No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve just been distracted by work.
The week after classes started, I left for Chicago to present a paper at the annual meeting of the APSA. My paper (corrected link) was very well-received, indeed the comments left me blushing with embarrassment. I also attended a short course on using R to make graphs. I really just wanted a cheap (in terms of time invested) way to learn about R, and I believe I got that and then some. I suspect I’ll be using R sometime soon.
Then, the next week, I left for Rome and Florence to present another paper (written with Vicki Birchfield) at the ISA-RC19 conference. Unfortunately, our discussant wasn’t able to attend at the last minute, so we didn’t get much in the way of feedback. On the other hand, I really liked Rome and thought Florence was ok. Brian took over 2000 photos, a handful of which are online. (While I was at the conference, he saw just about every work of art in Florence.)
Now, back in Atlanta, I’ve been buried in 100+ emails, meetings with my various RAs and writing. It’s a nice start to the semester, but a little hectic.
Maybe someday I’ll have time to read the news again. Unfortunately, it won’t be before the end of the month.
Your paper link didn’t work. Not your fault, but rather that of the craptacular CMS that APSA and the other conferences (Midwest and Southern use the same one) insist on using.
Glad to hear y’all had a safe trip. And we’ll have you converted to R (assimilated?) in no time.
what is “R”?
Yes, we also need some commentary on Calderón’s policies, AMLO’s reactions, the state of the PRD, etc. from a Mexicanist!
R is an open source statistical package that all the cool geeks (like Chris) use.
Yes, I would love to be following Mexican politics more closely and blogging about it. I may be able to after the first of the month (when I’ve sent my book ms off). I’m only days away!!!!!
Also, it’s nice to know I have 3 loyal readers despite my absence. ;o