During February 2003 on diamond geezer I kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a none-too thrilling daily feature called 'The Count' (a sort of 28-day tally chart). It may be deathly dull to the rest of you, but I've continued to count those ten categories again, everyFebruarysince, just to keep tabs on how my life is changing. Below are my counts for February 2007, accompanied by the previous statistics and some deep, meaningful pondering. Should you care, that is.
Count 1 (Blog visitors): Blimey, I've reached the giddy heights of 800-or-so visitors a day. That's ten times more than I had four years ago, back when I used to dream of having 100. But last February's massive total remains an unrepeated freak, thanks to a single mention on Blogger's front page. This year's February figure feels somehow more worthy. Total number of visitors to this webpage in February 2007: 23082
(2006: 42277) (2005: 9636) (2004: 6917) (2003: 2141)
Count 2 (Google searches): I'm only counting these in case too large a proportion of my visitors are coming here 'accidentally' rather than deliberately. And they're not. So that's alright then. Total number of Google referrals to this webpage in February 2007: 3919
(2006: 3473) (2005: 908) (2004: 947) (2003: 316)
Count 3 (Blog content): I'm always convinced every year that I'm writing far more than I was last year, but this turns out not to be the case. OK, so this is my most prolific February yet, but not by much. It looks like I'm really astonishingly consistent, generating about 500-600 words a day. Good, I'd hate to think my blogging was increasing out of control like an addiction or something. Total number of words in diamond geezer in February 2007: 17102
(2006: 15817) (2005: 16016) (2004: 16214) (2003: 14392)
Count 4 (Spam): Still surprisingly low, given the avalanche of speculative drivel that clogs the world's inboxes. My ISP manages to block most incoming spam, thankfully, although numbers slipping through are sadly on the increase. Those new blurred-image messages for US stock options seem most difficult to stop at the moment, along with the usual badly-spelt willy-strengtheners. But I should be glad to be averaging only four a day. Total number of spam emails I received in February 2007: 119
(2006:82) (2005: 54) (2004: 31) (2003: 30)
Count 5 (Nights out): Oh dear, I appear still to be an after-dark hermit, with 25 nights in this month and only three nights out. I've defined 'night out' to be 'sometime after 6pm', which has discounted a couple of otherwise appropriate contenders. And I've included sitting in an audience (eg at the cinema) as 'being sociable', even though it's not really. Otherwise my total would be down to just one, which is a bit grim really. Still, I'm expecting things to pick up from the middle of next month, maybe even approaching 2003 levels... The number of nights in February 2007 I went out and was vaguely sociable: 3
(2006: 2) (2005: 2) (2004: 7) (2003: 21)
Count 6 (Alcohol intake): That's right, my entire alcohol consumption for this month consists of a single bottle of Becks, which was consumed before 5pm on the very first day of the month. It may be healthy to be nigh teetotal, but it's also a sign of how stay-at-home I've become. Total number of bottles of Becks I drank in February 2007: 1
(2006: 7) (2005: 0) (2004: 17) (2003: 58)
Count 7 (Tea intake): Apart from one dodgy year when workplace kettle usage was banned, my tea consumption remains wonderfully consistent. As, incidentally, does my coffee intake (still zero). Total number of cups of tea I drank in February 2007: 137
(2006: 128) (2005:81) (2004: 135) (2003: 135)
Count 8 (Trains used): Again, very regular and fairly high. You can tell I live in London, can't you? Total number of trains I travelled on in February 2007: 100
(2006: 107) (2005: 117) (2004: 109) (2003: 103)
Count 9 (Exercise taken): I'd like to assure you that any apparent decline in escalator-climbing is due to the nature of my daily commute, not to any increasing levels of breathless unfitness. Honest. I still walk up every escalator I ascend (unless a fat tourist with an even fatter suitcase is blocking my upward progress, of course). Total number of escalators I walked up in February 2007: 31
(2006: 35) (2005:38) (2004: 72) (2003: 73)
Count 10 (Mystery count): At one point earlier in the month I thought that the legendary diamond geezer Mystery Count was most definitely going to reach 2 by the end of February. And then I'd have had to tell you what I was counting, like I promised. But these expectations proved wholly unfounded, and so the Mystery Count remains zero. Bad luck. Maybe next year... Total number of times that the mystery event happened in February 2007: 0
(2006: 0) (2005: 0) (2004: 0) (2003: 0)
The Count 2007
