4th Year Russian, 3rd time around
April 2nd 2019I was 15 when the Cyrillic alphabet shifted from an exotic set of vaguely-familiar symbols to something I could read. After attending high school in Argentina for a summer as an exchange student (where I was first introduced to Harry Potter and his “piedra filosofal”)... read more
Towards a Taxonomy of Failure
January 30th 2019Introductory note: I intended this talk, given at the "On the Benefits of Failure" workshop at the University of Alberta in March 2018 (video available here), to be my "swan song" for engaging with DH... read more
Annotating geeky fashion (or, what I wore to DH 2014)
July 11th 2014I've never really thought of myself as fashionable in any sense-- I can count every pair of shoes I own on one hand, own no makeup at all, and pick up clothing staples at the local Goodwill on half-price days... read more
AcWriMo: a postmortem
December 2nd 2012AcWriMo completely failed to have the effect I'd hoped for, but I'm taking it as a sign of a positive change. One of the key axioms underlying life at UChicago is that you should always be working. I know people there who have hobbies that do not in any way relate to their professional careers... read more
AcWriMo
November 3rd 2012At the beginning of August, I moved from Chicago to Berkeley. It's been a wonderful change that has come with many upsides, including beautiful scenery, colorful local events, and other wonderful places just a short drive away... read more
Alternate uses for a Slavic degree: dummy content generator
July 10th 2012As I've announced elsewhere, Drupal for Humanists is launching today on its own domain. I wanted to make sure that there was at least one case study available before launch, complete with a downloadable database and file system... read more
Drupal book progress (or lack thereof)
June 26th 2012It's been about six months since Elijah Meeks and I kicked off our plan to write a book on Drupal for an audience of humanists, librarians, and higher-ed IT folks who support humanities research and teaching... read more
Scav hunt or Art? (a guessing game)
May 7th 2012When spring comes to the University of Chicago campus, there are two annual events that inject a certain whimsical randomness into my work week: Scav Hunt and FOTA (Festival of the Arts). In the last few years... read more
Please don't ask me for permission
February 10th 2012A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a blog post by Nina Paley, the cartoonist perhaps most famous for Sita Sings the Blues, that emphatically made the point that, with Creative Commons licenses, yes means yes... read more
Drupal for Humanists
January 26th 2012One question I continue to hear from digital humanists and higher ed IT folks is "what book should I pick up to learn Drupal?" I never have a particularly good answer-- not because there aren't any good books out there (I assume there are)... read more