Since my confirmation in mid-August 2012, I have been progressing quite slowly, at least, slower than I’d expected. I thought that my timeline would guide me through the process of my data collection and analysis. I should’ve realised that other things related to family matters have the potential to slow me down. This is not to say that I put the blame on the kids and all the house chores. I’d be damned if I did.

Somehow, my musings in the midsts of laundry, dish-washing, and breakfast preparation can also turn to something. The key is to put them down to writing soon as they flash in my mind.

It’s now 2 months after my first milestone has been erected. I have three more weeks to go to finish my paper for the conference at UI. What I have now is a 17-page draft that is still unstructured. But at least I’ve made categories of IDWs’ blog entries that I think would be worth analysing.

What to do next?

My choice would be either to take two blogs and find similar themes in the entries, or just take one blog. For now, I’m considering the first option, but let’s see what Fran will say about this.

What’s more important is actually to stick to the discussion of the following issues: virtual identity and online self-presentation, what IDWs say about writing, and what they say about blogging/digital literacy. If I still have enough space to spare, I might discuss what they say about being an IDW and their work. Discussing these four issues would take a lot of space in the paper already. I guess they can occupy one chapter, but for my UI paper, it’s probably best to just take one or two issues into consideration.