Category: General

Keeping those readership numbers up

So, not being one to confuse causation with correlation, I’ve been thinking long and hard about unique visits to this site and the associated frequency of my putting up blog posts, and I’ve come to an interesting conclusion. Now, I can;t just share this conclusion with you; I need to have my argument peer-reviewed and do some more tests, but I think I may have come up with something. Here’s a hint; blog post frequency seems to match visits.

Very exciting.

In less interesting news, the thesis goes well. I think I should have a final draft of this chapter (formally chapter six, now most likely to win “The New Chapter Three Pageant”) by Thursday; this afternoon I will spend a largish chunk of my increasingly precious time teasing out my reasoning to see that it holds. If it does, well, all I need to do is finesse a few examples and start a paragraph with:

In conclusion, what this shows, I have argued, is that…

If that all happens (and it should), then I’ll blog a noteworthy post on the chapter’s substantive content. I would do that now, but it’s better to “blow me load” on the thesis rather than the blog.

Trah.

11/10/2010

A Conspiracy Week of Tweets 2010-11-07

  • Spent the weekend in a movie marathon and I can't be bothered catching up on tweets. Anything I should know about ? #
  • Saw a Charles Bronson film at the marathon (The Mechanic) which was actually good. Still don't know why Leonie thought he could act, though. #
  • All of "The Fast Show" on DVD? How will I get any work done this week? Also, who's in for a Fast Show Marathon at mine? #
  • Have started watching season 1 SG1 with Mum. They keep referring to Carter as "Doctor." When did they stop doing that? #
  • Writing an abstract for an Applied Philosophy Conference in Brighton next August. Trying very hard to get it under the 300 word maximum. #
  • Thinking of holding a Twitter conference. All papers must be, at most, five tweets in length (excluding title tweet). Broad brief. Who's in? #
  • Chemtrails NZ Flyer http://tumblr.com/xquo8r1tw #
  • Call for Papers: 1st Episto Tweet Conference, December 3rd, 2010 http://bit.ly/9WHPzZ #twecon #
  • I'm pleased to say that we have eight presenters already for the Tweet Conference. Join us! http://bit.ly/9WHPzZ #twecon #
  • May have just come up with a novel solution to the problem of a) how we estimate the incidence of conspiracies and b) does it matter? #
  • Have just discovered "Hipster Hitler." Not sure whether I should like it or not: http://hipsterhitler.com/ #
  • Some of my best work is in my footnotes. I really need to turn this into a proper book post submission. #
  • Some days, when I defending a limited warrant of conspiracy theories, I wonder why I bother, given the crap such theorists end up spouting. #
  • Gah, English slippage. #
  • The prophecy was false. #tweetyour16yearoldself #
  • I, for one, am not buying Stephen Fry's explanation for his horrendous misstep on claims about female sexual desires. #
  • As I just tweeted, I think Mr. Fry needs to (re-)read Vonnegut's "Mother Night." #
  • BSG footnote in thesis? Check. Will it survive to the next draft. Not likely. #
  • I have a lot of friends on Twitter who come from Christchurch. Obviously my witticisms play well in Te Wai Pouanamu. #
  • Thus far half the #tweetyour16yearoldself tweets are warnings to their younger selves, the other half are tweets from their younger selves. #
  • Has there ever been a machine more highly correlated with egregious douchery than a jetski? (via @badtom) #
  • The robot design in the most recent "Sarah Jane Adventures" storyline is really quite good. Well done, BBC. Well done. #

