☕ April Dispatch from the Atomic Zone
coffee-fuelled, slightly windswept, and full of ideas
April has been one of those months where everything is in motion at once, with too many tabs open, projects quietly humming along, and coffee doing some very heavy lifting. It has felt full in the best possible way, even if it has occasionally been a little chaotic.
🧭 RIMS & Research Things
A good portion of April has been devoted to work with RIMS, supporting researchers as they refine their profiles, connect their publications, and improve how their work is discovered. This kind of work is not especially flashy, but it is deeply important, and there is a quiet satisfaction in watching metadata come into alignment and profiles begin to tell a clearer, more coherent story.
There have been many small moments where something clicks into place, and those moments add up. When a profile finally reflects someone’s work accurately, it feels like a meaningful win.
📜 The Sippi Diary, TEI, and Zines
Preparation for the upcoming Research Symposium is well underway, and the 1895 Sippi Diary is taking centre stage. The project now includes both a poster on transcription and TEI encoding and a set of accompanying zines that bring those ideas into a more tactile and visual form.
The zines have been a particularly enjoyable experiment. They borrow from a mid-century cookbook aesthetic while translating digital humanities concepts into something approachable and creative. It turns out that TEI adapts surprisingly well to folds, panels, and a bit of design play.
🎺 Brass Interlude
Music has continued to provide a welcome balance. This month included an invitation to help round out the section with the Kincardine Brass Band, which was both a delight and a reminder of how grounding it is to step away from screens and into sound.
There is something restorative about focusing on breath and tone after a day spent working with structured data. It offers a different kind of clarity.
🌬️ Spring… loading…
Spring has technically arrived, although Ontario seems to be taking a cautious and rather chilly approach to the season. The days have often been cold and windy, and it has not quite delivered on the promise of warmth just yet.
Still, there are small signs of change in the longer evenings and the first hints of green, and that is enough to keep a sense of optimism in place.
✨ Looking Ahead
May is shaping up to be a month of bringing projects into the world, continuing the steady work with RIMS, and making space for more music. It will, hopefully, also include a more convincing version of spring.
📡 Closing Transmission
April was not about finishing everything, and that is perfectly all right. It was a month of building momentum, following ideas, and setting things in motion. There is a quiet confidence in that kind of progress.
More soon, and hopefully with warmer weather and another good cup of coffee.