Clusters of Clusters

When I was working in the 1990s, I learned the term "clusterf*ck" which often seemed to describe my days in the office. "One of those days", a term we often used, was catapulted into the above exalted category when I found out that multiple bad things were happening all at once. I knew intimately what the term meant. Such a day might go something like this: I found out that my partner walked off his job the day after signing a mortgage with him and then got to work to find the computer system in disarray, followed by personnel issues, only to be called later by my doctor who told me that my CD4 count had dropped 100 points. Yep, those were the days of a clusterf*ck.

Then later, I learned the term "cluster headaches". These were not migraines, per se, but a series of simultaneous headaches in different regions of the head that all happened at the same time. These too were unpleasant to experience.

This week, I found that I could obtain code for a "Cluster Map", showing on a world map the locations of people who are accessing my blog. I owe the pursuit of this code to Dr. Chris of CreoleGumbo who has a nice version on his website. I had seen one of these hitcounters on Bora’s Science and Politics in the past, but had to wait until the company that developed the code was able to catch back up to demand. This week, I added the code and now I can tell where you are!

I must admit to a few surprises when looking at my first couple of maps. I am showing a hit from Iran, which I expected because of my interactions with an Iranian poet. I was also showing a hit from what appears to be Algeria that I can not account for. The largest surprise to me is the large number of hits that seem to be coming from Kansas. I am not aware of having had an audience there either, but I welcome all of you and hope that you are enjoying your time spent on my site.

Categories: blogger clustermap cluster+headaches clusterf*cks location readership