Personal Cataloging Categories

August 10, 2008 10:43 PM

I am interested in creating a pseudo-scientific catalog of personal traits, both quantitative and qualitative, but concrete rather than subjective. Some categories I thought of are: countries or states visited, body measurements, identification numbers (like driver's license, social security, credit card, etc). What are some others?
posted by i_am_a_fiesta to human relations (9 comments total)

Number of pairs of bright green socks owned in a lifetime.
How many times you've watched the movie Office Space on TV.
Types of fruits enjoyed as toppings on pancakes.

(I think this question is waaaay too broad.)
posted by phunniemee at 11:05 PM on August 10, 2008

Perhaps you could give some idea what such a catalog would be used for? That last category comes accross as just a touch worrying.
posted by longsleeves at 11:13 PM on August 10, 2008

No use in particular, just to satisfy a natural tendency of mine to categorize and record.

Phunniemee, though I recognize your sarcasm, your response isn't too far off. The first two are pretty close, if only they were a little more broad. The third one isn't concrete enough.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 11:29 PM on August 10, 2008

Ask for a copy of your last physical. That's pages of interesting stats about you.
Can run a mile in ....
Energy output per day (av) ....
%bodyweight fat ...
etc
Give your eye colour and skin tone as averaged RGB values or pantone colours instead of vague "brown, fair"?
how many jobs you've had.
how many places you've lived.
how many times you've married.
How many times you've died (at time of writing). :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 11:34 PM on August 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

Meals eaten today, then you could tag by ingredient and make charts of how often you ate Item X.
In that vein - eating out vs eating in.
posted by divabat at 11:45 PM on August 10, 2008

Check out the Feltron Annual Report for some ideas; Nicholas Feltron (a graphic designer) tracks a large number of things like this and puts out a big PDF report every year. For example, in 2007, he read an average of 17.8 pages a day.
posted by nz_kyle at 12:17 AM on August 11, 2008

It's not clear if you want to track actions over time (within one person's or multiple people's lives) or just characteristics of many people. If you're into tracking your own actions over time, how about things you wish you did more or less of? For me it was really useful and effective to track actions like drinking water, eating fruits/veggies, etc. The accountability made me drink more, eat veggies, etc.
posted by allterrainbrain at 3:49 AM on August 11, 2008

Measure the bumps on your head. Cross reference it with an old phrenology chart. Make up astounding results. Win.
posted by wfrgms at 6:48 AM on August 11, 2008

I guess this is in the spirit of Seth Roberts, right?.

This suggestion might be too practical to be that much fun, but the last category of identification number "permits" it: addresses and detailed employer information. If you eventually need national security clearance, or be admitted to a bar, and any number of background checks demand long histories of addresses and employer information, including things like dates worked, position, company addresses, supervisors, compensation rates. I don't know a third of that information off the top of my head and several of my employers are no longer in business nor did they ever have websites. Your credit histories has some of this information. And credit histories have lots of categories.

With these new double sided scanners, you can scan and catalogue so much information from receipts and stuff that might be fun to know and chart. Total cost of car ownership is big issues these days. Also, I got up-sold an executive membership at costco when I was at the cash register because they had a little pda/scanner thing that showed how much I had spent each year for the last few years. That was pretty cool. Or scary. Scary + cool = thrilling?
posted by giantsloths at 7:11 AM on August 11, 2008