Newest thoughts →

November 2021

Sorry to end the week on a pessimistic note, but the omicron variant has been pretty devastating news for our household. I clearly have a very poor immune response to the vaccines. Now even that looks shaky. It may not be a population-wide "reboot" but it's terrible here.

I fear for the future as I have to keep rearticulating that while most people think it's over, we're still shielding. The most populated place I've been in 20 months is a hospital ward as an emergency.

I'm so close to an exciting* open-access book announcement tweet, but it's been delayed and delayed and delayed. Perhaps this week will be the week.**

* probably not for anyone except me

** yes, I know this is a ridiculous "announcement of an announcement" tweet

This AM's research writing, working on /NEW LEAVES/, is asking: why, on the computer keyboard, is "home" the opposite of "end"?

No peace for the wicked...! From today I'm back at the helm of @openlibhums until the end of the year, covering for new parental leave.

Sunday so far has been a walk by the sea (made challenging by a bad ongoing arthritis flare up), completing copyedits on WAREZ, and enjoying some time with our friends who are staying and who isolated to make it safe. Could be worse!

Not going to lie: I totally don't regret commissioning this brilliantly mimetic muppet puppet of myself. Useful for conference presentations, I reckon.

Today was an exciting day. I got the copyedits in on Warez from @lilyibrew, who has done a really superb job of making me sharpen the clarity of the work.

Today's fact of the day, learned with @ScholTom, is that Dr. Alban of 1990s Eurodance fame ("It's My Life") is actually a qualified dentist.

The thing I am still not good at and have not yet solved, while on research leave, is the feeling of guilt re. admin. That is: I feel guilty, at any point beyond 10am, that I am doing my research rather than admin. I am so used to doing research in the early morning...

Found myself taking quite a detour in the chapter of the book I am writing to think about software as a “bad reader” with majority prevalence (Internet Explorer) and some specifying standards as impossible diktats of “high literariness” (MS Word legacy binary format).

Just realised that tomorrow I have 4x conference/webinar presentations to give in one day. Unthinkable in pre-pandemic times. Hopefully I'll emerge still standing!

Monday night reading was finishing Mark McGurl's Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon. I loved the extended focus on self-published works as both sociology and lit crit herein.

I've ended up doing a lot of work so far this weekend, although it was mostly quite an enjoyable mix of programming and research. I think it's now time to make some music though.

Jam some more

Sending good wishes to everybody with a dog who's scared of fireworks. A horrendous time of year for these poor animals here in the UK. Luckily, Toby can't really hear them/doesn't mind but know this is just luck.

The "masks are a massive authoritarian imposition" crowd mysteriously silent on the home arrest imposed on the vulnerable and disabled by rampant viral spread.

JSTOR usage of books converted to open access went up 3,200% on average. 3,200%. Africa and South America the greatest increase in readership. #chsconf2021

This evening, I'm pleased to be able to celebrate the launch of @ernestopriego's graphic collection, The Lockdown Chronicles!

Today's postal delivery is a "now for something completely different" moment. It's @RealMandeville's Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life, launched just last night.

An amusing photo just sent to me as a reminder by an acquaintance from when I was an 18-year-old Blues Brother.

also good. My actual brother is in the photo.