Statistics
I think I’ve managed to get a bearing on the data that I’ll set out to collect this year. It’s themed around movement and consumption, which sort of ties in with some of my aims (i.e. lose some weight, be more active, eat more responsibly and economically). So, I am tracking what I am trying to do. This means that the success of one relies upon the success of the other.
As previously mentioned, I’m avoiding the use of technology to record the data. I have a diary, which I will try to update at the end of every day. I like the idea of this and it has been useful so far (‘so far’ as in ‘the past three days’) as a way of downloading thoughts and information, helping to gain some perspective. It also means that I’m not weighing down this blog with stats about the amount of coffee I’ve drunk. There are some natural digital records (blog/Twitter posts for e.g.) which are helpful, as I don’t have to think much about keeping up with them.
In all honesty, I’m still sketchy on the point behind all this. What I do know is that I am endlessly fascinated by the Annual Reports put together by Nicholas Felton, and I want to create one of my own. Maybe I’ll understand why later in the year.
2011 begins
It seems that I can post from my phone again, following a hiatus while I was unable to do this. I can’t sleep, so I’m alternating writing this blog with following a cricket match in Australia.
Christmas and New Year are fading memories. Today we put the house into order. I also spent some time nursing a quite dodgy stomach. Earlier we went for an hour’s walk along the seafront in Whitstable, then returned home like worn-out dogs.
There are resolutions too numerous to mention. Currently wrestling with whether or not it’s a good job to try and do too much at once. Logic says our brains have a limited capacity but also that our lives have a limited time.
One thing I’d like to get back to is some data collection. I’ve started this in long hand - a diary I keep by the side of the bed and plan to update every day. Whether I’ll keep it up or not and, if I do, what I’ll do with the data are questions I haven’t answered yet.
Going to try and sleep now.
Minor update pt.2
Uploaded a bunch of 18.13 photos stretching back to 5th August. As usual they are not artful or interesting. They just exist. There’s a 7 day gap while we were in Barcelona. I tried to keep up with it, and Abi kept reminding me, but in the end I was having too much fun not giving a shit about the time.
I have started chewing matchsticks. Found a load of them at the bottom of a drawer. I find that they add a little Clint Eastwood to your day.
Recently read: The Comforters by Muriel Spark, Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Creation Revisited by Peter Atkins and The Broker by John Grisham.
We have a bird feeder now. Every morning there is a fat juicy wood pigeon stuffing its face. There are also two blackbirds. I like to think that they are the same blackbirds that visited our garden for a few days when they were adolescent. If so, they are probably thinking something along the lines of, ‘Where was this fucking food when we really needed it?’
This matchstick in my mouth has just started going all stringy.
Have kind of lost interest in data collection. Still quite obsessed with light and parallel universes. And time travel.
I wrote a short story. It’s a bastardised version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As advertised on Twitter, I am planning on writing some more then turning them into a newspaper. I will give everyone a copy who asked for one when I initially wrote the tweet. You may be waiting some time.
Other writing is ticking over. Slowly. Very slowly.
Data
Got fucked over by car insurers. Far too angry to go into details. Waiting for the rage to simmer so that a nice letter can be written. Was so exhausted after the hour-long stonewall telephone conversation that had to lay down.
On the upside, I discovered today that there is a Guardian data blog. I’ve not had time to extensively explore but I discovered it after reading a G2 piece about a guy compiling a list of every Doctor Who villain. Sounds fun. Also found my way to Many Eyes, ‘a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns.’ Interesting visualisations include 1968 in France - Major political speeches and this on movie genres. It’s slightly too America-focused but looks interesting. And Many Eyes led me to TypoTopo, which overlaps typography with topography, and generally seems ultra-cool.
Good magazine has a decent looking section on infographics, although it is, again, highly America-focused. It also seems a bit showy, and the info is hard to determine in amongst all the graphic. (Unsure what Feltron would think about it). Still, the magazine seems like a decent idea. Ethics and all that shit.
Maybe if the people who own car insurance companies spent a bit more time looking at interesting data sets and a bit less time trying to fuck people in the arsehole they wouldn’t be such tossers. Or maybe not.
Aggregate yourself!
Stumbled across Daytum, which helps you ‘collect, categorize(sic) and communicate your everyday data.’ Exactly what I’ve been looking for (in fact, was so keen to find that I partially considered building a website like it myself. Thank god I didn’t have to do that, the results would not have been good). I have registered and can be found at daytum.com/samoborne.
