#biographical

Rami Malek as Douglas Kelley,

BlackBerry (2023)

Directed by Matt Johnson

My cat! Though I suppose she's not a 'thing.' She's so shy around other people but with me & my partner there is no more cuddly and social baby in the world. We suspect she was raised in a household with dogs (we got her as an adult, 3 y.o) and it seems to have rubbed off on her: she loooves aggressive pets and belly rubs exactly like dogs tend to and she gets along with dogs far better than other cats or humans. Even when we're doing a bit of roughhousing she never ever uses her claws and she does the gentlest of bites; she's the sun in the sky to me.

Doing stuff with my hands. I mean anything from washing the dishes to peeling fruit or digging in the garden; I find a special kind of peace in being able to stay in one place sitting or standing and getting some task done. Most of my work mental and has no tactile element to it, so handiwork offers grounding and frees up my thoughts while I'm engaged with it. I imagine this would've been a very useful trait to have 20,000 years ago.

The self-directed research I do for projects. Including my thesis of course, but I love to do historical research for any work or whatever because I get lost in it like nothing else. It's a fun hobby and my vocation. Writing history is, I think, my way of expressing my love for the world by adding to the tapestry of our story. Learning new things is fun, and integrating new ideas into my own knowledge is a special little brain teaser puzzle I can't find an equivalent for anywhere else.

Nature walks; my soul is made from them. I was born on a tiny island and there wasn't much for my mom & I to do for fun but walk around in the woods—so we did. I miss living close to the mountains and the ocean, and without one or the other I feel somehow uprooted.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

This is one of the most influential and prolific engineers of all time. I decided to add a little history to the blog with this fantastic documentary hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. This is a fantastic story that's well worth watch. If you're a lover of engineering then this should be right up your street. 😊

Born - 9th April ( 1806 )

Edith Sitwell

Artist: Wyndham Lewis (British, 1882–1957)

Date: 1923-1935

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Edith Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful.