If there is one thing more interesting than data it’s information. Currently I’m logging a number of things; some biometric, some financial, some distinctly other, some because I want to track the data, some because I’m curious to analyse the data and some because I might want to replay the data.

I’ve written some scripts, created some spreadsheets, populated some databases. I’ve produced pie-charts, bar charts, line charts, even done trend analysis.

People it seems for the most part are very poor at tracking absolutes. We are sensitive to change, but only if we have a memorable baseline. Numbers provide a definitive baseline, not prone to the vagaries of memory or subconscious interpretation.

Having said I might want to replay the data, it tends to suggest I think recreating the circumstances of the data will recreate the situation. Do I believe that to be true? Broadly I do, which I realise is dangerously close to admitting to be a determinist. Maybe I am, which would certainly explain a number of things!

Even as an admitted fan of their products, it’s hard not to laugh at the frenzy into which Apple manage to whip the press over what is ostensibly just a press release albeit one delivered with some theatrics by their CEO. I imagine it must really annoy other tech companies who struggle to get any buzz around their new products.

This year it seems that Apple’s attitude to streaming its launch events has come full circle and they are once again providing live coverage. However it wouldn’t be Apple if they didn’t manage to lock it down, or make it more exclusive if you prefer, which they did by using their HTTP streaming protocol and therefore requiring OS X 10.6 or a recent iOS device. Being a good Apple disciple those requirements caused me no problems!

I was particularly interested in seeing the iPod touch refresh, primarily because I’d been waiting for the device to get display parity with the iPhone before buying one. It seems as though the rear camera has been somewhat hobbled, though whether this was a design or marketing decision I can’t really say.

Apple’s attitude to their AppleTV product has always been somewhat odd and sadly today’s announcement did nothing to change this. The $99 price point, which equates to £99 in the UK, does at least make the device an impulse purchase. But I’m not convinced making it iOS based, seemingly without enabling apps, was the right way to go. Why Apple have yet to make a high-end HTPC utilising the recent Mac Mini with HDMI I don’t know. If they improved FrontRow and bundled that with a better remote I’m sure it would fly off the shelves.

I must say the stream itself worked pretty well for me, it didn’t seem to degrade much at all. Although weirdly it did reset itself once or twice, rather than stuttering it began playing from the start and needed a refresh to resume.

When the “show” was over, I busted out my credit card and tried to pick up an iPod touch. I’ve said before that my card provider seems to have a somewhat tetchy fraud prevention system and once again I appear to have tripped it. I must admit I got a little irritated, as my tweets show, because when transactions fail there is so little information given its basically impossible to work out what the problem is. I’m presently working on the hope that it’s just a temporary problem with the Apple store and I won’t have to phone my bank tomorrow. A feint hope really because my ire caused me to try purchasing 5 or 6 times, which I suspect means I’m well and truly stuck until I phone them and explain the weird pattern. #Facepalm.

As I started the week with L’s for, I hasten to add, no particular reason I perceive no lack of logic in continuing in that vein.

With the impending release of our, famous or infamous, ex prime ministers book I got to thinking about liars and the act of lying.

Don’t confuse lies with exaggeration. I’m sure at one time or another we’ve all been guilty of stretching the truth a little: it was an “amazing” party, it was “this” big, and it cost a “packet”. Bending things to meet a given agenda isn’t lying, you can argue it is at best disingenuous but it isn’t a literal unexpurgated lie. At least so long as you stick to things which are by definition not simple facts, but instead information or situations open to interpretation otherwise you risk crossing the line into lying.

I would be a good liar if I needed to be, I’m detail oriented and am very unlikely not to remember what I’ve said and to whom. The flip side of that coin is that I also remember what people have said to me and you’d be amazed just how much replication there is in small-talk so if you think you’re repeating yourself you probably are. As an example both of my memory and the likelihood of replication I know I’ve mentioned before on this very blog, but in a different context, that I could be a good liar.

A combination of a reasonably good memory and infrequent lying means that I have stored away precise details of the few specific lies I’ve told. I don’t have a book deal (yet!) or a syndicated network television show in which to bare my soul, instead I do it here. However the lack of a financial motive makes me reluctant to give away the real gems, so I’ll simply say my most notable lie involves Milk and Honey Hand Soap (and I guarantee isn’t any of things you’re thinking).

