Things are falling a little more into place. One of the major things is that I finally tracked down my Palm Pilot’s travel USB cable. This seems like such a trivial thing, but it makes a huge difference. Since I don’t have a permanent workspace yet, a fixed cradle is inconvenient. That means with out the cable I can’t sync the Palm or charge it. Which means that I stop using it. And those who know me best know that without it, I’m lost. While my memory can store gigabytes of useless pop culture info, I just don’t do well at remembering practical things like phone numbers and appointments. That’s where the palm comes in. Suddenly I feel so much more organized and ready to face the world.

I’ve got a job fair this afternoon and the possibility of some freelance work. I’m making a lot of headspace progress on the thesis. So today’s an “up day” as far as I’m concerned.

Drea comes home in a few hours. Which is wonderful. This stay was far longer and more demoralizing than the previous one, though she comes home far more healthy. Its funny how that works.

I terminated my leave of absence at Kodak today. It was a tough decision, but necessary for a number of reasons. It didn’t appear that any positions would open up (currently they’re only posting for 16 external jobs here in Rochester). And after news of the latest round of layoffs, I really had to question if that was an environment that I wished to return to. It’s bittersweet. I’m going to miss not getting back to seeing kodak.com’ers each day. However, we’ll still have tacos… hows next Tuesday?

And I’ve offically moved my Chicago graduation to December. Its a disapointment, but I need to do more research and reading to write the thesis I want to write. And at this point, I’d rather get it right then get it done. So perhaps, at the end of it, I’ll even understand Bourdieu.

Ok. As an attempt to move away from the doom and gloom blogs, I’ll tell you about my current plans and solicit advice. As you might know, I need a job. And I’m currently in the process of applying to a number of places such as McKinsey & Company and Harris Interactive. However, both processes are going to take a while. So, I need something to tide me over. And since I have a thesis to complete, it really needs to be part time. So I’m thinking either Starbucks or retail. The benefit with Starbucks (or a similar type of Coffee place) is that I get a discount on Coffee, I get some level of indy cred (admittedly much less if its Starbucks) and if I work more than 20 hours I get some form of health insurance. On the other side, if I work at a place like the Gap, I get a discount on clothes and can revamp my wardrobe, which I really need to do.

So wadda ya think? Or should I go the Wegmans route? Advice would be much appreciated.

Drea Update: She’s doing better. We’re hoping Monday. Thanks for all the notes of support.

Thesis Update: Drea’s doing better. Visit Headnotes to see my latest issues.

One of my latest sticking points is the usage of pronouns to refer to bots. While I realize there is a longstanding tradition of using personal pronouns (she, he, her, and his) to refer to machines, I have real problems anthropomorphizing bots. It just strikes me as a slippery slope for an academic to engage in. At the same time, calling the famed Tifanny_bot “it” all the time is just clunky.

My solution to this dilemma came from an unlikely source: John Leguizamo. Driving home from the hospital I heard him interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. Discussing his work on To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, he mentioned that the studio hired a Drag Queen to coach him and said something along the lines of: “They hired *pause* ohh, I can’t remember his real name. Her drag name was [X] and she taught me everything.” And that got me thinking about gender designations when it comes to drag. Clearly the absolute (genital/chromosome) sex of the performer never changed. He was a he. But while in the drag role the performer assumed the gender designation being performed. Like Lou Reed once wrote “then he was a she.”

What this suggests is that culturally the chatterbot program itself can be considered an “it” while the self it performs, Tiffany for example, can be referred to as “she.”

Or perhaps trudging forward. Drea’s recovery continues to be rocky. For every step forward she takes, she seems to fall a step back. So that has taken a toll on both our spirits. The current hope is for her to come home next Monday.

I’m trying to write. It’s tough to keep myself focused. And I just don’t have the energy to even train right now. So that’s a bit of a blow as well.

