Streaming Four Things

Dave Seah sent me an email indicating that he had participated in the Four Things meme and was passing it on to me. Ever the rebel, never wanting to do things like others, I’ve decided that I won’t follow the meme exactly as indicated but instead rip it apart, analyze it, and rebuild it if you will. You know Six Million Dollar Man sort of thing.

Why do people do stuff like this? Easy. They want to know more about the people around them. The assumption is that people can often tell a lot about others by what they read, watch, and so on. A good example of this is Dick Hardt’s presentation about Identity 2.0 at OSCON 2005 in which he asks "Who am I?" and proceeds to basically tell us that I am where I live, what I watch, what I read, and so on.

So why do we have to ask for this information? Because a lot of people don’t put this stuff on their website. Sometimes it’s not the big things that people want to know about (i.e. What’s your life’s ambition?) but the little things (i.e. What do you usually eat for breakfast?), as all those little things connected together (aka Small Pieces Loosely Joined) give a more accurate representation of the person than the one big thing.

Should people be putting this stuff on their website? Hmm, well, I think it really depends upon the person. For example, if I indicate four places I’ve been in my life, I think that’s kind of pointless. Yes it gives you an idea of the places I like to go but it doesn’t really tell you why I wanted to go their in the first place. If on the other hand, I had a journal entry for each location I went to, giving a brief description of the ups and downs of each trip, then I’d think you’d get a more accurate idea of why that place interested me in the first place. In other words, what was the motivation for me wanting to go to that location. Same goes for reading books. I may list the lastest books I’ve read on my site but unless I give a brief description of what I like and disliked about the book, you aren’t going to know what motivated me to read this. For example, I may indicate I just finished reading a fantasy novel. Ok you think, he like fantasy books and you picture in your mind some D&D geek. Yet if I told you that novel made me realize the importance of friendship, community, and global cooperation, you’d probably be surprised that I even found that in a fantasy novel or was even looking for it in the first place. What I’m getting at here is that everyone sees the world through different eyes and thus while we both may be looking at the same thing, we probably aren’t seeing exactly the same thing.

So what am I going to to about this? Right now nothing, primarily because I don’t have the time. However, when I do get the time, I would like to add journal streams to my site that cover topics similar to what this meme talks about (to a degree anyways).

Jobs I’ve Had – An employment journal of where I’ve worked. Categorized, rated and with job descriptions. Unfiltered, it would be like a mini-resume of my past employment. Filtered by rating, it would be some of the best jobs I’ve had.

Favorite Movies – A movie journal of those I’ve watched. Categorized, rated, and reviewed. My top four rated movies would equate to the movies I could probably watch over and over again.

Places I’ve Been – A location journal of where I’ve lived. Categorized (by world location), rated, and with descriptions. In effect, a mini-travel review of the locations I’ve lived. The things that I loved (and possibly hated) about living in these places.

Favorite TV Shows – Not really sure I’d add this as I’m not that big of a TV watcher, as most TV shows are mindless to me. Hmm, although if I did displayed it then you might be surprised at what I did watch (i.e. documentaries, history channel, etc), so having it might actually be beneficial in relaying "who I am" and "what interests me".

Websites I Visit Daily – Hmmm, this to me would just be a link list (ala del.icio.us) journal. The top four rated sites would probably be those that I visited daily (or at least more frequently than others).

Food I Love – Hmm, not sure about this. I could maybe see a restaurant review type journal instead. In effect, you discovered the food I loved by the places I eat.

Places I Want To Go – Again, not sure about this. I mean there isn’t any one place that sticks out in my mind right now. More than anything I like wandering from place to place off the beaten track. Gypsy boy that’s me. 🙂

Taggers I’m Blogging – A people journal of who I know and have interacted with. Categorized, rated by frequency of interaction, and with descriptions of the people. Filtered by "virtual buddies" and freqency of interaction (as Dave Seah calls them), you’d see a list of of the people I’m interacting with online the most.

Ok that’s all I can write. Back to work!