2b or not 2b; blogging a PhD

I was explaining (my) phd behaviours of picking it up and putting it down and my need to manage this ... there are similarities and differences with earlier study. I worked out that at this (non existent) rate i guesstimated i needed 6 weeks for each chapter, say 10 chapters... and then enlightenment hit me. 60 weeks for completion.
Time to get real.

And last time I skyped with peers undertaking a similar process, Nana named it - a thesis involves enrolling the actors, the theory that supports, the lit review that gets enrolled to provide the scene... the methodology that needs to be shown to be congruent. The politics of whats in whats out; an ontological choreography.
And some very pragmatic enrolling occurs; my own.

Latour talks of how things get made less or more real, it involves work, active engagement.
How does an innovation arise in the mind of inventors. The answer is always to be found in chains of translation,.. always comes from a blending or redistribution of properties previously dispersed.... I was interested in this, and that, and it coalesced here... and in this way. Experienced locally, personally.

The mix i bring, the assemblages i work at, managing my artefacts (literature reviewed ... data collected), managing the technology (always make back ups, never leave the laptop in the car, check the ipod battery...persevere with endnote word interface issues...database searches....skype for international chats with supervisor....other students...enter into web 2 blogging...always check the file attached before hitting send etc etc)

Interest people and things at the same time; recruit actors, human as well as nonhuman. Latour's words here: seduce, modify,transform, develop...

Enroll a supervisor.
That turns academia on its head :)
Keeping them enrolled also takes work :) and chardonnay maybe
They too may allow or forbid alliances...require, constrain, provide....

As Latour says: we have to negotiate.
What kills a project? Everyone and no one; a lack of negotiating.

A story then told of this and this and this and...i am compatable!

so...
10 chapters = a chapter every 6 weeks.
Time to get real.
Enact it, perform it into being.
Enrolling and negotiating the whole way; this and this and this...
Watch this space :)
A chapter by this time in August.

Another Zen moment;
before enlightenment there is chopping wood and peeling potatoes, and after enlightenment...
...there is chopping wood and peeling potatoes