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March 2020

Stewart Lee's satire is just so always on the ball

Though that paragraph reads just more like a factual statement than any kind of satire

Although we await details, the reintroduction of the student numbers cap in HE admissions in the UK will provide some much-needed stability and prevent larger institutions from simply dropping their admissions criteria for a cash win. (Not that I believe in admissions criteria.)

Sorry, that should read "England", I believe.

An academic work-in-progress: extending Bodó's 2018 study of the pirate Library Genesis database to examine the computational structures, limits, and design choices made by large-scale, low maintenance/poor metadata, even illicit, archives

A probably unpopular take: ST: Picard doesn't feel very much like ST because it foregrounds character development as the actual plot, rather than situating that development within 45-minute self-contained episodic peril resolution, which is what I really want from ST.

It's a vicious circle, I know, but I've been rubbish at exercise during these last few anxiety-filled weeks. Put that right today.

I am pleased to say that, although the test was rigorous, I am now fully qualified to self administer immunoglobulin at home. Hurrah! This means no more risky hospital visits.

Another somewhat risky trip to a London hospital today. Training in how to administer the immune therapy at home. Hopefully I pass the test today and don't need to come in again for a good while.

My reucurring daily sarcastic thought at the moment: who could possibly have foreseen that cross-subsiding our country's health research infrastructure and founding our system of higher education on (overseas) tuition fees could cause problems at any point? 🤔

recurring, even

Huge congratulations to Dr @erikketzan who today passed his Ph.D. viva with a thesis on computational approaches to the style of Thomas Pynchon. I was thrilled to supervise this excellent project.

My annual reminder that filing charity commission returns is far from trivial. Have to break down all of our income by country from which we received it, and institution type within that country. Can be very hard to determine. Huge amount of work.

We're kicking off the @openlibhums webinar on Medieval Water Studies! I know very little about these "watery pathways" but looking forward to learning more about it. https://www.openlibhums.org/news/367/

We start with an introduction to @openlibhums from @RoseHarrisB who introduces us to @HettaHowes. Hetta's Ph.D. was on water and medieval devotional prose for women. Met @ScrivenerSmith while at QMUL! #OLHWater

Critique of the lack of conversation between humanistic and scientific thought; wanted to bridge the gaps between these spaces in the special collection #OLHWater

A special focus on early career researchers, ensuring that those in precarious positions was key to the collection -- capturing the radicalism of new thinkers #OLHWater

Collection did not impose one single perspective or "take" on water. It was about plurality and diversity of approaches. "Water as a framework". #OLHWater

Water as an agential actor outside of purely humanist/human-centred framework. Also: there are lots of bad puns when you write about water. Sounds slippery. #OLHWater

Work or thinking wasn't necessarily quicker (nor, by necessity, review), but the publication process certainly was. Rolling process at @openlibhums meant that once work had passed review, it wasn't dependent on waiting for other pieces. #OLHWater

Now @HettaHowes is talking us through the collection. Environmental history, narrative theory, agential thinking. The collection is here: https://olh.openlibhums.org/collections/special/new-approaches-to-medieval-water-studies/ #OLHWater

Experimental thinking and speculative proposals felt more possible in new digital and open environment. Possibility of being responsive to the material in the collection, framing the close with a manifesto-type document. #OLHWater

Discoverability of material is better than at some other venues, properly indexed and attached to ORCID and Crossref #OLHWater

Now @ScrivenerSmith talking us through the infrastructural choices and how these looped back to benefit the academic thought beneath the collection. Disciplinary agility, for instance #OLHWater

Other open-access journals in the environmental humanities are currently emerging, says @ScrivenerSmith. This seems important if medieval studies is going to shed light on contemporary issues. #OLHWater

Couldn't this temporary utopia where @JSTOR and @ProjectMUSE are making things open access in a time of crisis be something that we could do JUST AS THE NORM? asks @ScrivenerSmith #OLHWater

Scholar-led nature of @openlibhums meant that there was an _academic_ conversation as part of the publication process. Developmental editing that is not available in most commercial publishing outlets, notes @ScrivenerSmith #OLHWater

Investing in people, their thought, and an alternative economy of prestige that values high-quality work that is nonetheless accessible across multiple axes #OLHWater

Challenge of third-party material remains #OLHWater

How can venues and infrastructures let people experiment/try new things? How can we facilitate intellectual risk outside of the systems of patronage that can stifle new thought amongst ECRs? - @ScrivenerSmith #OLHWater

Craft publishing forms in medieval studies! Extreme specialisation says @ScrivenerSmith #OLHWater

Question: does water studies as a _framework_ or _language_ promote a kind of genuine interdisciplinarity? #OLHWater

Water: a most mundate/everyday element.
But also part of complex rituals. A strange juxtaposition of the ordinary and the powerful, the literal and the metaphorical. Reminds me of @RealMandeville's Fluid Physicalities events #OLHWater

