Category Archives: Thinking

Post-PhD: The Liminal Academic

That liminal, ‘in-between’ stage can sometimes be a very fantastic place to be. I love taking the train when I travel because I’ve always loved that feeling of being in between where I left and where I was going. I loved that “liminal” feeling when I was a student. There was a freedom in thatContinue reading “Post-PhD: The Liminal Academic”

Random Thoughts on ‘Always Already New: Media, history and the data of culture’

Finished reading Lisa Gitelman’s Always Already New: Media, history and the data of culture a few days ago. I have to say, I was quite pleased with it on a few levels. First of all, I bought in at the same time as Hayles’ How We Think. It was completely haphazard – I love Hayles’ work, and Gitelman’s bookContinue reading “Random Thoughts on ‘Always Already New: Media, history and the data of culture’”

This is Not a Review: My thoughts on Hayles’ “How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis”

Finished reading Hayles’ How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis about a week or so ago and overall, I have to say I really enjoyed it …  of course with a few “buts” in there for good measure. I really like Hayles’ writing style. I personally find it complex but not complicated. I findContinue reading “This is Not a Review: My thoughts on Hayles’ “How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis””

Thinking About Hybrid-identity and Hybridity

Sometime during my Master’s research, I started to really question whether or not my work was truly about ‘identity’ (in a traditional sense). Coming from Sociology, the term has a lot of baggage, and while I was talking about the player-avatar relationship, or what exists/develops between them, I was always hesitant to firmly stake itContinue reading “Thinking About Hybrid-identity and Hybridity”

Making room (again) for sociality in MMOG’s

A recent blog post over at TAG  got me thinking about the role of down time in MMOG’s. Something a lot of (but not all) gamers complain about. It seems that if a game is not chalk full of action, it is often deemed boring or not very good. Over the years, MMOG’s seem toContinue reading “Making room (again) for sociality in MMOG’s”

Title, Abstract & One Final Push (and some editing)

A (very) brief update today, but I’ve (finally) come up with a title and wrote the formal abstract for my dissertation. After hundreds of pages of writing, one would think that the abstract would not be as challenging as it was. If interested, you can find it here. I feel a very strange mix of prideContinue reading “Title, Abstract & One Final Push (and some editing)”

Bullying & The Entertainment Industry

While not my normal range of topic to blog about, last night I was watching television with my 15 year old daughter. (Confession time….) I usually enjoy the lighthearted shenanigans of iCarly and the Wizards of Waverly Place. Sure, you could deconstruct either of these shows and find ‘something’ questionable in regards to their use ofContinue reading “Bullying & The Entertainment Industry”

Online Sociability: Yahoo! Chat to Facebook

Sitting in my living room last night with the television off (a rare occurrence for me, who usually needs background noise..) and I started thinking about my time online over the years. While I was a stay at home mom, I started chatting in 1994 in the Yahoo chat rooms. Sorted by topic, the rooms were filledContinue reading “Online Sociability: Yahoo! Chat to Facebook”