There’s a piece on academic blogging in today’s Times Higher Education. It doesn’t contain any big surprises, but it is mildly interesting — and I do get a few mentions. Fame at last.
I have an entirely enviable walk into the Faculty: through a couple of pleasant late Victorian/Edwardian backstreets, across Midsummer Common (yes, there really are cattle grazing near the centre of Cambridge) and Jesus Green, then perhaps through Trinity Great Court and Neville’s Court and out over the river to the backs; along behind Clare and King’s (here there are white cattle in the meadow, colour-coded to match the Gibbs Building) and then a few hundred yards further to the Raised Faculty Building. I couldn’t wish for much better.
That walk is mostly very quiet: so I can listen to music en route (the Lindsays playing Haydn works really well). And the weather these first few days of term has been stunning: perfect early autumn. Which has all put me in a good mood for the first couple of intro logic lectures which went by with only very minor hiccups — though however many times I do this, the first lecture or so is still surprisingly nerve-wracking. I’ve also given the first class in my Gödel’s Theorems course (depressingly few are taking the math. logic paper again this year: despite our best efforts, a Cambridge tradition seems to be in decline). And the first logic seminar went pretty well. Or at least, I enjoyed it. There were over twenty there, to battle with §108 of the Big Typescript (of course, the numbers won’t last!). I gave the talk which I posted a draft of here, and Michael Potter added some very useful comments. When I’ve got a moment I’ll put together a revised version to take account of some things said in the discussion.
So that’s the first days of term survived. And now, I hope, back to Parsons!