Having set up the basic blog, I have been thinking about how I want it to look. How is it that I want to frame the research? I have looked at Toby's blog and it has a heading stating the nature and purpose. It is a mini-biography and outlines the entries as rigorous research, and not just random wanderings. I thought this was important as on the net it can be difficult to discern what people’s personal sites are about, or gauge the quality. This signpost heading grounds the blog in within the academic context, which seems to give it validity.
Initially I considered it would be a good idea to do this to mine also: perhaps to call it the "Narcissistic Erotic". By the very naming of the word narcissism seems to take the sting out of the self-indulgence of such scrutiny of my won image. Apart from the artistic guilt of copying, I've changed my mind because I think that I am attracted to the web simply because it could possibly attract all kinds of comments. For this reason I don’t want to indicate so explicitly that the blog concerned with a MPhil/PhD research. Rather to allow for the potential for it to interpreted as a subjective, personal site. This takes the narcissism out of the 'validating' academic context. This heightens the narcissism even further and also becomes a play on the nature of blogs. As time goes on, I may even have separate academic/'subjective' blogs. It's very narcissistic of me to think strangers will be so interested in the site anyway!
