all work and no play

Instead of joining the other PhD-students for a beer or two to wrap up the work-in-progress seminar that we were attending today and yesterday, I headed back home after work and work-out to start preparing my presentation this Friday about mediated interaction among young people. The Friday-seminars are arranged by Participation and Play, Internett i endring and CMC (Competence and Media Convergence). However, rather than being satisfied with a well spent evening, I feel dull.

unloaded

Wonderful. At noon I advertised that we're giving away our old TV-bench and a lamp we don't need anymore at finn.no. Now they have both been picked up. Finn.no is great. It's free to use if you're giving stuff away. And only 25 NOK if you intend to sell it. Rather interesting to think of how eBay, finn.no and similar sites change private individual's possibilities and practices for selling and acquiring stuff. Even told me eBay has become the biggest venue for selling cars in US.

reality vs docu-soap

Somebody should edit Wikipedia on Reality television. In Wikipedia reality shows and docu-soaps are synonyms. Reality shows and docu-soaps are not quite the same thing however. Docu-soaps follow people in some kind of "natural" situation (whether "real people" working at the airport, the hospital or whereever, the everyday life of the Osbournes or the post-honeymoon days of Jessica S and her husband), whereas reality shows are much more constructed and experiment-like. I'd edit, but I won't have time today...

snow!

It's really amazing how winter surprises the Southern parts of Norway every year. We never learn that with winter comes snow. Cars crash, buses don't get anywhere, chaos on airports, pedestrians can't stay on their feet. I felt like I was the only one travelling safely to work this morning: rock solid with my studded bicycle tires!

Somebody made a beautiful 7 feet tall snowman in Sofienbergparken. I wish I'd photographed it. Hopefully he doesn't run away.

students's online magazines

The last six groups finished their online newspaper/magazine project on Friday. I asked Anders to comment on their work. He's done that previous years, and he does so very well. Somehow he manages to find room for improvement even when I'm too impressed to be critical. As you can clearly see from a couple of papers (Mums and Hair.net for instance), a few students weren't really beginners. But most of them were. They hardly knew anything when they started. They do now. I It's been hectic, fun, and I've learnt a lot.

reminder

I hardly have any time to work on my PhD-project. Teaching and preparing teaching are all-consuming activities. Luckily Even came by for a talk, and reminded me of the rather interesting stuff I'm actually researching. He's writing term papers for a couple of courses he's taking to get his master degree, and is looking for theory that can explain the autopoietic nature of online social spaces (my words, I can't remember exactly how he put it). He has discovered Luhmann of course. Whom I doubt I will ever understand.

the day after

Disappointed of course. Turned on the radio when I woke up and heard the news. Can't ever remember that the American elections have been followed this closely by the Norwegian media. Has it been too much, out of proportions? I don't really think so. Sigurd Allern claimed that the Norwegian media coverage of the election campaign has been way too personalised and tabloid. Which I wouldn't argue against, but I admit I've found it rather exciting. Now about 48%of the voters in US (and close to the rest of the world) have to live with a president they'd rather not see sit for a second period. That's democracy, and I just have to cope. Hillary for president in 2008?

fingers crossed

It sure is a globalised world. I think I'm more anxious of the Bush/Kerry election-results than I was for the Parliament-elections in Norway in 2001.