What's going on in the research-department?
This month and the next I am teaching, mainly. I have taken on what the department has offered from teachings, been a good girl and said "yes" when I have been asked if I wanted to teach. It's both rewarding and fun, I like to make my colleagues happy by easing their planning, I like teaching, and I needed a break to avoid setting the entire thesis on fire.

But I can't not work on something related to it, so this month I am writing a manuscript to be presented in Oslo in February, in a seminar on Digital Socialising (Dr Hammer will be there, and I get a chance to congratulate her on her PhD!), the blog-paper which will also become my science-theory paper which I work on with Jill, and the translation of chapter five, the only chapter I have written in Norwegian. This is the chapter which describes Dragon Realms, the MUD I played for a year and made the focus of my thesis. Since it's descriptive, it is a lot longer than the other chapters - I have tried to convey everything I experienced in a year of intensive play. Doesn't work.

I am also quite happy about Espen's responses to chapter four. He probably thought he was very strict, because he started telling me that all of this should have come much earlier, why did I put this out in the middle of the thesis, why did I delay the reader with all that unimportant stuff when the real stuff came here! I applied positive listening and decided to hear only "the really important stuff" "this is what's interesting" "this is a very good point", so I agreed with him happily and told him that was the experience I had while writing chapter 4. I'll most likely move a lot of that one or two chapters up or perhaps just re-number the four first chapters, but yay, I felt good after that talk!

After chapter five I have five fairly new chapters to deal with, all written in the last year (2001 was not bad!), and then a chapter on the interviews (perhaps) and the conclusion, and I am done. Done. That sounds like science fiction, but I expect to see it in my lifetime!