The Daily Len http://len.diversionary.net/ en Copyright 2008 Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:30:41 +0700 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Birthday Gifts So many people have asked me lately what I'd like for my birthday - which bodes quite well for the loot, now that I think of it! - that I've decided to refer them all to this list. It contains some helpful ideas on the kind of consumer goods that would make my life better were you to purchse them for me. Because clearly gifts should be incorporated wherever possible into the cash economy, no? I've also helpfully listed the amount of love each item will buy you, ascending from "hugs" to ... well, let's just say you won't be going home the night of the party. Ahem.

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/10/birthday-gifts.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/10/birthday-gifts.html Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:30:41 +0700 Remember, Remember the Fourth of November VforVinvite.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/09/remember-rememb-1.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/09/remember-rememb-1.html Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:05:21 +0700 Gay Marriage: An Incitement to Poor Argumentation I have an automatic search engine in my consciousness that highlights anything in the media about gay marriage, and was keenly anticipating this week's episode of "Insight"http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/ on SBS - Australia's multicultural broadcaster. While I'm delighted to see such issues being broached in the media, I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the way the debate - if I can call it that - was handled. For example, one participant on the panel

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/05/gay-marriage.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/05/gay-marriage.html Thu, 18 May 2006 12:14:24 +0700 April At the risk of appearing pretentious, I was reminded today of how great T.S. Eliot's poetry is when I visited Jeanette Winterson's website (www.jeanettewinterson.com). She's the author I'm trying to write a thesis on at the moment, and her work is rife with allusions to Eliot. This month she suggests we read the opening bit of The Wasteland. I bought a copy of his essays the other day, so he's very much on my mind at the moment. Let me know what you think (I'm very keen on deconstructive readings, if anyone feels the urge).

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/april.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/april.html Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:39:46 +0700 Instances of cuteness in an otherwise humdrum day Image008.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/instances-of-cu-1.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/instances-of-cu-1.html Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:21:01 +0700 Earn your degree - from the back seat of your car! optn=1.gif

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/earn-your-degre.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/04/earn-your-degre.html Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:09:05 +0700 New Year, New Kitten 100_2273.JPG

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2006/03/new-year-new-ki.html http://len.diversionary.net/2006/03/new-year-new-ki.html Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:39:46 +0700 Welcome to WIP 2006 The theme for this year's Work in Progress seminars is "get in early." If you've got something you're working on - be it a paper, Ph.D, postdoctoral work, unsubstantiated ranting, whatever - please get in touch. Ideally we'd like to do something every two weeks, which means 20 or so slots to fill, leaving room for a break over the New Year. I'll be sending out periodic (and by this I mean frequent) reminders of varying degrees of annoyingness, depending on how many positive responses we get. Failing that, I'm going to start cold-calling the people I've got numbers for.

So there's no excuse, really. Happy festive season to all.

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/welcome-to-wip.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/welcome-to-wip.html Tue, 22 Nov 2005 21:12:41 +0700 Two Houses, alike in Dignity I don't have any actual content for this section yet, other than to state my amazement at Wednesday's double feature of the medico-detective show House. So it's basically a vehicle for the Shakespearean wordplay in the title, which came to me in the shower this morning - along with some icky grouty stuff. I feel that, having exhausted vast time working on character in the first part of the season, the show's moving into a new terrain of narrative experimentation ... complete with crazy time compression and everything! I'm a little slow with pop culture references that were broadcast before say, about 1992, having grown up in a small African dictatorship (please see forthcoming entries on Zimbabwe), so I was amazed to discover that Hugh Laurie - star of House - also featured prominently in Blackadder, which I've always been a fan of from a respectful distance.

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/two-houses-alik.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/two-houses-alik.html Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:06:43 +0700 When Fictional Universes Collide DSC_0494.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/when-fictional.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/when-fictional.html Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:19:59 +0700 Nobody Will Ever Know What She was Looking At DSC_0470.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/nobody-will-eve.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/11/nobody-will-eve.html Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:11:53 +0700 Mud Map montessorimap.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/mud-map.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/mud-map.html Lenorama 2005 Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:30:46 +0700 Lenorama Gift Suggestions OK, I should start by saying gifts are by no means required, but for those of you who've expressed interest in purchasing me something, I've listed a few ideas. They're ranked in order of how much I will love you if you get me the item.

(1) J.M. Coetzee's "Slow Man" (it's a novel)
(2) Franz Ferdinand's new album
(3) Salman Rushdie's new book - "Shalimar the Crown"
(4) Brett Easton Ellis's "Lunar Park" (continuing in the new novel theme)
(5) Any Eddie Izzard DVD
(6) "Planet Simpson" by Chris Turner (a really cool-sounding critical book on The Simpsons)
(7) Eric Idle's "Greedy Bastard Diary"
(8) Sundry alcoholic beverages - Little Creatures pilsener and Bailey's Irish Cream are good here.
(9) "What the Bleep Do We Know?" DVD
(10) Poetry (this one's for you, Bel)
(11) Anything you think would help someone who's moving out soon and has never lived out of home before to survive in the cold, cold world - muffin pans, cutlery, caviar dishes, whatever. I don't know . . .
(12) If anyone can find a feline IQ test somewhere, I'd be really grateful. I'm convinced my cat is gifted, and yearn for empirical evidence to back this up.
(13) Jarred Diamond's book entitled "Collapse."
(14) Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/lenorama-gift-s.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/lenorama-gift-s.html Lenorama 2005 Thu, 20 Oct 2005 23:20:39 +0700 Lenorama 2005 RSVP's Last year's trial 'birthday' was so successful - what with people remembering, and giving me gifts and stuff - that I've decided to have another one! Which is why most of you will have been approached either electronically or in person with a little flyer inviting you to hang out for all or part of the 29th of October with me, dressed a your favourite science fiction character. Drop me a oneliner by commenting below if you're coming; or even if you're not - the site really needs the traffic.

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/lenorama-2005-r.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/lenorama-2005-r.html Lenorama 2005 Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:53:08 +0700 I Don't Want to Live in a World where this Ever Stops Being Funny schrodingerscat.jpg

]]> http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/i-dont-want-to.html http://len.diversionary.net/2005/10/i-dont-want-to.html Sun, 09 Oct 2005 13:04:21 +0700