back in may 1998, I started working on my phd at the university of otago. the year before, I had completed my masters - but not quite to my satisfaction. you see, for much of 1997 I ended up getting lost, sidetracked and wandering in circles. at the start of my phd, I resolved to put my best foot forward! to be more organised! not to slack about! and to keep a daily work log in order to help me accomplish this. for some reason, I decided to put it on my public web page. serendipity? perhaps.
over the next year and a half, my work log mutated somewhat. it became less of a personal track record of my research progress - and more of a general ranting forum. as several of my friends moved away, they commented that they would keep in touch by reading my work log and seeing how I was doing. the number of people who wandered across it was truly amazing. irregular emails from researchers in similar fields, friends who now lived on the other side of the world, even the occasional job offer (!) started to convince me that I had stumbled onto something rather potent.
now that I've left the university of otago, it would seem impolite to continue using their web server. since I have to find a new web host, it seems an opportune time to redesign / amplify / generally fool around with stuff. besides, I have a real weakness for 'cool hacks' and couldn't resist designing a scripting back-end to underly my work log. as you will see, things have spiralled out of control since then. ::shrug:: so, here we are.
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