Paul Attinello

Category: Academia

  • The way it spozed to be

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    Well, today I actually completed the editing on two articles of mine for publication – in addition to handling a number of e-mail requests with dispatch, and making a healthy breakfast (oatmeal with chopped apple and dried cranberries). And all without wearing myself out or staying up until four a.m. Doesn’t sound like much, does…

  • Jerks In Space

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    So first the context: I was rather pleased with myself today, and feeling almost capable of the hard work ahead – I liked my own entry on blog aesthetics (and could I say that about a published work? no, which shows what I mean about blogging); the meeting went well and no one argued much;…

  • Good with the bad

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Haven’t been writing new posts for some days. This in spite of a great deal of activity and input – but perhaps so much, and with such contradictory results, that it seems difficult to construct a coherent blog entry out of any of it. Much of the past days (twelve days? – since I said…

  • Persona

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in , ,

    Last Tuesday, I was in a pub with a colleague from another university, and was eventually joined by a circle of friends from my own university (most of whom have blogs, by the way). We had fun, I was rather giddy (saying some tacky things, but I have friends all over the world who are…

  • Intro-

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    Well, that is decided. The dramatic shape of the weekend in London will fizzle out, basically; a whimper rather than a bang…. Friday night: the astounding experience, which I will not relate, but which involved the wonderful Carl, with whom I have spent time before. Not only a very sexy man but also a very…

  • Support

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Something lucky happened two days ago – my yearly employee review. Yuck, you say? – my history with these in British academe has been somewhat variable; I don’t mind working on plans and lists of projects, but my last review with our old Head of School was frankly disturbing. No surprise – the old Head…

  • Pointless power

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Given that I have just been getting into PowerPoint a lot more lately – downloading templates, giving those two conference presentations – I was somewhat dismayed, but enlightened and impressed, by Edward Tufte’s sharp critique of its use. He claims that the program and the culture that has sprung up of how to properly create…

  • Bookshelf

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in , ,

    Enjoying Henry Petroski’s The Book on the Bookshelf. He has a slightly unexpected style – very educated, articulate, intelligent – but at the same time rather stiff, with not infrequent falls into gracelessness. Perhaps it’s just because he is a design engineer, who has become fascinated with books. I get the sense that he sometimes…

  • There was a conferencing…

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    The conference went well… the presentation was basically semi-successful; I realized that I’d gone about it the wrong way round (must be inductive rather than deductive – there are few ways to annoy people more effectively than generalizing about things), but there were still some good moments, and I think that my instincts about the…

  • Aesthetic

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Continuing working on presentation – made a bit annoying by my body suddenly coming up with several small annoyances all overnight (a swollen lymph gland, a slight sore throat, my back got twisted last night and aches a bit on one side, and my gums hurt – slightly – all more like little, irritating warning…