That guy is aware of all Twitter traditions.
My barber was asking about using twitter to keep in touch with his customers. I was politely dismissive.
I'm less embarrassed by that exchange reading it in this format than when it was taking place.
I don't see why that guy was complaining about dick jokes on twitter. You can't put dick jokes on Facebook because much older relatives are on it.
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100 Greatest Non-fiction books
vs
Comments on NYT list at Cowen's:
"Looks like all the great books were written in the second half of the twentieth century. Must have been some really great years."
"Uh, maybe you hadn't heard - Joan Didion, Malcolm Gladwell, Eric Schlosser, Erik Larson, David Foster Wallace and Stephen King are among the most important nonfiction writers in human history."
"The NYT list illustrates one of the great advantages of classical homeschooling: an education that isn't overwhelmingly focused on recent history and letters. They may learn ridiculous biology, but at least they know who Tacitus was."
I was impressed by the Guardian list and depressed by the Times list. America.
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I feel like every conversation I have with a Twitter person goes pretty much like this. Don't you want to focus on relentless self-marketing disguised as content in short-form adverts of your totally well-adjusted and not-at-all grotesque "social" image such that everyone wants a piece of you? No, actually, I'm doing fine, and actually have social relationships with people I like rather than people I want something from. It's creepy.
That guy is aware of all Twitter traditions.
I liked the bits contrasting "fuddy-duddy disciplines" with the superfantastic world of "Digital Humanities", where Twitter allegedly can improve your chances on the TT job market.
To be honest I can half-believe the latter part, but only as the latest manifestation of an insanely oversupplied job market which has led both to high expectations for candidates' CVs but also forms of academic fashion-following which are more than usually tightly-coupled to aspects of the candidates' personalities or style or general sex-appeal.
God what a troll. "Surely you jest, ...", "Do you think there's a connection between that and your struggles to find a job?", "I love how white the people you follow are ... Couldn't hurt to diversify your stream! ;-)", "Our conversation needn't be acrimonious. I'm genuinely interested in his POV".
OT-non twitter oldfashioned consumer question: My parents recently offered to get me a new food processor to replace my hand me down 35 year old original cuisnart which has issues e.g. top no longer locks and can start spontaneously if you don't remember to unplug it before you reach in. I'm thinking 9-12 cups, and debating between the 'Prep' and 'Elite' lines. Anybody with opinions?
The one digital humanities type I used to follow on twitter was certainly quite prolific in his/her tweeting about digital humanities type stuff, which is a large part of the reason I no longer follow the person in question.
10: I had the good old "Pro Classic" for nearly 20 years, before handing it off to CA's mum and getting the new release of the same thing. It, its motor, its bits and pieces all worked (and continue to work) perfectly. This is no help to you!
8: That may be the clearest sign of that type of trolling -- the whiplash transitions between very hostile, inflammatory stuff and the "I'm a reasonable person who just wants to exchange ideas." Someone can be an asshole and be worth engaging with if they're just like that, but someone who's being an asshole and then asking what you're so tense about is doing it on purpose.
10: I have had this one for the last 4 years and it's served me well, though a few pieces are beginning to get a little sticky. It's quite possible that that is because of occasionally using it for inappropriate tasks. I've found that if you are patient you can generally get one of these on super sale - mine cost about $125.
I also got as a gift a baby Elite food processor and I really like that line. It seems a bit better designed in terms of the locking blade and bowl mechanics.
(I'm wondering if someone will pop in with the obligatory "just get a mortar and pestle and a good knife!" comment, which must be said when any discussion of food processors comes up.)
16: There was, honest to dog, a post on Lifehacker averring that one of the most useful tools for any kitchen was a big rock with which to smash things.
16 Spoken by people who have either never used a mortar and pestle or never used a food processor. I made pesto once the old fashion way. It was a bit different, a nice change, and I guess good exercise. I'm never doing it again.
17: The other day I realized I have nothing with which to smash things (I needed to bash some lemon grass) and immediately turned to my rock collection.
