This week's task

Finish _Urban Tapestries_ case history

0.0 LOCATION-BASED TECHNOLOGY AND THE URBAN EVERYDAY

1.0 MAKING SPACE
1.1 A Brief History of Proboscis
1.2 Mobile and Location-Based Technologies
1.3 Reconfiguring the 'Mobile User'

2.0 MAKING CONNECTIONS
2.1 Collaborations
[2.2 The Scale and Speed of Change?]

3.0 MAKING THINGS
3.1 Designing Urban Tapestries
3.2 Prototyping and Testing Urban Tapestries
3.3 Evaluating Urban Tapestries
3.4 Engaging Partners and Public

God help me, it's true. Part 3

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Travel writer Bruce Chatwin walked around Australia as he researched and meditated on the indigenous people's beliefs about what the land was like in the ancient past. He wrote: "Aboriginal creation myths tell of the legendary totemic beings who wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path--birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes--and so singing the world into existence." Given the fact that you're now primed to create a new domain or two, Leo, may I suggest the aborigines' approach? You'll infuse everything with extra beauty if you play around with *singing* it into existence.

God help me, it's true. Part 2

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Hebrew word "shalom" is both a hello infused with a goodbye and a goodbye leavened with a hello. That's why it would be wise and fun for you to make it your word of power in the coming days. You'll be spinning through a transitional zone in which it won't always be clear which direction is up. You'll be coming and going simultaneously, embarking on new journeys and ending old ones. Whenever you say "shalom," whether it's a greeting to someone else or a mantra uttered in solitude, you'll remind yourself that the threshold you're in is pregnant with a thousand possibilities.

God help me, it's true. I've reached the point where I'm turning to astrology for motivation. And I think it's working.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "Nature loves courage," said visionary philosopher Terence McKenna. "It shows you it loves courage because it will respond to your brave commitment by removing impossible obstacles." While I believe this is always true, Leo, it's especially apropos for you right now. You've fallen short of your potential because you have not yet summoned more than a fraction of the boldness that lies within you. But this is a turning point when you finally have what it takes to tap into your dormant reserves. I hope you rise to the occasion, and so does nature.

Like sea monkeys, everyday a little more real

Wow. I hadn't realised that an entire month had passed since I was last here. (Moving house is more disruptive than I remembered.) So here we go again, but with a few reminders to start.

Remember that the dissertation is a License To Practice, not the Greatest Thing Ever Written or Proof Of Human Value.

(Do you even know what your favourite scholars wrote their dissertations about? Nope. No one cares.)

Remember that this is not a prelude to Real Life, it already is Your Life.

(Spend time daily with friends and loved ones. Stay physically active. Eat well. Sleep regularly. You know. Take care.)

Remember to write something every day, and to set Small Tasks instead of trying to finish the Entire Thing At Once.

(Better to stay focussed on accomplishing something every day than never accomplishing everything. And heed Baudelaire's words: "No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start: It becomes a nightmare.")

And now for something more concrete: People Who Know Things say that tracking progress is instrumental in Getting Things Done.

So try starting each writing day by posting one or two very doable tasks. Like one section or one sub-section of a chapter. (One idea. One interview.) When the task is complete, go back and post your favourite sentence of the day.

Watch your dissertation grow like a sea monkey! A little more real everyday.