Not quite what was planned.

 So... Project Month 2024. It came and went. And I didn't get as many projects done as I had planned to.

Project Month 2024!

 

Phone Phast complete!

I thought I'd check in now that another project month is over. I feel like I choose to do project months at the most inopportune times... This month I started my internship for my coding certification and had a lot of different activities come up as my wife went on a trip and stuff. So it was definitely hard and I wasn't perfect, but I did learn quite a bit and had some experiences I'd like to relate.

Project Month: Phone Phast

It's been a few year since I've done one of these. Usually I do one in November or February, but this morning I woke up with the beautiful pre-fall weather outside and decided "why wait?" With the recent iOS update that tracks the hours you spend on iPhone apps and a couple of interesting videos about the healthiness of boredom, I got to thinking about all the time I waste staring at a phone or watching a tablet. What happened to the old days of waiting to look up something until you could get home to a computer or watching movies on an actual television through a VCR or DVD player? What happened to reading a magazine while on the toilet instead of swiping incessantly through Facebook posts that only give a nanoiota of delight each?

Salt Halt / Projectpalooza complete!

Well, the last month was spent avoiding salt as much as possible. I did have nachos once, and I did have some lightly salted peanuts, but besides that, I did my best! It wasn't quite as eventful as I thought it would be. I didn't feel that much different healthwise. But I did learn that you really don't need as much salt in your diet as you think.

The Salt Halt + Project-palooza Challenges!

It's February, which means it's another project month for me! Last year's was the Beat the Sweet Challenge, which gave me the idea for this year's:

SALT HALT!

Beat the Sweet Challenge complete!

Well, I spent the last month not eating any sugar at all (minus one day I made as an exception). I kept a daily log of my feelings about the fast in general, and here they are:

The Beat the Sweet Challenge!

Okay, it's official: I now need to come up with a month-long project every year. Two years ago it was the Techno Quaresma, last year was the memorable Data Month, and this year's is the...

BEAT THE SWEET CHALLENGE!

Data Month Stats

Well, I stuck to it for a month straight... keeping a notebook in my pocket and jotting down whenever one of these things happened. This somehow made February both last very long and be over very soon. Now I have a boatload of statistics of my life! I was hoping to be able to organize it so it's more impressive, with charts and graphs and things, but maybe I'll do that some other day. For now, I'm just really tired of taking down stats, so I'll just barf all the data onto this post. For the record, these data aren't that impressive. I probably would have calculated things a little differently if I did it again. For example, instead of "encounters" with people, I would just count how many people I encountered. I think that would have yielded better results. For now, here it all is plus some definitions for the odd stats in small print at the bottom. Enjoy!

Data Month Snippet

Data Month is going pretty well. I have to wear a wristband to remind me all the time that I need to be recording stuff. But it's pretty good. I'm managing everything on an Excel document to calculate totals and averages. As a commemoration of the first week of Data Month, here are a few weekly averages of my life:

Average hours of sleep per night: 7.5
Average webcomics looked at per day: 1.8
Average car rides per day: 2
Average diapers changed daily: 2.3
Average number of daily urinations: 7
Average hours of computer played each day: 1.6
Average phone calls daily: 3
Average number of encounters with friends: 1.14

Well, that's just a tidbit, but it's kind of fun to see it calculated like this. I hope that I can continue firm to get an actual monthly average. It's kind of nice to see these stats too, in case anyone asks. For example, the number of hours I sleep on average. The urination one was always a curiosity to me as well.

I've got plans for some posts real soon! Keep it real!

Data Month Begins!

I've started Data Month, which has a stupid name but a fun premise—recording statistics of day-to-day life! I'm keeping a notebook in my pocket at all times to record every encounter I have with other people, every time I access Facebook, the hours I spend working on projects and playing computer games, and even how many times I clip my fingernails!

I think the hard work and concentration of this "project" will do me good, and provide some interesting results of statistics and averages come March 1.

I'd just like to say I'm really glad I created this blog. It's been sort of a Magnum Opus to me, compiling loads of memories and using it as a way to record the progress on my projects. I have some great things planned for later this month when I visit my parents. I'm going to showcase a planet I invented when I was a kid. That'll open the possibilities to add to childhood storylines with the knowledge I have as an adult now.

So many possibilities! So much to explore. I wonder if I'm the only one who digs into my childhood and past like an archaeological dig, hoping to find glittering gems of interesting ideas and adding updated edges to them.

Thanks for visiting Pretzel Lectern today!

February is Data Month!