On the positive side, I’ve been pounding through “fun reading.” I just wrapped up on Douglas Coupland’s microserfs, which I’m most likely going to use as part of my thesis. I also finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in less than 20 hours. The Rochester D&C ended up running my capsule review on their website (you’ll have to search on my name to find it). I decided to write the review as a developmental exercise.

[annotation: *blows off the dust *... it's been a while. Over the next few days I will endeavor to lay out a number of ideas that are being developed for my research work]

One of the ideas that has been cropping up is that Chatterbots (in particular sexbots) can be used a a social sciences tools to identify the essentials of specific genres at a specific time. For a sexbot like the famed Tiffany to work it must be capable of deploying the characteristics and tools that a webcam girl is expected to invoke during a conversation. Thus by examining a successful bot, we can learn what is, at a bare minimum, expected of a genre during an interaction.

serendipitously, while pondering this idea, I happened to read the following passage in Douglas Coupland’s microserfs:

I mentioned to Abe about my lessons in shiatsu and the weird relationship people in tech firms have with their bodies. He replied:

I know what you mean about bodeis. At Microsoft you pretend bodies dont’ exist… BRAINS are what matter. You’re right, at Microsoft bodies get down played to near invisibility with unsensual Tommy Hilfiger geekwear, or are genericized with items form the GAP so that employees morph themelfves into those international symbols for MAN and WOMAN you see at airports. (Coupland, 1995: 198)

This in turn got me to thinking about the relationship between mechanization and the essentials of a particular role. Take for example, robotic factory workers. The ones that most likely spring to mind are those in car assembly plants. We’ve all seen the footage of them attaching doors and welding joints. The many of these robots are simply arms (often with integrated tools). Each role has been optimized to the bare essentials required of that position. Why create the whole robot body when only the arm is needed. Thus it seems, that by examining these forms of industrial mechanization, we can understand exactly what is essential for that specific role. Thus the chatterbot can be related to its robotic cousin working on the assembly line.

Bibliography

Coupland, Douglas. 1995. microserfs. New York: ReganBooks.

This are not going too great. Writing has been put on hold as Dre is in the hospital. There really aren’t a lot of details. It isn’t life threatening, but its serious. I’m working on getting extensions. Things are pretty crappy all around as some unfortunate things have happened to MAPSS friends still in Chicago. Elliot may have gotten it wrong but three months.

Still I’m putting one foot in front of the other and taking small steps.

I have less than a week to get the first final draft of my thesis in. And the writing isn’t going well. Or just going. But I’m plugging away as best I can. Today I’m writing at the coffee shop around the corner from my old apartment: Starry Nites.

I’m trying some of these Hacking Writers Block Tips… expect lots of updates.

I’m enjoying my last $1 shake. Never has a chocolate chip shake tasted so bittersweet. I also gave away my futon today to a friend from the MAPSS program who will be staying at the U of C to get her PhD in the Anthro department. Its strange to have it gone as its the first peice of furnature I owned in my adult life.

Packing is going too slow. But I’m working at it.

I just got two class grades back for this quarter (both A’s!!!).

And I had a great meeting with Village Voice and Wired journalist and all around good guy Julian Dibble to talk about my thesis. Very useful as he pointed me in a number of good directions. Then I also got to talk with my friend Tina whose working on blogs. I’m really going to miss the many face to face ideation sessions I’ve had here. Its been amazing to have so much time to talk about ideas with so many specialists. Its something I really want to help to foster where ever I end up working.

As for now, back to packing.

The Chinese Medicine paper is finally in. What a debacle. I bit off more than I could chew and delivered late (literally a week late). Not an ostentatious finish. But on the plus side, I’ve gotten good feedback on the thesis. And I got a free lunch from the head of the MAPSS program (perspective MAPSS students: know John. love John. Again, his bark > his bite).

Now it’s packing time. Bleh.

My brothers come in on Friday. I leave for Rochester Sunday. I have a hell of a lot of packing to do in between. And a couple important meetings in there as well.