iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alison @finger-post.blog · 05/10/2026

Great lost films of the 20thC: Carry On Up The Wellington Channel. With Charles Hawtrey (Richard Collinson), Kenneth Williams (John Barrow Jr), Hattie Jacques (Lady Franklin), Sid James (Edward Belcher), Joan Sims (Sophia Cracroft), Jim Dale (Leo McClintock) and Barbara Windsor (Sherard Osborn).

Image is a black and white shot of many of the classic stars of the Carry On films: L-R Hawtrey, Williams, Jacques, James, Sim, Dale and Windsor. I am doing something really cheesy with image that maybe three people in the UK will find amusing and I have absolutely no regrets.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 02/10/2026

My plane to [redacted] experiencing a close pass from an Air Brocken jet.

Image shows the Brocken Spectre of a passenger jet manifesting on thick white clouds during a descent.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 30/09/2026

Given how multicultural and multilingual my workplace is, I can't tell you how tickled I am that so many of us turn out to have a shared trauma. (Office kitchen whiteboard question on "what's your favourite childhood film" was answered with The Neverending Story.)

Image is of a whiteboard with a list of films on it in different hands. Five people have reacted to the inclusion of The Neverending Story by remembering Artax and sinking into their own personal Swamp of Sadness.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 29/09/2026

Great moments in Scottish medical history. Renowned anatomist John Goodsir announces that he's going into partnership with Thing from The Addams Family.

Image shows a white man with a lugubrious expression, seated, with hands clasped. To his left is an upturned top hat resting on a book. On top of the upturned hat is a strange-looking glove that looks a bit like Thing from The Addams Family.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 23/09/2026

I thought I was done with innuendo for the day but then I wasn't expecting these two magnificent shags.

Image shows a small-ish black and white 19thC beacon, known as the Perch Light, in the River Clyde. There are two black seabirds using it as a perch.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 23/09/2026

Start your day with a nice Beaver.

Image shows an absolutely gorgeous De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Mk1 sitting on a pontoon at Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories. The aurora is a shimmering green around her. Photograph: George Fischer.

Image is from a coffee table book on Canadian photography that I picked up for pennies in a local charity shop.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 12/09/2026

[0] days without having the tits irritated off me by a bunch of old dead sailors banging on and on about Wellington Channel.

Image is a terribly weak joke: Boromir out of LotR is saying "One does not simply go up Wellington Channel without a steamer".

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 03/09/2026

Oh my god they fucked it. And what the fuck is this? I was already "clipping" and "organising" into "collections", you money-drenched broccoli-headed spamtrumpets. That's what the bookmarks are.

A very punchable screenshot from the downgraded British Newspaper Archive. It reads, punchably, "A new way to clip and curate newspaper articles. From now on, save and share newspaper articles by making a clipping. Organise your clippings into collections, annotate your discoveries and sort your findings by topic – you’re the curator. You’ll find all your old bookmarks here for as long as you need them."

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 28/08/2026

Still seeing icebergs everywhere I look.

Image shows different types of cloud over Scotland at sunset.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 28/08/2026

The wonderful Discomfort Blanket team take a joyful ride through the gazillion ideas and delights contained within Jose Chung's From Outer Space.

Image is a photo of the opening sequence of the X-Files epidose Jose Chung's From Outer Space. it shows the titular character - an older white man - leaning across a desk to clasp the hand of Agent Dana Scully. The title reads "Written by DARIN MORGAN".

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 26/08/2026

Qeqertarsuaq (Disko), off the coast of Greenland. These are grounded icebergs, and I absolutely love that for them. It would be so easy for them to get carried away by how awesome they are.

Image shows two very large icebergs surrounded by bergy bits in a wide blue expanse of water off a rocky coast.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 22/08/2026

I find Ronson frustrating in some ways but his writing makes me squirm with delight.

Joel looked frustrated by my reluctance to hit back harder, but the truth was those last texts had brightened my mood. Libel courts surely don’t respond well to plaintiffs threatening journalists with visits from murderers – especially not when the threats were read out to the journalist by his own son, who was arguably emotionally harmed by them.

“Yes,” I thought. “This is good.”

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 17/08/2026

I was supposed to be in Qikiqtarjuaq but plans change quickly up here. And so The Lemon Is In Play elsewhere. #CabinPressure #TheTravellingLemon

Image shows an airport departure board showing upcoming flights for Iglooik, Kuujjuaq, Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River. The weather is lovely in all four places: nice and cold.

Image shows a small smiley plushy lemon.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 14/08/2026

When travelling, one must always obey all local rules.

