iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 29/09/2026

I took this photo in the Lake District this weekend while doing this (58km, 5340m elevation, lots of mud, some rain, many smiles, more running than not running, finished 27th woman which may not seem like much but is huge to me!)

A white woman wearing a white running skirt, red and white top and pink vest runs past a large hill

A white woman wearing a white running skirt, red and white top and pink vest runs through a finishing chute

2140

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 29/09/2026

Except you can’t, can you, because train travel is so prohibitively expensive.

Ad for national rail that shows a picture of a woman on a train taking a photo out the window and a photo of a woman walking along a coastal path. Text overlaid reads ‘Adventrue mode. Activated’ with plus save 1/3 with railcard over the photos. At the bottom text reads ‘on the train you can’

2204

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 28/09/2026

OH GREAT ANOTHER APP FOR SCHOOL JUST WHAT I NEEDED 🫠

Screenshot of an email that reads: Welcome to Tassomai! You are receiving this email because your child is using Tassomai at their school and, with the school’s permission, we have set you up with a Tassomai parent account.

There is an illustration of a blue hand holding a phone, which reads: Tassomai, pronounced Tass-Oh-My, means "knowledge organiser" in which language? Below this are four buttons which read Latin, Ancient Greek, Old English, and Sanskrit.

270

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 19/09/2026

Tonight the role of Oliver Twist will be played by Persephone Anne Roberts

A brown tabby with green eyes stares up at the camera.

2140

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 17/09/2026

How am I meant to work in these conditions?

Photo of a black tabby on a person’s lap. In the background a laptop and keyboard; a messy bookcase.

1130

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 15/09/2026

See the horrible conditions I have to work in!

Photo of a white woman wearing glasses and a pink shirt with a brown tabby cat laying on her.

1150

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 06/09/2026

She’s not missing, I just thought you might like to.

A brown tabby cat loafed on a bed with white linen

Close up of a brown tabby with large green eyes

6450

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 23/08/2026

Today I ran the circuit I fell badly on a few months ago. This is the exact spot I fell and smashed my teeth and knee. I wasn’t ready for exactly how familiar it would be. It’s so flat. It’s like the flattest part of the circuit.

A dirt path surrounded by trees and greenery

070

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 18/08/2026

In completely unrelated news why do I, A Pink, own so many red lipsticks that I literally never wear? And also whatever this is (which, frankly, I love but doubt I will ever wear):

Photo of a white woman wearing glasses, a two tone pink top, with deep blue-green lipstick on.

091

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 16/08/2026

Also, for no reason, here is my cat living her best life.

Brown tabby cat asleep on her side in a loose ball

0110

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 14/08/2026

The next thing in the Charles II themed 6th birthday party: can I make this crown out of fondant? Stay turned…

Close up of painting showing the state crown of Charles II.

050

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 28/07/2026

Please know that Little declared that she has (or is going to, not entirely sure which) invented a Great Fire of London game for this party. She will also be dressing up as Charles II. This Lely painting is her reference. Good luck my sewing machine.

Painting of Charles II. The King, with a long black bouffant hairstyle, wears a fancy white suit with black cape.

5321

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 15/07/2026

I've decided that with my last year of academia - assuming this will be my last year given the market - I'm going to just stop writing things I think will get published and start writing all the weird ideas that live in my head, and that's how I ended up writing the sentence:

screenshot reads: Agrilogistics is, here, ‘fun to think with’ rather than necessarily being a presentation of ‘a correct’ interpretation of the frieze, and that through this reading we can uncover something of the society which produced the frieze – the Classical Athenians – but not necessarily about the intentions of the artists who created it.

5180

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 09/07/2026

Here's the email I just sent to my MP about the cuts to the teaching grant for universities. In case it's helpful to others.

Letter to MP: email me for a full copy - too many words for alt-text.

0125

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 29/06/2026

Had a full Maximus Decimus Meridius moment on my run today.

0110

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 25/06/2026

Cleaning out my photos and found this, which may be a helpful guide at this time of year, when discussing jobs with the precarious academic in your life:

Screenshot reads: Things I don't want to hear when I say I feel like I've failed in my career (which, frankly, is more than likely):
1. "You haven't failed: academia failed you." Makes literally zero difference.
2. "You should be really proud of what you've achieved." Who says I'm not?
3. "But you succeeded in writing two books!" Good for me, didn't set out to write books, set out to get a permanent academic job.
4. "The system is unfair. Yeah, again: makes zero difference. Doesn't matter that mediocre posh white men from Oxbridge are gonna hire mediocre posh white men from Oxbridge and not a weird, Autistic, queer, tattooed Australian woman does it?
5. "You're brilliant"/"You're amazing" or similar. Obviously not in the ways that count, which are literally the only ways.

2163

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 12/06/2026

At least this year I have a job for next year?

TimeHop screenshot: the top, in an orange bar, reads ‘1 year ago’. Underneath Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts
Myself, in a stable and long-term position, in which I don't have to PANIC WRITE all the things because I'm terrified of wasting my research year and having nothing to show for it, but also don't really have institutional support, and an overwhelming and looming lack of employement for next year...
In response to Jo VanEvery What one thing do you want to get out there against all the odds? A book? One specific article?

251

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 31/05/2026

As a runner and a writer, I heartily co-sign this message.

Twitter screenshot reads I wanted to run the London Marathon but training takes too long and is too hard as a pudgy 47yo woman, so I got an Uber to the finish line. It's not fair that athletic people get to gatekeep long-distance running. I'm still a Marathon runner!
This is what Al 'writers' sound like

648198

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 24/05/2026

Just FYI: a hundred kilometers is a really long way.

A white woman wearing running attire stands in front of a sign that reads Finisher London2Brighton. She holds a sign that’s says 100km.

7590

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 20/05/2026

I’ve just watched a reel by a conventionally-attractive, small-bodied, straight-sized white woman* that lent dangerously close to claiming the fat experience. As a small-bodied, straight-sized, white woman who used to be (small) fat I have some thoughts on this. Here are my credentials:

Photo of a thin white woman in a pink singlet and denim miniskirt

Photo of a fat white woman in a black and white skirt suit.

160

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 20/05/2026

It’s starting to feel so real that I will be running One Hundred Kilometres on Saturday. I can’t believe it but I feel so ready.

Pair of white trainers with blue laces, beads in the laces spell out This is the fun part.

Pair of orange trainers with orange laces, beads in the laces spell out This is the fun part.

270

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 04/05/2026

Look what I found at WHSmith at Athens Airport!!!

Photograph of a book display prominently featuring a brown covered book titled “Ancient Greece” by Ellie Mackin Roberts

2320

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 03/05/2026

This was my slowest run in a very long while but, in my defence, I stopped and took a lot of photos at basically every ancient thing I came across and, if that’s not what being a runner in a city you love is about then I don’t know what is!

A white woman in running kit with a pink running vest, maroon skirt, and pink hat stands on the Pnyx hill in Athens. In the background the Akropolis rises, with the Parthenon visible. The sky is lie with some clouds.

1221

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 27/04/2026

Reminder to pay attention to which option you are clicking when spell checking, least you cross purposes with cetaceans.

Photograph of a Word document with the word ‘porpoises’ highlighted making the relevant sentence read: ‘…these records served porpoises beyond simple…’

2230

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 31/03/2026

You’ll be pleased to know that I now have a stuffy HCB!

010

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 21/03/2026

So I did it. 5:11:23. Next year will be sub-5. But I’m not dwelling on it. I left it all out there and I’m so amazingly happy with what I did today!

8430