iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 2h

Strike day 4. Joined a picket line with Edinburgh University colleagues, sang some non-English protest songs with our university's wonderful languages lecturers, and attended the joint Edinburgh / Dundee / GCU UCU rally outside the Scottish Parliament. A day of joyful solidarity. ✊🏻

A crowd of staff and students outside Holyrood

A person (Maggie Chapman MSP) addresses a crowd.

A papier-mache lecturer alongside people with signs protesting job cuts at Dundee University.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 30/09/2026

A momentous meter reading day since our new solar panels and batteries mean that we exported more electricity to the grid than we imported this month. I wasn't sure how my homemade project tracking my carbon usage (carbon.simonxix.com) would handle this but it seems to have taken it in its stride.

a bar graph showing home energy carbon usage by month for the last 12 months. September 2026 has the first negative number for electricity use.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 30/09/2026

The genAI-created episode of Doctor Who is streamable at www.theunmadeseason.com and, though you wouldn't know it from the media coverage, is explicitly a right-wing reaction to The Doctor being alternately a woman and a Black man (source: www.tumblr.com/lizardsfroms...).

Also one of the few pieces of evidence that the writer of this show even exists is an interview he did with a Youtube channel (notably, he didn't actually *appear* in the interview but answered questions in the chat). A Youtube channel that does videos complaining about TV shows being "woke" and that British people are judged "more harshly" than asylum seekers. And one of his first comments is complaining about politics and "forced" diversity. Seems like coverage of this AI Doctor Who show should mention that but every single one takes the angle that it's a gee-whiz anorak making a show on his computer and isn't that exciting?

How, exactly, inserting a new character into a made-up regeneration scene counts as bringing "a unmade season" to life I'm not sure. Why Doctor Who would have a unmade season and not a unmade series I'm also not sure.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 29/09/2026

Strike day 2. Hiked from Helensburgh to Cardross via Ben Bowie. Would have been lovely if I wasn't only able to do it because Edinburgh University senior management don't want to offer young people education in arts, humanities, and social sciences.

A Runkeeper map showing a 19.29 km route from Helensburgh to Cardross

The abandoned St. Peter's Seminary, a Brutalist building covered in graffiti

The inside of an abandoned castle overtaken by nature

A sign pointing into a majestic Scottish glen. The sign reads Glen Fruin

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 28/09/2026

Once again suspicious of this cat we adopted in Scotland.

A small brown cat that looks basically like the wildcat in the quoted post.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 28/09/2026

Strike day. Would be an idyllic annual leave day but as it is, it's just a day in not getting paid because Edinburgh Uni senior management won't make a reasonable (or indeed any) offer.

A outdoor table with a Lionel Richie mug. There is a Kobo in the foreground.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 27/09/2026

And why have they clearly used a reference of Ned Stark? A. It should be Robb Stark: Ned was never King in the North. B. Do the Labour Party remember what happened when Ned Stark left his northern stronghold to take up a political position in the capital?

an image of Sean Bean as Ned Stark with a big sword pointed down

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 27/09/2026

I had to redo this because I forgot the game I loved so much that I literally wrote a whole journal article about lol. press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/pr...

a grid of nine games: Bloodborne, Outer Wilds, Portal, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Thief II: The Metal Age, Hitman, Tomb Raider II, and The Sims.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 27/09/2026

It's got to be these: a combination of modern games that are among the best ever made and games that meant a lot to me as I was learning to play. Catch me on another day and I'd swap in Baldur's Gate and Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of Liberty. my9games.net

a grid of nine games: Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Portal, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Thief II: The Metal Age, Hitman, Tomb Raider II, and Age of Empires II.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 23/09/2026

Not the most straightforward task but I'm on my way to a custom home electricity dashboard in Home Assistant. The advantage of building your own stuff is that you gain a better understanding of how it all works. The disadvantage is that you have to build it yourself.

