I finished my spring semester, somewhat victorious. One A and one B. Better than two B's! Most importantly, the A was in the class for which I completed my thesis proposal. So greenlight go on my thesis! Huzzah!

In other excellent news: it's summer! Yay yay yay summer!

Have you seen any good summer movies? I've only seen Iron Man 2, and I was not impressed. Maybe hopefully I'll see something else tonight.

Have you seen Charmalade's vacation pics? She's in Thailand. SO BEAUTIFUL!

Procrastination

Now you see, here's the problem:


This is the time of year that I start to seriously question how bad an incomplete could really be.

Personal Style Blog Research

Well, Tania of What Would a Nerd Wear asked to hear more about my project. So here we go.

Last semester I looked at Identity and Outfit of the Day Blogs. I interviewed seven OOTD bloggers to hear the story told through the voices of participants, and I followed approximately twenty blogs to watch how the community worked. My research question was: how is identity as an OOTD blogger shaped and influenced by the community of OOTD bloggers? I am a sociologist, so I am drawn to questions about the interplay between self and society.

This semester I am returning to the project and looking at it from a new angle. First, I have changed the terminology to personal style blogger, as that appears to be a cultural trend that has surfaced. Now I have two questions: what influences the personal style blogger's choice to, or not to monetize, and is personal style blogging a feminist enterprise?

A second big difference between last semester and this semester is that my current project is a research proposal for my thesis. My thesis will be due in April, 2011, so I have one year to read tons more books and articles, do more data collection, and do data analysis. This summer I will do a second round of interviews, and I would like to get as many as 40 interviews completed (if you're a personal style blogger and you're reading this, I would definitely like to talk with you). I will also be creating a database about PSBs, like posts per month, ads or no ads, links or no links, blogroll, number of pictures, cross posting, all that good stuff. From what I can tell, there is no centralized data collection of this kind, except probably Blogger and WordPress have use numbers. I suspect that blog companies would be unwilling to share that data, and also, since personal style blogs are not always distinct from personal blogs, mommy blogs, beauty blogs, etc., the info probably doesn't exist for just the type that I'm investigating.

So, what do you think? I have lately seen tons of reflective posts on these exact topics. Those are really cool and helpful, and I want to strike while the iron is hot, before people get tired of talking about why they do what they do. On the other hand, there is no money to do this research; I'm just working on my M.A., so it pretty much happens when I have time for it to happen. Same issues that most grad students face.

OK, so there you have it. Let's talk!
Emily K.

:(

Oh. So sad. And so snowy.

I have just returned from vacation!

Oh baby. This was the most insanely excellent vacation ever. EVAR!

My husband and I went on a delayed honeymoon to Turks and Caicos in the West Indies. We stayed at the drop dead gorgeous Bohio Dive Resort on Grand Turk (pop. 3,720) and we got dive certified. We also made tons of friends with our fellow vacationers. It was truly divine. Pictures:

(All pictures property of Emily Kennedy.)

Huge picture size, I know, but you just cannot imagine how lush and beautiful this island was. It was a tremendously wonderful trip, full of sun, local beer, relaxation, fishes, and chilling out.

Then we returned to find that our Kansas Jayhawks have won the Big 12 Championship and are ranked #1 in the nation for the NCAA Tournament. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Go KU!

Musica

Yo!

So my dear friend Charmalade tells me I don't post enough. That's because my life is boring and there's already so much great content out there. Scratch that, my life isn't boring; it's germinating. It is fertile soil with seeds planted, but not enough sunshine yet for anything to sprout. How's that for a fun metaphor?

What I do have is a youtube playlist I made. I named her rock folk rock.

I was inspired by all the recommendations from a somewhat recent LeProust Vintage post entitled Jack White Would be Proud. Isn't that the coolest post?! LeProust has great followers, and so many of them contributed with suggestions. Love it! I just sifted through them and collected tracks from the ones I hadn't really heard of (with a few exceptions - the Stupid Bowl was going on at the same time so I also threw in the NFL theme song).

That's pretty much all I've got!

ASOS

Have you been checking out the goods on ASOS.com? It's kind of wicked cute stuff. More wicked cute (like sharp and chic) than precious cute (a la ModCloth). I ordered two dresses from there today. I await delivery with bated breath! Nope, this is not a sponsored post.

Also, the Jayhawks are #1 in the nation baby. 7-0 in conference play. I saw them play Nebraska at home yesterday and man, the future looks bright! I have little to no tolerance for that other popular sport that is having a big event today. What a brat I am.

So, a few awesome people already know this (probably the same few who read this blog), but last semester I did a graduate research project on Outfit of the Day bloggers. Now it looks like I may write my thesis for my Sociology M.A. on OOTD blogs. In the interest of full disclosure, I comment and subscribe to blog feeds both because I find them interesting and because I'm researching. In ethnographic terms I am doing participant observation. I just want you to know that, because I'm not trying to be some kind of sneakypants.

Hope you're well!