Words to Lyrics Ben Ho's observations from the cloud

25 April 2012

Birthday Statistics 2012

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , , — Ben @ 2:38 pm

I turned 20 last week. Here are the statistics. This is becoming a (fun) habit now!

Birthday messages (change from last year)
Facebook messages – 37 (-27)
Texts – 2 (+1)
Phone calls – 1 (0)
Tweets – 0 (0)

Frequency of Facebook messages vs. Time (i.e. when was the message posted)

Gender split of Facebook messages
Male – 20
Female – 17

Gender split of all message senders
Male – 21
Female – 19

Facebook messages
Use of initials (HB or BH) – 10 (27%)
Average length (includes x’s, o’s; excludes smileys) – 3.75 (-0.96)
Repeat posters (those who posted last year and this year) – 10

Observations
Most obviously, there is a significant decrease in Facebook messages. I put this to two reasons. One, my birthday this year falls on a Saturday, and I think that many people have better things to do than sit around reading Facebook. Two, I am three years out of high school. The ‘novelty’ of knowing everyone has greatly diminished. There are new connections to be made at uni (compare your friend count at the end of high school and at the end of each year at uni)

I have omitted face to face greets because I was not at uni on Saturday. However I have kept a rough count of greets on the next weekday (Monday): 3 (2 male, 1 female).

This year I quantified the number of people who posted in both 2011 and 2012 (on Facebook). I briefly mentioned this point last year. I’d like to see the percentage trend next year.

Histogram
This year’s histogram looks more like a normal distribution, with the peak at 11am. There’s a clear spike at 6pm. And I did not expect there to be many early birds at 8am (I might be wrong, maybe it’s because I don’t think people my age get up that early on weekends; I know I don’t usually).

I have extended the histogram to 27 hours after midnight on my birthday. As you can see one post came at 3am the next morning. This post was made east of the International Date Line (where it would still have been my birthday).

Gender Split
The gender split is closer to half and half. I think next year there will be more females to males. How nice!

The graph below shows the split for Facebook messages only.

Conclusion
Thank you for your messages! A short message can say a lot.

See my previous birthday statistics posts:
2011
2010
2009

24 April 2011

Birthday Statistics 2011

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , , — Ben @ 10:12 pm

Once again, I have compiled statistics of the messages I received for my birthday this year.

Birthday messages (change from last year)
Facebook messages – 64 (-1)
Face to face greets – 4 (0)
Text messages – 1 (0)
Phone calls – 1 (+1)
Tweets – 0 (-1)

Frequency of Facebook messages vs. Time (i.e. when was the message posted)

Use of initials (mine or otherwise) – 20
Average length (words): 4.7
Facebook email lag – none

Gender split of Facebook messages
Male – 38
Female – 26

Observations
It is easier and more interesting this year because there is data to compare with!

I expected a normal distribution (bell-shaped curve) again. The histogram shows something resembling a normal distribution, with a slight right skew, and a spike at hour 20 (8pm).

The two posts at 1am (AEST) show something different was happening compared to last year. From the raw data, one post was make in Hong Kong (where it would have been 11pm) and the other I believe was made as a result of being awake for a night-shift job.

The spike at 8pm could be due to people checking Facebook before a night out.

There is a small group of friends who have posted birthday messages in both 2010 and 2011. This subset tends to have known me for longer than others. There are also people (who I consider to be good friends with) that have not posted messages at all. This isn’t a bad thing.

Gender Split
This year is the first that gender has been analysed. I predicted an even split of male to female, but the graph is self explanatory.

Initials
This year I have counted the number of people who used any initials. This will be the count methodology for the future.

What’s interesting is that my standard birthday greeting can be transformed to a birthday message for me with the removal of the exclamation mark.

In some cases, ‘Happy Birthday’ was abbreviated to ‘HB’, and thus shows symmetry with my initials (BH). Although I usually frown upon this method of greeting, in the interests of symmetry and brevity I have accepted it.

Conclusion
Thank you for your messages!

