Wool & Words

I've been marinating in reading for my comps, frantically trying to take in as much of my Humanities Computing list as I can. This focused reading has made me realize the following:

1. I love this stuff. I love thinking about it. I love dreaming about the textual editing possibilites created by the advent of technology. I am exhilarated by the ways in which this environment has challenged my pedagogy and my own writing processes. I am awed by the productivity of professionals in the field who have amassed collections of electronic textual representations that span the course of an author's career, moment in history, production...it's just jaw-dropping.

2. I am highly averse to convoluted, poorly written/stated theoretical positions. I want to read engaging, conversant, and inspirational discussions of the variety of theoretical positions one can adopt in the computing environment. While I value Foucault's/Bentham's Pantopticon, for example, I'd like to read/see/hear a model of it that gives me a sense of what it's really all about; I want a concrete experience of theoretical ideas. I think or I can at least hope that I can get that here.

3. I love reading. I'm having a great time just hanging out with these texts and responding in the margins, in my electronic notes, in my head, out loud...yes, some of them are dead, and none of them are in my living room, but when I read something engaging (and sometimes when it's not engaging reading) I feel like chatting with the author.

4. I should have knuckled down like this a long time ago. I think I got so scared of the volume of reading that was required of me that I froze into inactivity. What was I thinking?

So I'm reading fast and furious. What has that done to my knitting?

Well, it's made me shift some focus. I'm only working now on projects that don't require complicated patterns and that are generally knit in the round. I'm still plugging away on the spiral blankie (I think I'll be ready to cast off next weekend) and I've changed the Homespun Cardi to a Homespun pullover...using EZ's percentage system cause I just can't bring myself to consider flat knitting right now. Just mindless round and round.

Oh, and the Pippis. Can't forget the Pippis.

Pics (I hope) tomorrow when I've had a chance to take some. For now, I'm going to curl up with a good book and a glass of wine.