i think i should admit something: now i am conducting surveillance.
you see, there have been more people that i thought who actually read this blog, and regularly so. some have brought up this blog to me in person, but whom i didn't expect to know about it. it has made me curious about who actually reads the idle rants that i constantly write.
so if you scroll down this webpage, to the very bottom, there is a counter icon on the right-hand side. that is the counter, my surveillance device, and it records interesting statistics that you can read about here.
to my credit, i added the counter because i know of another mathematician who uses the same device for his/her own homepage. so between precedent and curiosity, i have become some type of Big Brother.
the statistics are interesting. some of you i expected (because .. well, you told me that you read this regularly) but other readers i cannot explain: i have never met you or heard of you. in particular, i didn't realise that anyone in the U.K. reads what i write.
so to everyone: let me thank you for bothering with me, my complaints, my insecurities, and my claims and my boasting. i think a blog is a dangerous thing: it makes one self-important, and feeling self-important one often loses ones sense of self ..
.. or at least, one's internet self. indeed, that is a type of self or aspect of self.
perhaps, at some point, i will write about actual mathematics again. but i feel i should be honest about surveillance. if this dismays some of you, then i apologize.
i was simply curious, and curious enough to learn about you.
6 comments:
A colleague who has a counter on his "official" webpage reported a spike in traffic after his name appeared on the math jobs wiki in bold font.
But I suppose that even if your name was up there, it would not be linked to this blog. :-D
By the way, does your counter also track RSS feed requests? Because that's how I read your blog most of the time.
Since I'm not nearly as prolific as you, Facebook notes seem to suffice for me. I would not be able to maintain a real blog over a long period of time... *sigh*
lately i've been congratulating people i know whose names appear boldly on that wiki. good news is hard to find, and pleasant emails are a rare commodity.
(as for myself, i'm content being anonymous.)
to answer your question, i think yes. on the counter statistics webpage (on the left sidebar) there is a link called "how do visitors come to my website." when i looked at the data, there were several hits through Google Reader.
lastly, i wouldn't call this "prolific." whenever i hear that word, i imagine a continuous effort towards something worthwhile and meaningful.
i also have a mild suspicion of frequently updated blogs. i would imagine that it takes more time to live life than to record it on the internet!
You just got yourself a dot in Iceland. I don't know if I'm going to mimic you and put surveillance on my blog though, might just find out that nobody goes there... ;)
I have a suspicion that I've already written this on my blog once or maybe as a comment on somebody else's blog, maybe even yours, but maybe it rather proves the point: my mum once said that "There are people who document their lives and then there are those who live it". I think it's rather well said.
However, those who like blogging should blog and those who don't should have no need to.
i was wondering when the iceland dot would come. thanks! (:
now that i think about it, i probably plagiarized you. when i was writing about living vs. blogging, it sounded far too familiar for me to have thought of it myself.
i hope that you won't sue.
lastly, i find blogging to be a convenient break between mathematical thoughts (read: frustrations). i wouldn't know how to run a mathematical blog otherwise;
i mean, can you imagine? "the happy-go-lucky analyst?" blech! q:
Nah, I won't sue. That is if you won't sue me... it's not like we're making any money of it anyway, or are you???
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