Oblivion By The Numbers

I realized I enjoyed Skyrim earlier this year and then spent a lot of time really enjoying it (see some of my stats here and here). After clocking more than 300 hours in the game, I think I have reached a plateau of what I want to do in it. Are there still places to find and quests to do? Of course, but I'm not as eager to go roaming around as I once was.

Skyrim is part five in the Elder Scrolls series of games, and on a recent treasure hunting trip with Dad (to second hand stores), I found Oblivion (Elder Scrolls part four), for $5. I couldn't get into it at first, but once it got me, it got me.

Playing Oblivion after all that time spent in Skyrim is great, as I already know what I'm doing so I can just run around and do my thing. The game mechanics are slightly different, with my favourite change being that merchants have a limited amount of gold they can spend per item, BUT NOT a limited amount of gold they can spend. THIS IS AMAZING, as probably fifty hours of my Skyrim playing was running from merchant to merchant trying to sell stuff (they each had only between 500 and 2000 gold - #skyrimproblems). It's one stop shopping/selling in Oblivion, and obviously my mercantile skill is already at 100.

Oblivion By The Numbers

Current level (at time of this posting): 20

Game days passed: 79

Completed quests: 36

Place found: 62

Houses owned: 4

Skill increases: 366

Training sessions: 97 (I was education poor for a while; all the money I earned went to training)

Number of skills at 100: 2 (Mercantile and Alchemy)

Potions made: 2331

Fame level: 45

Infamy level: 22

Items stolen: 2292

Unicorn friends: 1

Number of Nirnroots found: 73

Number of Xbox Achievements earned: 20 (out of 50)

Skyrim By The Numbers

Since I realized I love playing Skyrim I have played a lot of Skyrim. I have had a lot going on in the past few weeks, so it has been nice to focus on something fun that makes me feel very accomplished. If you haven't played before, these tallies won't mean much to you, but just interpret them as all adding up to a really good time.

Current level at time of this posting: 48

Number of horses I've owned: 2 (both tragically killed by bears)

Number of in game days played (at time of this posting): 210

Number of in game hours spent sleeping: 917

Average amount of sleep per day: 4.36

Number of skills that are at 100: 2 (Smithing and Alchemy...I love crafting)

Skill training sessions purchased: 170

Number of potions brewed: 678

Number of poisons mixed: 349

Number of ingredients harvested: 1607

Number of Stones of Barenziah found: 24 (all of them)

Number of houses owned: 2

Number of dragons killed: 30

Number of people I've said "Hey, have you played Skyrim?" to in the past three weeks: 6

Number of people who said "Yes" and then let me talk about it for quite some time: 3

Family Wedding By the Numbers

It's been almost two weeks since we had a family wedding and all the numbers in my last post reminded me of some things I could quantify from the wedding.

Date the wedding took place: July 20, 2013

Anniversary that Jena and T were celebrating on their wedding day: 10th

Number of years Canada was celebrating having nation wide equal marriage (signed into law on July 20, 2005): 8 years

Distance the brides traveled to get to their wedding: 3600km (2237 miles)

Distance T's dad and brother traveled to get to the wedding: 2268km (1409 miles)

Distance I traveled to get to the wedding: 23km (14 miles)

Number of wedding guests: 45 (approx)

Scheduled start of wedding ceremony: 7:00pm

Actual start time of wedding: 7:30pm (approx)

Number of cars that broke down in and around the wedding: 6* (*I'm counting mine twice)

Number of 5kg (11 lb) buckets of various salads purchased for wedding: 6

Number of buckets of potato salad that ended up at my house: 1/2 a bucket

Number of days in a row that I ate potato salad: 4

Amount of time before I can eat potato salad again: 3 months (approx)

Number of slices of wedding cake I ate at the wedding: 0

Number of slices of wedding cake I ate in the week following the wedding: 3

Number of slices of ice cream cake I ate in the week following the wedding: 2

Number of cucumbers we had at the house following the wedding: 5

Number of days in a row I have forced myself to eat part of a cucumber: 10

Number of days in a row I ate a fancy cucumber sandwich: 3

Blogging/Outdoor Challenge Update

Well the month of June has come and (almost) gone. I set two main goals: blog all 30 days in June (achieved!), and spend at least 30 minutes outdoors daily (mostly achieved!).

Daily Blogging

At the start of the month I mapped out thirty potential blog posts (in pencil) and did my best to write and publish them in advance. I wrote probably 70% of posts from my original brainstorm, but some posts got moved around, some ideas got pushed to July, and some spontaneous posts were written. I made sure I had a post scheduled every day (usually writing it the day before). For this last week of blogging I am proud to say that at one point I had 5 blogs sheduled to be posted. I spent all day last Sunday writing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that became a habit?

One thing I noticed from posting so much is that I was constantly searching for material from my life. "I could blog about this!" was a common sentence I used over the past month. I also remembered to bring my camera with me when I left the house more often than not, which is a great habit to be developing. Ensuring I had a blog posted every day was a positive experience for me, and I am really proud of what I accomplished.

