Have to admit, I’m feeling a bit bland. I got back to Princeton on Wednesday, a day late due to issues with my flight. There are worse things than an extra day in Los Angeles, so jdf and I went to Sam: Johnson’s Bookshop (across from Mitsuwa and Santouka’s yummy ramen). Last Wednesday night, I returned to Princeton in enough time to hear part of Sam Jacob (principal of FAT) as a part of the student lecture series. I’ve caught up with my classmates here, sorted through the gossip, dusted off my desk and my apartment, and met with my advisor. Another computer crash (kernel panic) sent me to the Apple Store for repairs. I think my computer chooses to attack me when I most need it to be reliable. Sigh.
Tomorrow, I will give my advisor five pages of an eventual 15 page or so dissertation proposal. Writing isn’t the problme: I have tens of thousands of words. The problem is whittling it down. What needs to go in? I’m realizing that a dissertation proposal is not a dissertation, it’s not a chapter, it’s not an article– it’s an argument for my next two years, sure, but also, it’s a treatment– a means to sell everybody on the idea. So the problem right now is that I have 10 pages, not 5, and they’re not the right 10, and they don’t include the 25 pages I wrote last month. Here’s hoping I find the right ones.
In terms of running, I now run a mile nearly a minute and a half faster than I did six weeks ago, and at that, over four or five miles — this time on the Tow Path near my apartment. The speed increase was enough of a surprise that I doubted my Nike + sensor, but I know the route well, and I am indeed 10% faster than a month ago. (Note that someone drowned in the canal yesterday—that explains the ambulances and boats and police: do not cross tape)
Aside from writing, ahead of me this week: Dennis Crompton Mike Webb from Archigram will give a Media & Modernity talk at the Princeton School of Architecture tomorrow night. On Friday, the Center for Architecture, Urbanism and Infrastructure (where I am a fellow) will host Mobility and Accessibility: Twenty-First Century Infrastructure, both a public session and an invitation-only seminar on Friday and Saturday.
Next week: I’m giving a talk at the University of Chicago in the History of Science department on the 16th and the University of Wisconsin-Madison—my alma mater!—on the 19th. More about that later.