Sent out my demo data sheet. Got some responses back quite promptly. Nice. Some respondents are suspicious, hesitant to give personal info. That's wise of them. Misdirected, but wise. Haha. Besides, I probably wouldn't want to give out my personal info via email. But such are the vagaries of research. Face-to-face interviews are impossible for me right now, so I have to be satisfied with the limitations of email interaction. I just need this damn thesis done. I'm so over it. :P

Data gathering is difficult, not just logistically, but more for the attitude the researcher must adopt. I'm not really a data-gathering person. I'd rather exist in my bubble, rather than disturb others in theirs. This is why I'd never be a paid researcher. I don't like data-gathering. The conceptual parts, I can handle fine. Give me a stack of journals and I can give you a kick-ass review of related literature. I enjoy doing the conceptual framework, linking variables and teasing out relationships. Data analysis also has the potential for fun. That's when all the hard work pays off. It's such a good feeling when the numbers add up and your hyothesis proves true. Or in the case of an exploratory research, when the results give a workable hypothesis.

But data gathering sucks. Period. Researcher characteristic, ladies and gentlemen.