The Time Hack: A web-based effort to challenge one person's perception of time through new and unusual experiences.
Pressed for time and finishing up a story for work - I quickly signed up and bet on a horse here. Though I am still slightly confused as to whether my horse won…
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 9 minutes and 31 seconds to sign up and bet on a horse.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
8 Notes
Hm. Well. What to say about this Time Hack… I am surprised at how easy and quick the entire process was. I was expecting an ordeal, to say the least. But really - in the end, it was a short and sweet painless Time Hack.
From what I can tell without having looked at the recorded times of each event this past year, the more awkward and uncomfortable the experience, the longer each event seems to have lasted. That said, this Time Hack seemed to have lasted a lifetime.
REMEMBERED DETAILS
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 355? Although for obvious reasons, I did not film the process of giving myself an enema, I did capture my thoughts before the process. Find a quick clip here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 23 minutes and 58 seconds to deliver the enema.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
7 Notes
Ze Frank, web entrepreneur, online performer and general crazy internet guy, created a project in 2008 ago called Young Me Now Me, a campaign asking people on the web to recreate childhood photographs of themselves.
The results of the project are both entertaining and fascinating.
The group photographs of families are particularly interesting.
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate that it took 21 minutes and 21 seconds to recreate a childhood photograph.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
1 Notes
REMEMBERED DETAILS
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 353? Find out here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 2 hours and 19 minutes to cut my own hair.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
1 Notes
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe I stood in front of my seat during takeoff on a United flight for 1 minute and 48 seconds, at which time I was scolded by a flight attendant.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
REMEMBERED DETAILS
ACTUAL EVENTS
What actually happened on day 351? Find out here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe I was in the trampoline room for 34 minutes and 12 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
1 Notes
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe I was in the punk rock strip club with my friend (pictured above) for 29 minutes and 11 minutes.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
3 Notes
On day 349 of The Time Hack, I visited a family who fled Iraq after a bomb exploded in front of their home in 2009 - gifts of a drawn out war graciously provided by Al-Qaeda, the father told me.
I gulped down large portions of well-prepared pot roast at a worn brown table in the family’s kitchen, while listening to stories from Amir Ahmed (not his real name). He was excited for someone to hear his story, and I was happy to be there.
His wife tiptoed around the kitchen preparing side dishes for our meal, his young daughter sat at the end of the table doing her homework on a pink laptop.
Ahmed, a warm-hearted, former university professor and father of four, has been dealing with unbearable bouts of depression as a result of the attack, he said. He had worked as a translator for the US military and feels a hit was taken out on his head and those of his family members because of his work.
While I was there, I could sense a deep sadness ricocheting off the pale white walls of the Ahmed’s home - a despair that the father caught and carried for his family. Two of his young children died in the bombing, and one of his daughters was still in the broken country, desperately trying to get out.
His daughter’s appeal to the US to allow her and Amhed’s grandchildren into the United States is one of many currently pending because of new security measures put in place in 2010 that require new intensive background checks.
Late last year, a group of lawmakers argued that more intensive background checks were needed in order to enter the US for those fleeing the Iraq war.
The security procedures were and are a direct reflection of continued threats from within the US by small sects of extremists hailing from the Middle East. But the new measures are forcing many who have worked with the US military to risk their lives by staying in the country.
“Do you think what I did was wrong?” Ahmed asked me, referring to his work with the US military.
I told him I could not answer that question but could say that I thought what he did was brave.
“But my daughters are dead,” he whispered.
The audio of the interview with Ahmed was turned into a BBC World Service piece by Marc Adams. To read more about Ahmed, see the text and link below.
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The last American soldiers have left Iraq, and many Iraqis with a connection to them, however distant, remain vulnerable to attack by extremists seeking retribution. Thousands hope to resettle in the US, but new security procedures have delayed admission for all but a fraction, leaving them stuck in dangerous limbo.
“Sometimes when you wait for something, that process will kill you day by day. I’m kept waiting,” says Amir Ahmed, an Iraqi refugee in the US and father of four.
Desperation consumes his voice as he talks about his daughter still in Iraq, waiting to be resettled in the US and reunited with the rest of her family.
“She is part of my body,” he says. “She is a part of me and I am unable to live without her.”
For security reasons, Mr Ahmed asked to keep his real name hidden. Every day he is gripped with fear his daughter and her family will be killed in retaliation for the work he did for the Americans.
“The situation is going to get worse,” he says. “I am 100% sure of it.”
Just after the US invasion in 2003, Mr Ahmed left his job as a university professor to work as an interpreter for the US Army. Seven months later, a bomb exploded in front of his house, placed by al-Qaeda, he says. He was severely injured and two of his daughters were killed.
After recovering, he fled with his family to Syria. In 2009, they came to the US.
But his daughter’s husband was determined to start a business in the new Iraq, and the couple stayed behind with their three young children.
They quickly came to regret their decision.
To continue reading “Family of Iraqis who worked with the US left in danger”, click here.
6 Notes
During the fall of 2007, I traveled around the US via the kindness of strangers through a web project called Around America in 2.0. It was a time in the internet’s youth when YouTube was just beginning to get its bearings and news reports were coming out almost daily about crimes that were committed through people connecting on Craigslist.
So I created AA2.0 as a way to prove the web community that it was entirely possible to trust strangers they met through the internet. For the project, I posted a video on YouTube and on the project’s website asking people to drive, house and feed me around the United States for 80 days as a test of web connectivity and trust. I essentially acted as a human baton being passed from one stranger to the next. I filmed the entire 80 day project and created a rather unimpressive web series out of the footage (as I was cutting on the road and had no formal training in video journalism at the time).
But I digress. I stayed with and was driven around the US by 56 strangers and web junkies during the trip. To this day, I’m not really sure what to make of the entire endeavor. But I’ve always regretted passing hitchhikers on the side of the road since. So for day 348 of The Time Hack, I picked one up while en route at night back from a snowboarding trip to Mt Hood in Oregon.
Ironically, a friend was in the car at the time whom was one of the then strangers who picked me up during the Around America in 2.0 trip.
She later seemed surprised that I would be so bold as to pick up a hitchhiker. The irony.
REMEMBERED DETAILS
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 348? Without listening to the audio (which I recorded while the hitchhiker was in the car), I get the impression that the file may be corrupted or not all there - as vimeo is telling me it is significantly shorter than I remember recording for. But for better or worse - here’s at least an attempt at some audio from the short drive with the hitchhiker. Check it out here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate the hitchhiker was in the car for 11 minutes and 13 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
7 Notes
During a ceremony during day 347 of The Time Hack, a Shaman told me that my spirit animal was a horse. [Video below]
According to SpiritAnimals.com, a horse, pony or mustang can help their cohorts with the following:
REMEMBERED DETAILS
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 347? Find out here. And here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 21 minutes and 30 seconds t#mce_temp_url#o have the Shaman find my spirit animal.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
5 Notes