Category Archives: digital humanities

What I got out of THATCampSoCal 2012

I’ve attended more THATCamps than I can keep track of now.  THATCamp Prime and THATCampBayArea and THATCampSoCal are standard annual events for me, with a few others working out in conjunction with other conferences that I attend along the way.  I’m used to the drill of TC and as a result I’ve even begun to wonder whether the familiarity of the unconference experience meant a loss of use-value for me.  You see, I easily become weary of the conversations about the abysmal academic market or the lack of funding for graduate student projects or the lack of women in tech-fields.  Not to say that these aren’t important conversations, I just don’t enjoy the repetition very much–I want to start the revolution, not just talk about what needs changing.

And while there was some repetition of some of those typical conversations at this THATCamp, I found it to to still be quite useful for me, and this is why:

  • in the session about local DH collaboration, most of us who attended had been at the very first THATCampSoCal three years ago and had been involved in various local initiatives since then, including the now mostly-defunct DHSoCal website.  We committed to updating the DHSoCal presence that we created so many years ago by migrating our activities to newer platforms like Google Hangouts and Twitter.  This session had a very proactive feel to it and revved my enthusiasm for cross-campus collaborations.
  • those of us who met to discuss the role of Academic Technology at our campuses share many of the same problems with encouraging technology use.  The wide variety of suggestions for doing more (and doing better) made me feel good about what I have tried, as well as hopeful about future possibilities.  The take-away message for me personally was the reminder that I need to listen to the various constituents on campus more, and consider their needs before I push the latest shiny-new tech-tools.  Though this might not be true at every institution, at mine I believe that helping faculty to use a few tools very successfully is better than offering them with so many possibilities that they feel frustrated.
  • And finally, what will probably be the very-most-important thing that emerged from my experience at THATCamp was the faculty-friend who sat me down and asked about the state of my career and then nudged me to do more publishing (knowing that I desperately need this for my cv).  Actually, she didn’t just nudge me, she sent me her recent book proposal as a model and helped me to frame some rough ideas for how I could draft my own and then encouraged me to do so.

All of these bullet points have one thing in common, and that’s the value of attending a conference where others are invested in the DH community and are excited about sharing with they know with others.  There’s a generosity at THATCamp conferences that is above and beyond what I’ve experienced at other academic venues.  Attending this event today reminded me just how much I need the mentoring and examples of other scholars in this field, and also affirmed my hope that I can offer the same to others, too.

 

Library-ish

I’m rarely more content than when I am perusing the shelves of a library. There are many reasons why that’s the case, but I’ll just focus on one of them today:  it’s because I know where to find the stuff I want. There’s a lot of pleasure in finding a call number in the library catalog and then heading directly to the place on the shelves where the item is located.

Because of my desire to be organized and have a place for everything I own, a few years ago our family adopted a classification scheme for our thousands of books.  As a busy graduate student I needed to know where my books were, so I could consult them regularly for my research.  Enigmatic piles of books and haphazard shelving practices were not my friend.  So we used the Book Collector program to create a database of our book ownings and tagged the spine of each book with its Library of Congress number for easy shelving and retrieval.  It was a lot of work.  So much work that it took two summers (one for fiction, one for non-fiction) of data entry before our collection was entered and tagged.

When we divorced, John took the bulk of our books.  I was happy about that–wanting to shed the weight of so much ‘stuff’ in the process of moving on with my life.  However, I did keep the academic books for my teaching and research (and my poetry books), bringing them to my office at Chapman University.  However, in moving them I didn’t pay much attention to their shelf location and also acquired many new books as I was in the final stretch of dissertating that weren’t in the book database or weren’t tagged with a library number.  I told myself that when I was done with my PhD I would get things organized again.  And of course that means now.

So last week I did some research on the best software for creating my new book database and settled on the iPhone app Book Crawler.  It allows you to use the camera on your phone to scan the ISBN barcode on the back of any book for importing the relevant data fields into the app (i.e. title, author, publisher, etc).  It can also do google searches for books on the title or author name if they do not have a barcode on the back cover (this is the case with many books printed prior to the 1980s).  And, it can sync your book collection to Dropbox.com and export as a CSV file (right now I’m emailing a CSV of my database to myself daily as a backup for my collection).

Even with the handy Book Crawler app, cataloging my books is taking a lot of time.  I set a goal to do one shelf per day and have accomplished that on most days since I began.  But in the midst of the project my office is looking a bit untidy, which is good motivation to power through and get this done as soon as possible (because I like people sitting in my groovy office chairs, not stacks of books):
Office books mess

Not only is there a lot of pleasure in getting my books in their rightful places on their shelves, but it’s also fun to peruse each of them and consider how I acquired them and why I’ve kept them (I regularly cull my books to keep the acquisitions from getting out of hand).  Along the way I’ve found a few treasures, such as this early self-portrait by Catgirl, and this signature by author Terry Tempest Williams, which spawned a series of memories that will be another blogpost soon.