Question being addressed by @HettaHowes on the importance of global communications and public humanities. Water studies a good field for this -- we often think of water as a divider, but it could equally be said that it connects us all. #OLHWater

What do we do about global language accessibility for participation in and consumption of academic resources? #OLHWater

Now @ScrivenerSmith answers query about tensions between mode of dissemination and disciplinary norms. Still have to be an advocate if you want to do OA. A potential long way from normalisation. #OLHWater

The pivot point around which the medieval very quickly becomes the modern; synergies with the present and the domestication/wildness dichotomy of water #OLHWater

There should be a recording of this event online in the near future. Thanks to @HettaHowes, @ScrivenerSmith, @Paula_C_Vega, @RoseHarrisB and all attendees! #OLHWater

Playing around with book titles for a forthcoming work on slipperiness of digital-textual metaphors. "Blurred Processor" is quite a nice pun on Word Processor, but "Microsoft Blurred" would be the best, if only it wouldn't get me sued off the face of the earth.

Not that I look like some Star Wars villain or something on this Teams chat due to video processing artefacts or anything.

It's interesting to note the phases of realisation that life isn't going to be normal for a long time. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance? The problem is the damage in those early stages.

Bargaining: "I'm only going to the cinema once"

"Hey, what's 2020 like?"

"Well, loads of the policies I voted for - like the requisition of private health care for the public good and the mass expansion of social security are going into effect."

"Wow. This sounds amazing."

"..."

Ongoing background game of online chess with a colleague/friend. Using the online version to communicate the moves to a board!

Good news: the hospital are going to train me to self-administer my immune replacement therapy.

Bad news #1: I have to come back to hospital (6-hr round trip) next week to do this.

Bad news #2: it will be 15 months before my immune therapy has COVID-19 antibodies in it.

Telephone clinic today at hospital was excellent. Should be a permanent shift. Sadly, tomorrow, I must go to hospital in person for immunotherapy and I cannot avoid this IV drip. Hospital say benefits outweigh risks as I am totally vulnerable without it, but still nerve wracking.

I'm finding poetry, with its requirement of absolute focus, a calming locus at the moment. Not my usual fare by any means.

Oh yes, I think that @ontakragoueke did just suggest a book publishing-related record label called "Marc Records".

*Cinema trailer dude voice*

"From the makers of two-thousand and nineteen comes a new hell: 2020. Not in cinemas now."

My favourite suggestion during yesterday's @COPIMproject workshop:

Speaker A: "Libraries often don't want print copies for reasons of shelf space."

Speaker B: "Perhaps there's a business model for OA books here. Pay us or we'll send you a print copy."

* this was, obviously, a joke

"In a few days’ time – by this coming weekend – it will be necessary to go further and to ensure that those with the most serious health conditions are largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks."

Me. Urgh.

Why didn't we put "global pandemic" on our grant risk register? Next time I do this, I'm heading to my dystopian fiction shelf to enumerate the possibilities.

We've been conducting a large @COPIMproject workshop online today with breakout rooms and all and it has gone brilliantly well so far, mostly thanks to the hard organizational graft of @alittleroad!

It is, I think, perhaps more tiring listening in an online context -- though this could be my hearing problems causing this -- but I have found the experience remarkably good.

The @COPIMproject is really ramping up today with our first, large, 6.5hr publisher workshop. Due to COVID-19 this has been moved to a digital platform and it's going well!

I do feel terribly sorry for @UKSG cancelling their conference. It is a huge blow. But it is also definitely the right call and they have shown good leadership in so doing.

Guardian article on coronavirus fatality rate ends with "If public health measures are successful, there is hope the vast majority will be spared." Errm, yeah, even at around 6% I'm sure the majority will be spared, but that's not really the point, is it?

Royal Free Hospital moving outpatient appointments to telephone clinics. Why they don't offer this as a regular option is baffling, but perhaps this will prompt positive change!

The surreal news of 2020:

1. There's a global deadly pandemic in progress and everyone should stay indoors.

2. Matt Lucas is to replace Sandi Toksvig as a presenter on "The Great British Bake Off".

Trump and Johnson are probably both going to get COVID-19, not die of it, then conclude that it must be fine for everyone else and that those who will die from it should just "man up" aren't they?

Next steps:

1. Universities have to close due to coronavirus;
2. Office for Students will demand universities refund fees;
3. Universities will have a massive black hole in their finances.

Not really that much of a computer games person but @ajrbyers just told me that there're 4K remasters coming of C&C and C&C Red Alert and I am now excited!

The "activate your substitutes" option in the HR system we use sounds ominously like some kind of clone replacement service.

The latest addition to the Eve household! Toby. A 15 year old Jack Russell whose owner died and nobody else wanted. He was very stressed in kennels and at the rescue centre but now seems to be making himself right at home. Well away from the guinea pigs.

Despite the Bass Station 2 being one of the first synths I use when I want to noodle/experiment, it rarely makes it onto a final track. Today I think I found the sound 😁