technically too hard to write convincingly.” Devoured this 📚💙 #booksky

A picture of Edmund White’s The Loves of my Life. Stacey, a fawn pug, is next to the book looking warily at the camera

070

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

“…it’s also why we need poems, I think: they exist in a different relationship to attention and to time; it’s impossible … for harried readers checking their phones, to see and feel what’s happening in them. Whole strata of reality are lost to us at the speed at which we live…”

A picture of the book Small Rain by Garth Greenwell. Stacey, a pug and my dog, is laying beside the book.

040

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

It’s that easy! Proud of Stonewall Sports for recognizing that you can’t legislate our trans/non-binary friends out of existence. We’re here, we’re queer. Get used to it

Text from a Stonewall Sports email: “Yesterday, The National Park Service removed transgender and queer from the LGBTQ+ acronym on its page dedicated to our namesake, the Stonewall National Monument.

We want to be very clear: Stonewall Sports will always remain proud to be an organization that serves and recognizes ALL people in the LGBTQIA+ community, regardless of what letter they might identify with.

We will stand strong in the face of adversity, serving as a beacon of hope, community, and progress across the country. Our courageous elders rioted and protested for queer liberation at Stonewall in 1969, and we will continue in their footsteps as we fight to maintain and protect a safe home for each and every person within our community.

Stonewall Sports proudly cheers on all transgender and intersex athletes within our league. We believe that all trans and queer people not only exist, but deeply matter. While people may try to erase members of our community, history has shown us time and time again that they will not succeed. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

051

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

I’m sorry. But the school photographer came to my class and took these action shots and sent them to me and WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME THIS IS THE FACE I MAKE WHEN THINKING? One of my friends just said “Beaker” and like… accurate.

A picture of me teaching a class. I have bags under my eyes and I staring ahead as if I am dead inside. The corners of my mouth are pulled down into a frown

A picture of me in a classroom. There is a laptop on my lap. My mouth is pulled down into a frown and my eyes look dead

A picture of me sitting on a classroom table with a laptop on my lap. My mouth is pulled down into a frown and my eyes look dead

060

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Researching ereaders - I’m a physical book person but thinking about going digital at least for some books. And there’s a reader with ads?! Is nothing sacred? 😭

A screenshot from a Popar Mechanics webpage discussing different ereaders. The Kindle Paperwhite is shown in the screenshot with a list of pros. The pros are “several color options”, “waterproof”, and “Bluetooth for audio-book connectivity”. The only con listed is “costs more for non-ad version”

030

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Started Dungeon Crawler Carl today and I am living 👏

020

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

“”How come they never describe the white characters in relation to foodstuffs and hot liquids? Why aren’t there any yoghurt-colored, egg-shell-toned, string-cheese-skinned, low-fat-milk white protagonists in these racist, no-third-act-having books?”” 💙📚

A picture of the cover of The Sellout, a novel by Paul Beatty. Stacey, a fawn pug, is in the top right of the photo

041

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

I started using HappyFeed - a gratitude journaling app - because of *gestures around* and it’s basically just daily photos like this with notes like “I got a good hug from Stacey today”

A picture of Stacey the pug, a fawn pug, laying on a blue blanket

040

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

“”It’s too much, Mammy. I can’t be the one to save everybody all the time.”” 💔

A picture of the book Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart beside Stacey, a fawn pug

131

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

A college grad escapes small-town Ireland for Philadelphia’s Gayborhood. When he falls for another Irishman with dreams of returning home, he must confront his fear that coming out will tear his family apart, or risk losing the chance to live and love on his own terms #YouDeservepIt #Q #A #LGBT

Silhouettes of Two Men Standing in a Dark Room

0265

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Finally got around to this one in prep for my spring Adolescence & Media course

The cover of the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Stacey the Pug (my dog) is in the top left corner sniffing the book

010

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

And Stacey (the pug) is feeling bolstered by Vito’s win too

A text from my mother in law who is looking after my pug Stacey. The text reads: “Stacey just got on the table and gorges herself on bread for stuffing! Good thing she’s going home! Even better that it wasn’t the turkey. Little imp”

000

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Have a first draft of the novel. Crazy to think I spent a year writing words down as I hallucinated about the lives of fake people and made their lives hell #writing Any resources on how to make the revision process not the worst thing in the world would be ace

A picture of the first page of a working novel draft in a Microsoft Word Processor with the words: “THE ATLANTIC BETWEEN US by David Lydon-Staley”

050

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This made me cry. Still carrying the characters with me. Was interesting to read Makkai’s afterword on the line between appropriation & allyship. FWIW I think writers should be free to write about anything and readers should be free to judge how successful they are at their task 💙📚

A photo of the cover of The Great Believers, a novel by Rebecca Makkai

170

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Last day in Hong Kong. Visited the Monster Building in Quarry Bay

The picture shows a person taking a photo of towering apartments in Hong Kong with their cell phone

020

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Traveling’s cool but I miss my dog

A pug wearing a harness looks forlornly at the camera while sitting on a black wicker chair with red cushions

1120

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

So Erving Goffman knew how to throw shade 💅🏻

A picture of a cropped PowerPoint slide that reads “Goffman in doing field work. Getting in: “you have to open yourself up to being snubbed. You have to stop making points to show how “smart assed” you are, and that is extremely difficult for graduate students (especially on the East Coast)”

030

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Fun first day at symposium on deep description at City University of Hong Kong. Gave a talk on describing emotions fluctuating across time and how people move through online spaces using intensive longitudinal methods and network science.

A sign that says “Department of Media and Communication”

150

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Albert’s the protagonist of the Mystic Manor ride and you learn, through portraits you encounter while walking through the queue, that he was rescued from the web of a large spider by Lord Henry Mystic and, since then, has been Henry’s pet and traveling companion. 2/n

A portrait of Albert the monkey in a web. A spider is coming close to him. The monkey looks afraid

130

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

My hubby’s a Disney Park gay and I go because I love him. But for 5 minutes today, I was more excited than him at Hong Kong Disney because of this little guy: Albert the Monkey. Who tf is that you say? I had no effin’ clue either and I think that’s why I had so much fun! 1/n

Photo of Albert the monkey animatronic as part of the Mystic Manor Hong Kong Disney ride. He’s on the bottom right, holding his right hand up and pointing at a painting that takes up most of the rest of the photos the photo has Chinese characters going down the left side and three panels across the top that look like stone carvings - it’s difficult to make out details because the photo is dark. In the center of the painting is a box with a shining gem on top of it

260

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Ok, finally decided to get an undergrad course on D&D I’ve been dreaming of for a while going in Fall 2025. Here’s the course description I sent:

This is an image of white text against black background that reads: Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game, dubbed “the world’s greatest roleplaying game.” This course explores the history of D&D, uncovering how it became a global phenomenon. Students will investigate why people are drawn to the game, how it reflects and shapes popular culture, and the diverse communities that play it. We will delve into the game’s potential to be a therapeutic aid, its potential to foster creativity and collaboration, and controversies like moral panics over its influence on teens. Through discussion, analysis, and hands-on engagement, students will gain a deep understanding of the power of play and storytelling.

120

David Lydon-Staley @dlstaphilly.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Is now a bad time to tell them I’m afraid of heights?

A photo of my view looking down through the bottom of a glass-bottom cable car

020