• The Big Lie about the ‘Life of The Mind’ – Article in a US Universities website about the effectiveness of postgraduate humanities education in the job market, and employment as a humanities graduate within universities.
• Wanted: Really Smart Suckers – In the US university system, there seems to be a tradition of employing graduate students as teachers of undergraduates. I’ve not come across this as much in the UK, but this might be because of the institutions and subjects that I’ve studied at/of. This article inspects the way that the postgraduate community is used.
• The Last Professors – blogpost from a left-wing perspective about the end of the American usage of ‘professor’, as inspired by the book by Frank Donoghue.
• Waiting 20 Years for Tenure – A personal account of one individuals life as a travelling lecturer. I know a number of people in a similar position, except I doubt that most of my friends expected to become “house” staff.
• Review of the Last Professors book – Another look at the Frank Donoghue book

From my time in academia, I’d say that there is a real focus on money-earning activities in the UK, and this is corroborated by what happened to the Middlesex Philosophy department, which closed down recently. Perhaps my view is different from the norm, as I’ve mostly been in Fine Art departments (a subject matter that is perennially squeezed by it’s budget and the material requirements of it’s students), but I’d say that in the overwhelmingly capitalistic society of today, academia’s notions of knowledge and learning were bound to be a casualty.

I will not be given any money from the benefits agency and I will have to pay to go back to university.

I got these two pieces of news today, when I seem to be suffering from one of the worst bouts of fatigue in a long time. Funny thing about fatigue: it sort of sneaks up on you. You can think you’re fine, until you try and make sense of the wardrobe options in B&Q, and then you realise that you’re too tired to move properly and end up in a Cafe Nero in St Neots, licking chocolate tortina from off the wrapper because it’s half term and the manager is at home looking after the kids so some sixth-formers who work there forgot to put anything in the chiller.

Unless I suddenly start to be able to pull money out of my butt, it looks like I’ll be staying in Bedfordshire for a little while longer. Actually, pulling money out of my butt sounds like an updating of fairy gold (or, possibly, a term used in the porn industry). I think we can all guess what magic butt-money turns into at sunrise.

Turns out I almost broke my knee over the summer. I was a few degrees off snapping the bone, but I managed to bounce at the right point and ended up with a very long recuperation period. I’ve got a bunch of physio exercises that I need to do every day, which take somewhere around an hour.

The unexpected part of it – for me – was that I kept thinking I was going to be completely recovered the next day/week/month, and it’s only been recently that I’ve had to accept that I’m going to be having a weird-feeling knee for the conceivable future. And what’s brought that on is the cold season, because it turns out my recuperated knee is a ‘weathervane’ (as one of my friends put it) in that it reacts pretty dang well to a change in the temperature.

So; remember this?

At this point (five days in?), some strange radiating hatred for the written word fills my body and I no longer wish to type, or be part of civilisation. Let’s descend into stygian depths and hit things with bone cudgels made from the thighs of our ancestors rather than pretend that todays academia is based on a modern-day version of Confuscian ideals.

Well, I got my funding from the AHRC and that meant that I could go back to university. I’m studying the Digital Media Mres at Newcastle Universities Culture Lab. This is a huge change for me, and it means I’ve got a really burstingly busy year.

So far, my own assesment of my integration with academia would be ‘not great’. Having been as self-reliant as possible for the past few years, the fact that there is now a big organisation in town I can tap for help is something I have yet to adjust to. Moreover, as my first deadline looms, I’ve yet to adjust to the idea of no longer being a free agent and actually having to, y’know, do stuff.

(Some of this attitude I blame on my previous alma mater, which was not very testing in an academic sense, but it’s also got to be said that this is the first course where I don’t just grok the material straight off. Which is interesting, but actually having to do work is something I’m not accustomed to.)

And so, between the studying and the exercising, I find myself slowly becoming a busy person, where parts of my day are filled up. I can no longer sit and ponder the day away as I used to, but instead I have to plug away at projects which require a static, final end product, and I’m adjusting. Slowly.

Next time I get the chance to write an entry, I’ll tell you how those adjustments are working out in a practical sense. Or, if you are interested, you can jump over to my new, professional, website, at http://unnamedlaboratory.org/

• I’m thinking of re-organising the site a bit more than it is already. I was hoping to make some more writing out of my fascination with bicycles, but honestly, it’s just not happening.
• Actually, I’ve been off my bike for a while. My health has been a little shakey after what happened around the turn of the year, but I’m starting to feel a lot better, and I’m looking forward to doing some big rides this year.
• I’m also getting a studio, which means that I’ll be doing some more creative stuff. In turn, this means I’ll have to talk about my retirement – ha ha, new content!
• I know Topsy hates it when I just post words up, so here’s some pictures I took recently.
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• I meant to give them their own blogpost, but let’s just keep things moving, shall we?
• I just attended some talks by Hans Abbing, which were totally fascinating. Not only that, but Hans himself was a really nice guy, and I enjoyed getting the chance to hang out with him for a short while. His work on the economy of the arts is something that really inspired me, and still does, and meeting him has encouraged me to do a few small projects of my own.
• Although my previous writing on universities suggests a pretty dire history, I’ve found out that I might have a chance at attending a new course starting up this year. This solves my confusion about what to do after September if it comes through, but that’s still an ‘if’.

Is that the time? – I’m trying out a new early-rising scheme, so I better jump in bed. This makes a change from most of my life, so it’s a bit weird and I’m still adjusting. Which is why you are not watching a short video about my recent helicopter experiences, or another podcast – just think what you’ve got to look forward to!