I occupy Study 30 at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. I requested it based on the recommendation of my friend Fred Turner, who had enjoyed it a couple years back and who said it doesn’t get too hot. Which it doesn’t. Then I looked at the list of previous residents of …
Author Archives: Jonathan Sterne
Sabbatical Rules
Which can of course be considered a complete sentence or a set of guidelines. Let me assent to the former and get on to the latter. I may add more latter. 1. Just because I’m blogging while on sabbatical doesn’t mean I have time to do work for other people that I didn’t have when …
Nouveau Sterneworks
I’ve been stealing a few minutes here and there since early summer to re-do my main website. It had been on textpattern, which is a not-all-that-well-supported CMS (that’s “content management system” for those not familiar with the jargon–it’s the software that runs your website for you and keeps everything in order). WordPress (which I use …
California Crazy
Shortly after our arrival in our new neighborhood, we went out to the car to find this envelope affixed to the windshield: Clearly someone had noticed the Quebec license plates. Inside was the following letter: Welcome to Silicon Valley, where everyone has a startup company and is an entrepreneurial genius.* Which means, of course, that …
And on the sabbath, he rested
My first semester as a professor was the fall of 1999. What I remember the most was the intensity. It was like a constant sprint except I didn’t always know where or why I was running. Then, sometime in October a Friday afternoon arrived when there wasn’t something I urgently had to do. I had …
Me in California, The Audible Past in Korean, and “The MP3 as Cultural Artifact” in Portuguese
As you read this, we (that’s Carrie, me and the cat) are airborne over North America, destined for our new temporary digs in Mountain View (and at Stanford). The last few weeks have been as “full time” as I can remember between work and socializing. It’s good to be back in “normal” but I’m definitely …
Good News, Fishing for Bad
Brazil was amazing, as expected. Rio is a very interesting and intense city, my hosts were wonderful, the experience was totally unforgettable and I hope to go back. My visa is good for 10 years. Yesterday I went to the radiation oncologist for followup. He pronounced me fine and said not to come back; and …