McFilter

Media I Consume

Hello.

Things have been a bit quiet round here lately, largely because I've been busy working: adding printing to tedium, and consulting for Motorola on a mobile phone UI project.

Those projects aren't at quite such a manic level now, but I've been struggling to find anything useful to write here. Lots of ideas for posts, but an inability to get the words flowing.

In an attempt to kickstart things, I'm stealing a meme from Euan. Without further ado, this is what my media consuption looks like:

Web: I've never really done much "random web surfing", but I do spend an awful lot of my time using a web browser. There are a few hundred RSS feeds in my newsreader which let me keep up-to-date with a huge number of blogs. Through them I find around half-a-dozen jumping off points into the web each day. That's more than enough!

Music: Music is almost omnipresent in my life: on the radio in the shower; Internet radio or iTunes streaming from my mp3 collection when I'm at a computer; and more mp3s in my car stereo. My music collection (all purchased, mostly on CD and then ripped to mp3) runs to around 11,000 tracks, and includes all sorts of stuff. last.fm is probably the best place to head to get an idea of what I listen to.

TV: I watch very little TV. These days a lot of what I watch has been downloaded via BitTorrent, but only as a form of poor-man's Tivo/Sky+. I do have a soft spot for documentaries or factual programmes - particularly music-, architecture- or environment-related. The main thing I watch live is football, if Liverpool are involved. So that's Match of the Day, or the Champions League games when they're not on Sky.

Communication: I'm not best at this, as anyone who converses with me via email will no doubt know. I've got all the right tools - phone, mobile phone, email, IM, Skype... but have a tendency to get engrossed in other things and not respond as quickly as I should. I think there are always a few "email so-and-so" tasks on my todo list - it's a constant battle to get to where replying to email is one of those less-than-five-minutes-so-just-do-it tasks...

Movies: Although I enjoy going to the cinema, I rarely get hung-up on what I want to watch. I often have a few things I'd like to see if I go, but won't worry if I don't make it to see them. And I much prefer seeing them at the cinema, rather than at home. Watching DVDs or films on TV somehow feels too much like I could be doing something more productive.

Magazines: I don't find the time to read any these days. I still keep a subscription to evo but have at present two issues lying unopened in my in-tray. Apart from maybe Inc. magazine (their renewal system made it easier for my subscription to lapse), I can quite happily live without reading any other magazines.

Books: I don't get as much time to read books as I'd like. At least now Amazon let me keep most of my unread pile virtual. I made a conscious decision to read more a few months back, and since then have been making better progress (largely at the expense of magazines). I now often read for a while before bed, which works well to help me wind-down after an evening of work.

Newspapers: Reading the paper is an occasional weekend indulgence. I do enjoy working my way through the Weekend FT; or the Guardian or Observer. The only other time I'm likely to buy a paper is if I've got a long train or plane journey ahead.

Radio: Now that I've got my entire CD collection always with me, I don't listen to the radio in the car much. Radio One is always on when I'm having a shower, although Chris Moyles really annoys me during the week. If I'm at my computer it's a toss-up between listening to mp3s or streaming radio - usually BBC 6Music or Norman Jay's show on BBC London.

Tags: meme media