MORE "USELESS" STATISTICS

For as long as I can remember, I've kept lists of useless information in various day-planners and notebooks. Along with keeping track of income and expenses I used to list, for example, mail I would send and receive, daily mileage (even when I wasn't driving cross-country), and other completely useless information. Luckily, most of that record-keeping was left behind many years ago (except, of course, for the financial kind).

But there are a few lists I do maintain for no real reason other than they keep some order to my daily routine. I keep track of the books I read (only those that I actually finish cover to cover are included -- I begin many more than I complete), the CD's that I listen to (again, if I fall asleep before hearing an entire album it doesn't count), and the DVD's I watch (I used to keep track of ALL the movies I'd ever watched -- either at the theatres or at home on television or video -- it was a HUGE list that dated to my earliest memories; alas, it was lost in a computer crash some years ago).

I did fall out of the list-making routine for a few years -- for all except the one of the books I'd finished. Reading does remain my oldest, and greatest, love afterall. That list dates back to 1997; I just added the 533rd title (I used to average around 100 books per year -- that's significantly reduced these days). I think I began falling behind in my reading when I made the switch to more heavy-duty non-fiction books rather than reading fast-moving adventure and mystery fiction. I've only managed to finish 13 books so far this year.

One of the message boards I participate in has a section where members recommend favorite albums they listen to. That got me back into the habit of keeping track of the music I listened to and, by extension, also the DVD's I watched. On the earlier version of this blog, I would post the daily lists -- a habit that quickly became rather boring. (I still like to show some of what I'm listening to, viewing, and reading which explains the sidebar content -- I usually pick my favorite of each out of the most recent activities.)

At the beginning of this year, I decided to keep track of this listening and viewing through the use of databases -- I wanted to know, finally, how many albums I listen to in an average year. I also thought it would be interesting to also track how many times I repeated a particular album (I have so many different CD's that I don't often listen to many more than once -- and sometimes my favorite artists don't get played for weeks or months, occasionally years, just because I might not be in the right "mood" to listen to them). In addition to the CD's and DVD's lists, I also decided to track how many of each type of media I burn this year. Those lists are about as useful as the others, but perhaps it will tell me how many CD's and DVD's I can burn before my burners need to be replaced. Who knows?

Anyway, it's only the end of April, but I'm somewhat amazed at the totals so far. If you've managed to read this far, you're obviously not bored by this sort of thing so here we are -- so far, in 2005:

CD's Listened To: 371
CD's Burned: 478
DVD's Watched: 73
DVD's Burned: 184

Wherever do I find the time?