Random thought from 20 continued: I guess I used to use my rolling pin for that sort of things, but I have the sort that rolls and it's hard to get a good grip.
And good lord, my writing is going downhill. Proofread, Paren, proofread!
21, 22: It would be a very odd rolling pin indeed that didn't roll.
23: I know! I meant, spins, like on those little handle-thingies!
23: I know! I meant, spins, like on those little handle-thingies!
12: Zomg. Beyond self-parody. Into some new, hitherto unexplored region of the Rectal Sector.
12 is awesome. Only the biggest baddest mofos can hang in Twittah!
I agree with LB -- the people who are just abrasive are fine. It's the people who are abrasive and then turn around and play "niceness police" who are truly intolerable.
That hanging with the big dogs remark puzzles me.
You were arguing with Bill Clinton?
29: He is clearly a "big dog." You, just as clearly, "couldn't hang." What's to be confused about?
I love how this guy thinks having a frequently-updated chronicle of his aggressive assholishness is going to help him on the job market. Good luck with that, dude.
Following up on AWB's point: tons of people read blogs without either having their own blog or else without aggressively promoting it. They just like what other people write.
Why would it be so obviously insane or self-undermining to take a similar attitude toward Twitter? There are some really clever quips being made on Twitter that probably never would've been made in other formats, or at least not made accessible (i.e., beyond the immediate circle of people getting drinks with the clever person that night). Plus Twitter is picking up the slack in terms of sending good links, which blogs don't really focus on anymore.
That is to say, the internet can be used for things other than relentless self-promotion!
On the other hand, Unfogged never got me a job either.
34 Aren't you employed at a job you've been at less than nine years? Maybe you got it due to your colleagues' awe at your unfogged comments.
Colleagues who were completely unimpressed by any work-product or internet activity under your real name, mind you.
33.last: Porn? With an attitude like that, no wonder you're unemployed.
Wow, he's really on a roll.
Going for the subtle Charlie Sheen reference there, you think?
Half a league, Half a league, Half a league, Onward! But please be assured that genuinely interested in having a serious exchange.
41: Oh, now that's just becoming pathetic. The guy needs to walk away.
What the heck is an @storify?
What the heck is an @storify?
In its merely technical aspect, perhaps a tool that arranges related Twitter posts in the form of a conversation or narrative, for ease of reading. In its rather more exciting Digitally Humanistic aspect, however, I imagine and altogether more radical re/figuring of narrative form revolutionized for our crowd-sourced, multivalent, polyvocal digital age, yet also expressive of that deep-rooted, ineradicable human need for stories. The Undergraduate Dean's Office and the Teaching Award people lap that shit up, let me tell you.
an[...] altogether more radical re/figuring of narrative form revolutionized for our crowd-sourced, multivalent, polyvocal digital age, yet also expressive of that deep-rooted, ineradicable human need for stories
My cousin's working on some shit like that, and she just got a TT (or at least permanent?) job, so there you go.
Honestly, I think I need an intervention, as Mr Lifehacker, ABD, tweets at his antagonists, repeatedly dismissing them as "a bunch of nerds".
and she just got a TT (or at least permanent?) job, so there you go
Hey, I said the Deans love it.
Wait, in what country is this job? "TT (or at least permanent?)" is throwing me off.
43: Sounds awesome, man.
But ... doesn't the link Ben shared in the OP provide the story of the exchange? Or is it that we need the subsequent gossip about it to be incorporated into the storyfication as well?
On preview, to the "intervention" link in 45: What the heck is a "stan"? I'll never get the hang of this.
47: this country. I assume it's TT, but her mother described it as "permanent". The job may only include the instruction of advanced degree candidates, and much of the program is done via distance learning. So, I have no idea how they do things when it comes to institutions like tenure.
Why is it asserted that we stans couldn't have read what transpired from the beginning?
Because our twitter profiles are empty?
Maybe they don't know how to use, or access, or whatever, twitter.
If the second definition of "stan" on Urban Dictionary is to be understood as the standard Twitter usage, I would take issue with it as a descriptor.
