Erik Vorhes

Matthew Kirschenbaum: ‘Hamlet.doc? Literature in a Digital Age’

In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Kirschenbaum advocates for standardizing our methods of digital preservation. The whole thing is worth reading, but here’s a key passage:

While I don’t mean to minimize the very real challenges in the realm of digital preservation, in my view those challenges are best understood as at least as much social as technological.

Indeed.

—10:17 p.m.

30 beers for 30 years

It’s Zora’s birthday, and the FedEx guy just delivered two huge boxes. Are they awesome gifts for her? Not quite:

Special Delivery Instructions

This package contains ALCOHOL
Adult Signature Required—Check ID
Recipient Must be at least 21 years old

Do not deliver to an intoxicated person

Thanks, Kirstin for the awesome (late) birthday present!

Oh, and Zora had a very fun birthday.

—5:27 p.m.

Everything but the commonplace book

Welcome to the new Drasty Speche. The paint isn’t dry yet—and in one case, the room remains unfinished. I think you’ll like what you see, though. My course syllabi are better organized, and I have a useful means to keep track of various (public and private) projects that I’m working on. I’m no longer shackled by the blog-only structure of WordPress: I’ve been liberated by Django.

If you’re wondering what happened to all of my “blog” entries, they are on hiatus, as the title suggests. I’ll be adding them when I have time to get the appropriate database structure in place—by Christmas at the latest, I hope. (There are a few pieces of programming witchcraft that I don’t understand, and I have more urgent things to attend to than figuring them out right now!)

Here is some news:

• Zora’s first word is “Hi,” which she started tentatively using around July 19. Now she’s an old hand at it and loves especially to say it to people in restaurants. Other potential words in her vocabulary now include ball, dada, and mama, though this is mostly speculation.

• I’m teaching two classes this semester: Nature in Literature and the Core Writing Seminar. Their syllabi are available through the links to the right.

Although the commonplace book is blank (other than this entry), I’ll keep writing. And when I’ve actually got something working, you’ll read it here.

Oh, and something weird is going on with my unicode support, so if you encounter a server error, don’t be alarmed. I’m already on it.

PS Happy birthday, Zora!

—12:54 p.m.

Is Karl Rove interested in Old English Literature?

Let’s face it. I mean, I’m a myth, and they’re—you know, I’m Beowulf. You know, I’m Grendel. I don’t know who I am. But they’re after me.

Here’s a clue: If they’re after you, you’re Grendel. And I’m pretty sure Cheney is Grendel’s mother.

—9:37 p.m.

Zora likes Howie’s chicken

During her first official “Moe Posse” tour, Zora got her first taste of my uncle Howie’s cooking. And she loved it.

—11:11 p.m.