After a small amount of browsing, it seems that people generally use it to keep track of specific aspects of their life. Such as this guy, who uses it to keep an eye on his money. Others aggregate the food they eat, or the miles they run/swim/cycle etc. The beauty of it is that, in general, the information that people present is of absolutely no interest to people who don’t know them (in fact, it is highly unlikely to even be of interest to them, either), which to me makes it all the more fascinating. I love it that aiahrachel has received 13,468 e-mails, and tiff has watched 35 Youtube videos. I only hope that their records are accurate. I would be disappointed if they weren’t.
So, I shall attempt to aggregate some areas of my life. I’m not sure what yet. The inspiration comes from this piece of genius. Deliciously geeky.
Here’s another person who is currently, to use his own words, ‘thinking about how aggregation should work on personal websites.’ Interested in what he has to say about things. I have a number of ideas about this which I would like to put into practice, but at the moment I haven’t got the time.
This week I have been reading Ratner’s Star by Don DeLillo and Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage. Two very different but equally engaging books. Hopefully I will be finished with these tonight. I have just signed into Goodreads for the first time in ages. It says that I am reading Night Work, which I haven’t been reading for about 18 months. I shall update.
I have book vouchers. I tried to spend them this morning but I got a bad case of book-buyer’s constipation. I will try again tomorrow.
Today and yesterday were good writing days. 34,000 words now, that I am happy with. The plan is to add more to these tonight. I am currently writing the fourth section, which is in actual fact the first section. It would be nice to have this completed by the end of this weekend.
Last Sunday we had a party. I got pretty drunk.
Aside from that, there is very little news.
self-tracking
More and more fascinated by Buster Benson. He has some really interesting (and geeky) ideas about self-tracking. He seems to want to categorise and aggregate his entire online life, and match it up with his offline life. I’m interested in this, I just don’t think I have the staying power to give it the integrity it deserves. I’ve made a start with 18.13 and maybe, if I can stick with that, then I can start some other projects as well. Buster’s blog, Enjoymentland, is particularly interesting. He’s a cool nerd.
I started writing on 750words.com a while ago but failed spectacularly. I think I did perhaps four or five days, then missed a few days, then the next time I wrote on it I copy/pasted a load of text just to get the word count in there. When I did that, a text box came up saying, ‘It looks like you’ve just copy/pasted a load of text. That might mess up your stats,’ or something similar. I felt ashamed of myself. But, I figure, I write a lot anyway, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
Foursquare is, supposedly, the new Twitter (or just another Twitter). Maybe I’ll give this a go at some point. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Facebook, it just seems a bit pointless. But then again, maybe it’s all pointless. Aimless meandering when there are more important things to be done. Which is perhaps why self-tracking is a good thing, bringing some direction to this meandering, or at least recording where and when you have meandered.
18.13
28 days ago I began this project. Here are the basic stats so far… over the past four weeks, at 18.13, I have mainly been pottering (25%) or watching TV (21%). Other than that I have either been out and about (14%), away from home, reading, eating, sitting on the toilet (each tied at 7%), cooking, working or writing (each tied at 4%).
These are very basic figures, so they don’t say much. Of course, quarter past six is a typical break between the working day and the evening. However, I am surprised that I do so much pottering (I have used pottering to mean doing nothing of note) and so little of the things that I supposedly love (reading and writing). What with Abi’s working hours and my relatively flexible job, I would expect to be doing something interesting with my evening by quarter past six, but more often than not I am just sitting around either staring into space or watching TV.
Thinking back over the month, using these photographs, I can also see that what I am doing at 18.13 relatively sets out my stall for the evening. In other words, I am a lazy mofo. With the clocks changing recently, this time of day is a great time to be out and about. This in mind, I am now going to make an effort to improve my lifestyle. This doesn’t mean that I am going to walk out onto the street to take my photo at the right time in order to display a change, before nipping back indoors to draw the curtains and watch cartoons. I will continue to photograph an actual portrayal of what I am doing, disregarding how mundane a picture comes out. But I will make more of an effort to improve my evenings, and hopefully the results of this will be evident in a month’s time, when I again look at the stats.
I am enjoying this project. It is either pathetically introspective or an interesting experiment. Either way, I don’t care.
