For twenty-twoconsecutiveFebruaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year, indeed you'd be more surprised if I didn't. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 23rd datapoint. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2025.
Count 1: Number of visits to this blog (Feb 2024 total: 93789) Count 2: Number of comments on this blog (Feb 2024 total: 861) Count 3: Number of words I write on this blog (Feb 2024 total: 38040) Count 4: Number of hours I spend out of the house (Feb 2024 total: 150) Count 5: Number of nights I go out and am vaguely sociable (Feb 2024 total: 3) Count 6: Number of bottles of lager I drink (Feb 2024 total: 0) Count 7: Number of cups of tea I drink (Feb 2024 total: 123) Count 8: Number of trains I travel on (Feb 2024 total: 265) Count 9: Number of steps I walk (Feb 2024 total: 452000) Count 10: The Mystery Count(Feb 2024 total: 0) (again)
I've also been counting something in January, not February, because it was important I didn't tell you I was doing it. I've been counting all the times I made a mistake on the blog and you pointed it out and you were correct.
Error Count:(Jan 2025 total: 33)
Last month there were 33 occasions when I wrote something incorrect and it was pointed out, an average of just over one error a day. Arguably that's not many, arguably it's too many. Most corrections were in the comments but some came direct via email, which was appreciated. 20 were incorrect facts ("no, it opened in 1856", "I think you'll find Westminster School don't play rugby", "but Upminster platform 6 has no step-free access", etc) and 13 were typos (e.g. "until until?", "Clay Tye Rpad", "it's Powis Street, not Powis Road", "Edmund has become Edward").
I can't promise February will be better but I won't be counting because once you know I'm counting you might get deliberately pernickety. Also if you are going to point out an error please try not to phrase it as a question ("don't you mean Andersen?"), don't be patronising ("I really enjoyed this but...") and never risk a surely, thanks.
For twenty-two consecutive Februaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year, indeed you'd be more surprised if I didn't. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 23rd datapoint. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2025.
