Really, I have been doing alot of research this year.  You just can’t tell from this blog.

The year started furiously preparing to teach two classes that I’ve never taught before, as well as doing quite a bit of background reading preparing to go into the field.  It was an awesome experience, and I am still processing the data six months after my return.  So on any occasion where I may have been sitting down to share ideas or references was spent pouring over survey results and maps.

While in China, I spent a lot of time on the ground actually forming a sense of place.  Navigating a city where I can’t really communicate was challenging, but it’s totally doable for any experienced traveller. Once you figure out where you live, daily life becomes an ever expanding series of conterminous round-trips.  Densely packed where you live on foot, more spread out as you change to faster modes of transport.  Learning to live in any new location would likely have a similar set of activity maps.

I’ve been totally blocked for the past two days on automating a data analysis task.  I’m not sure who to ask for technical support.  Maybe it’s time for a trip to the @Spatial help desk.  Since I’m stuck, I’m turning my attention to my online presence over the long holiday weekend.  We’ll see what happens.