dissertation Fibonacci

"Fibs": six-line poems that use a mathematical progression known as the Fibonacci sequence to dictate the number of syllables in each line. (0-1-1-2-3-5-8)

Write.
Right
or wrong,
It's better
To have words written.
Someday they will become something.

Inspiration.

Dissertation Zork

>look
You are on a red leather sofa facing a very large and very tempting flat-screen TV. A sheltie puppy is chewing through your shoelaces. There is a laptop in your lap. You have five Word documents open.

>look at Word documents
They are titled "Chapter 3 The Ubicomp Games", "Chapter 4 The Pervasive Games", "Nintendo Cubes section pergames", "REJECTED WRITING" and "works cited".

> work on dissertation
You spend five minutes browsing Boing Boing.

> work on dissertation
You check the Technorati links to your blog.

> work on dissertation
You go to the kitchen and have your 3rd helping of frozen waffles so far today.

> work on dissertation
You look in your Junk Mail folder in case any important emails were accidentally filtered.

> work on dissertation
You practice the "kisses" trick with your puppy.

> work on dissertation
Kiyash wants to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica on DVD.

> work on dissertation
After a second episode of Battlestar Galactica, you wonder if Kiyash is a Cylon.

> work on dissertation
The director’s commentary on episode four of the Battlestar Galactica DVD is really fascinating.

> WORK ON DISSERTATION
You are out of Battlestar Galactica episodes. You are in your living room with a laptop. It is dark out. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Inspiration.

if you love me, leave me alone

Reality check:

UC Berkeley's summer 2006 dissertation filing deadline is August 18.

I have about 100 pages written and easily another 150 to go.

The university recommends submitting a completed dissertation to all committee readers two months in advance of the deadline. That means my own personal writing deadline is June 18. (Followed, presumably, by two months of final feedback and revisions.)

Accordingly, I have taken an official leave-of-absence from 42 Entertainment to facilitate a final, Hail Mary pass at finishing this writing. Two to three months of writing until my fingertips bleed, my laptop explodes and my brain falls out of my nose. (Okay, maybe hopefully not that last part.)

So. If you love me, please leave me alone.

That means as much as I hate to say this, BETWEEN NOW AND JUNE 18:

• Please don't invite me to come give a talk, even if the talk is after June 18.
• Please don't tempt me with cool game design opportunities, even if the game date is after June 18.
• Please, especially, don't tempt me with exciting travel.
• Please don't send me emails introducing me to cool new people I should know.
• Please understand if I am ignoring research requests from your students.
• Please don't offer to interview or profile me for the publications I am sure I will be dying to be in AFTER June 18.
• Please don't even invite me to dinner or coffee or parties or anything.
• Please do, however, have cookies or other baked goods delivered to my apartment. That's 1370 University Avenue, #418.
• Please do leave cheerful comments on my Best Sentence blog, where I am live blogging the dissertation in an effort to not be oh-so-totally alone about it all.
• Please also feel free to join me for my one social outlet, taking Meche to the dog park each afternoon for an hour. That is the perfect time to say hello.
• Please don't forget I exist while I say NO to everything for the next 3 months.

In other words, please for the most part let me hole up miserably in my apartment and ignore everybody and console myself with dessert until until I really, truly have a fighting chance at being done.