In class, I remember the mentioning of Nicholas Felton and his absurdly detailed personal annual reports. However, unless you look a this man’s work, you have no idea! I first took a look at the 2010/2011 Feltron Biennial Report which can be found here.

Initially, I was confused. I did not understand what was going on. I saw charts, graphs, names, numbers, places and I was overwhelmed. However, after sorting through the pages, I slowly came to take in all of the information presented to me. Most fascinating for me was his record of how much time he spent with certain people. For example here is his breakdown of time spent with his mother during the year 2010:

The detail of Felton’s encounters with with his mother is unreal. He had recorded everything from where he spent time with his mother, be it at her house or his father’s house. He also distributed the time spent with his mother into categories in a neatly picture pie chart, explicitly describing the specifics of their interaction location by labeling time spent while driving, on trains, in other homes, or walking.

After examining the 2010/2011 Biennial Report, I looked at the 2005 Annual Report; the first one added to the website. For me, this report is the one that made me understand the “cool  factor” of what this man does. Within the 2010/2011 Biennial Report, there were incredible statistics, charts, and organized data, but there was very little in the repot that was eye-catching. However, the 2005 Annual Report features photographs, fun icons and artwork, and clever designs.

For example, here is one of my favorite pages of the report:

This page offers not only an eye-catching image depicting what the report analyzes but also organizes and clearly expresses the information about each category of books. The color scheme is neat and coordinated and everything pictured here is working for me.

This page about his year’s worth of photography was also incredibly attractive and intriguing:

This page identified how many photos he took over the year, what countries he took them in, and what his subject matter was. In comparison to the 2010/2011 Biennial Report, this page presents the information in an exciting and artistic manner while still being easily understood and analyzed.

Overall, Nicholas Felton seems like he would be the most organized individual I could ever meet. His personal annual reports, though eccentric, are remarkable.

When it comes to technology I am not the greatest. But when it comes to directions, map reading, and anything geographical, I am absolutely not the greatest. Given these weaknesses, I approached the map overlay assignment with a less than optimistic attitude. Though I am not map lover, I am a lover of my hometown: Plymouth, Massachusetts. After googling and googling until I found a map that I liked, I ended up choosing a 1700’s “Harbor Map” painted by Jonathan Welch Edes. The link to that image and its website can be found here.

Adjusting the image to fit was a bit difficult. Overall, the hook of Massachusetts and the general geographical make up looks identical. However, the awkwardly unusual size comparisons between the maps made it difficult to match them up perfectly. But after pulls, stretches, and alterations, I came up with my best overlay:

After this exercise, it’s safe to say that my map matching abilities are not the greatest, but they are certainly better now than they were yesterday.

With infinite subject matter for these simple charts, I was unsure of what to choose for my data. Lucky for me, I was eating a bag of skittles and decided to chart out the distribution of colors per 1 bag of skittles:

Next, let’s examine a simple map I’ve created thanks to Google Maps:

Click Here

That was quite the learning experience. Maps and charts are not my thing. But enjoy!