A dashboard with various electricity related metrics and solar information.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 23/09/2026

Are these the same UK Higher Education providers who have all uncritically subscribed to LLM platforms like ChatGPT Edu? Who continually recontract with the same proprietary software providers like Ex Libris Group for library systems?

The report findings reveal that on a scale of one to five, where one demonstrates institutions are at a reactive stage of digital maturity and five an integrated stage, the aggregated sector score was 2.84. This indicates that, on average, UK higher education providers have moved beyond reactive investment in digital infrastructure and are embedding more strategic approaches and proactive practices.

The results also show:

Reliable, safe and secure digital infrastructure is the highest-rated aspect of the assessment
Digital capability, including AI capability, has the lowest maturity ratings
Funding or investment is the most frequently cited single barrier to further progress, followed by staff capacity and time

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 21/09/2026

Oh damn, his friends really were just out of frame the whole time.

Nathan Fielder standing behind Steven Spielberg

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 20/09/2026

A not-so-tricky V3, it just required a lot of arm strength and getting used to crawling under the overhang like one of the Spider-Men.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 05/09/2026

Second harvest: some fresh parsley to go into dinner tonight.

A Tupperware box of fresh cut parsley. There is a cat in the background nosing about.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 04/09/2026

The sun has come out to celebrate the commissioning of our new solar and battery system.

Screenshot of an app showing 2.62kW of solar energy being used to charge a battery and also power the home. 0kW are coming from the grid.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 03/09/2026

Singing 'Scotland the Brave' through mouthfuls of cake.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 02/09/2026

Leon is interested in the installation of renewable energy systems.

A cat on a windowsill watching a solar panel being taken up some scaffolding.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 30/08/2026

First harvest from the new garden: some fresh spinach to go in a pasta tonight. Knowing how spinach wilts, probably not a huge amount but better than nothing.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 29/08/2026

Tolkien agrees with me on Christopher Tolkien's obsession with lore.

Extract from a letter from J. R. R. Tolkien to his publisher: "I am not now at all sure that the tendency to treat the whole thing as a kind of vast game is really good – cert. not for me, who finds that kind of thing only took fatally attractive. It is, I suppose, a tribute to the curious effect that story has, when based on very elaborate and detailed working of geography, chronology, and language, that so many clamour for sheer 'information', or 'lore'. But the demands such people make would again require a book, at least the size of Vol. 1."

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 23/08/2026

Incredibly excited to see the new Jane Schoenbrun tonight. Maybe my most anticipated film of the year.

Poster for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 20/08/2026

Picked up this antique barometer in the Kinning Park Antiques Centre for £10 because it matched the aesthetic of my new office. But I'm pleased that I was able to properly calibrate it so it's actually working.

An old wooden barometer and thermometer.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 15/08/2026

Struggling to fathom the implications of Aragorn's family tree (from Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth).

A disturbingly circular section of the family tree of the line of Isildur where Aranarth's descendents eventually come around to sire a child with one another.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 13/08/2026

I have the first garden of my adult life. There's late-summer herbs already growing in the planter on the fence and my next task is cultivating a lawn that allows for biodiversity.

A lawn edged with gravel and paving stones. There is a planter made from an old pallet on the fence.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 13/08/2026

Looks exactly like Bluesky but pink and hosted on different servers. Has some useful additional features like an edit function.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 12/08/2026

View of the solar eclipse from Whitelee Windfarm. Not the best photos but there was a moment of less than total cloud cover where you can definitely see the curve of the moon in front of the sun.

A view of an eclipse mostly obscured by cloud

A view of a solar eclipse mostly obscured by cloud

A view of an eclipse obscured by cloud with a wind turbine in the foreground

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 08/08/2026

Another big V3 that I've been working on. Difficult final leg push on a tiny foothold that it took me a while to trust would support me.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 04/08/2026

A terrific articulation from the Zetkin Collective of the ideological underpinning linking the "war on motorists" and the far-right.

