Today (June 9th 2010) marked the start of the 9th International Pynchon Week conference, a biennial event that, this time around, is hosted in Poland at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin. Having attended today's proceedings, I thought I'd put a few thoughts about the event so far online. 09:45-11:15 Session I

30575816-Columbia-University-Press-Catalog-Fall-2010.pdf (6182 KB) According to the Columbia University Press Fall Catalogue, there is a nice treat on it's way for DFW fans! Fate, Time, and Language An Essay on Free Will David Foster Wallace The late novelist's legendary, unpublished work reveals the philosophical foundations of his celebrated fiction.

I have just upgraded my work machine (laptop) to Kubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.4) and have to say that I was mightily impressed with the ease of upgrade; 99% flawless. The one area where I did experience some difficulty was in running Zotero: Zotero Integration Error blared at me whenever I tried to add a citation. Fortunately, I had encountered this before and knew it was a problem regarding OpenJDK and IceTea.

So, it transpires that the Oxford University Students Union have had their freedom of information request rejected on the grounds that it is scheduled to be published. The exact wording reads: "I am therefore satisfied it is in the public's interest to withhold this information until it is published by the Russell Group." This is slightly troubling.

The code on this page iterates over Facebook profile IDs, employing the CSS History Hack to determine whether each profile has been visited by you. Much of this work is indebted to Jeremiah Grossman and Robert Hansen.

Once and for all we have caught it: the ingredients for the most perfect teatime moment. We want to present it to you, to re-construct it for you exactly, precisely and then hold onto it, maintain it. We want to rest in a limbo of loveliness where there are no raised voices and we are cocooned in a blanket of sugar. We've got it all worked out. Timed to perfection. Expect high standards: No stray hairs or words.

2009-03-12 - Arts and Humanities Research Council Funding Application.docx (18 KB) Applying for a Block Grant Partnership Doctoral grant from the AHRC can be a daunting procedure. I was extremely fortunate to have succeeded in this area and, while I don't by any means think that my word is therefore the be-all and end-all, I thought I would share the tips that served me well.

I wanted to write a blog post today containing a tip that I employ for structuring long pieces of academic prose. One of the main difficulties that people encounter is sticking to a structure, avoiding digression and spatialising their work. However, most word processors (MS Word and OpenOffice) include all the tools necessary to automate this process. How?

After the Vitae Digital Researcher workshop at the British Library, I decided to ramp up my web presence to a slightly more professional level than it had previously obtained. Having also decided that it would be nice to take a bit of a break this weekend, I went ahead and implemented COinS on my main web page.

One of the long running debates regarding the British Library reading rooms has resurfaced this week. Upon entering the library this morning I was handed a letter of invitation to the Reader's Committee (or similarly titled initiative); it's self-purported goal, to discuss requirements of readers at the BL that have gone unheeded by management. Several of these items are, indeed, worthy of discussion.

The abstracts for International Pynchon Week 2010 are now online! Of course, I would thoroughly recommend my own paper, which will focus on terrorism and the Cold War in Pynchon's Against the Day and Don DeLillo's Underworld . In the interests of blatant self-promotion, I cite the abstract here: However, I would be doing a disservice if I didn't recommend my illustrious peers who will also be at the event.