Super Bon!

You must know the feelings — getting into ruts and escaping them.

Right now I’m going through one of those periods where I see a whole body of literature in a new light — a “a ha!’ moment. In this case it’s cybernetics and information theory and it all started because one of my RAs came across a reference to Shannon and Weaver in some work she was doing for me. Not like I’m going to start walking around arguing that we should adjust the inputs and outputs on my cat or anything (though come to think of it, maybe I should adjust the cat) (1), but it turns out that there’s a “there there” I hadn’t noticed before. And all this readed I did in a reading group a couple years ago on autopoesis is turning out to be quite useful. Currently, I’m reading a really cool history of Soviet Cybernetics called From Newspeak to Cyberspeak (by Slava Gerovitch) that’s got lots of good little tidbits in it and also suggests some interesting reading strategies for the American material given Gerovitch’s attention to language and official ideology — which I suppose is an essential part of writing the history of Soviet science. I’m filling in some gaps in my knowledge and going back over stuff. Yes, of course the material is really dry, but that’s half the fun. Anyway, I don’t feel like I’m expressing this well, but there’s just no high like the moment you see a new connection among ideas. At least if you’re a geek like me.

Musically, on the other hand, I find there’s just a center of gravity in indierock that I keep going back to. This is all spurred on by the fact that I just ordered (a couple days ago) the new EP by the Joy Circuit, who have members of a bunch of other bands I listened to in the 1990s. It’s like I’m following a social group with which I have no personal connection through their musical careers. Or something. Anyway, I find my ears keep wanting it. Yeah, the Lesbians on Ecstasy CD is also on order and will be enjoyable, but I think I’m waiting for the next big subgenre discovery. Either that, or I’ll give in and just roll with it. Guess I’m just not satisfied with my own satisfaction.

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1. For those who don’t know, Norbert Wiener’s Human Use of Human Beings has a whole discussion of the inputs and outputs of a kitten. When I read it, it’s kind of cute and creepy at the same time.

So, some people at McGill were running Norton Realtime and claimed that a virus and trojan horse were coming off my homepage at http://sterneworks.org/index.html . If you feel like doing me a favor, and you run Norton Realtime or some other similar software, stop by the index page and see if you get an error message. My hosting service claims that they scanned all the files in my directory and found nothing. For the sake of completeness, I’ve changed all the passwords. But I never got an error message in the first place.

Anyway, if you go there and do get an error, let me know. Otherwise, I will assume the problem is solved.

as in the show sold out before we got there. We got what we deserved for trying to do too many things in one evening and not getting out of the apartment soon enough. Still, it was a great evening between the party and getting Carrie her consolation prize — a smoked meat sandwich (lean) from Schwartz’s Deli. What does a vegetarian eat there, you ask? Not much, but I will say that their coleslaw was the best I’ve had in Montreal. Carrie’s been wanting to go there since we arrived and intimated that she was craving a sandwich as we drove by (1) on the way to the sold out show. The scene is priceless and at 11pm on a Friday, you can actually get a couple of seats.

About the Watch

It is a Czech pocket watch from 1904. The case is silver with an engraved floral pattern and might shine more with a little polish. I suspect the glass over the face has been replaced — it’s too perfect. But the thing runs beautifully. You have to wind up every day and then it makes this exquisite, quiet ticking sound — like timepieces are supposed to make. It’s also very well built, and the woman who sold it to my student said “this will work longer than you live.” I don’t doubt it. I’m not quite ready to take the plunge and start carrying around a pocket watch as an affectation, so I’ll have to figure out my proper relationship to it. But it is definitely very cool.

The Busy Season

is coming. Committee work is heating up and so is the guest lecture and conference circuit. Next weekend, it’s the conference on sensory display. And Lev Manovich is in town. The following weekend is Donna Haraway, except that Carrie and I screwed up and planned our trip to Florida a day earlier (it’s the classic “academic gives invited lecture and takes spouse along for the ride” scenario). I swear there is something every single weekend in March, and April has me travelling again, this time for my own invited lecture gigs and (hopefully) another dissertation defense in Pittsburgh. I guess it’s a good thing football season is ending because I’m going to be a man in need of my Sundays.

Blablablabla work work work work I’m so busy I’m so busy

Academic blogs. Yeesh. What did you expect? At least we’re having a few football fans over for the Super Bowl (2) this evening, and will serve a couple healthy foods (pineapple was on sale!) and a lot of less healthy football-type foods like nachos with perfectly plasticine “cheese” dip. Trust me, it’s excellent.

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1. Yes, we drove. the party was in Westmount (west, as its name suggested) and the show was up Main, so we thought we’d economize on time and cabfare by driving. Turns out it didn’t matter.We didn’t make the show AND scored a parking ticket because the nose of the car was a couple inches (sorry, a few CM) into a no-parking zone.

2. We tried to invite everyone who showed us an interest in football. If you have shown us an interest in football and not received an invite (and live in Montreal!), drop me a line about the event. As was our practice in Pittsburgh, we are only inviting people who actually like the game. The invite-everyone whiz-bang party will happen later.

After reading Michael Berube’s blog entry on uniform determinism, I have nothing to add on the subject of the Super Bowl, except of course, “Go Eagles!”

And now, I’m off to a party and then to catch a band whose very name will no doubt raise the rank of this lowly blog in search engines everywhere: Lesbians on Ecstasy.

I’m a February 2005 book of the month over at David Silver’s Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. That’s cool. Hope I didn’t overdo it with my author’s reply.

–back from Pittsburgh: mission accomplished, one more Dr. in the world.

–wondered at the majesty of Pittsburgh’s gothic beauty at dusk. Enjoyed seeing people.

–received very cool 1904 Czech silver pocket watch as a gift from said new doctor. Will blog about it shortly.

–used airplane rides to catch up on student prose and journal articles I’m supposed to read.

–realized that recent blog entries look like giant iPod ad. Am annoyed, don’t like Apple very much as a company.

–have had a string of really awesome intellectual conversations this week.

–enjoying sentence fragments.

More details anon — after I catch up and get my students their reading questions for Monday.