I feel certain that many of my readers are probably rolling their eyes at my desire to be so organized with my book collection.  I’m sure you think I’m over-the-top with my need to control my shelves.  But for me, one of the best parts of owning books is that they are there when I need them.  So if I’m having an I-need-Mary-Oliver-right-now moment, I can reach over and grab that book in an instant.  Because if I didn’t know where to locate my books when I needed them, it would hardly be worth the owning of them for me.  If I can’t find it, what’s the use of having it?

PS: One of the biggest charms for me, in meeting my current partner, was seeing the library in his home for the first time.  Knowing that he cared about books as much as I do confirmed my hunch that we had a future together.  I think you can tell quite a lot about a person by how they treat their books, right?  🙂

the wild west (of the internets)

Recently, I received an email from someone in the marketing department of an institution that I’m affiliated with.  Turns out, he was expressing concern about some of my web activities that didn’t carry appropriate institutional branding.  He explained that I was “going all wild west” and doing things my own way instead of following policy.

Boy, did I get a kick out of that message.

Because I realized that what I like most about the various digital spaces where I play, is precisely that they are all “wild west.”  As soon as such venues are codified and monetized, they lose their appeal for me.  I need a place to play and get messy and make mistakes.  I don’t much need a place to play by the rules.  I already have plenty of those kinds of places in my life.

For example, lately I’ve lost interest in Twitter.  While I still auto-tweet some blogposts and post photos of what I’m eating, I don’t generate much new content there nowadays.  Instagram, which seemed a lot of fun for awhile, lost a lot of its appeal when it was bought by Facebook.  Ditto for Gowalla and Brizzly (Gowalla I miss especially–I liked it early on when I was earning badges and toting items around wherever I traveled).   I though maybe Pinterest would be my new digs, that is until Ann Romney joined.  That kind of killed it for me.  I dabbled a bit in Storify until I realized that it was cross-posting all of my stuff to Facebook.  Ugh.  Hate applications that go there.

So…I need a new online frontier.  Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Note: photo above taken while I was on a western road trip two weeks ago–driving from one end of California to the other…

My Top-10 clothing-packing tips

Inspired by this Profhacker post, here are my Top 10 clothing-packing tips.  I believe in keeping things simple, and developed the strategies below so I can minimize the worries that I have before an upcoming trip, and so I can prepare at a moment’s notice.*  For me, that means carrying on one small roll-aboard suitcase with my clothing/toiletries and a shoulder bag with my travel documents and electronics.  For long trips with many transfers, I’ll carry it all in one backpack.

1) Travel light.  If in doubt, don’t bring it. (I can’t emphasize this enough–one can definitely travel in Europe for two weeks and wear the same clothes everyday)

2) Related to #1, Carry on.  If you carry on your bags, you’ll be forced to travel light and can make smoother transfers, and can get where you’re going without needing an assistant or a trolley to get you there.  But egads, don’t be that carry-on person with the too-large expandable-zipper suitcase.  If you can’t lift it over your head and into the bin easily, it’s too much.

3) Make a universal packing list and then customize it for each trip.  I keep my universal packing list in a googledoc (so I can access it from work or phone or home), and then create a new list for a specific trip using the universal list as a template.  Or if my travel is so last-minute that I don’t have time for a custom list, I just use the universal one.

4) Include an outfit list with your packing list.  I print out this list and put it in the inside mesh-zipper pocket of my roll-aboard, where it’s visible every time I open my bag.  I didn’t use to do that, but I found that if I make a list of each outfit that I’ll need for my trip, I’m less likely to forget something like the shoes or the tights that I need to make an ensemble work.  And I’m also less likely to be packing items that I won’t actually wear and will add unnecessary weight (see #1). Also, I rarely bring more than three outfits on a trip–even one that’ll last two weeks.  By outfit list, I mean something like this:

Conference day #2: black slacks; brown sweater with black tank layered underneath; black trouser socks; black flats; gold chain necklace and gold hoop earrings; grey raincoat and blue flowered scarf

As a sidenote:  I’ve you’ve seen me at many conferences you’ve probably realized that I wear the same outfits to most of them.  I like having a “uniform” and making things easy on myself that way–so I can focus on the content of the event and not on fretting about what I’m wearing to and from.  While I also get a lot of pleasure from looking nice when I travel, for me keeping things simple offers that, rather than worrying too much about the details of my clothing choices (and knowing that and being stress-free is more important to me than accessorizing).

5) Wear black and grey items with colored accessories.  It’s true that I probably wear too much black, but it’s so seductive when one is packing light–it not only doesn’t show roadgrime, but it can go from casual to classy just by changing a necklace or a scarf.  For example, one of my must-packs is a black knit dress like this one.  It can go from beach to opera house** depending on whether I wear tights or a belt or boots or chandelier earrings.  I can layer a long-sleeve tee underneath it for winter, too.  My black travel staples include the dress mentioned above, a tanktop, wash & wear dress-slacks, and a long-sleeve tshirt.

