In March 2018 we had just bought an old Land Rover and drove it over the mountains to a Land Rover event, starting an obsession with these old cars that would go on to this very day. We'd restore that old girl and ship her to the UK, and drive her to Morocco and Portugal, but that's another story. Actually, it's a story I've already written about on the blockchain, like I do with all my cool journeys.

In March 2018 I also joined this blockchain in it's former version of Steem, which was a much cooler name but arguably not as good as what we have here now with Hive.

Since then, I've written 2323 posts, which is an average of .8 a day. My longest break has been 18 days. I don't know why I was off chain for that long in July of 2021. Back then we bought a little dinghy, another little Land Rover, did a few mini trips, and swore at Dan Andrews, the premier of Victoria, who kept putting us in lockdowns. I also was about to quit work, and was super stressed. Maybe Hive was too much for me on top of everything else. We sold the boat because wind freaks me out.

I've uploaded over 2000 images.

How do I know all of this? My good be-bearded friend @hol0zr, also Australian, so he must be cool as well, did a cool thang - the Hive Report Card. You can find out a lot about where you've been from this little tool.

I don't pretend to understand half of what any of this data means, but some of it is interesting. I'm suprised I have more engagement on higher word count posts - I thought the opposite was true and people gave up after 200 words. Perhaps it's just the people I connect to here, or perhaps the content I write. Entering challenges often gets more engagement as it's encouraged within communities, which the advent of, by the way, has been great for engagement on Hive, despite what they say. And I do like using @commentrewarder - though it feels a bit icky to reward people in this way for engaging with you, we're all time poor and sometimes knowing you'll get an upvote is enough impetus to read someone's work. But I digress.

I also don't pretend to understand what makes any of my posts readable. Apparently it uses the Flesch-Kincaid method, which designates a score to assess how difficult a passage of text via analyzing sentence length and word complexity. Kudos to those reading my 'difficult to understand' posts. That data was a bit mysterious to me. I do adjust my sentences according to who I believe my audience might be or who I'm connecting to, or the subject matter, so it didn't feel important to me. I did find it interesting that I'm often writing at middle to high school level. I think I adjust my writing a lot because this is a social media where you want to connect to as many people as possible, not just the few that can understand big words and complex sentences. Furthermore, these days I don't pour over every word and sentence to correct before I publish like I did in the early days. I'm here to connect, not to be perfect.

It also has so little relevance anyway, as posts designed to be simple to read, such as this one just before my father died, and rated at a Grade 2/Elementary school readability, doesn't really correctly assess the post. The sentences were constructed in such a way to be almost childlike as the author - me - faces loses a parent. The simple sentences are designed in such a way because there is no room for complexity as one struggles with such an extreme emotional task. Simplicity was meant to keep the telling raw and intimate. In short, I have an issue with the Flesch-Kincaid score as it tells you how mechanically easy it is to read, not how intellectually or emotionally challenging it might be. It assumes long words are hard, short words are easy. It measures form, not depth. Not that I'm Hemingway or McCarthy, but they would have also likely got elementary scores according to this test. It's not a data read I would take seriously or look at for very long and means very little to me.

I was a little shocked that I've written less posts this year than when I started, but since I've got 7 posts to make up for 2020, I'm sure I'll be fine. I would hate to say it's a little bit competititive of me but I like to think I could manaage a 365 post a year average, though I haven't nailed that yet. You only get one shot a year you see.

I keep thinking about that long absence in July 2021. I was really struggling and about to quit a job of 13 years. It felt like I was going to have a breakdown like I had in 2016 or so. Last week I had five days without posting and it reminded me of that. I wasn't engaging well in real life, let alone able to focus on Hive. The data doesn't tell you such things, does it now?

Perhaps you need to be a data person to understand all of this better and to get more out of it. @tarazkp did a great write up of his analysis of his own report card this week and I highly recommend you read it.

Me, I'm bored already - data bores the bejesus out of me.

I mean, I was interested for a minute, but it's not why I'm voting for @hol0zr as witness. I'm voting for him because he's an honest, passionate, caring guy - and he bloody loves this blockchain. He's creative, funny, and is always there to redirect me when I'm having an unnecessary emotional outburst or a rant over something not worth going into a rabbit hole over. He's an ideas man and is in love with the arts from photographer to literature, particularly science fiction, and sends me cool stuff in Discord to feel awe over. He also writes great stories and is willing to read mine. But don't tell him all of this. It'll go to his head.

POSTSCIPT - I had absolutely no idea where to post this post, so went for my default Rant/Complain/Talk - any ideas where it could have been more appropriately posted?

With Love,

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