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November 2012

Verdict for #THEAwards: fantastic people there, great achievements, even when cloaked in CorpSpeak. Still not endeared to Walliams.

It's just a bit rich; REF/RAE- style metrics drive model of prestige, which exacerbated economic problems of serials crisis.

“@carenmilloy Hubbard: REF is a valuable tool for influencing behaviour of researcher/research managers #acssfinch” < influencing=coercing?

I start to feel that some objections to OA are more rooted in value through scarcity models than the objectors would like to admit.

Especially in hums, what exploitation is supposedly anticipated under CC-BY? Surely bigger danger is that nobody even wants to exploit.

“@carenmilloy Q. from learned society: CC BY has no protection for our authors and leaves them open to exploitation #acssfinch” #facepalm

Spoke to some sixth-formers about their creative-critical engagement with Russell Hoban. Now off to speak at Westminster fiction seminar.

Tomorrow features critical feedback for A-Level students writing on Russell Hoban & a paper at Westminster on Bolano and Pynchon.

I'm struggling to get on with Franzen's 27th City. It feels like he read some Rushdie and thought: "yeah, I could do that too!"

Tech tweet: if you want a classic desktop metaphor in Ubuntu, installing Mint's Cinnamon env. might do it. I've been trying & liking it.

Today's teaching is The Pardoner's Tale followed by Gulliver's Travels tomorrow. I always like to mention big & little endian in compsci...

Grayling wants right to deploy "disproportionate force". Must mean is that he thinks that any degree of force is appropriate (proportionate)

Today is conference paper writing day on Pynchon & Bolaño. Taken me quite a few stabs from other events to be happy with this one.

Students told me they went on an English social last week and one of my old students told them I'm his academic model and he wants to be me!

Article on unaffiliated academics ignores associated word: "academy"? Academic: a member of the academy? Why not "independent researcher"?

Just want to smugly point out that my first thought re. Android 4.2 bug that omits December was that it was clearly a zero-indexing problem.

I have to say that Subsonic for Android is brilliant. Whole music library wherever I go makes commute so much more pleasant.

“@DrKatyShaw @martin_eve really think the marketing execs have read Pynchon? #monkeystypewriters” < no, but I like to think so :p

Ebay definition of "used": "The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended."

Hectic week. Teaching @ Sussex tomorrow (6 hrs). Interview on Tuesday(!). Teaching @ Sussex on Wednesday (6 hrs). 2 days to...

Got to the point where if I don't receive any emails for an hour, even on Saturday/Sunday, I assume there's a technical fault.

. @the_blochian yep, absolutely. I must point out it wasn't me with the "motivation problem" against which terminology I was railing!

"I cannot count the times I have cursed our lack of urgency. If ever I love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can.

Seems ascetic morality is live and well. What makes a foetus more "innocent" than a grown woman? Presumably sexuality plays a part?

I really dislike the phrase "motivation problem". Willing to accept it's harder for some than others, but totally pathologizes it.

Students: "are you Movembering". Me: "no, I just haven't shaved". Them: "Since Sunday when your house flooded?" If only I were that manly.

Person I spoke to at the graduation office didn't find hat humiliation funny & gave me a lecture on how it's not for me, it's for relatives.

I tweet many many interesting things, but the one that gets everyone cheering on Twitter is: "Put Eve in a silly hat! Yeah! Humiliation!"

If you're interested in the literature of @arrroberts, you should follow @newgenrearmy, a conference on his work organised by @chriscallowjr

Laughing at this "ultimate reward for failure" thing levelled at the BBC. Because I remember all the bankers losing their jobs and bonuses.

Guardian "news" of John Lewis xmas ad's cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Power of Love". If it was "Relax", that would be different.

You should follow @adelinekoh right now for a fascinating stream on "theory" and complicity with homophobia and racism. #everdayism

/Academic success: God determines it too (a handbook for students and Christian career counsellors)/. Well, that told me.

Ampibrachal trimeter = fancyspeak fr Dr. Seuss
And now comes an act of enormous enormance!
No former performer’s performed this performance!

Damn. Fire alarm at the British Library. Plus it wasn't preceded by the usual drill warning: "Would the building manager etc." :(