Image shows the entrance to a harbour on a beautiful clear day. There is a large sign on the headland which reads "MAX 3 KNOB". There is a massive grounded iceberg in the distance.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 12/08/2026

A Fata Morgana lifted icebergs clean out of the waters off Baffin Island yesterday.

Image shows an optical illusion where a large iceberg appears to float above the surface of the water, and two other large icebergs seem to have elongated and stretched up into bands of white. It was a ghostly and impossible sight, and when it vanished seconds later, we couldn’t even be sure where it had been.

Image shows an iceberg floating in the air.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 04/08/2026

May have overdone the whole Scottishness thing. Also I keep losing my notepad.

Image shows the skirts of a dress made in Black Watch tartan. There is an A5 notepad covered in Black Watch tartan cloth resting on the leg of the wearer. At least I think there is - it's hard to tell.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 02/08/2026

This plane has the weirdest silhouette in #SkyCards and I love it. Sadly I’m not accumulating XP when photographing it IRL.

Image is of a Piaggio Avanti. Weird looking thing. I’m fascinated by its little moustache, and the way the propellers look like they’re on backwards.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 02/08/2026

Cirrus SR22 Turbo my beloved.

Image shows an adorable Cirrus SR22 at an airport. It looks like someone stuck wings on a 1950s North American fridge and I love it.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 01/08/2026

Yeah no thanks, I’m not hungry.

Image shows a cafe called “Franklin’s subs & smoked meats”. It is in a culturally French street.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 01/08/2026

"The Burial at Sea of a Marine Officer Serving under Louis XVI" (1836) by Eugène Isabey (1803-1886). #MaritimeHistory

Image is of "The Burial at Sea of a Marine Officer Serving under Louis XVI", a large and very dramatic 1836 work by the French artist Eugène Isabey (1803-1886). It is on display at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.

The work is oil on canvas and shows a French warship on a stormy sea, sails flapping. The crew is assembled to watch a corpse, wrapped in white cloth, as it is jettisoned from a gun port for burial at sea. One of the ship's cannon fires in salute.

Detail of "The Burial at Sea of a Marine Officer Serving under Louis XVI" by Eugène Isabey (1803-1886).

A closer look at the painting, showing fellow sailors watching from nearby gun ports as the body is lowered from above.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 28/07/2026

I have libearated this guy from a colleague’s desk because he deserves a little holiday.

Image shows a little plastic toy Polar Bear 🐻‍❄️ . It is sitting on a pink post-it note on which someone has written “IOU 1 (one) Bear”.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 20/07/2026

Go home, Cessna. You’re drunk.

Image is a screenshot from the FlightRadar game SkyCards. It shows a Cessna 182 south of Perth in Western Australia. However, the flight information indicates that the plane originated in Cork, Ireland (>15,000km away) and is heading for Winnipeg, Canada (>16,000km away). I hope they have snacks.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 19/07/2026

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.

Image is the artwork from Julian Simpson's audio drama Mythos: The Village. It shows two women, both dressed in black. One is wearing shades and holding a gun. The other is wearing a Victorian gown and has her hands on her hips. They look a lot like Phoebe Fox and Nicola Walker.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 12/07/2026

Calling dirty gofficks and associated spooky types of this (UK) parish: TK Maxx is already putting Hallowe’en tat out on the shelves.

Image is of a candle holder in the form of an adorable little ghost, which is clearly going ooOOOoooOOOooo.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 12/07/2026

Them: Oh and you’ll need a pair of rubber boots. Me: Pretty sure I have some already. Them: … Them: Not like that.

Image shows a pair of black rubber boots, like riding boots only with chains and a bit of a heel.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 10/07/2026

I mean this makes me very romantically excited and I think it's truly remarkable.

Image shows a white man of a certain age, dressed in various shades of tan and brown, holding up a romantic fossil.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 05/07/2026

This is a brilliant cat, but why are they cosplaying James Clark Ross?

Commander James Clark Ross J R Wildman, 1834. National Maritime Museum. The portrait that launched a thousand ships.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 27/06/2026

Would have saved a lot of trouble, not to mention entire forests of tedious paperwork.

Image is That Bit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Arthur, King of the Britons, addresses his knights. The text reads: "On 2nd thought, let's not go up the Wellington Channel. It is a silly place."

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 27/06/2026

And some ducks, too! I /think/ this is a tufted duck? But please correct me. This is not an area in which I have all my ducks in a row.

Image shows a beautiful adult suck with dark plumage and bright eyes. She is swimming in water that looks luridly green - I promise it's not some sort of reflecting pool - with two ridiculous little black puffs of duckling.

A ridiculous little black puff of duckling.