In my mind 'stan'= some middle of nowhere place in Asia where Borat comes from. I guess that means we're a bunch of nomadic sheepherders.
"TT (or at least permanent?)"
#alt-ac, maybe.
This whole conversation is a pretty good example of why the use of real names does not inherently create better conversations. Doesn't reflect very well on digital humanities people either, but he's an outlier. Hopefully.
I have managed to see that one, er, nosflow called him a moron, but I'm not sure I'm inclined to investigate further.
So, I tried to set up a twitter account and accidentally forgot my password between the sign up and the confirmation.
#alt-ac, maybe.
I got a spasm when I saw that octothorpe, fa.
Stans and Deans: Both overly credulous celebrators of an altogether more radical re/figuring of narrative form revolutionized for our crowd-sourced, multivalent, polyvocal 'net-surfing digital age, yet also expressive of that deep-rooted, ineradicable human need for puns.
This certainly isn't offensive (via).
Creators don't know what to do either, but they act anyway. That is certainly brilliant on their part.
Enough of this.
The obvious question is what seduction strategies forum he's part of.
I'm logged into twitter now. Now I just have to figure out how to succeed in business or penis photography.
I can't wait for the Twitter 11 to play the Facebook 11. It will be long, boring & without any score until well into over-time. The bonus is though that it the over-time is played following Sudden Death, taken as literally as possible.
teraz, AWB has the Prep. I think that others were recommending the Elite when I was looking (and never bought). Biohazard recommended going with the midprice range, because after that it was just gimmicks.
66: hah, wow. It wouldn't have occured to me that there was anybody in the world embarrassing enough to describe themselves as a "techno-prophet". Sure is a big internet.
In the future, everyone will be a techno-prophet.
You're all just jelz. And I call your hanging skills into question!
(Seriously, it is amazing to me how not-mortified this fellow seems to be.)
All of the self-descriptions in the link in 66 can be replaced by 'penis' with no loss. It is hard to believe it's not satire, but then again, Nathan Barley was satire and yet now the world is full of them.
He can't be a "sensual philosopher"! I'm a sensual philosopher!
All of the self-descriptions in the link in 66 can be replaced by 'penis' with no loss.
"Intellectually mobile penis, scene-penis, systems penis, obstinate penis, techno-penis, sensual penis, courteous penis, close penis, gentle penis, sound penis, adviser penis, pedant and slick conceptual penis, and devoted fan of the penis, undrab and surprising penis."
Hm, you seem to be correct.
Intellectually mobile penis, scene-penis, systems penis, obstinate penis, techno-penis, sensual penis, courteous penis, close penis, gentle penis, sound penis, adviser penis, pedant and slick conceptual penis, and devoted fan of the penis, undrab and surprising penis.
New rollover text?
Nearly 2x what can fit in a tweet. How Facebookian.
Somehow from the name I assumed that Nathan Barley would involve more villagers and fertility rituals.
I suspect Matt Thomas works for I suspect Matt Thomas works for Elephant Dungeon Enterprises (itself a spinoff of Flytrap Media, which is actually a subsidiary to Cranky Lesbian Digital).
I say, why, I say I have no idea how I did that.
78: Na'/than Bar'/ley must die.
I am continuously suspect of people who primarily use social media in order to study the effects of social media. What can you possibly know about how it works if you're using it to talk about how it works all the time? Like, I'm going to learn how blogs work by writing a blog about how blogs work.
In the future, everyone will be a techno-prophet for 15 minutes.
83: It'd be like a book about books!
I studied all about the colon, but I never understood bowel movements until I had one myself.
85: It would be like researching what books are by writing a book about books without having read any books! And in your book, you'd mock the existence of books that, unlike your book, have content related to other books.
My point is that I do think there is something to be said about Facebook, Twitter, blogs, what have you, but these things seem rarely to be said by people who are actually immersed and invested in these media, except as a means of promoting their own participation in these media.
Dudes. There are people on bookselling discussion lists trying to tell everybody that you can and should use Twitter and Facebook to sell books.
