House of Drag On

For this tiny microsecond I'm in love with being a prof again. A grad student working hard on an awesome project; an essay on Tim Robinson coming out soon; an essay on being a granddad coming out soon. And field work in the Inishkeas on the horizon with a photographer whose work I love. Wadda life

About 60% of the academics I know are not strenuous readers. More than the average population but not enough to convince me that the academy will be much help in ensuring that the ongoing process of LLMs swallowing up universities quickly will fail.

Maybe just one more year full time at DePaul but today was a little intoxicating: a morning of presentations of thesis proposals, an afternoon for a master's thesis defense of a really exciting project. Won't be easy to give up.

At the James Joyce Center on Bloomsday. Has the world going fucking mad? Nauseating www.bloomsdayfestival.ie/event/himsel...

It's probably time for you to order a copy of my novel 'Through Pleated Light' for a friend. “A magical landscape at once familiar and fantastical... stimulative flora, attentive fauna, giants, and even a murderously contemptuous tree.”

Had occasion to stumble on this today. Memories of Irish Birdsong: Memories of Irish Birdsong @irishlittimes.bsky.social @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

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Tip for contemporary screenwriting: something happens, then something else, then something bad happens, then all is fine, then something unexpected happens, then something ominous, then everything is fine, then something very very bad happens, then the cops show up. It's nighttime, the sirens fade.

Sorry to still be on such an Artemis high: but the coming launches will be transformative for the tiny generation now watching.

NASA's #artemis mission is going to inject extra excitement into the lives of kids growing up in these coming years. My granddaughter was so excited all day.

For what it's worth I think it's useful to ask the sort of questions posed in the article. One should always want to sharpen the blade of protest: I've been to all iterations if these #nokings events and though it's nice to be with fellow "concerned citizens" they feel diffuse.

3rd time's the charm #nokings #GrandadsRevolting

Son Fiacha (a luthier) in a very fun documentary on making a violin: youtu.be/hlntxsynqqw?...

Every morning the dreamer wakes with an entire new mythology of the world at their disposal. And with a yawn, a stretch, a brushing of teeth, it is shrugged away — never to guide, as mythology should, the direction of the day or of subsequent life.

Micro idea: I'd like to see university's offer lectures to the public. The great unwashed could get a book of 10 tix for lectures. Certain classes would designate "open house" days. There is, I think, magic in the university classroom that's difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Killarney, Co. Kerry having a big night at the #Oscars. Jessie Buckley's win followed by Michael Fassbender on the stage to announce the best picture!

By my calculation I have 500 books that I can possibly read before I keel over. And probably from a relatively restricted range of genres. And since I mainly reread these days I'd say 150 tops new books. So every single selection matters. This is what I'm reading rn

On a (Mrs H) whim we went to see Sirāt (2025) a French-Spanish film by Óliver Laxe. I'm endlessly grateful that films like this still get made

If you need St Paddy in fictional form this weekend rush order my book. You'll have it finished by Paddy's day 2027 a.co/d/00AA0OJ9

Let the annual hiberno-insult to the Chicago river begin. Can't describe to you how much I loathe the dying of the river green. Is it for this that St Patrick sacrificed himself? #PaddyDay

In the pocket of a jacket in a closet, or hung at the back of a chair, or stored in the basement — or perhaps in the luggage used on a long-ago flight — is the book I'm searching for, the book that might shape the thought I'm presently trying to complete.

Universities will respond to their current crises by continuing to transform pedagogy into a process of human widget-making.

A few years ago I coined the term toponesia for the loss of connection — a place-forgetfulness — that many notice later in life, compared with the fierceness of attachment in childhood.

Helpfully and neatly folded Mrs H's laundry while she was on the treadmill. Later, holding me in a steady gaze, she grabbed the basket and headed to the laundry room. "They're dirty" she muttered.

I had a great doorstep conversation with a youthful philosopher campaigning for @katmabu.bsky.social yesterday. Our chat kept veering off to discussions of Kant, climate change, local park maintenance, mutual aid, and community politics. If these fall under the umbrella of Kat's politics I'm in!

