I've been crossposting between LJ and DW since the servers were being moved to Russia; I've also deactivated my auto-renew account for lj because I don't want them to have access to my financials. I don't think the recent LJ TOS statement will be legally enforceable in the US, but I also don't foresee any organizations going to the mattress about ( Read more... )

"Essay: The digital death of collecting: How platforms mess with our tastes" by Kyle Chayka

Snip:

The shifting sands of digital technology have robbed these collections of their meaning; the context in which they originally existed can no longer be experienced and they only appear as nostalgic ruins, the remains of once-inhabited metropolises gone ( Read more... )

The long weekend helped people be calmer last week, so here's hoping it'll carry through into this one. Right now I have the heaviest teaching load and have been remembering what it's like to be in rooms with people and saying things. Our unit bought accessibility masks to wear when teaching, with clear plastic windows over the mouth so people can ( Read more... )

First week of the new term and I am so exhausted. Apparently one of my coworkers is annoyed at me because she wanted me to go say hello to a new GA 15 minutes before the GA meeting where we would, you know, meet all the GAs, and I preferred to spend that 15 minutes trying to wrangle the four new class requests I had just gotten. I regret nothing, ( Read more... )

Over the weekend I decided to reorganize my office. It had really become an anxiety cave because 2020 and 2021, and so moving furniture around and also reorganizing my books and such was actually super soothing. We bought another bookcase and a stackable shelf to go on top to hold my figgies. Scott will probably work on that over the weekend, so I ( Read more... )

 The next novel in the Outlander series* is coming out in November, and on a whim I joined the publisher's "official reread" group as people reread in preparation for the new volume.

What I have learned is that:

* a number of people skip prologues and epilogues because they don't understand they are part of the story? I saw a couple of comments to ( Read more... )

 Per my email:

July 1: The University no longer requires face masks or caps to in-person class-sizes.

July 29: The University requires face masks in all campus facilities.

Classes start August 23. Wonder what will happen in the meantime.

- Turns out that the reason I have been So Tired of late is that my thyroid is being wibbly wobbly. So my doc is putting me on a new medical cocktail I'm to be on for six weeks, then I'll go back for more blood work and they'll decide if I should keep on that one or if they should make a new scrip.

- I went to the Tolkien Seminar last weekend and ( Read more... )

I had a splendiferous birthday weekend. I took Friday off and went to go get a haircut for the first time in a year and a half; I ditched about six inches or so and the summer air is so much more bearable. I also went for a dark purple to compensate for a year spent as a salt-and-pepper hedgewitch!

I also set up a birthday zoom with some of my ( Read more... )

I attended virtual PCA last week which cheered me up in so many ways I didn't realize I needed to be cheered up: chatting with friends and colleagues, getting positive feedback on my research projects, getting to listen to interesting talks. A side-benefit of virtual is working from home and being able to keep on top of email etc. Also the full ( Read more... )