My first year as a PhD student is quickly wrapping up…a little too quickly considering the workload I have left. But I thought I’d write a brief post to let people know (1) I’m still alive after somehow surviving my first Michigan winter, and (2) I plan to revive this blog to early 2008 levels over the summer.

First, you may notice the blog rename. I had grown tired of the “welcome to oblivion” name, as it had no relevance to my writings and was merely an obscure reference to a sci-fi book I was reading when I first started this blog. Thanks to @whatknows for suggesting I go with something more simple and “academic-y.” Next time I see you, I will be bearing cookies. The reason for the new name is rather obvious: (1) I study social phenomena, albeit only in relation to technology; and (2) I am obsessed with my name.  🙂 As many media outlets are now so kindly pointing out, I must be a narcissist since I have Facebook and Twitter accounts.

So what will I be writing about in the upcoming months? Most likely my primary focus will be on social gaming, specifically MMORPGs. At some point I want to put up some background research I did last summer for the Pew report on teens and gaming that did not make it into the final version. I’m also working on two projects currently that focus on identity and interaction in World of Warcraft. Otherwise, I hope to stay on top of current tech news related to social network sites, with maybe a post or two related to social capital (another summer project) thrown in here and there.

But since I’m already procrastinating by writing this post, I should probably hold off on writing any more until the second week of May. That is assuming, of course, I survive the next three weeks. Sigh.