The Time Hack

Final figures and analysis

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:26:00 -0500

The year is up and the numbers are crunched.

As the about section explains, the Time Hack was a year-long experiment aimed at exploring whether our perception of time is influenced by our actions.

Throughout the experiment, which I carried out during the whole of 2011, I participated in a new and unusual activity each day in an effort to alter my perception of time. Click here to learn more about the parameters of the project.

Research suggests a person’s perception of how much time has passed between two points and how well memories are recorded onto an individual’s brain are partially dependent on the amount of new experiences that person has during any given day. The Time Hack aimed to explore this idea.

With this in mind, I timed each of the experiences on a stopwatch and pit those recorded times against my estimation of how long I perceived each experience to have lasted for. For a complete list of these activities and a comparison between the times, see this spreadsheet.

Breakdown and final totals

The following information and graphs represent an analysis of the actual times and perceived times of each activity, which I recorded throughout the project.

In total, I engaged in 344 activities throughout the year, which I had never participated in prior to the project, over the course of 365 days.

Twenty-one days worth of data was compromised and/or lost, which is why there were 344 activities analyzed here as opposed to 365.

During those 344 days, I spent 305 hours, 13 minutes and 42 seconds (or 18,313 minutes and 42 seconds) engaging in activities I have never before experienced.

According to the total sum of my perceived times during those 344 days, however, I believed those activities to have lasted for 319 hours, 57 minutes and 11 seconds. This difference in time alludes to the idea that I experienced an extra 14 hours, 43 minutes and 29 seconds during 2011.

Put another way, I squeezed 4.6% more time out of my year through these activities. And put yet another way, that’s about 2 minutes and 34 seconds of new life each day, while engaging in the activities for 53 minutes and 15 seconds on average.

For more charts, figures and analysis, continue reading this post here.

Day 365: Take the polar bear plunge

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:56:00 -0500

I spent a hefty chunk of December contemplating a perfect Day 365 of The Time Hack: the final day in the year-long time perception experiment that began January 1, 2011. It had to be big and embody the spirit of the project — a representation of the venture that would sit front-and-center on the site’s homepage for all Internet eternity.

Skydive? Too expected. Get shot out of a canon? Too difficult to arrange.

Two nights before the project would end, I sat down with friends and mapped a route across the continental United States. I’d attempt to roll through four U.S. time zones in 24 hours — a feasible task if one doesn’t urinate and drives about 90 mph through the middle of the country. The task seemed a solid, octane-fueled finale.

Hours before I was to hop in a car and skirt westward, however, I realized that capping the project off with such a bang would mark the entire experiment as a 365-day exercise in entertainment. While from the beginning, many of the time hacks ended up being quite funny (e.g., Day 17: Recite the alphabet in public), the project was not entertainment at its core.

It was intended to be a tool.

TRY EVERYTHING
Over in the “About” section, I point to research that suggests that both a person’s perception of how time passes and the sharpness of that person’s memories are dependent, in part, on the number of new experiences he or she has during a given day.

So if new experiences slow a person’s perception of time, The Time Hack was the tool by which I’d attempt to make 2011 the longest year of my life.

But more importantly, it was a tool to demonstrate how one can positively apply scientific data to daily life.

DO MORE
For generations, mothers have told their children not sit around and let life pass them by. The Time Hack was an effort to confront the time-honored adage and demonstrate the science-backed benefits of making the most out of life.

In short: Do more and your perception of life will change for the better.

Get out the house and experience the world first-hand, put yourself in unusual and uncomfortable situations. Go to trapeze school, eat dinner with a homeless person, participate in a Shaman ceremony. Dye your hair green, study finance, travel to a third world country, ride motorcycles, take sword fighting lessons, play football, eat bugs — do it all. Try anything and everything.

But it can also be simpler than that. If you typically walk down 1st Street on the way home from work each day, then tomorrow ride a bicycle down 2nd.

Why? Because participating in new and dynamic activities could significantly extend your time on this planet — or at least your perception of it.

DIYTH
And that’s precisely why I wanted to end the project here: jumping into a body of water during winter. It is an experience that shows you, the person reading this right now, the feasibility of doing this project yourself.

I’m really going to miss the Time Hack. It helped make 2011, by far, the best year of my life. From fighting an amateur boxer on day one to training with a former Olympic fencer on day 364, I faced a myriad of life experiences that most are unlikely to ever encounter in one year.

As with any bit of scientific research, however, you take what you’ve learned and move forward with a new perspective on the world. So the Time Hack will live on. Case in point: I write this while researching a trip to Texas, where I hope to join in on my first rodeo.

