vika – Page 32 – Words' End

April 23, 2006

Sunday, rainy Sunday.

As I just wrote on IM, “You know you’re an academic when, case #254: you’re STUCK IN YOUR OFFICE on a SUNDAY because the door latch is broken.” Totally serious. I can’t even get to my printout! Aaaaaaiiie!

Someone from Facilities is supposedly on their way over. In the meantime, an update.

Elliott, the car I’d had for eight years, has bit it. A stupid accident of the sort that… you just stand there and laugh. Who woulda known that going at ten miles per hour could crumple up the hood and front to the point where the car would be pronounced totaled?

Well, it happened. Nobody was hurt, thank goodness. They’ve taken the car away. We have a rental, and have purchased another car – although we won’t have it for a few more days. A Honda Fit. It’s supremely odd to have bought a new-new car, but given available options and our needs, this was the prudent thing to do.

I’m full of nervous energy. The project is two months and a bit away from conclusion. There are at least three papers to write before then, and it would be good if they didn’t suck. And then the dissertation, which I cannot WAIT for, but which will undoubtedly bring procrastination demons with it. It’s like the boss level in a video game: slay the procrastination demons (who look suspiciously like those wraith guys from Mordor), get to the golden cup – or the degree, as it happens.

It’ll All Be Fine. Now, if only my brain could turn into a brain again… *pokes the mushy puddle with a stick*

*mushy puddle EATS the stick*

Ack.

Hey, you know what I’ve discovered? Stephen King isn’t all that bad. I have practically swallowed up the first two books of the Dark Tower series, which is not so much horror as dark-fantasy-meets-pulp. Its protagonist is a gunslinger named Roland. I’m happy to report that yes, he does in fact have enough qualities to be That Roland, and so reading King is officially dissertation work. iWin!

Now I am freed by way of Facilities’ help over the phone. Time to go where the internet isn’t, and make another attempt at writing a certain proposal.

April 4, 2006

Have patience with the news reporters.

This is mostly a reminder to self, as I’m running out of said patience.

BBC, today: “Man ‘took 40,000 ecstasy tablets'”.

For two years, he took five tablets every weekend, rising to an average of 3.5 tablets per day for the next three years, then soaring to 25 tablets a day over the next four years.[…]

When he saw doctors at the addiction centre at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, south London, he was still using cannabis, and said he had previously taken solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, and heroin. […]

[Dr Kouimtsidis] told the Guardian: “This is probably an extreme case so we should not blow any observations out of proportion. But if this is what is happening to very heavy users, it might be an indication that daily use of ecstasy over a long period of time can lead to irreversible memory problems and other cognitive defects.”

Stop with that, already! “Might be an indication”? The guy’s use surpassed the previous known lifetime-use record twenty times over; he’s used a bunch of other substances; so spare me singling out MDMA for scaremongering. If I drank 25 cups of drip coffee a day for years, I’d have paranoid delusions too.

I love it how they take an extreme case and do a News Story on it, without putting it into perspective.

(Edited to add: The Guardian reported this as well; and Mindhacks has a response to the Guardian article much along the lines of mine, only more substantiated and less sputtering.)

April 4, 2006

Happy birthday, papa.

You would’ve been 69 years old today. Instead, you’re five and a half years gone.

So many things on my mind, but the one that keeps surprising me – you’re an inspiration. You’ve taught me, by example, what to do – and what not to do.

Perhaps I’ve grown into how our relationship had changed, how my understanding of you had changed, in those last few years. I used to do things despite you and your stubborn will (that’s what you get for passing on your genes), but now I do them to honor you. Ironically enough, you still wouldn’t approve of some key choices I’ve made. But that doesn’t matter, it would still be nice to share them with you, and argue until we’re hoarse and it’s way past bedtime.

You are the reason I want to believe in the possibility of meeting you again someday.

Jewish lore says (or so I’ve heard, anyway) that the living are allowed to summon the dead for a year after death, whenever, to help with the grieving process; and that then it’s time to let them go where they will. Wherever else you might be, you’re in my blood, and I can summon that part of you whenever I damn well please. Happy birthday.

March 28, 2006

RIP Lem

I’ll write more about E-Fest when work stops slamming me upside the head, and certainly after I take Shiva (for she’s finally told us her name) to be spayed this morning.

Meanwhile, Stanislaw Lem has died. Rest in peace, Writer; thank you for your wor[l]ds.

March 23, 2006

psst, here’s a secret.

E-mail mckin-at-edrex-dotttt-com. Go ahead, do it.

