My social media advisor (a.k.a. my wife) says nobody likes a blizzard of tweets, and even if they did I’d be too forgetful to post these and am too lazy to configure auto-tweeting software to schedule them.
And, some of these are no doubt too long…I’m also too lazy to count to 140.
So, here is a large batch of pseudo-tweets in the form of a single blog post. Yeah, a blog. Very retro, which is appropriate since this happened a while back. But now all — okay, some — can be revealed…
Update, 14Nov2013: Here’s the announcement on BoingBoing!
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19May2013: Secret research trip commences. Plan is to post these as Time Delayed Tweets (TDTs) upon successful completion…
TDT/May19-20: Best (not recommended) way to beat jet lag: Board 10:10pm flight at 11:40pm, sit on runway for 4.5 hrs, get off plane, try again next day.
TDT/May19-20: BTW, the above technique assumes you don’t do more than doze for an hour or so for the duration.
TDT/May20-21: Took 4 tries to get to Atlanta, on to London 1st try after that. Yesterday: not best day ever. Today: still not great, but not worst.
TDT/May21: Arrived in England, took train to Cambridge, walked from station to room to clear our heads.
TDT/May21: Leland Myrick meets us at end of (our) road. Great to see him, for all the reasons you’d imagine.
TDT/May21: Dinner at former student haunt of our Research Subject.
TDT/May21: The Tickell Inn: Higher end than usual student bar. Doesn’t smell like filthy rag soaked in stale beer, for one thing.
TDT/May21-22: Accommodations not luxurious; mattress is a good simulation of thing of same name…
TDT/May21-22: …but totally fine, and no apparent jet lag. See above for brilliant technique!
TDT/May22: Into the archive. 100s of photos taken, dozens of priceless things held in bare hands. #gobsmacked
TDT/May22: Ruined forever, thanks to friends Malcolm & Anna and CAMRA beer, cider, and perry festival. Weak, unsubtle, and bad U.S. cider will never do now.
TDT/May22: Also, good cider is strong. #typinghardafterhomanypintswasthat?
TDT/May23: More archives. Not all end up being on task, but worth it because…ho-hum, there’s A.A. Milne’s handwritten m.s. for Winnie the Pooh.
TDT/May23: Ho-hum, Newton’s library. As in Isaac Newton’s personal library. Right there. I’m now about to pull a book off the shelf. With my own hands.
TDT/May23: Title in question: “The General Delusions of Christians, Touching the Ways of God’s Revealing Himself to, and by the Prophets
TDT/May23: “…Evinc’d from Scripture and Primitive Antiquity…
TDT/May23: “…and Many Principles of Scoffers, Athiests, Sadducees, and Wild Enthusiasts Re-futed…
TDT/May23: “…The Whole Adapted, As Much As Possible, to the Meanest Capacity.”
TDT/May23: Oh, Isaac Newton — you’d have loved the National Enquirer! (And it would love you.)
TDT/May23: Apparently you can tell if Newton actually read a particular book because he turned down corners. The librarian in me blanches, but…
TDT/May23: …there’s the fold, and I’m delighted.
TDT/May23: Into Inner Sanctum. 100s more pictures taken with a stupefied look on my face. #whatamIdoinghere?
TDT/May23: More than one picture of Feynman on display in Inner Sanctum. #heh
TDT/May23: Appropriate, since Feynman (or rather, Feynman) is in part the reason we’re here.
TDT/May23: Into Innermost Inner Sanctum. Wonderful stories (most on deep background) told in a #whatamIdoinghere? setting.
TDT/May23: Great Indian to end the day. Cobra Beer = fantastic. Malcolm & Anna = more fantastic.
TDT/May24: Back to archive and a few 100 more photos, incl. early drafts of The Book.
TDT/May24: Re. The Book’s early drafts: Calista/@01FirstSecond, when time comes, please don’t edit me w/chapter-by-chapter letter grades. #kthx
TDT/May24: Run in rain through Cambridge. Can’t sneak in for Trinity Court run. Got lost, found way back again. Almost hit by 3 different cars.
TDT/May24: Had a great time, IOW.
TDT/May24: Drinks in Fellows Club before dinner. Malcolm pronounces wine not quite ready. Leland, Kat and I think it’s fantastic. #lowbrows
TDT/May24: Dined at Trinity High Table. #whatamIdoinghere? Tried not to think of Hogwarts every few seconds. #failed
TDT/May24: They eat fast at High Table. (Hypothesis 1: To get out of there and leave students to own revels.) (Hypothesis 2: To get to the cheese and port.)
TDT/May24: Cheese and port after dinner — by candle light — with Fellows. #whatamIdoinghere?
TDT/May24: Learn that Trinity College has 40-50 year supply of port.
TDT/May24: Given consumption this evening…w/only 7 of us…I imagine subterranean reservoir size of Lake Huron.
TDT/May24: Rain clears after dinner for our stroll through Trinity Court. Magical, and gratified to hear our host is not jaded in the least.
TDT/May25: Work part done. (And per above what a horrible load and burden it was!) Traveling to Wales.
TDT/May25: Caerdydd Castell. Wisgi Cymreig. Da.
TDT/May25: Also, and this time in English: great dinner in Splot. (#notmakingthatup!) Featured 80s techno dance club soundtrack, complete w/New Order.
TDT/May26: Tintern Abbey is not-shockingly sublime. Lovely weather too…
TDT/May26: …so any impression that after rocky start this trip has been full of good luck is correct.
TDT/May27: London. Churchill’s underground War Rooms. Also sublime, but entirely unlike Tintern. (I know, shocking!) #ACTIONTHISDAY
TST/May27: #ACTIONTHISDAY reminds me that “The Imitation Game”, by me and Leland Purvis, is almost done. Look for it soon via @tordotcom.
TDT/May28: Onward to Down House to complete our Great Scientists tour.
TDT/May28: The grounds here are even more beautiful than Inner Inner Sanctum’s, and the stuff inside is much older. We don’t touch it, either.
TDT/May28: Fleshed out closing sequence for the FutureBook™ on Darwin’s Sandwalk. #thankyouCharlesDarwin
TDT/May29: Flying home in biz class, thanks to amazing help from amazing friend. Upside: biz class. (#whatamIdoinghere?) Downside: future travel ruined forever.
TDT/May29: 804 miles from home, which is less than the number of reference photos I took on the device I’m also using to write with.
TDT/May29: Signing off from the lap of luxury, in an age of wonders.
Nov13: Did I forget to reveal the subject of FutureBook™? Sorry. (#notreallysorry) More to be revealed tomorrow, via @01FirstSecond and @BoingBoing/boingboing.net.
Nov13 ± N months: #writingwritingwritingwritingwriting. Also, #writingwr
itingwritingwritingwriting.
itingwritingwritingwriting.