Guess what, friends? Inspired by Nicholas Felton of feltron.com, I’ve come up with an awesome project for this next month of February. It rivals the dedication of my Techno-Quaresma of 2011, and it’ll yield interesting results! May I introduce to you…

DATA MONTH!

fThat’s right, starting February 1, 2013, I’m going to carry a notepad in my pocket at all times, jotting down statistics of everything I do with my life for the period of one month! Then I’ll share these statistics here on Pretzel Lectern to see what a typical month for me is like. Here are some examples of the categories I’m going to record:

- Hours slept

- Restaurants eaten at

- Emails received

- Texts received

- Pictures taken

- Times gone to the restroom
- Average wake up time

- Meals eaten (and a list of every item consumed!)

I’ll probably even do subcategories of the quantity values, so that I can have percentage values. For example, on emails received, what percentage were from family, spam, friends, school, etc.

If you want to make sure that I record a stat you’re interested in, let me know before the 1st so I can put a place for it on my notepad. Let the tally-marking begin in one week!

Techno-Quaresma!

Hello, one and all! As November looms before me, I face it with a goal never before attempted, at least not since I was in Brazil. The longest record of doing this particular goal was 24 months. This one month should not only be easy, but I'm certain it will benefit me in many ways.

Life is full of distractions nowadays. I got online Saturday to watch a YouTube video while I was eating my nachos, and next thing I know, I've gone from six meaningless and stupid YouTube videos to TVTropes.org (which is fun, but also time-consuming), to look at Facebook pictures of people I don't even know anymore. And an hour and a half has passed by, which I could have used to get my work done and earn money, or get homework done to take a load off later. Heck, I could have read a book, for crap's sake!

This kind of time-wasting is not healthy, and it annoyed me that it had snagged me so easily. They say idle hands are the devil's tools, and I don't want to work for that butthead! One of the most valuable things to us is, I think, self-control. If we don't have control over ourselves, it's like someone putting a ring in our nose and leading us around. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want no ring in my nose. So my solution/exercise for my self control is...

The November Techno-Quaresma!

The rules I must abide by are as follows: 

1. No Facebook during the month of November.

I found a nifty program that can block any website you want, so this is one of the three websites I'm going to block this month. I'm also going to disable my text notifications. (My email notifications have long been disabled.) However, I will be able to post witty status updates via text. I just won't be able to see any comments on them.

 2. No YouTube during the month of November.

This site will be completely blocked on my laptop. If someone wants to show me something funny, they can show me. I just won't be allowed to access the site on my own computer. This rule alone will save me hours of collective time in one week, I'm sure.

 3. No TVTropes during the month of November.

I don't have that much of a problem with this site, but I'm going to block it anyway. As with all Wikis, one cool page has a link to 30 other cool pages, and... yeah. Pretty soon the day's over.

4. No bringing my laptop when I'm not going to use it.

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep this rule, but it's an important one. I used to pull out a book and read while I was waiting for class to start. Now I just pull out my laptop and.... push buttons on my laptop.

5. No computer games of any kind to be played on my laptop.

This includes creative games and map editors, which are probably worse for me than regular games. I will be able to play video games with my friends if that's the activity of the week or whatever. I consider gaming a social pastime when it's with friends. My goal is to ultimately eliminate gaming alone. This can get carried away and waste literally hours of time.

6. Thanksgiving Day is the only exception to above rules.

My wife is addressing a weakness of her own this month, namely eating sweets. She will not be allowed to eat any sweets in November, excepting this same rule, on Thanksgiving Day. Cuz punkin pie only comes once or twice a year, you know. And you know, family together and whatnot may bring some video games in to the picture.

Okay, so it's not literally a fast from technology. I still have homework to do on the computer, and movies (and of course this blog) are completely free game. It's more a fast from wasting time. Those social programs are literally chains that have been weighing down on me. I don't mean that to sound preachy in any way, but I admire those people who don't even have a Facebook profile, or who don't even play video games... who go outside and invent fun every day, or who are involved in organizations and clubs. In the course of this month, I hope to be able to:

• Read at least a book or two
• Take more time to be religious
• Write or work on non-computer related projects
• Get involved in something on campus... perhaps Capoeira, or a writer's workshop
• Stay completely on top of my homework and job
• More worthwhile jazz!

My secret hope is to eliminate these things entirely. Sure, Facebook can be something I look at maybe once a month or something, but free time is something precious now, and I shouldn't be a-wastin' it on things that don't matter.

Wish me luck. My month begins Tuesday, November 1, 2011, at 12:00 AM Mountain Standard Time. It will end temporarily Thanksgiving day at the same time and resume 24 hours afterward. It will officially end on December 1, 2011 at midnight. But I hope by then I'll have the self-control to extend it.