Extract from White Skin, Black Fuel: "Here the automobile is significant not only for its emissions but just as much for its ideology of anti-collectivity. The motorist wants to be left alone, preferably have the road to himself as he speeds forth. 'We are now, truly', Mitchell writes, continuing the SUV-owners' anthem, 'the liberal, autonomous subject. We own ourselves and no one can intrude upon us without our permission.' The car, in other words, exudes the ideology most detrimental to any efforts to cut emissions - an ideology of form as much as content, abiding no rationing or accommodation of foreign others."

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 04/08/2026

No, thank you. That's a hard pass for this show.

A genAI slop Fringe poster for a show called 44 Minutes.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 30/07/2026

Out in Glasgow for some ground-beefing improv comedy. @cbbworld.bsky.social

A stage with three stools and a big banner for the Comedy Bang! Bang! Ground Beefing Tour.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 29/07/2026

And a physical copy! I don't think I've ever had a physical copy of a journal issue I've been in before.

A blue paperback of Supernatural Studies, volume 11, issue 2.

The opening page for "What year is this?": Time, the Nuclear, and Trauma in Twin Peaks: The Return by Simon Bowie

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 27/07/2026

H. got me a very nice medal rack about a year ago but, since we planned on moving, I never put it up. Now my new office is almost complete, it was a good time to finally get it up.

A metal medal rack with various running medals hanging from it.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 25/07/2026

I haven't had my Tolkien ornaments on display for a few years after a naughty kitten broke the Tower of Ecthelion off Minas Tirith but since we moved house, I bought myself a cabinet with glass doors so they can sit proudly on the Tolkien shelf.

Bookshelves with one row of King books and one row of Tolkien books. A tiny Minas Tirith and a tiny Minas Morgul face one another across the shelf.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 21/07/2026

Ah, yes, famous The X-Files character, Carl Busch. That's definitely how everyone refers to this character.

The LEGO Ideas The X-Files set recreates iconic moments from the series, centred on a detailed build of Fox Mulder’s office, paired with a forest clearing scene and a hovering UFO. The set includes 8 Minifigures: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, Mr. X, Alex Krycek, Carl Busch, The Flukeman and a grey alien, allowing fans to recreate key investigations and encounters.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 18/07/2026

Breakfast of champions post-moving day.

A slice of cold pizza on a black plate on a cardboard box.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 11/07/2026

Morning hike up Dumgoyne (427m). Spectacular views (in theory) over Glasgow and Loch Lomond.

A standing stone at the top of a hill. Cloud surrounds the hill blocking views further.

A view over Scottish countryside. Loch Lomond can be distantly seen on the horizon.

A large white distillery building with a sign saying Glengoyne.

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 09/07/2026

Tolkien writes being-in-history so well and that's not just the long stretch of past that informs the events of the present, it's also being aware of the future to come and how these events – apocalyptic as they seem – are not the end of history but only one small part of it.

Excerpt from The Return of the King: 'Other evils there are that many come; for Sharon is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.'

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 08/07/2026

A pleasant surprise: the Glasgow Blood Centre still has Metallica Blood Drive T-shirts! 🤘🏻

A black Metallica 2026 Blood Drive T-shirt with a cat standing on it

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 08/07/2026

I was pleased to contribute to this collectively-authored book and to receive my physical copy earlier this week! The book was published using an experimental technical infrastructure and was one of the pilot projects that we nurtured over the course of the Open Book Futures project.

A paperback book called Publishing as Collective Infrastructure

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 03/07/2026

Vegan pizza crunch for lunch 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A plate of deep-fried pizza and chips and a pickled onion

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 01/07/2026

From Anti-Fascist Action Dundee: The Aberdonian far-right group Unite the Klans are planning to descend on Dundee alongside fascists from across Scotland. Gather against these far-right thugs on Dundee City Square at 1400 on 18th July.

Flyer for a community call out against the far right in Dundee City Square on 18th July at 1400

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