Daily Blogging Notable Achievements:
• I have now blogged more times in one month than any other month of this blog: 30 times (previous record was 21)
• During the month I celebrated my 300th blog post

Daily Outdoors Time
I managed to get outside 26 of the 30 days in June. I made a conscious effort to spend time outside, and even though I didn't get all 30, I was probably outside more in June than I have been all year. Which is awesome. The days I didn't go out involved bad weather or bad moods. I still haven't learned that going for a walk is great way to combat a bad mood. Maybe one day.

Outdoors Time By The Numbers:
• Number of days I was outside for just 30 minutes: 8
• Number of days I was outside for longer than 30 minutes: 18
• Number of days time was spent sitting and reading: 10
• Number of days time was spent sitting by a fire: 2
• Number of days time was spent around a BBQ: 2
• Number of days time was spent walking: 10
• Number of days time was spent cycling: 5
• Number of days time was spent both sitting + reading AND walking/cycling: 3
• Number of days with no outside time: 4

Purposeful Cycling - By The Numbers

This time of year we eat a tonne of corn on the cob, and our local grower is so close to home that I got the idea to bike ride to corn! I put on a corn carrying backpack, made sure I had my wallet, and set off to get us some farmer corn.

Distance traveled on bike to get corn: 4.5 KM (each way)

Number of corn purchased: 6 (we can't eat a full dozen before it goes off)

Cost of 6 corn: $3

Weight of backpack full of corn (as measured on a mostly inaccurate bathroom scale): 8 lbs

Amount of transit time it took on my bike: 40 minutes

Amount of time it would take in the car: 8 minutes

Number of KM not put on car: 9 KM

Number of degrees it was outside: 27°C

Number of degrees it felt like carrying corn on my back: a million°C

Number of corn eaten by me: 2

Humans Like Round Numbers

Because we all love numbers that end with lots of zeros, I noticed this on my Google stats earlier today:

Thanks for being a part of this number! 

Christmas Vacay By The Numbers

And so it is finally here, my last day of vacay.  What better way to stop thinking about how I will possibly get up at 7:00am tomorrow, than by remembering the good times over the past week.  If you had some time off, I hope it was relaxing and rejuvenating.

Number of days off in a row: 13

Average time slept into each day: 11:00am

Number of car rides to Mom's: 4

Number of Christmas cards received: 23

Number of Entertainment Weekly's read cover to cover: 6

Number of days I ate chocolate as part of my balanced breakfast: 4

Number of new computers purchased: 1 (more on that later)

Number of nieces and nephews hugged: 5

Number of infants I got to hug and be a baby hog with: 1

Number of Wii games played: 2 (Lego Star Wars and Just Dance Summer Party)

Hours spent on a certain Lego themed Star Wars game: 23

Percentage of Lego Star Wars completed over those hours: 54%

Minutes of Aerobic exercise: 30

Number of blog posts: 6 (including this one)

Number of batches of Caramel Popcorn made: 2

Number of treats eaten: all of them

Resolutions made: 0

Source

Heat Wave By The Numbers

In our first day of (somewhat) reprieve from the heat, I thought I would reflect on this past week and it's consequences.  Starting Sunday July 4, here is my "Heat Wave" by the numbers.

Number of days with a temperature over 30°C:  5

Number of days with a "feels like" temperature over 30°C:  6

Number of days I wore a dress:  4

Number of times the power went out for less than 30 seconds:  3

Number of times the power went out for more than 30 seconds:  0*
          *although I have a bad feeling about today (the power has already blinked twice!)

Number of indoor activities/projects worked on to beat the heat:  3

                              -books finished:  1

                              -scrapbook pages done:  4

                              -Warehouse 13 episodes watched:  9

Number of iced coffees drank:  2

Number of meals made on the BBQ (including tonight's):  6

                              -hot dogs eaten:  4

                              -pork buttons eaten:  8

                              -hamburgers eaten:  2

Number of pressure/heat/barometer change type headaches experienced:  2

Number of blog posts about the heat:  4

Number of times this week that I've said: "it's hot!":  1000+ 

Schools Out By The Numbers

On a bike ride around the neighbourhood today, I noticed several signs that school is out and summer is upon us.

By The Numbers:

Number of teenagers seen mowing lawns: 2

Number of kids on bikes riding around in circles: 3

Number of tweens outside the corner store eating candy: 2

Number of 7 year-old boys carrying a large bag of snacks home from the store (probably sent on this mission by an adult - classic!): 1

Number of people on the trail at the same time as I was: 3

Spring Cleaning By The Numbers

We did a thorough cleaning of the house this week and though it is pretty tedious to pull out and vacuum behind every shelf, desk, piece of furniture, etc., the results are totally worth the effort.  A little less dust is a good thing. :)

By The Numbers:

Number of pens found under the couch: 3

Number of lip chaps found under the couch: 2

Number of glue sticks found under the couch: 1

Number of USB thumb drives sucked up by the vacuum: 1 (later rescued!)

Number of hair ties/cat toys previously hidden by the cat, that were recovered: 8