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October 2012

I'm getting an education on the drug-driven sexual adventures of the girl behind me on the train. Marvellous. Headphones.

Quite an exciting day! Mapped out the chapter structure of book #2 and find I've written more of it than I realised. Started introduction...

I always feel very studious when I get to the BL on Saturdays. I always feel miffed when I see the # of others who were there all week also.

Received an outrage email over my phrasing in the Archer complaint. To be clear, I wasn't blaming the Guardian, but it is still online now.

I am looking forward to teaching my first years about the (and their) essay form(s) through Adorno and David Foster Wallace far too much!

For example, unless there's a long-term, statistically significant disparity, teachers shouldn't be judged by their results. Students should

Now obviously, the teacher does make a difference, but I'd like to see much more onus shifted back on pupils & parents.

HE tweetup attendance a little shorter than planned due to not realising venue had changed. Good to meet @ernestopriego, @notorius_qrl &c

"However, the ONS pointed out that GDP growth had been artificially boosted by two short-term factors: the Olympics and the jubilee"

. @networkedres @OxfordJournals might be as well to desist in your lawsuit against Delhi University, then, if you really promote "access"

Uh oh. Looks like @SussexUni / @sussexlibrary web facilities are all down. I really *need* BOB to be working in 1.5 hrs for teaching. Argh!

"published form is a book review I wrote, like, last weekend." Peer reviewed, copyedited, typeset, proofread, archived, indexed in just >1wk

"While 4 of my essays have been in the production cycle for 1-2 years, the 1st thing of mine that someone's actually put out in"...

Publication delays in the humanities are crazy. After review, we often wait 1-2 years. I'm fixing this. Here's a comment from an author:...

Can't believe it's Monday again; off to Sussex as we speak. However, I think my illness, which has lasted 5 weeks, is lifting!

Anybody just leaving the British Library who sees a woman looking as though she's expecting someone (me) by the gold bench in the foyer...

Harvey's agreement w/ Volcker on "strong possibility of a massive crash in next 5 years", in 2005, definitely bolsters his class power arg

Very pleased to hear about the Gary McKinnon decision. Not pleased that Cons prepared to use human rights discourse only when it suits them.

Spent my office hour writing a python script to automate a lot more of the typesetting process for Orbit. Now awaiting @timhuzar to talk OA!

There is a running gag now. @the_blochian never sees my papers. Today, the trains thwarted that again! Still, the Pynchon panel was great!

Also: Jeffrey Archer's entry is 100% plagiarised from a Roald Dahl adult short story about Hitler's birth: "Genesis and Catastrophe".

There's a tweet going around about some 140-character "novel" competition. That's nothing. Pynchon's novels have 400-700 characters!

I get pretty miffed when people try to sell me "identity theft" insurance. ID theft is actually a failure in their authentication mechanism.

Latest wheeze from cold callers: "Hello is that Stephen?" "No." "Oh, I'm sorry. Actually, it's a call for all...." Sigh.

So the Nobel cash will be going to Greece, right, as Germany is doing so much to "unite the continent" at the moment...

Trigger warning. I felt physically ill when I read the victims' description of their treatment in French gang rape case. Now mass acquittal.

Gillard video on misogyny is great, but as my friend said, it's a shame she chooses her discriminations & won't support same-sex marriage

Off to teach hours 5 and 6 of John Donne. I might have said this before, but I really don't mind with Donne; good stuff!

Also saying that critics have dubbed all experimental forms in past 40 years "postmodernism" is pretty reductive. *grumble*

Will Self asking where Modernism has disappeared to. If he actually kept up with critical field, he'd know this is already under study.

... additional tool through which to top-load funding. Wish some publications would just take a stand and stop publishing them.

I felt quite annoyed with the THE "World Uni" rankings last week. So many in the sector think such rankings are crap & only serve as an...

Just written a piece on experimental digital writing into which I've managed to shoehorn Mark Dowd's inhuman NULL pointer defer. exploit.

. @nicklebygirl @timleunig @xtophercook oh dear; no indeed. Apologies @davidcameron -- believe that @david_cameron was intended!

Taking the opportunity to do all those things a man can't do when his wife is around in the evening. Like copy-editing journal articles.

Had one of those weeks where I found it hard to get enthused about teaching prep. Sudden connections with research got me out of it though!

Until then I'm enjoying my newly renewed BL pass and writing my paper on Pynchon and ethics for the Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar.

This afternoon, I join @thoughtcat to speak to some sixth-formers about the novels of Russell Hoban; should be fun.

Romney's use of "trickle-down government" as a term is one of the most audacious reversals of a phrase I've heard in a long while.

Thanks all for your support through my major, life-changing encounter at Paul's bakery. Tongue is in cheek, but was hacked off!

The woman at Upper Crust, however, took pity on me. Will exercise my consumerist outrage by never buying from Paul's Sadism Bakery

"Can't you just please sell me a tea and not put the teabag in? I'm feeling really ill" / "No, sorry, we can't do that". Why?

"Paul" bakery at Euston refused to give or even sell (offered price of their tea) me some hot water to dissolve a Lemsip. Just sadists?

Off to Manchester for an Arthritis Research UK funding panel. Also sent my #ecrbook proposal off today. Promised response within 6 weeks.

Let me say 1 thing re #Twittergate. Academic conferences are a publication of your work (a making public). Expect attribution, not privacy.

. @qui_oui I'm torn between thinking "give me a break" and "I should have been there". It was a 2.5hr journey delayed by 30 mins :/

For those hanging on the outcome of my #traintweet: I was 5 mins late for office hour. 2 students now sent emails saying I wasn't in. #damn

Every train I have been on today has been delayed. I left with hours to spare. Now my office hour starts in 5 mins. Humph. #traintweet

Let me add another: the premise is that it's near impossible to dispose of bodies in future. What about Bruce Willis' wife?