Thanks for all of your ideas, Time Hack fans, and may you keep the Time Hack spirit truckin’.

Special thanks to science journalist Dave Mosher and interaction designer Liz Danzico for countless hours and even days of help on this project. Additional thanks goes to neurologist and time perception guru David Eagleman for helping to design the project.

[Note: In the coming weeks I’ll sort through my data, show off some highlights and post a link to the project’s complete set.]

For future projects and updates, I can be found on Twitter @mattdanzico.

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe I yelled “Day 365” while running toward the the ocean in Coney Island, New York.
I took three steps into the ocean and then dove, falling into the water on my left side.
After my first dive, I jumped up and raised my hands and let out a “whoo”, echoing a passerby who was cheering me on back on land.
I dove in two more times, once to my left (completely submerged) and the second to my right (leaving my head above water).
I ran back up the beach holding my arms over my chest and told the camera “that was an interesting year”.
I first put my hands on my knees out to catch my breath and then sat down with a towel to get warm.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 365? Find out here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I believe from the time I ran down the beach to jump in the ocean to the moment I exited the water was 54 seconds.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 364: Take a fencing lesson

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:20:00 -0500

REMEMBERED DETAILS

The man I took a fencing lesson from was named Acky, a longtime fencer who competed in the 2000 Olympics.
During the portion of the lesson that I filmed, I recall Acky showing me three different forms of blocking.
We first form of blocking we went over involved holding the sabre up to block above my head. Acky attempted to hit me six times on the head. Each time I blocked and was directed to hit him atop his head.
Next we went over blocking on my left (his right). He came in with his sabre to hit my left arm. Each of the seven times we did this form of blocking, I stopped him and was directly to hit him on his right arm.
We then went over blocking on my right side. We did this a total of five times.
Following the lessons in blocking, Acky then attempted to hit me from different angles, without letting me know where he was going to try to strike. He came in toward my head first. The following represents the order in which I believe he tried to hit me following his first attempt: left arm, head, left arm, right arm, right arm, head, left arm, left arm, head, right arm, left arm, right arm, left arm.
I then remember battling Acky, winning and being invited to the 2012 Olympics. (Okay, maybe that one didn’t happen.)

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 364? Find out here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I believe my fencing lesson at the Fencers Club in New York City lasted 58 minutes and 11 seconds.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 363: Silly String a stranger

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:19:00 -0500

What was odd about this activity is that my perception of time sped and slowed depending on the individuals I asked to allow me to coat them in Silly String.

A total of four sets of people were approached on a Thursday evening at roughly 10:00pm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The first was a man walking with a woman whom I would assume was his partner. I very awkwardly asked if he’d be willing to allow me to coat him in the aerosol string, citing a “scavenger hunt-like project”. He declined, mentioning various understandable reasons. Any reason one would give to avoid being covered in Silly String by a stranger is understandable, to be honest. But I digress.

During this experiment, I felt my emotions being dictated by the reactions of the people I approached very early on in this experiment. If those I asked laughed and seemed engaged, despite their willingness to be “stringed”, I felt more comfortable and time passed slowly during our exchange. But if they declined without a smile, time slipped by. And this reaction apparently mirrors new research done on the topic of time perception.

According to Annett Schirmer, a researcher in the department of psychology at the National University of Singapore, evidence suggests that “emotions can both speed up and slow down the internal clock”.

Schirmer states: “Speeding up has been observed for to-be-timed emotional stimuli that have the capacity to sustain attention, whereas slowing down has been observed for to-be-timed neutral stimuli that are presented in the context of emotional distractors.”

That’s nerd talk for ‘if something sustains your attention - like a person who reacts positively and shows attention - time will slow. Whereas, awkwardness can make time slip by.’

Schirmer states that research performed in both non-humans and humans points to the idea that bodily arousal affects time perception. In his research, rats injected with a drug that enhances the amount of dopamine produced in the brain treated a “given duration as longer” than rats injected with simple saline. Dopamine, mind you, produces the brain’s feel-good state following stimulants ranging from candy to cocaine. Whereas, rats in the study injected with drugs that block the amount of dopamine production have had the opposite effect.

Schirmer found that in humans “changes in physiological arousal as assessed by self-report” showed similar results.

Whether the amount of dopamine being produced in my brain had anything to do with the reactions of those asked to be stringed, I am not certain. But one thing is for sure - the man who finally allowed me to cover him in the pink aerosol string surely saw increased amounts of dopamine produced in his brain as well. No question there. Silly String is, after all, completely awesome.