18 January 2011

The “Happy Birthday! BH” Phenomenon

Filed under: I Wonder,Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 10:38 pm

What do you do when it’s someone’s birthday? Well the least you could do is say Happy Birthday to them. However most people find it convenient to have Facebook remind them it’s a friend’s birthday on a particular day, and simply writing on their Wall is good enough. Some people claim that wishing someone Happy Birthday on Facebook is more important than saying it to them face-to-face, or via telephone.

Not long after I joined Facebook, I began to wonder how I’d wish so many friends Happy Birthday without appearing prejudicial to a particular group of people. After all I wanted to present myself as being equal to all. It’s hard enough writing a card for a special occasion, so why create that same burden online?

My solution was to write a short (and to-the-point) Wall post on each friend’s birthday. This message would convey the message (Happy Birthday) very simply, but also stand out from the many others who wished Happy Birthday as well.

The message is simply this:

Happy Birthday!

BH

While it has done the aforementioned job very well, what I didn’t expect to happen was this message to be a small phenomenon. There’s been lots of good and bad criticism, as well as numerous imitations.

It’s been said that the message is too short. Although I admit that it is shorter than most other messages, it is still better than those that write “happy birthday” or (the worst case I have seen) “hbd”. Then again, I’m usually not the most important person in their life, so why should they waste their time reading a message from me? Wouldn’t it be better spent reading the message of their significant other?

On the flip side, when some see my message, they value it over some others. I feel honoured by this, but it goes to show something simple has the potential to make a larger than intended impact.

I have no plans to stop what I am doing, and I hope this has answered some of your questions about why I do what I do.

22 April 2010

Birthday Stats and Messages

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 8:43 pm

Like I did last year, I’ve compiled a set of statistics about my birthday. So here goes:

Statistics

Birthday messages
Facebook messages – 65
Face to face greets – 4
Text messages – 4
Tweets – 1

Frequency of Facebook messages vs. Time (i.e. when was the message posted)

(Time in 24 hour format i.e. 0 is 12am, 22 is 10pm)

Comparison of AEST and UTC:

AEST 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
UTC 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Number of people who attempted to use my ‘initials’ signature – 11
Number of people who used it incorrectly – 3
Facebook email lag* – 11

Amount spent on scratchies – $10
Amount lost – $10

Cash received as gifts – $364.2

*Every time I get a wall post, an email is sent to me. This is the number of emails it did not send me.

Observations

Some observations about the graph I’d like to point out. (Yes! I get to nerd out now.)

I would have expected a normal distribution (bell-shaped curve) which meant that the majority of responses were in the middle of the day. But as the graph shows, it is quite evenly distributed.

The unusual concentration at 12am-2am is the result of people who (I think):

  • wanted to be the first to wish me Happy Birthday (at 12am)
  • were studying late (all-nighter)
  • (in one case) was overseas (from the raw data, one message was from a person in the UK, hence the local time would have been 5pm)(London is UTC+1)

My other prediction is that the ‘spike’ at 6pm is due to people coming home after a day at uni.

Now, about the initials. For those who don’t know, I write the same thing for each person’s birthday. I sign with my initials, BH. This statistic shows that the trend of signing with initials was popular with some of you. Also, three of you managed to use my initials instead of your own! Well done.

Next, Facebook email lag. This is an interesting one. It shows that Facebook’s email servers can’t keep up with the posts of my wall, hence, I wasn’t sent emails about wall posts for 11 people.

Messages

OK. That’s enough of the stats, now the personal messages. You know who you are.

To those who are overseas, I miss you too.

To those who signed with initials, Thank you. BH

I do miss French, as well as the free hugs.

Merci beaucoup.

Cale, FAIL! (Now that rhymes!)

To everyone else, Thank you, keep in touch, and see you soon.

22 April 2009

Birthday ’09

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: — Ben @ 8:00 am

Yesterday was my 17th birthday. I wanted to celebrate this year quietly, as I do have bigger and better plans for the future. There is another reason though. Most people turn 18 this year, and celebrations of that variety often put others to shame. Hence I did all I could to still “belong”, but not too much to “not belong”.

