Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Sunday, 20 July 2014

dhoxss, whizzing ideas, relaxing, water lily, water flask, old ways

















Had a great week at the Digital Humanities Summer School at Wolfson College Oxford.

Over 70 sides of handwritten notes taken, some of which I'll use for my report but most of which I'll be going through in order to follow up ideas and think through what was talked about. Such fascinating talks and workshops.

I'll blog about some of the things I learnt in due course.

This weekend has been about doing some preparation for summer teaching but has mostly been about relaxing and letting the whizzing thoughts post-summer school settle.

Took the photo of a water lily in our pond earlier - look at the flies in the centre.

Up on the allotment this morning it seemed slightly surreal to be sipping water from a Canadian Digital Humanities Summer Institute water flask (one of the giveaways at the Oxford summer school), a pair of buzzards circling above. But then, as was emphasised by a number of speakers at the summer school, the digital humanities remain all about the study of what it means to be human and aren't divorced from the old ways.
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