Columbo as Socrates, sure — but argumentatively he’s Darwin: pressing into the most difficult objections to his theory, often feigning that they are decisive blows to his thinking, but deftly swatting them away. Yes, natural selection is the opportunity, the motive, and the weapon.

Kid randomly reading The Book of Disquiet by Pessoa before class. Not for a class just out of interest. It was like having an Irish Red Deer stare down at me off the mountains, hold me in its gaze for a moment and move off to high ground. Youthful readers of difficult texts albeit rare still exist

In online culture, at least, too much energy goes into trying to persuade the unpersuadable, convince the unconvincible, understand the inconceivable. We are finite beings; it seems better to devote that energy to mobilizing the sane.

Coined a new term over coffee this AM: Bloast. To bloast is to take the blame for something in a way that asserts a pleased ownership. E.g. you bloast that you fired the shot igniting the revolution. Or, yours was the fart that was strangely audible and had a ferocious pungency at the opera.

The unresolved sexual tension between the literature and science sections on different floors of the university library is quite palpable, my friends

I've been married for closing in on 40 years and I've been in higher education for pretty much all of them. And yet V still chirpily asks "Are you finished grading yet?" The answer is no. It's always no. It *will* always be no. When I die, cremate me with ungraded papers.

My resilience must be frustrating to my enemies. For the past week teetering on the edge of a migraine. Then belting headache after Tuesday evening seminar; eye strain from grading 100 essays, notebooks, exams. Mild depression because of the relentless work. And now viola fresh as a fucking daisy.

At first when you're a (full service) granddad you think you have endless days like yesterday: picking service berries, playing with Lionel trains, hijinks in the park with Yiayia, Lego in the "secret room" (the loft), drinking shakes crafted by granddad, reading Winnie-the-Pooh for the first time..

It's not St Patrick's Day and yet since my novel is the only one that features a time travelling St Paddy you should read it now a.co/d/bTewnXj

I'd made the transition to 3B pencils - Nabokov's favourite hardness - but that experiment is now sadly over. Reverting to my favourite 2B Staedtler. Follow me for more crucial updates

Honestly, how has the toilet paper industry gotten away for so long without providing an easy way to start the roll? How much longer do we have to struggle, often at stool, picking exasperatedly with that unyielding first leaf of the roll?

Went to see Magnetic Fields (2021) a film directed by Yorgos Goussis at the Pickwick theatre in Park Ridge. What a pity this isn't readily available for streaming. Such a vibe.

No 👑 s but this 👑 #NoKings #Evanston

Told the bar gal at Local Option that there was a stampede on a train car I was on over a psychotically violent episode. And that I asked myself "what would my wife do?" before deciding to run. She replied "Hmm that's how I've always thought guys' minds work. No one has ever confirmed it till now."

Trying to imagine what it's like to choose gifted programs as the political hill to die on.

The first book event in an age for my novel Through Pleated Light was cancelled a couple of nights ago. Frustrating to have written a passable book that is not finding its audience

Hyper-violent episode on the @chicagocta.bsky.social Purple line to Howard street. Psychotic-seeming guy apparently unprovoked attack on a woman in the car led to a stampede to the next car down. It was like an awful dream. I was swept along. A few guys subdued the psychotic. Blood everywhere.

Would you accept a small monthly payment in exchange for allowing short commercial breaks during your nightly dreams?

Three people this morning in my Metra carriage reading physical material (7am) #ReadingOnTrain

If LLMs end up facilitating a cognitive enhancement of humanity in general it will be counter to the design intentions of its architects. There's a lot at stake and the battle is going to be an uphill one. College profs could play a crucial role. Anyway blah blah

Writers: what's your aspiration for an advance on your next book? Aspirational but realistic. What, if everything lines up, do you think you can get?

Sage and perennial advice by Evelyn Waugh's dad about the evils of masturbation... Think of cricket instead. Ignore at the peril of a soft brain

Not what he's saying but whatever

Please Holy God let my check from Anthropic AI be larger than my check from Meta. (AI was trained in tiny part with 22 of my essays, research papers and one of my books.