Last night, I took some close friends to dinner

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who used social and terrestrial media to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Facebook friends:
Thanks for your short and thoughtful comments. Though we don’t talk to each other everyday, it is still great to know that you are there for me and for everyone. Most importantly, thanks for your support during all sorts of good and bad times and my (sometimes) thought-provoking and controversial comments. The use of one (1) exclamation mark, funnily enough, represents genuine sincerity, as does proper use of capital letters.

Foinally, a set of statistics for this holiday will be released next week. More on that later.

20 January 2009

How I select birthday gifts for people

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , , — Ben @ 8:26 pm

With my final year in high school and the HSC coming up, I decided I needed to clear my brain of all the loose thoughts that exist inside. So, here is the perfect place to write them all down. I’d really love some input to these, because I think there are some interesting topics out there.

Over the last year, (while I still had a job), I gave many birthday gifts out to people. Some were interesting, some were plain, but there was a common way that I picked these. I have only just worked it out now, so here goes.

First, I think of some characteristics for a particular person. Usually these are in the form of single words that describe them. They might be interesting facts about that person, say, their favourite colour. From this I generate one word or phrase on which to base my gift on.

Second, using the known characteristics and that word or phrase, I go out to the wide world and pick my gift to that person. This is where all the usual factors in selecting gifts come in, i.e. cost, size, nature, etc… Then comes the waiting time to that person’s birthday.

Third, I give the gift to the person and observe their reaction.

Let me demonstrate with an example.

Name: PS (Name changed for security)
Descriptors: Favourite colour green, light, smart, wants to be lazy after HSC, quiet…
One word or phrase: Inspiration
Gift idea: Something from a design studio, voucher

I won’t kill the surprise for this person by revealing what the gift is, but I hope you get the general idea of how I go about selecting gifts!

16 November 2008

This past week

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 3:37 pm

Last Wednesday, this was celebrated:

It was so good to see friends being friends. A lot of work had gone into pulling off a big celebration for the two people. I helped out in the celebrations, handing out party poppers, which was fun.

Nothing else needs to be said.

Next week, tests and assessments. Go well in them everyone!

22 May 2008

Birthdays, Happiness and Fire

Filed under: Rant — Tags: , , , , — Ben @ 12:05 am

Today was two of my friend’s birthdays. I gave them both presents. One got a candle, and the other, five dollars. They were really really happy. The rest of the day, I kept the happy vibe going. Until I checked my email sometime in the afternoon…

I got an email from one of the mothers who is organising the formal. (BTW In all honesty, this year’s formal is going downhill). She replied to my email about how to submit photographs. (There will be a screen at the formal showing photos of us. I am coordinating the photography). She called me “rude” for trying to convey information and calling this situation my problem.

Seriously, we are doing a lot of work for the formal, and you are not realising that. For the photography, I have been making announcements, putting posters up etc. It’s not my job to get photos from everyone, it is the responsibility of the people to give photos to me.

Please judge for yourself (after this break). (more…)

22 April 2008

Birthday

Filed under: Attended,Reflection — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 7:08 pm


Everyone and the mascots

Originally uploaded by hohohob

Last Sunday, I had my birthday party. There were five of us to begin with at Luna Park. There, we had fun for a while, before Simon left and the rest of us took a ferry. It went to Circular Quay, and after getting off, we walked to Wagamama, one of my favourite restaurants. Dinner was had, before Georgina left us. The rest of us took the train home.

That’s it in a nutshell.

You know, the party went better than expected even though the other five I invited were away or sick. It was right after a week long camp some people went to, and it rained every single day. Just a small group of people, having a good time.

Now to get on with life.

Flickr photoset

16 April 2008

The holidays

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , — Ben @ 5:42 pm

Well, its the school holidays. Two weeks worth. It’s never enough; we all work so hard and get so little in return. But my birthday is in the holidays, so that’s good.

I really want to get more out of these two weeks, but loads of people are gone the first week for a camp. I’m also putting more time into catching up my schoolwork; it has slacked off recently. I’m also working at the computer shop, earning money as well. That takes time from me.

There are so many things that I planned to do but they all go to waste when you really think about how much time you have. You think that downtime is non-existent, but there is always more of it than you think

Well I’ll be looking forward to my birthday party, photos will be on flickr the day after.

Powered by WordPress