Really? How does that work?
I have no idea. I don't have anybody following my tweets so I'm making them all about life hacking.
To be fair, it could work if you're a specialist dealer. Not so much Twitter, but Facebook.
What the fuck is life hacking, anyway?
#87: so not wholly unlike Tristram Shandy then?
What the fuck is life hacking, anyway?
Lists, mostly. Shitloads of lists about shit.
And making surprisingly bulky fire-starting equipment even though there will almost never be a time when a less complicated, less heavy, smaller alternative won't be available. Can't forget that.
I bookmarked that one for when my son gets a bit older. It is stupid for almost every purpose but impressing a child or lifehacker.
BTW, how old should a child when you teach them to make a fire? Nine?
There's lots of "hack" spinoffs for academics too: profhacker, gradhacker, etc.
That's about when I started to light fires, yes.
I don't think I was ever really taught how to make fires. Strange, we had a fireplace in our last house in the US, and I did a ton of camping.
Supervision. My parents' house had an absolutely terrifying gas-starting fireplace that involved reaching into the fireplace to turn a knob to release the gas. That was considered a good job for careful children. (Maybe not seven. Maybe a littler older. But not much.)
A friend and I did occasionally start them, usually on wooden house building sites in the middle of the woods, using the building materials which we also stole to build our own hideouts.
105 Not so fond memories of living in apartments in Poland with non-automatic gas ovens. Woooosshhh!
97: Mr. Gurste//e is actually pretty awesome, although admittedly, fire-pistons might not be the best way to illuminate his brilliance.
Children who are too stupid not to have learned how to start their own fires by age 9 were traditionally left out for the leopards to eat, back on the veldt.
107.---Admittedly, this may have played a role in my having decided, as a 20-something, that it would be a good idea to install a gas oven myself. "I'll just test the connection by first lighting a match far away..."
The battery/steel wool was my favorite pointless fire lighting technique. I can imaging having a battery and no matches, but I can't figure out how steel wool was something more likely to be on hand than a match.
109: Did you eventually get the gas connected?
I believe the preferred nomenclature may be "twaps", actually.
For "twitter spats" it's "twats", surely.
I can't figure out how steel wool was something more likely to be on hand than a match.
If you've got a broken-down vehicle handy, you'll have both a battery and lots of wiring that you can pull apart to get little bits of wire to lay across the terminals.
But then, if you have a vehicle handy, you should really just mix a bit of antifreeze with some potassium permanganate and stand well back. It combusts vigorously and spontaneously on contact and makes a lovely purple flame.
http://www.amazon.com/BBQ-Fan-and-Fire-Starter/dp/B001LJE9AQ
This sort of thing - a hand-cranked fan - is terrific if you make a habit of cooking over fires made from damp wood.
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Unfogged East requests London meet-up thread! Mondays are out for Ttam. Most days are fine for me.
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Seconded. And yes, most days good for me except Mondays.
>
Currently I can't do Tuesdays or Fridays. I should find out when Chris is in London (as he seems to be in town at least once a week for a meeting of some kind) and make him come too.
This sort of thing - a hand-cranked fan - is terrific if you make a habit of cooking over fires made from damp wood.
This reminds me of being a scout. If you're up a hill in Yorkshire you tend to face this problem regularly. There is something incredibly depressing about roasting your wood supply over whatever pathetic, smoking fire you've finally managed to make in order to dry it out.
A hand-cranked fan would indeed have been handy, and I'm kinda surprised we never tried to invent one as far as I remember.
Everyone has them in China, apparently. They are scarily effective - you can get a roaring blaze out of sodden rhododendron branches in mere seconds.
117: But I was told Match was in China? I'm so confused.
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Unfogged East London meet-up call reiteration! no good Mon, Tue, Fri.
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118: I almost added "as M/tch would no doubt be the first to confirm".
119: Thu?
Thursday (23rd?) sounds good. How about the Dovetail, Jerusalem Passage? Belgian beers, reasonable food, and normally not too crowded.
