4 months and counting

It appears I have been slacking off on my blogging! My excuse is that I have been busily making progress on my PhD and haven't had anything much to report on. Well, other than the inner revolution of me figuring out what it is exactly I'm researching. It turns out my interest is in youth sexual cultures and how this landscape has changed/is changing because of new electronic/communication media. And it seems my timing is either perfect or off by about 6 months.

Today I was talking to one of my supervisors and he informed me of an academic journal that is looking to do a special edition that would basically be entirely dedicated to topics of interest and relevance to my own research. I would love to write a peer-reviewed article, that would be great! Problem is, I don't have anything to write about other than what other people have written about. Maybe if I get my ass in gear I could write a theory paper (that would require me actually reading some theory though). And while the article deadline is a good ways away, it comes right when I'd be starting to get my data in. There is a possibility of co-authoring a paper with someone else from the centre, namely, my other supervisor, but she's on vacation at the moment. So, we are sitting on that one for the moment.

The other academic thing going on is that there's going to be an IASSCS Conference in Vietnam in April 2009 that has a whole range of topics also of particular interest and relevance to me. I imagine that me and every other researcher at ARCSHS will be submitting an abstract for this conference, so that should be interesting. This is the same organization that hosted the conference I presented at in Lima, Peru last year. I think this time I'll see about doing a poster presentation and focus it on what I am proposing to do with my research. So we'll see how that goes as well.

In non-academic news, we've finally got internet set up at home now. Woohoo! We are both enjoying the convenience of being able to pop online to check something out whenever the mood strikes. This also means that I will be more available on Skype (though the time difference leaves something to be desired). I will also at some point in the nearish future get around to posting some more resent pictures on Flickr. Bear with me!

Well, we're settling into a chilly winter here in Melbourne and I keep getting to hear about the beautiful summer weather in Canada. I guess the fact that it's winter and the temperature is averaging 12-16 degrees is pretty sweet though. I do think that my mind will be completely blown come summer here....when I get to hear about all the snow and sub-zero temperatures back home. I may even come to miss the snow. But I wouldn't hold your breath on that.