Church Retreats

Each year I attend a convention held by my church. I've done so since I was a baby. I only remember the locations from age five on. I've gone to sites outside the United States six times (to Argentina, Australia, Britain, Canada, and Spain). Here are the states I've been to and how many times:

What I Did This Weekend

The weekend seemed to fly by, and I didn't--as often seems to happen--accomplish near as much as I would have liked. In fact, I feel like the weekend was to a large extent wasted. Let's break it down then by activity, starting from 5:00 p.m. on Friday until 8:00 a.m. on Monday (63 hours total):

After looking at the chart, I can see that I wasted almost five hours online--not really accomplishing anything, just scouting around (although part of that time was spent looking for jazz music to play in the car on an upcoming trip, so not a complete waste). Still, I can see that I treat the Internet much as I used to treat television--and that in turn is why I rid myself of television. Sometimes I think I might do myself a favor by ridding myself of the Net; the problem is that the Net is much more interactive and useful, so it's not as easily abandoned, given that it's the main way I stay in touch with some people. Still, far too much time is spent essentially doing the equivalent of watching TV, so this is an area where I need to improve.

More Spam

The spam at work seems to be getting worse. It's not even going into the junk mail folder most of the time anymore, which makes for a lot of wasted time deleting stuff. I read how one company actually did away with e-mail because of how much time it often wasted. Alas, e-mail is probably my favorite way to communicate at work, and possibly anywhere. I don't think I'd like that. Here are the spam totals from a few days in August.

Timing of Dates

So after a few disappointments in November, things turned around for a bit and even, to an extent, got to be a little stressful in terms of dates because I was spending time with more than just one really great woman--and it kind of saddened me to think that I would have to eventually settle on just one, assuming one would have me for something serious.

Interstates I've Driven and Ridden On 2

It's been a couple of years since I last updated this, so I thought it might be good to feature this map again. Trips (by bus and car) to Indiana and (by car) to Raleigh, North Carolina, and within parts of Colorado mean I've seen a few other roads.

And if you find the map above interesting, someone else has a whole set of U.S. maps about linguistic differences from place to place around the country that you can find here. I often don't seem to fall into either the California or the Deep South camp; I have no idea why my pronunciations are so generally strange (for example, I say q-pon, not koo-pon for coupon, which apparently is odd just about everywhere).

Time Spent with Friends in May 2013

I decided to break down how much time I spend with various friends and acquaintances, so I kept a log during the month of May. What surprised me was how little time I spend one-on-one in person with anyone--or at least, how little time I did so in May. One friend barely shows up here, Al. I imagine he'd at least get a couple of hours one-on-one each month most months, but he was bedridden most of May, so we stuck to short phone conversations.

The chart shows time spent with friends in groups (for example, at parties--in fact, mostly at parties), on the phone, and one-on-one face-to-face. Time spent at organized activities I have to attend--namely work or church--are not counted. 

The Dating Game

I don't know how one can win this game, but I keep on playing.

Obviously, I created this chart in one of my more cynical moods. Seems like I've been rolling mostly threes and fives (with a few short-term sixes) in the last few years, though I haven't completed my second turn in one case yet--I'm still hoping a die will prove to have a seventh side and send me spinning into that ring. I suppose I should be happy I've even had a die to roll with the last few years, because I've gone long spans without even a chance.