Author Archives: NomadWarMachine

Quack quack

Posted on 20th November 2013 by NomadWarMachine

Recently I became a great aunty (yeah, I know, I’ve always been a great aunty, ask my nephews and nieces, haha).  Luke and Sarah love ducks, so I made this wee hat and bootees for Willow.  Doesn’t she look sweet?

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Spies Are Reading My Blog (David Rovics)

Posted on 6th November 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I’ve just downloaded David Rovics‘ latest album Spies Are Reading My Blog and am listening to it while Niall makes pizza.  There’s some great tracks, so far the title track is my favourite.  I subscribe to David, which means I’ve agreed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Activism, Music | Leave a comment

Duck-rabbit

Posted on 26th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I have a very talented friend called Katy, who studied Philosophy at Crichton campus and heard about Wittgenstein’s duck-rabbit.  Here is it from the original  Philosophical Investigations II, XI (p194).  Wittgenstein is talking about the difference between “seeing”and “seeing as”, (or … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Wittgenstein | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Dichotomies

Posted on 26th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I like making lists, and I also like making tables.  I know that the world’s not really black and white, but I taking an idea and looking at it in two ways – I like dichotomies.  I’ve been playing around … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, MOOC, Philosophy, Rhizomes, Writing | Leave a comment

Rules for writing well

Posted on 19th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I’ve just finished Michael Billig’s book Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences and enjoyed it very much. The overall message of the book is that writers (he says social scientists, but I think this applies more widely … Continue reading →

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Book Lists

Posted on 16th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I’m an inveterate list maker, oft in my head, sometimes on paper, and I have a new project. A friend posted a couple of pictures to my Facebook feed, one of a book bath, one of a library, and they’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Materiality

Posted on 12th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I’ve been reading Michael Billig’s book Learn to Write Badly:How to Succeed in the Social Sciences and very much enjoying his discussion of nominalisation, and why it can be such a bad thing in the Social Sciences (because it leads to ambiguity … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Writing | Leave a comment

Rhizomatic MOOCS?

Posted on 10th October 2013 by NomadWarMachine

Anyone who knows me (probably) knows that I’m very taken with Deleuze and Guattari’s idea that knowledge is rhizomatic, not arborescent (think strawberry, not tree).  I’ve been thinking a lot about MOOCs over the last few weeks, and writing some … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, MOOC, Philosophy, Rhizomes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

eAssessment Scotland Conference 2013

Posted on 24th August 2013 by NomadWarMachine

I spent yesterday at the 5th annual eAssessment Scotland conference at Dundee University.  This is the third year I’ve attended, and it was odd not to be presenting for once (2 years ago Kenji asked me and Steve Draper to … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Learning | Leave a comment

Facebook, subjective well-being, and use

Posted on 19th August 2013 by NomadWarMachine

There’s been a lot of hype in the media recently about a report that apparently show that using Facebook makes you miserable.  It’s making for sensational headlines, so the appeal to journalists is obvious, but what should we think about it … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Facebook, Social Media | 1 Comment