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe the person who I “Silly Stringed” was named John, an early 20-something with brown hair.
He was wearing three shirts, which included a black coat, a navy blue zippered sweatshirt and a black t-shirt.
I jumped counter-clockwise around John, coating him with pink Silly String. Directly before making a complete circle, the Silly String ran out, spraying John with gas instead.
At the end of the event, I shook John’s right hand, with my back facing the store front behind me. I told him thanking and that it was “nice of him to help out”. He responded: “Anytime.”
John was with two friends when I stopped him, each had a beard and each had navy blue coats.
At the end of the event, I walked north toward the camera and John headed south, leaving his coat off.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 363? Find out here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I believe it took 3 minutes and 29 seconds to approach a stranger and convince him to allow me to coat him in Silly String.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 362: Kiss under mistletoe

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:20:00 -0500

REMEMBERED TIME

I estimate that setting up the mistletoe and the related smooch itself lasted a total of 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 361: Create and toss a 'message in a bottle'

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:10:14 -0500

On day 361 of The Time Hack, I threw a message in a bottle into the East River, off the coast of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Why exactly? Well, if it worked for an 11-year-old… (Story below from the BBC.)

An 11-year-old US boy was stunned to get a reply to his message in a bottle from Portugal’s Azores Islands - via the more surefire medium of email.

Curtis Kipple wrote a letter about himself and his hometown in New York state, and put it in a bottle which was dropped into the Atlantic in March.

The message was found last week by Ana Ponte, 25, from the fishing village of Terceira, on the Azores archipelago.

The fifth-grader’s bottle had travelled 2,600 miles (4,190km).

“My brother and my father wake up earlier today and went to sea to catch a seafood very common here, and found a bottle with a message from a boy Curtis Kipple,” said Ms Ponte’s email - written in both English and Portuguese - to Curtis’s school.

Day 360: Engage in archery

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:52:32 -0500

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe my sister, who went with me to the archery range, shot 11 arrows.
She shot one over the building that housed the targets, one over a fence, and the rest below the target where she was aiming.
I shot 12 arrows, one stuck into the wall of the building holding the targets and the rest hit the white area of the target itself.
I switched bows halfway through shooting.
I told my sister “better luck next time”.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 360? Find out here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I believe I engaged in archery for 36 minutes and 37 seconds.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 359: Investigate an abandoned, "haunted" sanitorium

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:46:22 -0500

Exploration and curiosity are ingrained in everything that makes us human. The benefits of seeking the unknown have been many and have ranged from discovering new trade routes to swapping secrets on crop irrigation with indigenous populations. And to a certain degree, we are all the ancestors of explorers.

On the plains of Africa, for instance, those who moved to new lands in search of food were sometimes the ones who survived. And in modern times in the US, those who escaped their home countries to come to America to find work were the ones who were prosperous enough to raise a strong family.

But researchers still do not know precisely where this human sense of curiosity comes from.

Some experts think curiosity is an internal drive, something that makes us explore a dark cave or abandoned tuberculosis sanitarium, in this case. They believe it to be similar to hunger or thirst, an urge we must answer to be healthy and survive. This belief is called the drive theory of curiosity.

Other researchers believe in incongruity theory - the belief that our environment triggers curiosity. These experts believe that individuals only become curious when prompted with an environment or occurence that challenges our sense of the world. Magicians, for instance, play off this curiosity theory. Make a rabbit disappear in a top hat, and wham.. you’ll have hooked your audiences’ attention for hours.

During a trip to my hometown for the holidays, I was compelled to explore an abandoned sanitarium, a complex established in 1903 for those suffering from tuberculosis. It was a trip I had been thinking about making since I was a child, growing up in the region.

Upon returning from the trip, which was made on Christmas night, my mother informed me that the song “White Christmas” had actually been written by someone who was treated at the sanitarium.

How curious.