The goth duck and her brood were swimming directly towards a mallard and her set of adorable little floofs. I thought it was going to go a bit Camperdown/Victoria for a while, but these birds are way smarter than that.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 27/06/2026

Birb time! Have some geese of various sizes and terror levels.

Image shows a female Egyptian Goose, with cream and brown plumage and very pink legs. She's keeping a very close watch with those startling orange eyes.

Image shows six goslings with fluffy brown and white plumage and silly little khaki legs. Five a pecking at the ground, while one is standing up and looking ahead.

Image shows Mama Goose and the Ridiculous Goslings*, with the little'uns pecking away merrily and the magnificent mum poised to rain squawky death down onto anything that bothers them.

*I saw this band supporting Mogwai at The Garage in 2009.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 25/06/2026

The Central Line during a heatwave.

Image shows a cute copy of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World. It is being read on a Central Line train.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 23/06/2026

In 1893, Dr Harry Goodsir Mackid carried on a family tradition of scientific innovation by becoming the first person in Calgary AB to mount a flatscreen television on the wall.

Image is a silver gelatine print from 1893. It shows a slightly startled looking white man with dark hair and an impressive moustache. He is sitting in a room which is notable for the taxidermic head of a snarling wolf on the wall to his left. Next to that is some form of wall hanging which looks a little bit like a big telly.

Harry Goodsir Mackid was born in Ontario in 1858. He was the cousin of THAT Harry Goodsir, the one who was lost with the Franklin Expedition.

https://collections.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/objects/158347/dr-harry-g-mackid-calgary-alb-1893

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 22/06/2026

I’m Scots and Irish and therefore anything over about 18C falls into this category tbh. #TapsAff

Screengrab of a weather alert, announcing a Red Warning for high temperature posing an “extraordinary threat to life or property”.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 18/06/2026

Delighted to find two old friends and one new unworn one: I guess it was a bit much, even for me, and even during Inappropriate T-Shirt Week.

A black t-shirt with a yellow design. It reads Disaster Area Sundive Tour. The design is of a very black spaceship heading directly for a yellow sun.

A black t-shirt with a russet and cream depiction of Dorothy Parker and her quote “I’ve been too fucking busy or vice versa”.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 15/06/2026

Someone is playing the bagpipes.

Image is a New Yorker cartoon showing a pit full of the screaming damned, all writhing with horror. Satan is on a throne on a raised platform. He is telling a kilted man with bagpipes: "You'll be in charge of the music down here."

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 14/06/2026

In an agony of indecision about which book to read yesterday, I grabbed John Pebble's The High Girders at random. Every par is a banger, like this one: the scene inside a signal cabin on 28 Dec 1879, when the Tay Rail Bridge collapsed in a storm, taking a passenger train with it.

"Watt and Barclay looked at each other and did not know what to do, or how to say what they were thinking. Then, because they felt alone in this box of light, and because they could not imagine what had happened outside in the darkness, they opened the door and ran down the steps. They stood on the boarding and the wind tore at them."

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 07/06/2026

Colleague: I love that you are so into archives and things, that's cool, but I'm too active, I couldn't do that. My watch at close of play Friday (travel, two archives, collecting Stuff, drinks, change of time zones adding +1hr to all this):

Image shows an Apple Watch indicating that the wearer has been on their feets for 21 hours. It was actually 22 hours, because I also skipped back an hour because time zones.

I refer to in-person work in archives as "shoe leather work" for a reason.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 06/06/2026

What can I say, big brown eyes and strawberry blond hair are something of a weakness chez Fairchild.

Oil painting of Alexander McDonald of Laurencekirk, surgeon, lost with Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition. Image: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Presented by Mrs A N Dew, 2007.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 06/06/2026

Met a beautiful boy with big brown eyes and strawberry blond hair and he’s everything I ever wanted and also look at what’s going on with his feets.

Image shows a beautiful golden spaniel with ridiculous ears and the softest fur. His name is Blaine and he’s a Very Good Dog.

Blaine sitting splootily on the floor of a bar. He is being very patient. His paws are huge and fluffy and should be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Alison @finger-post.blog · 02/06/2026

Fascinating to see this CDV turn up in alerts: poor doomed Hugh Talbot Burgoyne of HMS Captain and some of his poor doomed officers and crew, not long before the Royal Navy learned a valuable lesson about reduced freeboards and a ship's centre of gravity. #NavalHistory

Image shows a carte de visite photograph c.1870, showing several Royal Navy officers seated and standing. They all look enormously glum, and well they might, because they are on the Cowper Phipps Coles-designed HMS Captain.

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