Listening To My Lists' Listings

My life took a bit of turn not long ago, and in the ensuing consideration of how the changes will affect me I have started taking a long hard look at the things that interest me and wondering if they still mean something to me. This blog and my chronological database are among them. But the good news is that I still love this and have no plans to stop. Having said that, let's talk about some of the things I've been pondering.

Let me start this paragraph by saying that I am not thinking about changing anything on here. Well, maybe a few small things, but nothing major. I like the way this looks and works, and it would be silly to do anything drastic. But when I look at my spreadsheets, I start seeing possibilities. Shall we examine some of those? Good.

I get a lot of requests for information or lists or dates for certain cases, and I got one not long ago from my friend and eminent Sherlockian Steve Mason that required something I didn't actually have with my dates - days of the week. I was happy to add them to the chronologies he wanted and enjoyed doing it, but it made me think about doing it to the whole database. I have a vintage binder that contains calendars for every year of the life of Holmes (and a bit beyond) and it would not be a problem to do. (Yes, I can also access the calendars online, but it's more fun to do it from paper. Stacks of paper are always better.)

The next question is whether to include them on the Main Spreadsheet or have them as a separate one. As it stands, I have seven spreadsheets that categorize the data in many different ways, and I can easily imagine another half dozen. (I really like lists. Collecting facts or information or whatever is fun for me. And I know that puts me into an unregistered type of geekdom, but I yam what I yam.) The current ones are:

Main Spreadsheet - dates from each chronology/chronologist alphabetized by case (this is my go-to)
Case Spreadsheet - just the cases in the order the chronologist put them
Date Spreadsheet - the cases in date order
Monthly Spreadsheet - the cases in date order within their respective month
Yearly Spreadsheet - the cases in alphabetical order then date order within their respective years
Individual Date Spreadsheet - whenever someone has a date for just one case
Specifics Spreadsheet - the cases in alphabetical order but sorted by how specific the dating is

That last one has four categories:
Specific - an actual date
Less Specific - a date that specifies what part of a month (or the chronologist is not completely sure)
Even Less Specific - just a month or season
Unspecific - just a year or large range

The Date Spreadsheet presents some unique problems. I had to decide how to file seasons or years. Here's what I mean - if a chronologist just had a year, does it go before the other dates in that year or after? Same with a season. If someone says it was 'Summer 1889' for example, does it go before the other listings that have actual dates in that summer, or after? (These problems creep into some of the other spreadsheets, too.) It was easy to decide, though, that if two or more people had a case in 'March 1895' only, then those cases get alphabetized under that heading. There are other small considerations to be made, but nothing to spend time on here.

I have not kept all of these up as well as I should, but I do maintain the Main, Case, and Date ones every time a new chronology surfaces. My newly given increase in free time, though, will allow me to work on that. It will also allow me to put those other Spreadsheets into practice and see if they pan out. I can envision one for the aforementioned days of the week, and one for decisions made by various options like weather or marriages or whatever. (I have others written down somewhere, but you got me as to where. Old man brain.)

On days that find me thinking too hard about it, I start wondering whether or not this is all necessary or has a place. After all, people usually only want basic information, and while I'm happy to supply it, I always hope for someone to ask for something more. Still if it never happens, I get to enjoy talking about it on here to you wonderful folks, plus I get to keep working on my beloved lists. (This reminds me of a piece I read once about the different types of data the FBI keeps. It concerned an agent who gathered data about agriculture, specifically the nation's potato crops. He had been approached by a publication of some kind and asked for details about potatoes for an article. Apparently, this guy was beyond thrilled to help because no one ever asked him anything about what he did except those in the Bureau. I identify with him.) 

So, again, nothing will change here. If anything, finding new and unusual ways to look at the database will allow me to keep bringing you fresh ways of thinking about Sherlockian chronology. I'm certain that while updating I'll come up with other thoughts, and I'll have the time to see if they're worth doing. All of these are good things, especially since I still love this so much. If you'll remember a recent post on here, I told you that in time all of this will be on a website, or available on here somehow. Those will still happen, but not overnight. I ain't the most technologically savvy dude.

My biggest fear is that you, my lovely faithful, will get bored with my product here. I have made it a mission to try and help (or make) people understand that this small but important niche of a larger hobby is not only interesting, but fun. I have around 2,400 dates listed in my system, and even if you take out matching ones, it's still around 1,500. That's a lot of information to make sense of and it's a wonderful pool to get to drink from. And as long as new timelines come out, there will always be something fresh to report upon. And hopefully it never gets stale.

You know I always show my appreciation for you getting to the bottom here, and this time will be no different. I love it when you do. I'll see you next time, and as always...thanks for reading.