REMEMBERED DETAILS

A friend and I approached the ground-level door to the sanitarium, which had brown and black wooden supports strewn on the ground in front of the complex.
The entire entrance, which was roughly 7ft tall, was covered in graffiti with the word “beware” in orange spray paint above the doorway.
There were three rooms directly off of the main entrance. The first, to our left, was covered in rubble and had one large broken window. The second, straight ahead, was also covered in rubble and broken lumber. A large triangular piece of the ceiling had collapsed in the room and was blocking the far left corner. The third entrance led to a room that housed a large wooden table.
My friend was the first one to advance into the complex. He moved toward the back of the first room, peaking into another room that was blocked by large cinderblocks and other forms of rubble.
There was primarily only black spray paint inside the room.
I came quite close to having my eye poked by a sharp piece of wood hanging from the ceiling near the front entrance to the room.
My friend and I stepped back outside and turned to our right to continue investigating the room. On the second level were two large French doors. At the far corner of that same room, which was exposed to the outside of the building, was several curse words with arrows pointed to a second doorway.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 359? Find out here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I believe we walked around the abandoned sanitarium for 12 minutes and 09 seconds.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 358: Buy and deliver presents to a family in need

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:49:57 -0500

Though a 2005 report showed that four out of five Americans believe the holidays to be too materialistic, psychologists have argued that gift giving is an important ritual in maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle. But experts claim giving presents is more beneficial for the givers than for the receivers.

“If I don’t let you give me a gift, then I’m not encouraging you to think about me and think about things I like. I am preventing you from experiencing the joy of engaging in all those activities. You do people a disservice by not giving them the gift of giving,” Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer told T he New York Times in 2007.

According to the article, researchers believe that evolution played a large role in why humans give gifts today.

Men who were the most generous may have had the most reproductive success with women. (Notably, the use of food in exchange for sexual access and grooming has been documented in our closest ape relative, the chimpanzee.) Women who were skilled at giving — be it extra food or a well-fitted pelt — helped sustain the family provider as well as her children.

Further researcher was released in 2008 by the Virginia Commonwealth University showing that the benefits of gift giving may ultimately fall on the shoulders of the giver, not the receiver.

In the VCU report, experts studied the gift giving habits of pet owners, concluding that their gifts stemmed from an effort to make pets happy. Though the research may seem frivolous, the report points to the self-serving nature of gift giving - since, after all, pets are unable to give gifts in return.

For day 358 of The Time Hack, I purchased a Wal-Mart gift card and a book set for a family whose house burned down the night before Christmas Eve. Though the presents were utlimately delivered to a mother and her young daughter, I’m still not sure who benefited the most from the gifts - myself or the family.

REMEMBERED DETAILS (From both wrapping the presents to delivering them)

My friend and I wrapped the presents (a Wrinkle in Time book set and a Wal-Mart gift card) in blue and white stripped wrapping paper. Red ribbon was used to
There was a debate as to what should be said in the card, which was white with a green tree on the outside cover.
I erased and rewrote the closing of the card three times - simply saying “Happy Holidays, Matt” - as opposed to leaving The Time Hack’s website.
We wrapped the gift card first, ultimately taping it to the top of the the book set.
We knocked on a neighbor’s house and a man named Jeff answered the door in a grey sweatshirt.
We hadn’t yet got a full sentence out yet when he invited us into his house. He was talking on a white cordless telephone, holding it on his right shoulder with his chin.
My friend and I stood in the living room of the man’s house, which contained a two brown chairs, a tan couch and one Christmas tree.
Nice as he was, Jeff was slightly unclear as to whether he would deliver the presents to the family in need.
Halfway through our visit and teenager named Kyle walked into the house, saying that the family was staying at the Days Inn and that the presents would be delivered.
Jeff said the town’s Sheriff, named Tom, had already delivered “money cards” to the family.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 358? Find out here. (Video) And here. (Audio of us going into the neighbor’s house.)

REMEMBERED TIME

I estimate it took 1 hour and 19 minutes to purchase and deliver the Christmas presents.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 357: Reconstruct an animal skeleton using bones found in owl vomit

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:16:56 -0500

Girlfriend: “So I have the perfect present for your sister for Christmas.”

Matt: “Oh?”

GF: “I met a woman who has a passion for finding bones located inside owl vomit and bottling them up in glass vials.”

M: “Wait. What?”

GF: “I should buy it for you - so you could give it to your sister. Essentially, there is a woman who runs a shop here in Greenpoint (Brooklyn) who will go out into the wilderness in search of owl vomit, which she calls owl pellets, and dig through the vomit there were any bones regurgitated in the throw up. She then takes those bones, puts them into cute glass vials and sells them.”

M: “Yep, sounds perfect. She’d love it.”

For day 357 of The Time Hack, I took sea urchin bones found in owl vomit and attempted to reconstruct the animal with the help of sticky tack.

Why not.

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe 31 bones were used to recreate the sea urchin.
The majority of each bone was white in color, with a dash of brown around each end.
The ball of gum was green in color and attached to a clear pushpin.
The other vials in the box included a rodent backbone and a bee. The box said there was supposed to be a fourth vial containing the bones of a seahorse. That container was missing.
On the desk, where I was working there was a pair of tweezers, the box in which the bones came, sticky tack and a camera.
I rotated the camera in a counter-clockwise motion around the recreated sea urchin.

