Thursday, February 28

The ice has almost melted away in many parts of the streets, but not everywhere. Our garden and drive require walking with a special gait; a crouching, swaying motion that looks stupid but lowers your centre of gravity.

Today I got onto an almost empty 97V and, at the next stop, the bus remaining almost empty, a man sat down next to me and spread himself widely. Later the same thing happened on the tram. I have lived in Finland so long that I have begun to get outraged by these kinds of things.

I spent the morning writing a final version of my Fulbright application, while emailing Scott and Elize for some final details which I realised I need. “How will I get from wherever I stay to the university? Should I rent a car? And where exactly will I find myself staying? Should I book a motel?”

That kind of thing.

In the course of this I did find at least three motels in Lubbock where I could happily stay, so if it turns out that I need to rent a room somewhere I might well opt for a motel rather than the usual conference-style hotel room.

I then wrote an application to a post-conference (hmmm…) in Madrid in July, at which I offered to explain about my alleged project to build something to replace Facebook. Matteo and Nathalie had both pointed this post-conference out to me, so I decided that I should give it a go.

I then turned my attention to the TUF/Lindstedt application that Matteo and Tore will finish today, and which may lead to funding to build my Faebook replacement. I amended my parts, added some references, made some suggestions, and handed it all over to Tore again. This process took place in Teams, which Arcada now officially uses, although you could count the number of people currently using it on the fingers of two hands.

Jutta, Mirko and I have started using Teams, since Jutta discovered that we could embed Trello in it.

Enough of all this I think, and set off to wander about the building. Downstairs I come across the sculpture by Alvar Gullichsen, moved to a much more photogenic place. I remember first coming across the Bonk mythology and how much I liked it. I still do, so I photograph the purposeless machine (again).

I will go back upstairs, have lunch, chat with Maria and Monica, and then go over the various applications again.

I will send out some advertising material for tomorrow’s Miaaw episode, in which Sophie and I discuss the resurgence of the idea of cultural democracy in the 1990s. It will occur to me that I should contact the Gulbenkian Foundation to ask if they would like a book about cultural democracy: where it came from, and where it might possibly go.

At 16:00 I will realise I have completed everything on my tasklist for today. I will have a sudden thought: I split the recording of yesterday’s conversation with Francois in the wrong place. I will listen to the finished audio and decide that I did indeed. I will make some notes for myself, and leave.

Fortunately I have time set aside tomorrow to edit the second part, and I can steal some of that to fix the first part.