kfitz @kfitz@scholar.social

I mean, WHY.

Can someone explain to me WHYYYYY the Word overlords have decided that track changes marginalia and comments need two different UX treatments and two separate positions, forcing a wider and wider window?

All of which is to say

1) What looks like inertia might be preparation for something big.

2) Be nice to your sysadmin. They have the potential to do great things.

Yesterday I had cause to remember that I once had a somewhat disaffected CS student in a lit class at a small liberal arts college out west. After graduation, that student stuck around for quite a while, working as a sysadmin on campus. We somewhat despaired of his inertia.

At some point he did break away, though, and went to work for a Silicon Valley megacorp, and a very few years later found himself in federal service. Where he led the team that saved Obamacare. +

In keeping with my desire to move more of my digital life off of problematic platforms, I’m migrating my personal email from Gmail to a domain I own, hosted via Proton Mail. The primary challenge to this process is going to be Google Docs, I think. Unless my various collaborators make the switch, I’m kinda stuck with it.

Just spent a couple of hours weeding. It’s astonishing how fast Michigan goes from “jeez did all the plants die over the winter” to “omg everything’s overgrown and the weeds are ripping up the patio bricks.” 🌱☘️🌱☘️🌿

“Correct our population for race” is just a hell of a thing to let people know you’re thinking. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/bill-cassidy-maternal-mortality-rates

After a ridiculous week of meetings and presentations, I'm in my reading chair with a cup of coffee and a pile of books, and thunderstorms rolling in. Things could be a lot worse. #gratitude

That last post encourages me to do a bit of #introduction: I direct a #DH research center and academic program at Michigan State University. My official credentials say I'm a professor of English, but I'm currently writing about the present failures, and future demands, of academic #leadership.

"We have a very expensive workforce and bosses who aren't sure what's getting done. Watch how quick every exec team on the planet starts talking about accountability." Johnathan and Melissa of Raw Signal Group, https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=c5c0614e6c57b2af2259dc51a&id=23d6b45c7b

I’m about to do a most ludicrously un-Italian thing: eat dinner at 5:30pm and go to sleep shortly thereafter. I have a morning flight back to the US tomorrow, but also I’m just exhausted. Also old.

Florence was a blur of meetings. I was hoping for a quiet morning today, but it turned into a rush to get a pre-flight COVID test in the 24-hour window required. Now awaiting the train to Rome.

Good morning. I am still jetlagged, but am coffeed up and ready to go.

It's actually kinda nice that this whole bird-site brouhaha broke out while I'm alone in a hotel room and too jetlagged to do any real work. It's this or redesign my website. Again.

Waaaaaait a second, @dan -- you're hosting your own instance? TELL ME MORE.

Like a lot of folks, I’m looking for better options. But this distributed network is a little perplexing after one big corporate monolith. I’ve got kfitz here and on another larger instance as well. Does it make a difference what neighborhood you’re in?