11/07/2010

A Conspiracy Week of Tweets 2010-11-07

  • Spent the weekend in a movie marathon and I can't be bothered catching up on tweets. Anything I should know about ? #
  • Saw a Charles Bronson film at the marathon (The Mechanic) which was actually good. Still don't know why Leonie thought he could act, though. #
  • All of "The Fast Show" on DVD? How will I get any work done this week? Also, who's in for a Fast Show Marathon at mine? #
  • Have started watching season 1 SG1 with Mum. They keep referring to Carter as "Doctor." When did they stop doing that? #
  • Writing an abstract for an Applied Philosophy Conference in Brighton next August. Trying very hard to get it under the 300 word maximum. #
  • Thinking of holding a Twitter conference. All papers must be, at most, five tweets in length (excluding title tweet). Broad brief. Who's in? #
  • Chemtrails NZ Flyer http://tumblr.com/xquo8r1tw #
  • Call for Papers: 1st Episto Tweet Conference, December 3rd, 2010 http://bit.ly/9WHPzZ #twecon #
  • I'm pleased to say that we have eight presenters already for the Tweet Conference. Join us! http://bit.ly/9WHPzZ #twecon #
  • May have just come up with a novel solution to the problem of a) how we estimate the incidence of conspiracies and b) does it matter? #
  • Have just discovered "Hipster Hitler." Not sure whether I should like it or not: http://hipsterhitler.com/ #
  • Some of my best work is in my footnotes. I really need to turn this into a proper book post submission. #
  • Some days, when I defending a limited warrant of conspiracy theories, I wonder why I bother, given the crap such theorists end up spouting. #
  • Gah, English slippage. #
  • The prophecy was false. #tweetyour16yearoldself #
  • I, for one, am not buying Stephen Fry's explanation for his horrendous misstep on claims about female sexual desires. #
  • As I just tweeted, I think Mr. Fry needs to (re-)read Vonnegut's "Mother Night." #
  • BSG footnote in thesis? Check. Will it survive to the next draft. Not likely. #
  • I have a lot of friends on Twitter who come from Christchurch. Obviously my witticisms play well in Te Wai Pouanamu. #
  • Thus far half the #tweetyour16yearoldself tweets are warnings to their younger selves, the other half are tweets from their younger selves. #
  • Has there ever been a machine more highly correlated with egregious douchery than a jetski? (via @badtom) #
  • The robot design in the most recent "Sarah Jane Adventures" storyline is really quite good. Well done, BBC. Well done. #

11/07/2010

Conferencing, Twitter-stylz

Yo, I’m down with the kids and all that, so I’m organising a conference utilising the powers of social media. See here for details.

11/04/2010

A Conspiracy Week of Tweets 2010-10-31

  • I have taken the last few days off; any important tweets I should know about? #
  • Who else is going out to Avondale for the Movie Marathon next weekend? #
  • Watching "Murderland." Robbie Coltrane is magnificent but, really TVNZ, you should be playing the episodes weekly, not all together. #
  • random conspiracy generator http://tumblr.com/xqun1nyum #
  • Essays essays essays essay. I'm assaying essays. #
  • Right, essays done (for the moment). Now for some thesis and then a walk to get the kink out of my back. #
  • Sometimes the comments that vex me most, thesis-wise, aren't the "You're mistaken." No, it's the "That's interesting; what if that means…" #
  • Troubleshooting the desktop; this always happens on a day when I need to be doing serious thesis work. #
  • Why do you keep crashing, OS X? It better not be a dud GPU… #
  • Once again I can't go to "Media 7." This week's excuse: house-shopping with my Mother. #
  • I've gone on a lot about my Communist Hat, but now I have the trousers of a Thai fisherman. Best pants ever. #
  • Baking chocolate chip biscuits to share with my fellow marathoners. Maybe I should do two batches… #
  • Some of my best friends aren't Marxists. (via @gtiso) #
  • Hmm… Tweetie for Mac seems to no longer be a very trustable tweet-checking machine. #
  • I seem to have tracked my iMac problem to the machine overheating so I am now playing around with smcFanControl to fix it. #
  • I've cooked, baked and house-worked and I've discovered that my left knee has decided to form a bruise from my knee-shelf trap two days ago. #
  • I am not able to be clever and write novel thesis material today, but I can cut and edit existing material in revenge for my apathy. Huzzah. #

10/31/2010

And So It Begins

As of yesterday, I am a thesis machine and only a thesis machine ((Well, not exactly. I also have some essays to mark, but not many, if any.)).

No teaching, no guest lecturing; I’m all about the thesis and the writing of the thesis, baby.

I am, frankly, a bit scared. The endgame looks to be a mammoth undertaking; not only do I need to finish this chapter but I need to write an introduction and a conclusion to another and then, once those two not inconsiderable tasks are complete, rewrite all those chapters which feature out of date terminology, repetition and unclear prose.

Which is everything.

So, as of today, I am thesis and only thesis.

Roll on March and my final draft.

10/27/2010