Martin Eve's post about being at the half way point of his PhD caught my eye yesterday afternoon, but also made me realise that without even noticing, I am at the 18 month point of my PhD as well. I (re)started in October 2009. Martin has set his target to be completed by the time that his funding is completed - and I hope that I can say the same. The differences for me, is that my work is build up around an ethnography around the Olympic games period, with the first period of data capture occurring literally 16 weeks after registering on the program. Although nothing is in concrete, except for the London games time next year, I would be expected to be 'on the ground' during the games by default now, making the completion within this time frame (by October 2012) ambitious and potentially stress-laden (what's new?) It was a decision that I had to make with regards to only doing my project around Vancouver, or using the data collected then to inform a project around London. The funding structure covers that gap between the two Olympiads - allowing to assess transformations within that timeframe.

In the same vein as Martin, I thought it would be worth taking a look back at what I have achieved over the past 18 months in order to give myself the chance to reflect on the experience (and overcome the imposter syndrome). The great thing about the blogging the process is that I have a searchable record of all the things that I have done in this time, which has ended up offering me even more things in the process. I remember the aggro I had about blogging my PhD process the first time around (pre-October 2009) so it's kind of nice to be able to take some of those thoughts for granted now.

- I've written around 25000 words of 'official' thesis, but also wrote 70000 words on 750words.com and nearly 250 blog posts (between here and my website) around topics relating to my PhD. I feel as if I'm behind in writing, as in, I hope that I will be able to spend more time firming up ideas and turning them into fluent chapters- rather than simply blog posts/brain dumps. As the teaching terms conclude and the spring/summer months stretch in front of me, I'm looking forward to turning all those words into thesis. 

- I'm two thirds of my way through a PGCert in Higher Education, which I hope to complete in July. My employer Birmingham City University kindly sponsored this, as I would have needed to be teaching at UWS to qualify for it. 

- I got to spend six weeks in Vancouver collecting data during the Winter Olympics. My research diary from that is upwards of 35000 words (which I'm still too scared to go through because I fear that miss it too much)

- I've delivered several workshops around social media, academiaand the creative industries (around twitter, commentable documents and amplified events.) I've been asked to do more in the very near future. 

- I've taught on undergraduate modules for three years now. This year I've taught my own undergraduate module around my research. This has been very rewarding.

- I gave my first MA lecture on social media and the Olympic Games. Hopefully I will be teaching on a 4th year module next semester around Posthumanism. 

- I've been invited to speak at several research seminars.

- I've set up three websites on behalf of research/teaching/media communities (including one that helped win skillset accreditation for my University) I'm working on another one just now around social media methodologies. 

- I've co-authored one chapter and one encyclopedia entry. I have no idea when these will be out. 

- I've had presentations accepted at 5 conferences. 

- I've worked on several research projects outwidth of my PhD research. I particular enjoyed working on the tagginganna project at the University of Leicester.

- I've overcame my fear of standing up in public and articulating my thoughts about stuff. I can remember how scared I was at the first conference I had a paper accepted at (and I wasn't even presenting it as it was a co-author) Now it's all "Look mum, no notes!"

- I've managed to find my critical voice - rather than just being an angry, frustrated one. 

- I am optimistic that there is an alternative to what we are seeing just now around higher education and the university. I am dedicated to helping in whatever way I can to realise it. 

I'm a little bit nervous of the next 18 months. Perhaps it will just involve me sitting in my pyjamas, writing this god-damn thesis up - perhaps not. Better get going...