Procrastination technique 4,372: writing a blog post when I should be packing. The movers arrive tomorrow morning bright and early. By Tuesday afternoon I should be in Pennsylvania. By Thursday afternoon (so they say) the movers will join me with lots of stuff.
So here I am, staring at all of the things I should be putting into boxes (I’m paying them to pack the books, or this would have disaster written all over it). Fiddle/Rome. It’s been a more than usual hectic ten days. DHSI happened, and with it all of the DHSI mad goodness.
I was burned out and exhausted going into the week, which had a deleterious effect on my teaching. I really fought against the expectation that insta-toolkit would solve all syllabus and assessment problems. There was some really valuable and rich discussion within the group that has made me think even harder about ways in which pedagogy and digital pedagogy don’t necessarily overlap. For that alone I am grateful and reinvigorated.
The colloquium went well. It occurred to me (and others on the advisory committees) that we need to reconsider what the colloquium should do and be. When we first put the idea together there were very few outlets for emerging scholars to present and discuss their research. Now there are many, and we don’t necessarily have to be in the position of giving all presenters a forum to give full-length traditional conference papers. Still, DHSI provides an opportunity for meaningful dialogue coming out of the colloquium in ways I suspect are not so prevalent at other conferences. The plans for next year (which formally kicked off on 6/11 – the day we were travelling back from Victoria) include room for much more fast-paced dynamic sessions. Have to publish the CFP by September. Need to figure out how to foreground this so that we are clear about form and timing.
While in Victoria I had several lightning round meetings – about the RSA Renaissance Studies and New Technologies Sessions (Micihael Ullyot, Laura Estill and I powered through the session structure just in time to submit to the RSA planning committee. We’ll hear in August), my ISE edition of Henry VIII, the opportunities to collaborate with the Map of Early Modern London project on Henry (think linked data) and some other research ideas, a speed dating version of the Digital Pedagogy course for next spring’s Congress, and several more things that I’m sure I’ve forgotten entirely.
Yesterday and this morning I noodled with the old-spelling markup of Tarlton’s Jests. For some reason my <div> tags won’t validate, and I get the stupid “element div not allowed” error. Grr.Here’s a sample:
<div type=”jest”>
<head>
<space quantity=”2″/>
<c/><hi rend=”bold”>Tarltons <hi rend=”italics”>Court-witty {J}e{s}ts.</hi></hi>
<space quantity=”1″/>
<lb/><c/>How <hi rend=”italics”>Tarlton</hi> plaid the Drunkard before the
<lb/><c/>Queene.</head>
<p>
<lb/><c type=”lettrine” rend=”cap8″>T</c>{H} {E} {Q}ueéne being di{s}contented ;
<lb/>which Tarlton perceiuing, took {u}p-
<lb/>on him to delight her with {s}ome
<lb/>quaint ie{s}t : whereupon he counter-
<lb/>{f}aited a drunkard, and called for
<lb/>{B}eére, which was brought immedi-
<lb/>ately. Her Mai{s}tie <!–smudged n–>noting his hu-
<lb/>mor, commanded that he {s}hould haue
<lb/>no mo{r}e:fo{r}(quoth {s}heé) he will play the bea{s}t,and {s}o {s}hame
<lb/>him{s}elfe. {F}eare not you {quoth Tarlton)fo{r} your {B}eére is
<lb/>{s}mall enough.{W}hereat her {M}aie{s}tie laughed heartily, and
<lb/>commanded that he {s}hould haue enough.
</p>
</div>
Everything inside it appears to be well-formed. Need to dig more, but now I must put that aside until I reunite with my computer when the movers get to Pennsylvania.
Today is my niece’s fifteenth birthday. I’m having one of those “Sunrise, Sunset” moments.
And with that I’m off to call the (probably sleeping) teenager.