ACTUAL EVENTS

What happened on day 357? Find out here. And here.

REMEMBERED TIME

I estimate that it took 37 minutes and 20 seconds to recreate the sea urchin using sticky tack and bones found in owl vomit.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 356: Bet on a horse

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:25:00 -0500

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 355: Receive an enema

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:26:45 -0500

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

I stood on my hands and knees and administered the medicine with my right hand.
Stopping only moments after I began, I slammed the bottle on the ground and rethought why exactly I was doing this to myself. Not coming up with a solid motive, I hesitantly proceeded, hanging my head between my arms on the floor of my bathroom.
The bottle was once again slammed to the ground with only about one quarter of the fluid used. The bottle filled up with air.
I made the unfortunate mistake of injecting the bottle back in and squeezing the air threw the nozzle.
I stopped the process after the second round and spent the following ten or so minutes waiting for the medicine to take effect.

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 354: Recreate a childhood photograph

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:45:23 -0500

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 353: Give yourself a makeover hairdo

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:32:27 -0500

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe I used the “number 8 setting” on the electric clippers on the backs and sides of my head.
I buzzed the right side of my head first a total of 13 times.
The back side of my head was the next to go, followed by the left side of my head.
I used two hair clips to hold up my mane, while using the electric clippers.
A small handheld mirror was used a total of four times while cutting the hair on the back of my head.
I used scissors with black handles on the top of my head. I estimate I made 64 cuts.

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 352: Stand while taking off in an airplane

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:12:09 -0500

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 351: Spend time in a trampoline room

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:02:00 -0500

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I believe the room was six trampolines long and six wide. There were 24 trampolines lining the walls of the room.
There were seven people jumping on the trampolines in the room at the time I took the video, six males and one female.
The ceiling of the facility was white and had a drop ceiling. Four large florescent lights hung from the ceiling.
There were four black couches to the left of the trampolines, with three sets of parents sitting in them.
I remarked while shooting the video that I had pulled a muscle in my back.

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 350: Go to a punk rock strip club

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:15:02 -0500

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 349: Have dinner with an Iraqi refugee

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:43:20 -0500

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.

—-

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.

REMEMBERED TIME

I estimate that I had dinner for 35 minutes and 47 seconds with the Iraqi refugee.

ACTUAL TIME

How long did it take? Find out here.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 348: Pick up a hitchhiker

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:14:00 -0500

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

Jake was a ski patrolman working in Oregon. He was originally from Idaho, just north of Boise.
He said he hadn’t been waiting long for a ride.
He had a brown beard and wore a bright red jacket with a black hat.
He sat directly behind the passenger to my right while I was driving.
I continually attempted to make my rented Ford sedan play music through my iPhone as I was recording the audio of the conversation.
We offered him carrots from a bag we had with us on our snowboarding trip.
Jake asked to be dropped off at a small motel that was painted yellow at the bottom of Mt Hood mountain. He commented as he was getting out of the car that it isn’t often that people pick up hitchhikers in Oregon. I replied that it is not often that I pick them up.

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?

Day 347: Find a spirit animal through a Shaman ceremony

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:25:19 -0500

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:

power (Sweet.)
stamina
endurance (Last time I ran was sophmore year of high school.)
faithfulness
freedom to run free (Like a pony?)
control of the environment
awareness of power achieved with true cooperation
interspecies communication (Seems appropriate.)
Expanding one’s own potential abilities
friendship and cooperation (BBF.)
travel
Asian travel
guardian of travelers
warns of possible danger
guide to overcoming obstacles (Low-lying branches.)

REMEMBERED DETAILS

I laid hands crossed on the ground next to the Shaman for roughly ten minutes before he rose up and blew, hands cupped, onto my chest.
I used a grey couch cushion under my head during the ceremony and was told to lay with my right leg touching the Shaman’s left.
The music consisted of primarily drum beats.
The ceremony was conducted while the music was still playing.
The Shaman wore a blue bandana on his head during the ceremony.
He told me a horse was my spirit animal and that a pointy-eared dog and crow also made appearances in his vision. He said the horse took him to a field where he ran around.
The Shaman was wearing a bow tie.
I was told that the horse “presented itself” to the Shaman, which indicated that the horse was my spirit animal.
I told the Shaman that I had a strange image of a wolf in my head, when attempting to think up my own spirit animal.

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.

Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?