sleep I don't use the alarm on my cell phone to wake me up in the weekends. Maybe I should: I woke up 2.30 pm today. My back hinted that I had slept for too many hours. Some 13 hours is indeed way too much.  ¶ 9:34 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  group interview I talked to four girls about their use of various communication media this afternoon. It worked out fine. I haven't done any group-interviews before. I can cleraly see that there are pros and cons compared to individual interviews. Anyway, they preferred to do it together, which I thought was quite ok. I would definitely have liked to go into more details on a few questions, and I didn't get all the stories I would have got if I'd done interviews individually. Then agian, they knew each other well, and nobody felt inhibited by the presence of the others. The group setting was only supporting.

I also tried the reaction cards towards the end of the interview. And I was positively surprised. They did bring new elements to the discussion.  ¶ 8:43 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  whooosh, days passing So, what have I done today? Written e-mails and talked on the phone. There are a millon details left to sort out (although everything is of course under control) before the course (Tekst, produksjon og analyse) I'm co-ordinating and teaching this autumn starts on Monday. I've written 14 e-mails today, and I think that's a lot (way too much actually). Danah Boyd doesn't like e-mail. I like it because at least I can always go back and see what I've actually dealt with already and what I still need to do. I use the phone when it's more efficient, but maybe I'd like some sort of archiving-system for phone-calls as well? Btw, Danah's mail-trouble seems really frustrating.   ¶ 4:40 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  nick cave I never wrote about the beautiful Nick Cave-concert last Monday. I believe it's my first sit-down concert. Nick Cave played the piano, and was accompanied by bad seed-members Warren Ellis (violin), Martyn P. Casey (bass) and Jim Sclavunos (drums). It was rather dramatically performed and more or less what I imagined it would be: just perfect. Funny though, they played a few requests from the audience: "yeah, we can play that."

Now I will wait (forever) for Tom Waits to come and play for me.  ¶ 2:11 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  interview reaction cards The next couple of months I'll be busy teaching and co-ordninating the bachelor-course Tekst, produksjon og analyse (text, production and analyses). My aim for the autumn is to do quite a few interviews as well. I definitely need to start talking to youngsters as I claim that my research concerns their use of various communication media. After listening to PhD-student Mikael Norén's presentation in Örebro yesterday, I wonder whether I should try to include reaction cards to my interviews. It's sounds really simple, but I don't know if it's appropriate in my project, as these cards are usually used within usability studies. In short, interviewees are asked to pick word-cards that they find fitting for a specific web-site (from words such as clean, clear, effortless, efficient, time-consuming, unattractive and like another 100 words). Then they are asked to explain how they understand these words and why they chose the cards they did. I would of course have to choose words appropriate for my project. The method is developed by Microsoft Usability Lab, but I can't hold that against an interesting way of doing research and initiating reflections in interview situations.

The cards are of course not used to direct interviewees "my way". My goal with using such cards would be to inspire the informants. And playing cards is fun. Of course, the situations will be quite different from exploring questions of usability. Maybe I don't need the cards: it might suffice to ask informants to associate and suggest words themselves, and then ask them to explain why and how. Or maybe I can introduce the cards in situations where informants struggle to answer questions? I'm thinking as I write, and it might just be a bad idea. But I'm curious of how it would work.  ¶ 2:55 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  jet mind Back from New York. Everything is so quiet, and I can hear my mind. It's ok to be home. I suddenly remembered that good things are yet to come: Nick Cave performs live on Monday, and I'm going to be there. How wonderful! I had no room for other things in my mind besides the here and now while in New York. Now I remember.  ¶ 6:34 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  NYC program NYC tomorrow! I believe we will have enough to do, our preliminary program looks something like this: MoMA, Whitney, Guggenheim Museum, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, International Center of Photography, Museum of Television and Radio ( Look! Up at the Screen! It's Superheroes on Television June 18 to October 10, 2004), Dia-center, American museum og moving image (oh, that was so much fun in 1999!). And: Monster Magnet at Bowery Ballroom tomorrow!   ¶ 10:52 AM Comments-[ comments.]

  Supervising To welcome new PhD-students, The faculty of Arts arranges a kick-off seminar tomorrow. Besides general information about where's and what's, there will be an informal discussion of what to expect from your supervisor and what to expect from you as a PhD-student. I agreed to contribute with some points in order initiate a discussion.

Expectations of supervisor:
* Do what supervisors are supposed to do: read drafts; give comprehensive feedback; discuss problems; help with literature, theory, seminars, conferences; help networking/share contacts; make you feel safe enough to not appear brilliant at all times
* Challenge PhD-student, on progress, on quality
* Be open and honest: are expectations met? Is the relationship between supervisor and PhD-student constructive?

Expectations of PhD-student:
* Do what PhD-students are supposed to do: plan, organise and lead your project; let supervisor read drafts although not perfect; be independent and able to think for yourself; still, follow advice: don't ignore feedback from your supervisor, keep deadlines, publish, progress
* Challenge supervisor, be explicit on expectations
* Be open and honest: are expectations met? Is the relationship between supervisor and PhD-student constructive?

Question is: am I being a good PhD-student... I already feel the pressure of lacking progress. But this year has been spent and will be spent with a considerable amount of teaching. I still have clear objectives of what I will accomplish before December. And then next year...  ¶ 9:35 AM Comments-[ comments.]

  meditation of death I wasn't aware of the ancient history of the idea of living each day as if it were the last. To the Roman philosopher Seneca, training for death was an important part of taking care of the self, as explained by Foucault in "The hermeneutic of the subject" (in Ethics. Subjectivity and Truth). I don't think Seneca would think very highly of me if he'd seen me in one of my weak lying-passively-on-the-couch-watching-TV moments. Not quite what he thought of as melete thanatou (meditation of death). It's rather about being very aware of every day and every moment, and thinking of every day as a possible entire life: "Let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say; I have lived." Meditation of death offers the possibility of looking back on one's life. In advance. When you still have the chance to appropriate a virtuous life. When it's not too late.  ¶ 5:08 PM Comments-[ comments.]

  chess mate? I've been looking forward to sending photos from my phone to flickr from NYC. But apparently I can't. Not as a Chess customer anyway. I didn't get any explanations from their custom service, just that it's not possible to send mms-messages from abroad. They are cheap, but there seems to be a reason why...  ¶ 1:54 PM Comments-[ comments.]