Could we make it 30th? Dovetail sounds nice.
The only reason nobody has put up a front page post about the UK meetup is because racism.
Or I can't read. Lucky I intentionally made that comment sound stupid.
I was about to say, sheesh, UK commenters. Someone goes to all the trouble to make a special place, just for them, and they still continue to colonize the other threads. Can't shake the imperial impulse, I guess.
23rd and 30th are both OK, I think. This should probably go in the special thread. 30th is the big strike, innit?
Do the publicans close for a strike?
Entirely up to them.
30th is open for me. 23rd could be.
Re 128
Some public sector unions and some of the education unions. So quite a few people. Not a general strike though, by any means.
I thought we were just enjoying being a bit rebellious. The Man can't tell us where we can talk about stuff!
Oh yeah, strike. That's not including public transport, is it?
(There was a complete London public transport strike the day of one of my Chemistry A level papers. I usually got the train in from the suburbs, so stayed at a friend's in Bloomsbury and we walked to school. Lots of people stayed at school the night before.)
I don't think the RMT is out. So transport should be ok. RMT are out on the 29th though, so don't know if that'll be fully over.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13791255
Did you eventually get the gas connected?
Yes! Although it remained a somewhat terrifying oven and left a spume of soot across the kitchen wall that was a bitch to clean. Added terror-factoid: we had found the oven on the street.
I didn't tell my mother about this episode until ten years afterwards.
we had found the oven on the street
At least the fireball probably incinerated any lingering bed bugs.
Speaking of lingering bugs, does picking up a bird feather sound infectious?
136: Only if you start to see a bunch of other people also picking up that bird feather.
Bird flu? Anyway, it is a huge feather about eight inches long, counting the bare quill part. C wants to make a pen.
I have no idea. I was making a dumb joke based on one possible reading of "infectious".
Speaking of twitter, I stopped following saiselgy because even in bunches of 140 characters it was just too much.
"Picking up a bird feather" is no "cellar door".
Take it to the place with the goggles and get it irradiated.
30th fine for me; 23rd slightly less sure...
I can do either, although 23rd is now getting quite close.
Can't do 30th - I will actually be in east Asia, restocking on anecdotes.
Actually can't do 23rd either. You guys go ahead.
oh holy fuck i never ever want to feel another fucking aftershock ever in my life again.
Much broken? This seems to be going on and on.
Yeah, everything is fine. It is just that I am sick to fucking death of a university that is shut every two weeks, a library that hasn't been open properly in seven months, power that goes out at the drop of a hat etc etc.
I dunno. I hate complaining, my life is pretty good. There were people who died in piles of rubble five kilometres from my house. I am alive and so on and so on; I am alive enough to be really fucking angry at having to learn about writs of novel disseisin for an exam I didn't even mention English legal history in.
I mean, there are people I know who will find out if they have exams at nine in the morning tomorrow at seven thirty tomorrow morning. It is awful, and that isn't even a big problem in the scheme of things.
And I'm sure it's not just the immediate problems, but that every time there's a new aftershock, it brings everything that happened in the original earthquake back into the present. That's got to be stressful as anything.
Yes. It is horrible to feel the earth move and think: did anyone die this time? How many homes without power now? And so on. But fuck this.
(But seriously, I know a great deal about courts of chancery and common law and the various legal fictions used to avoid various issues in the courts of early modern England, and I will never ever use that knowledge, and it makes me annoyed.)
(We've had several 5 point somethings on the richter scale in the last fortnight, all centred within a dozen km or so. Tonight we got another 5.3)
153: "it brings everything that happened in the original earthquake back into the present"
STAY AWAY FROM EARTHQUAKES PEOPLE, THEY WILL SCREW UP YOUR TRAVEL PLANS BIG TIME
154; you never know, I actually ended up once dealing with a base fee / fee tail situation*. Also my old boss reckoned only lawyers could properly understand certain taxes because accountants didn't really grok beneficial ownership. But no idea what your future plans are.
*this at the time could still arise in
Ireland but not England&Wales.