(E-Fest 06 is being held at the McKinney Conference Room, at the Watson Institute for International Studies.)

Now, if you ever see a sticker somewhere with an email address ending in @edrex.com on it, you’ll know what to do.

March 23, 2006

E-Fest 06

Hello from E-Fest 2006, being held at Brown right now. It’s lunchtime; the first session of papers has passed, as has the first evening of performances (last night, natch). A few thoughts so far. They aren’t intended to be an exhaustive review of the event, just things that occurred to me so far.

The most immediately striking thing, for me (thanks to reading Dr. B et al., and recent women’s issues debacles in the news*) is that, out of the twenty-two official participants, three are women. Three.

Aside from that, however, the event’s pretty interesting thus far. One of the highlights at last night’s performance was Aya Karpinska‘s reading of open.ended. Aya will be the next electronic creative writing fellow in Brown’s Literary Arts MFA program.

Judd Morrissey did a fantastic reading as well, but I can’t find it online; structurally it was similar to his The Jew’s Daughter, which is also a worthwhile read.

Nick Montfort‘s presentation particularly interested me from a pedagogical perspective. He has been working on software that, when overlayed onto a pre-existing piece of interactive fiction (in yesterday’s case, the classic Adventure), allows the user to read the game’s text transformed into different narrative styles. Victorian, for example, peppers setting descriptions etc. with “Reader,”; explicit, when you say “go west,” informs you that you have decided to go west; you have relocated yourself westward; you are now in $otherlocation; you see objects around you. That sort of thing. It seems that, applied to [IF in] other languages, this could be a useful tool for language learning!

Then there’s today. Today’s first session was titled “Memory and Real Time.” It was pretty whirlwind, but one thing that Braxton Soderman was talking about caught my attention: the place of criticism, theory and critical thinking within the increasingly real-time digital culture. (I could be misquoting; will correct later if needed, but this was for me the essence of his talk.)

Briefly: text encoding as literary analysis/research is critical thinking “on the run” (which, for Braxton, was: you get an idea and “run with it”). On the other end of that, the software that eventually shows you a larger picture is also “running”. This feels more real-time than paper writing.

Networked publication of that research, as well as online collaboration (VHL, instant messaging), are also much more real-time than publications in journals and then responses published at a much later date.

Not particularly deep, but a useful snippet for theorizing Roland^HT!

–––

*And speaking of South Dakota’s legislative idiocy, check out the fuck-you message sent by the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to the white boys in the state senate there. How much ass does this woman kick?! Needless to say, please donate… or don’t, but we’re not having an abortion debate in the comments, mmkay?

March 17, 2006

SIC PUPPY

Am just now reading ‘Plain Talk About Plain Speech,’ an article in a recent Inside Higher Ed. This, this is what gives me hope that I may survive in academe. Few things turn me off more about my chosen field than unnecessary jargon. Well, one thing maybe: its unnecessary overvaluation.

If I can continue treating academic speech as, you know, every other form of speech (perhaps of a slightly different register) and still contribute to Knowledge Work(tm), that will rule. If not… well, then I won’t last, and the issue will be irrelevant.

But the reason you might want to read the article is that it’s damn funny.

March 13, 2006

O joyous day! (LIFE, part two)

Welcome, Sylvana Campbell Gruesz, daughter of Colleen and Carl! A big one she is, 9lb 3oz. Born last night by c-section for positioning reasons, mom and baby seem to be doing fine so far. I hope to see them soon, perhaps even today.

Dance the dance with us, baby. We’ve been waiting for you.

(I was thinking of diminuitives to her name last night. Sylvana – Syl – Sylly!)

February 17, 2006

You know what’s really good?

Toasted fennel seeds, left over from yesterday because what you actually meant to toast was cumin. By themselves, nothing else.

Big blog updates, what? So many things I keep meaning to write about, and they just never get written down. Have to start again somewhere.

Oh, all right. Here’s some content: Y: The Last Man is a great graphic-novel (you know, comic book) series. Well written, intriguing in its treatment of gender, beautifully drawn.

January 11, 2006

Happy birthday, Dr. Hofmann.

Today Albert Hofmann, the chemist who first synthesized LSD (and took it, back on Bicycle Day, 1943) turns 100 years old.

I can think of few scientists who changed the Western world as much as he did during the 20th century while managing to create nothing destructive. Thank you for the insight, for the tools, for the kindness and courage, Dr. Hofmann.

Check out this symposium being held in Basel, Switzerland in his honor.