Digital Sources that Inform the Reconstruction of my Days
1. Digital Sources that Inform
the Reconstruction of my Days
John Martin
Technical Communicator
NC State University
nematome@gmail.com
2. Tell „em what you‟re gonna tell
„em
Why I‟m interested in reconstructing my days
What about my days I reconstruct when I do
What sources I use to reconstruct them
Reconstructing November 8, 2012
What are the implications and what is the future of
reconstruction?
7. Daily diary entries
Morning
Transportation
Work highlights
Lunch
Where/who
Eat / Walk
Afternoon
Work highlights
Evening
Dinner
The gym
Stayed in / went out / attended an event
8. Thursday, November 8,
2012
I caught the Wolfline in to work, and my only meeting today was our
weekly INS Working Team Meeting in the afternoon, which was
pretty productive.
At lunch time, I walked over to Schaub Hall for a turkey bacon
taste-testing, about which I'm going to do a public posting, and for
which I received a $20 Target gift card. On the way there, I was
struck by rows and rows of flags that had been put out on the lawn
in front of Witherspoon in advance of Veteran's Day this weekend.
I walked back to DH Hill, where I caught a bus down to the Bell
Tower and then walked over to Harris Teeter, bought some coffee,
and walked back to my office, getting a nice, long walk in for lunch.
After work, I went to the gym, where I did 200 crunches−100 upper
abs, 100 lower abs, and all with 20 pounds of weights on the
machine. I followed that up with an upper body workout.
I got to Bob's at about 8:15, where we ate popcorn and Raisinets,
and watched a movie.
9. ♫ Memories… Sometimes Dim in the Corner of my Mind
♫
8 years, 10 months ago
“I haven‟t missed a day of blogging in 8 years and 10
months”
10. ♫ Memories… Sometimes Dim in the Corner of my Mind
♫
8 years, 10 months ago
“I haven‟t missed a day of blogging in 8 years and 10
months”
“I have a blog entry for every day in the last 8 years and 10
months.”
Sometimes I get behind
12. Physical places where I save
crap
iPhone
iPod Touch
Home Mac laptop
Home Windows desktop
Work Mac laptop
Work Windows desktop
Digital camera
Sticky notes In my wallet
Receipts In my pockets
Complimentary hotel pads In my laptop bag
13. Virtual places where I save
crap
LiveJournal web interface
LiveJournal Semagic client
Notes app on the iPhone and iPod Touch
Notepad on Windows
TextWrangler or TextEdit on Mac
Camera Roll app on iPhone
Email
Dropbox (iPhone, Windows & Mac desktops and laptops)
25. Thursday, November 8,
2012
I caught the Wolfline in to work, and my only meeting today was our
weekly INS Working Team Meeting in the afternoon, which was
pretty productive.
At lunch time, I walked over to Schaub Hall for a turkey bacon
taste-testing, about which I'm going to do a public posting, and for
which I received a $20 Target gift card. On the way there, I was
struck by rows and rows of flags that had been put out on the lawn
in front of Witherspoon in advance of Veteran's Day this weekend.
I walked back to DH Hill, where I caught a bus down to the Bell
Tower and then walked over to Harris Teeter, bought some coffee,
and walked back to my office, getting a nice, long walk in for lunch.
After work, I went to the gym, where I did 200 crunches−100 upper
abs, 100 lower abs, and all with 20 pounds of weights on the
machine. I followed that up with an upper body workout.
I got to Bob's at about 8:15, where we ate popcorn and Raisinets,
and watched a movie.
27. A number of disparate sources inform the
reconstruction of my days…
28. A number of disparate sources inform the
reconstruction of my days…
29. A number of disparate sources inform the
reconstruction of my days…
30. A number of disparate sources inform the
reconstruction of my days…
31. Broader questions…
How did I get to this multimedia, multigadget place?
How many more disparate devices and sources will I be
drawing from in 5 years?
What‟s a good balance between documenting your life
and living your life?
If I can reconstruct my days like this, can‟t:
Advertisers?
A stalker?
The police?
Wait for it…
32. Broader questions…
How did I get to this multimedia, multigadget place?
How many more disparate devices and sources for data
will I be drawing from in 5 years?
What‟s a good balance between documenting your life
and living your life?
If I can reconstruct my days like this, can‟t:
Advertisers?
A stalker?
The police?
You?
Or any other day last week that wasn’t a significant day, like Election Day?If you’re like me, you [hit enter].[Hit enter] But why would you want to know, you might ask?
A little over 10 years ago now, I started a LiveJournal blog. The first thing on the very first entry that I felt compelled to do was to let people know that I do know how to spell affirmation.
Challenged by a pedant when I made a statement like…I now say it like this instead…And that nuance is important, because… [Hit enter]
And hence the catching up and wondering what I did on a certain day in the somewhat recent past…Recently, during the process of catching up my blog, I did a little… [Hit enter]
I thought about, at a very high level, the ways that I express myself in my blog, which are:They’re in order of magnitude of use, so mostly text, images next most popular, few videos, and these are really the only three
Google search example: I went to a restaurant that day and I want to get a description of the menu item I ate there to include
All I have on Nov 8 is that taste test.Pay no attention to those “drink with Myra,” “drink with Steve,” and “drink with the boys” entries earlier in the month.
Something you should know about me:I ride the bus to work most of the time – most often the Wolfline, less so the CAT bus, and every blue moon I drive inWhen I ride the bus, I often write a little “vignette” (or comment at a minimum) about something I observe on the bus, and I refer to them as #BuscapdesWhen I ride the bus I almost ALWAYS “check in” on Facebook when I get on the bus, and I don’t check in without some kind of quip or quote.
Something else you should know about me:I pay everything that I can by credit card, because I get frequent flyer points for chargesI have enough discipline to do that and pay off my bill monthly. I never pay finance charges.
I almost always check in on Facebook during my lunch walks when I take them, and I often include a picture with some kind of comment about it as well.
A couple of things you should know about me and exercise:I’m at the tail end of a commitment to walk every day of the year for at least 30 minutes. I’ve only missed 23 days, due to knee surgery I had in March, out of the 321 days that have passed so far this year. I almost always check-in before I enter the gym, otherwise what’s the use of working out?I always post a quip or quote with my check-in.After my walk and gym workouts, I record what I did in an app called DailyBurn.
Further down in the entry is my walk recording
So, back to that day’s blog entry and VOILA! The mystery is solved. A “close-enough” accounting of my day.