Episode #229: When Your World Is Shaped By Statistical Observations....

My family sometimes wonder if I have friends. This is Mr. Squirrel, who along with Mr. Chipmunk, calls my house their low budget eatery. These are my low budget zero maintenance, albeit animal, friends.

When I was a lad growing up (teenager too, and probably into my twenties), I had an absolute fascination with numbers, math and statistics. I was one of those very strange people who read all sorts of encyclopedias, especially sports and specifically baseball. In fact, my favorite go-to baseball encyclopedia was called "The Sports Encyclopedia of Baseball", which had stats for each year and each league 1901-2007.

Like I said, I was a bit strange when it came to statistics. And eventually that strangeness led itself, in a roundabout way, to creating all kinds of lists/files for all kinds of weirdly personal things/collections/observations.

Some examples included, at various points:

1. an index card filing system for all my LPs, cassettes and 45's. Conservative numerical estimate pre-basement flooding of the aforementioned items was 2,000 +/- items of recorded music
2. a very old {20+ years} M$ database for my music.
3. an extensive paper list for my c.d. collection. Conservative numerical estimate post basement flooding currently sits at 710 +/-.

Now this penchant for creating statistical lists for stuff that I do in my day-to-day activities really began to manifest itself when I started writing my magnum opus almost two and a half years ago {Jan 2022}. Because of the way I had decided to actually write this thing: pen and paper before transcribing it to the computer {t.l.;d.r.: my hands suck genetically}, it naturally led me to wanting to keep track of all the various things that were directly associated with it. Things like:

1. Since that starting date, I've estimated to use nearly two dozen packs of filler paper {aka loose notebook paper}, where each pack contained anywhere from 100-125 sheets (e.g. Dollar Tree or other discount store), to 200-225 sheets (e.g. WalMart, Target or Staples).
2. Considering that my current page count stands at 950 pages, and that roughly 2 pages of handwritten text equals about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pages of printed text, means that I used 2,000 +/- pages of notebook paper.
3. Those 950 pages of text translates to just a shade over 430,000 words written {printed}. That also works out to about three packages, @ 10 per, of pens, both black and blue, as I have a four pen rotation per chapter written. Oh, and that's not including any other stray pens in my collection, so you can probably add another 5 to that total.
4. Staying in the same vein of paper products, I'm currently working on my fourth ream of paper. Now, I'm sure you're thinking that four reams in two years isn't a lot of paper and if I was a normal person, it wouldn't be. But considering that prior to 2022, it took me on average about 7-8 months to use one ream of paper, then by my metrics, spending around $45 for four reams is...excessive.
5. Because we're handwriting this wonderful four volume series, fixing mistakes is very labor intensive. We used four dry-liners, but that ended very quickly due to strength issues, so the next option was to go all Luddite by using good old liquid paper (presently on bottle number 6) and by also use blank mailing labels, because sometimes it's much easier to trim a label down to size than to use enormous quantities of white-out. Currently working on package number 2, with two others in the queue.
6. And of course, nothing screams "I AM A LUDDITE!!" better than three ring binders and multi-tab dividers. Used nearly two dozen packages (5-10 per package) and currently have binder number 6 in the queue. If you're wondering why, and I know you are, it boils down to that one word that brings us to our knees pleading/begging/cajoling: Editing. Oh and, if it says "220 page capacity for a one inch binder", rest assure they actually mean 170 pages, including dividers.
7. Handwriting oodles of text is not for the faint of heart, nor the strength of mind or the tenacity of over-confidence. In fact, it often takes me a minimum of one actual calendar day (aka twenty-four consecutive hours) before I actually start putting either blue ink or black ink to paper. This point actually has nothing to do with any kind of statistical observation, but in fact I just needed to perform a brief recalibration of my very follicle challenged bald head.
8. I don't think that I have a number eight on this curiously odd list, as some of the stuff that is now creeping into my head mostly pertains to a routine that I minimally, if at all, do not deviate from when it comes to writing new content.
9. I just thought of something, ala Columbo: I'm a bit nutty when it comes to tracking my precise word count in general, but when I'd written the final two chapters to volume three, I decided to track the overall amount of handwritten product vs what the actual outcome was. In short, doing this allowed me to state in point #2 what the current ratio of bloated text to polished text.

So in general, it's really weird what one can notice in their peripheral vision of the overall process of writing. Especially if you're doing your very best impersonation of John Boy Walton when it comes to creating your stories. 

Many thanks for stopping by to partake in the consumption of the excess brain spillage this week. Hope you have a happy Monday, followed by Taco Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Timid Thursday and Closet Freak Friday.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved