Sunday, September 5, 2010

Data Girl

I've always been a data girl.

When I was a programmer, I gravitated toward data analysis, report writing, and SQL programming. When I was a manager, I told my employees to bring me hard numbers (time shavings, money savings, quality improvements) to convince me to fight for changes to policies or procedures. Since I was a kid, I've had an analysis (now in spreadsheet format) of how I would spend lottery winnings (although I don't play lottery), including variables for how much I won, the tax rate, and the annual tax-exempt gift limit from the IRS. Dorktastic, isn't it? 

I know, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" (with apologies to my statistician loved ones). And data doesn't always tell the whole story. Of course not. BUT ... I've been compulsive analyzing what data I have since becoming a PSO. 

Wanna know what I've found? Sure you do! 

Time of Day: chaotic and unpredictable. On the same day of the week, if I'm logged in over the same hours, calls will be spread throughout the day completely unpredictably. There is a slight trend to be slower over dinner hours (5-7 ish Central), but that's also when I log out most often, and a slowdown is not at all guaranteed. 

Day of Week: other than Saturday, chaotic and unpredictable. Saturday has always been busy for me, but I never know what time on Saturday will get busy. If I'm logged in from noon to midnight, eight of those hours will be completely silent, but I'll have a stack of back-to-back awesomeness. Otherwise, I've had amazing Tuesdays and quiet Fridays, followed by a quiet Tuesday and an amazing Friday. Totally unpredictable. 

Average Call Length: I'm ludicrously fortunate to have calls which seem to be longer than what I've read is industry standard. My average call is up to 17 minutes. From what I can tell, that is insanely high. 

Calls per Week: 60ish, but it's fluctuated wildly.

Are you picking up on a theme here? I am. The only fucking thing consistent about this data is its fucking inconsistency. THE ONE AND ONLY. Not that I'm aggravated by that at all. Noooooo. Not me. Of course not. (This woman is lying).

It makes sense, of course. Phone sex is based on an urge from an individual. It's not a logical, rational, predictable need. Trends may appear in larger data sets, and maybe enough to make predictions that prove mostly true, but on the scale of just my data, just my calls, there is nothing at all that I can predict with enough certainty to act on. Phooey, I say!

However, the Blogger Dashboard does have a gratifying little "Stats" tab, which lets me know my daily page views (I was shocked to see over 100 in a day!), my most popular blog post (the one about love), and where most of my traffic originates (my Niteflirt listing). Whew. I was getting worried I wouldn't have anything to compulsively over-analyze! 

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