I decided against venturing outside today. While public holidays are all well and good, they do ensure that any worthwhile attraction whether natural or man-made will be packed with people.

Instead I indulged in lethargy, lemonade, Lego, and several other “L” related pursuits.

Apparently we are inspired to greatness and yet to copy is generally considered to be a negative. In fact the term copy has become especially demonised in the few decades with the rise of piracy or intellectual property theft call it what you will. However the type of copying to which I refer isn’t that, it’s observing the actions and intentions of others and replicating them yourself.

When I read a book or watch a television programme I quite often find myself thinking “I’d rather like to do that”. Whether that be taking a scenic train journey or swimming in a remote lake or building a timber creation, or any number of other activities or adventures that have been documented in print, on film or indeed online. But something in me feels the need to admonish myself for that impulse, to punish the innocent enthusiasm and childishly taunt the idea that I might be some simpleton sheep following the footsteps of others and failing to tread my own path.

As has long been established “There is nothing new on earth”, a motto which in itself is proof of the fact given it was first uttered by someone other than me. Now I realise there firsts and a whole industry, or at least beverage sponsored book, dedicated to recording them. At best these are edge cases, if not the lunatic fringe in some instances. So perhaps plotting a trend towards uniqueness is a map to madness of one kind or another.

Maybe the reality is that every experience or achievement is only truly valid in the context of an individual. I can only realise an event by partaking in it, regardless of its superficial lack of uniqueness, my own consciousness will parse it and ensure in the most important way that it is unique to me. So I know I must resolve to reject the self-limiting voice, but that’s still a hard habit to break.

Self-medication, according to Wikipedia:

“is the use of a drug with therapeutic intent but without professional advice or prescription.”

In this instance I am not talking about drugs of either the prescription or indeed illegal variety, I’m not talking about alcohol or nicotine; I’m not even talking about friend of the perpetually wired caffeine. My drug of choice in this particular instance is television.

Now you might not consider television to be a narcotic, and indeed in a literal sense you’d be right however I refer to its undoubted mood altering and indeed mind altering properties. I tend to watch television in one of two ways, either drama in a somewhat superficial manner or gobbling down the informative content of factual programming.

However every once in a while I like to get really properly obsessed with a particular program. Not just randomly, but every few years I feel like my much underused “emotional muscle” needs a workout and tv is the way I choose to do it.

In 1992 Sky was only a few years old, still broadcasting in analogue and requiring a large dish to receive. For all those reasons and more at the time we weren’t a satellite household. So I was stuck with 4 channels and precious little in the way of overnight entertainment. However those dark late hours of the night were thankfully filled with LA Law and therein began my first foray into episodic co-dependency.

The West Wing with its excellent writing and superb characterisation was my next obsession some years later. It was an hour of my life that was absolutely not to be interrupted. I’d slip effortlessly into the world of power and intellect and relationships that the show painted. My mood would fluctuate with the highs and lows of the story.

Grey’s Anatomy was rather appropriately my next broadcast medication, a medical drama much more about relationships than medicine. The lows were good and visceral. I particularly enjoyed, if that’s the right term, the way the characters baggage would so regularly derail their lives. You could argue that I related to that, and maybe I did.

My current, that is to say latest, televisual obsession is an Australian drama; character-driven stories with a very rich visual feel, and an exposed humanity to which I’m quite attracted. Having found some clips on YouTube, I’m now mail-ordering DVD’s from another continent (and another region, thanks to the idiots at the MPAA and their ilk) to scratch this particular itch.

So expensive it might be, oh the joys of import duty and royal mail charges, but it’s completely legal and unlikely to affect my health and that’s why television is my drug of choice.

So another Friday, another works meet-up. Sadly this one was to celebrate, if that’s the right term, another round of layoffs at my erstwhile employer. I exercised either good judgement or good timing and left the company while it was still very much in its expansion phase. Unfortunately for some of my former colleagues the company is very much contracting at present and sadly several of them have been swept over by the incoming tide of redundancies.

It was good to catch up and I’d have spent longer out, but as the restaurant of choice for the evening wasn’t to my taste I ducked out early. I’d seriously considered parking myself in a nearby pub while they ate and meeting up with them later in the evening, but truth be told I was simply not in the right frame of mind for drinking alone in public.