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Memes, Memes Everywhere

I’ve been slack, busy with a million and one things, and blogging hasn’t been at the top of my to do list – sorry not sorry?

So my memes study is done and put to bed, and I thought I wouldn’t have to look at another meme in university for a while (yes, to the untrained eye I may look like I’m dicking about on the Internet, but it’s research, I swear…) – oh how wrong I was. Student elections were running a few weeks back, and look what greeted me in the hallways… Continue reading “Memes, Memes Everywhere”

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POWS Blog

I was the teenager who stayed behind after school for band practice, choir practice, drama club, to learn an extra language… and somehow, at 25, I still can’t say no when offered extra-curricular gubbins to get stuck into. It’s true, I have a bit of a problem with volunteering. Continue reading “POWS Blog”

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Retrospective: Confirmation of Registration

It’s over two months since I last wrote here. It’s over half way through the semester. I have just submitted the third draft of my memes chapter, and the ethics for my second study. I had my annual progression meeting a couple of weeks ago (all went well, phew!) and I was out on the picket lines for Halloween’s strike action… Perhaps these things are related somehow? TL:DR – I’ve been super busy, and there’s no sign of this letting up any time soon (hello, extra marking! how I have missed you…) Ugh. I’ll try harder. I promise.

In the interest of continuity in these retrospective posts, I’d like to take you back in time by about a year, to talk about my Confirmation of Registration. The COR is kind of the first official step on the PhD journey I guess, and I had mine in December 2012. After enrolling in October and being thrown in the deep end with teaching, I spent about two months doing a lot of reading and reworking of my initial application proposal. This involved a fair bit of back and forth with my supervisors, making sure we had tightened up some bits of the proposal and anticipated any questions linked with the methods and rationale – especially around linking the two studies (memes and the experiences of women in IT). Continue reading “Retrospective: Confirmation of Registration”

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Retrospective: PhD Interview

September already? Really? Before I know it I’ll be back to teaching… I suppose it’s about time for a little more self-indulgent, reflexive babbling in that case. Following on quite neatly from my entry about the PhD application, I’m going to talk about my PhD interview. Continue reading “Retrospective: PhD Interview”

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Nine Worlds 2013 – London Geek Fest

A little background, before I jump into telling you what an amazing time I had last weekend at the Nine Worlds geek fest in London… It’s perhaps no surprise, given the PhD/blogging/memes/ex-programmer thing that I am… well… a geek. And that my partner is a geek. And that we geek together. A lot. We are technology obsessing, board gaming, computer gaming, sci-fi watching, fantasy reading, stuff collecting, card carrying geeks. And we’re proud of it.

You can imagine our excitement when we found out about the Nine Worlds convention – a weekend of ALL the geekery, where expensive signings and meet and greets had been replaced by workshops and talks on a huge range of topics – literature, sci-fi, vampires, skepticism, Game of Thrones, knitting, Joss Whedon, robotics, maths…. and so on. Sure there were expensive signings if that’s what you wanted, but the focus of this con seemed to be different – there seemed to be a real focus on discussion and learning. Pair that with a clear commitment to fostering a safe and inclusive space for ALL geekdom, and we were sold. Continue reading “Nine Worlds 2013 – London Geek Fest”