Category: About this blog
-
10 Years of Blogging
According to a notification I just received, today is my 10-year anniversary on WordPress. Originally, this was little more than a webpage introducing me as an aspiring PhD candidate. At the time it was generally believed that having an online presence was a good thing, and I thought it might impress the admissions boards at…
-
2015 in Review
It’s that time of the year again, when one takes stock of the previous 12 months. This year’s post is less introspective than the previous one, but here goes anyway… As always, WordPress has helpfully provided an annual traffic report, according to which this blog was visited 110,000 times in the past twelve months. This is a…
-
Drunken Aussies, Upgrading to PhD, and the REF
I’ve been in my new post in Graz for a month now, and life seems to be settling back into a pattern of regularity. This means that I now have time to read more broadly about things academic and professional. What follows is a selection of highlights from my reading last week: David Crystal is…
-
How I became a book salesman
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that, in recent posts, whenever I mention a book, I link to Amazon.com rather than Google Books. Here’s what this is all about: Maintaining this blog involves two kinds of investments. The first is an investment in time, for researching, writing and publicising the posts. Your readership, support and kind comments are…
-
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 51,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 19 sold-out performances for that many…
-
Happy Holidays!
Just a note to wish you all a very happy holiday season! The blog will not be updated regularly, during the next couple of week or so, but look out for a retrospective post on Tuesday 30th December. Merry Christmas, to those of you who celebrate it, and a Happy New Year to all!
-
Your search terms, revealed
There was a time, not too long ago, when Google would share the search terms (or ‘keywords’) that led readers to this blog. Google now encrypts this data, which means that I can no longer know what brought most of you here, but I can still get some clues from the search terms shared by other…
-
Interruption of service
I will be taking a few weeks off blogging in order to prepare for my upcoming viva and a publication with a pressing deadline. During this time, I am afraid I won’t be able to update this blog regularly, although I might comment irregularly on topical issues, as they arise. I will try to respond any comments,…
-
A landmark and a thank you note
I am very happy to say that, in the past month this blog received 5,758 page views, which is the highest number of views since its creation. The previous record has stood since March 2014, when the blog had received 4,591 views, largely on account of the Fake Papers post. By way of comparison, in…