Working in a coal mine

Well, actually I’m working at home. I hadn’t realized how not having an office, not living close to campus, and not having Internet access at home can change the way you work. No, scratch that, I knew the way I worked was going to change, I just hadn’t realized how much. I’ve never done too well working at home, I just find it too isolating. I can’t even check my email now unless I stand by my window with my laptop hoping to get some of my neighbour’s wireless (though I’m getting Internet soon). It’s not so bad, I do good work in cafes, but there’s only one decent cafe within 10 minutes’ walk from me (Tim Horton’s does not count as a cafe). I need a certain level of noise and activity around me: not too much, not too little, and not too many people I know to distract me. I was made for cafe work. If only I could afford to do all my work at a cafe, but buying a coffee everyday is bad for my body (I’m trying to avoid getting addicted to caffeine) and the coffees I like are the costly kind. Try tea, you say? I suppose, but even those add up.

Until I finally get settled down, I thought I might discuss you, my readers, whoever you are. I installed Google Analytics at the end of last month and it’s kind of fascinating looking at where exactly you’re all accessing my blog from: 43 visits from the US, 19 from Canada (most of those are probably me accessing the blog from different computers), 13 from the Philippines, 7 from Australia, 6 from the UK, 2 from Sweden, 2 from Germany, 2 from Belgium, and 1 each from France, Poland, Guam, Bulgaria, Austria, and Vietnam.

This is pretty cool, actually. Apparently Sarapen was accessed 5 times each from Las Vegas, from Portland, Oregon, and from Coburg in the state of Victoria in Australia. No one from Canberra? Come on, I’m considering applying to ANU for the Phd and I could use some insider information. I’m pretty sure the German visits are probably by orange and I think I know who the person from Poland is, if it’s just one person. A, is that you?

Almost a quarter (24.51%) of visitors to Sarapen access it directly, probably from bookmarks, while 11.76% come from s0metim3s’ blog, 10.78% find Sarapen through Google, 8.92% from a comment I left on the blog of one of my participants, 4.90% are directed from Aries’ blog, 3.92% from antropologi.info, and a very large number of one-time visits coming from the blog of someone who found me on LiveJournal, specifically this post.

Yup, that’s me writing a whole mess about the Japanese comic book Death Note. It’s actually rather interesting how you’d have no idea I was into this kind of stuff until and unless I tell you. Blogs are fascinating for how they give the appearance of intimacy and yet manage to hide quite a lot about the bloggers writing them.
Actually, I’m considering eventually expanding Sarapen’s purview: instead of focusing entirely on stuff that’s directly related to my research, I thought that every now and then I’d post an analysis of something just for the hell of it. I’ve already kind of promised to eventually blog about the new season of Battlestar Galactica, anyway. I don’t know, this might seem to take away from my research, but lots of times I end up making all kinds of weird connections across all kinds of stuff. I think the last time this happened was when I was reading Asia Times Online and suddenly got a reference to follow up and a new theoretical position to consider about a paper I was writing on terrorism.

Anyway, the purpose of this rambling post was mostly to let people know I was still alive. I’m not feeling too analytical right now, but keep on keepin’ on, peeps.

PS
Ibalik, thanks for offering to host Sarapen but I think I’ll have to decline for the moment. It’s just simpler to stay here at edublogs.org right now since this is where my participants know where to find me. Maybe after I’m done my research and writing. I think I may stick with blogging after all.

Post-postscript
Jose Rizality at s0metim3s. Rizal-age? Rizal-ness? Whatever, stuff about Rizal and Benedict Anderson, of Imagined Communities fame.

4 Replies to “Working in a coal mine”

  1. Yes, exactly the reason that I hate working at home. Home is for sitting around in your pajamas and sipping tea curled up in bed, it shouldn’t be a site of misery and anxiety. Unless you’re living with someone else.

    And I forgot there were going to be webisodes. I’m actually in Canada, I used to live not too far from where your Long Sunday compatriot is now. I’ve got this essay on Foucault and Japanese comics that’s percolating (germinating? festering?) in my mind right now, sooner or later I will either have to write it or start shouting it at passersby.

  2. “I hate working at home.”

    Right the opposite here. Have been working at home for almost ten yrs now in several jobs. It begun with the computers and the internet. Got used to it so much that I find pretty difficult now to work in an office. It has many advantages to me, like I don’t need to find anyone to sit my dog when I have long work sessions to do.
    Another advantage: don’t have to buy each cup of coffee and I consume lots of espresso latte especially when I work.

    Nice global collection of referrers, btw. 🙂
    Once one got started its hard to think of not blogging anymore, non?

  3. Oh, I think I’d probably die in an office. Actually, I know what my perfect work environment is, it’s an artist’s studio. But not one where I’m alone, one where there are other people also working on their own projects. I can work, pause for a bit, chat for a while with the other people, get something to drink, then come back and work again. Now I’m trying to recapture that experience with cafes. It all goes back to when I thought I was going to go to art school instead of heading into anthropology. Cafes aren’t so bad, though, especially since the maximum I can drink is one cup of coffee a day. I can nurse that baby all day.

    And if anyone out there can explain what http://www.darmowe-statystyki.com is and why they’re linking to me, I would love you forever. I think it’s in Polish, but all I know is how to say “My name is [blabla]”, “thank you,” and “goodbye.”

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