6) I try to make sure that every item I bring can be both dressed-up and dressed-down, particularly my bulky outerwear because I don’t want to bring along more than one coat or jacket.  For example, for winter I’ve got a hip-length grey wool peacoat that looks good with jeans and a t-shirt, as well as over a cocktail dress.  For fall weather I bring along an artsy-looking black velvet blazer with a bright-colored lining that can be worn with tailored clothes, casual, or dressy.

7) I wear one pair of shoes and pack another.  Usually I wear something more casual (i.e.  Cons) and pack a pair of black flats.  If it’s winter and I need to bring boots along, then I sacrifice a lot of suitcase real-estate to do so (it’s rarely worth it to me).

8) For me, going through TSA checkpoints can be a bit of a hassle (i.e. I always get the patdown), so I tend to wear as little clothing as possible for those encounters.  Usually that means a knit dress over leggings or a tank top with slacks or jeans.  That way, there’s no mystery about what I might be “hiding” under my clothes.  Most importantly, I carry the same bags every time I travel so I’m familiar with exactly what they look like and how they feel in my arms. So I can easily tell if I’ve forgotten anything, or left an item behind on the conveyor belt–even when my mind is preoccupied about whether I’ve got time for my flight transfers.  Also, I tend to wear socks when I travel because I don’t like the idea of walking barefoot through the TSA area (oh, and I also like going sock-footed while at my seat on the plane).  But maybe I’m just weird that way.

9) Have dual-purpose clothing.  I pack pajama pants that I can also wear to the gym, and a spandex tank-top that can be paired with a skirt for a night out, layered under a sweater for warmth, worn for a workout in the hotel fitness center, or also worn for a dip in the ocean/hotel swimming pool/WaldenPond.  I will confess that I’ve done all of those with the same tank-top in the same trip.  It works, and one can always rinse it out in the sink and let it dry overnight if one doesn’t want eau-du-pond lingering for the rest of your travel.

10) This is only tangentially clothing-related, but is so important to smooth travel, that it warrants being the capstone on this list.  Keep your travel documents in one place, and make that the same place in the same bag every time you travel.  I carry a file folder in my shoulder bag with my travel documents, including itineraries, reservation conformations, train passes, addresses/phone list, and conference schedules.  If I take a document out of that folder, I put it right back in as soon as I’m done.  I also use that same folder to collect receipts for travel reimbursement, or brochures from places that I visited.  If I’m having to jot down some important contact information for my trip on the fly (i.e. my hotel reservation was changed to a different place and I’m copying down an address for a cab driver), I’ll write it directly on the outside of the folder so it’s easy to find.  Then when I get home from the trip I put that folder into my file drawer for future reference.

And a bonus:
11) Streamline electronics.  In an ideal world I would bring my Canon 50d and my MacBook and my phone and e-reader along on every trip.  Instead, for freedom and mobility I allow myself one large (read: heavy) electronics item and I forgo the others.  For example, if I’m headed to Europe for pleasure, I’ll bring my nice camera and leave the laptop.  However, if I’m traveling domestically for work, I’ll probably leave both home unless I’m giving a conference talk and I need to present from my laptop (although Prezi for iPad might mean I no longer do that, soon enough).  I tend to bring my iPad (non-3G because I’m cheap like that) and iPhone on every trip now.  On the iPad I load guidebooks and layover-reading materials.  Given its longer battery life, it’s well-worth the weight of that in addition to my iPhone, which works better for mapping and communicating with fellow travelers or family members back home.

*one day last summer I spent time in three different countries with social obligations in each one that required changes of clothing.  Pulling that off has convinced me that traveling light and simple is the way to go–so I can enjoy the journey more and fret less.
**or to an on-the-spot cameo appearance in the LDS Conference Center
musee d'orsay

DH smoothies

SMOOTHIE!Awhile back, some twitter-friends and I had a bit of a go-round where we discussed why we drank a lot of smoothies.  The upshot was, that as busy as we are, smoothies tend to be the most efficient on-the-go calorie-disbursing mechanism for the active lifestyle of a digital humanist.

And although I’m a bit of a foodie and I love spending an evening putting together an artful “slow-food” meal, most mornings you’ll find me gulping down a high-protein smoothie as I’m checking email, getting the kids off to school, watering plants, exercising, feeding cats, etc.  Most mornings it seems that I simply don’t have time to chew my food.

I keep the following ingredients on hand, and simply throw them together as I’m feeling ‘inspired:’

whey-based protein powder (usually chocolate or vanilla-flavored)
bananas
fresh fruit in season (especially berries, but also including PEACHES, persimmons, etc)
frozen organic fruit
yogurt or kefir
almonds & almond milk
honey

On weekends I tend to make fancier, gourmet-ish breakfast, which might mean homemade crepes, scones, pastries, or oeuf cocotte. Another favorite is fresh farmer’s cheese drizzled with a bit of honey and with some fresh fruit & almonds mixed in. Yum!

So…what are you favorite healthy-ish on-the-go meals?  And if you do smoothies, what are your favorite ingredients?