Welcome to the first full week of my dissertation blog. A big THANK YOU to everyone who's volunteered to be the weekly monitor. The schedule's already filled up through the end of October! I really appreciate everyone's support.

First up as the weekly monitor is Steve Boland, in San Francisco. In his own words, "steve boland is a failed journalist and dot-commer who hasn't failed yet at urban planning. he is, however, a very successful drinker." "Hasn't failed yet"? Steve's website SF Cityscape suggests otherwise. Thanks for taking the leadoff spot!

Rainy today. I brought a sandwich for lunch, or rather a homemade panino. (Pet peeve #36, the plural panini used to describe one sandwich; pet peeve #37, an accent on the last letter of "latte", an attempt on the part of more than one misguided cafe owner to sound more sophisticated while proving the exact opposite - there ought to be a word for a self-undermining mistake like that, like there is for a mondegreen or a malapropism.) Have to say it turned out pretty good - turns out there is a use for a grill pan, if only just the one. Use a cast-iron skillet or something similarly heavy to press down on the top of the sandwich as it's warming up on the grill pan, and voila: insta-panino, with cute grill marks and all.

Not such a good day writing-wise. Turns out the outline I sent DK on Friday had weird formatting that make it hard to read and give comments on, so I spent much of the morning fixing that. On one level, I didn't really need to, and it was a perfect excuse to procrastinate in one of my favorite ways, futzing about with formatting. On another level, DK gives great comments, so it was important that it be user-friendly. I just could have found a more expedient way to do so.

Then I spent a frustrating hour spinning my wheels working on the local-level police corruption piece I mentioned on Friday. I keep going back and forth about whether or not to incorporate a formal model into my dissertation (meaning, use game theory to analyze and clarify a decision-making scenario). The first step in doing so is to specify the conditions of the scenario in detail, including who all the players are and what the decisions they need to make are. Harder than it sounds, everything has to fit together logically just so. It's not a real forte of mine, but the exercise can be very helpful in clarifying assumptions. Whether or not I develop a formal model out of it, I'll be glad to have gone through the exercise. Just not right now...

The afternoon was better. I decided to stop spinning my wheels and try a new direction. So I focused on fleshing out the outline of the first chapter, and that was productive. I fleshed out a number of ideas, and identified areas where I need to consult sources to back up those ideas. Part of the challenge of a dissertation is documenting things that you already know and that your readers already know and that are in fact true, but that scholarly rigor demands you back up with a raft of appropriate citations. It's an adjustment from the type of writing I've been doing the past three years at work. Anyway, I made a pass through the outline of the first chapter, and felt good about the progress. So the day ends on a good note.

Final tally: two hours writing, four hours administrivia and background research. Better luck tomorrow.