started my dy/dan 4 slide project. i might not finish… just not inspired and don’t have knowledge of the tools to do this. – Sam Shah, who finished second place (!) last year.

I was shocked, frankly, we had twenty entries last year to what was a pretty demanding competition. I’m pushing my luck a second time only because I’m enjoying a fairly transcendent experience designing my own, the kind of happy nerdery you can’t keep to yourself, you know?

I mean, this bar chart is sharp as a blade, right? Any guesses what month my long-distance girlfriend became my close-distance wife?

That’s one of, like, sixteen visualizations I’m working on. We’re looking for four. Possible data sources:

• events recorded in your calendar,
• blog statistics,
• last.fm / iTunes statistics,
• credit card / bank statements,
• cell phone records,
• cocomment / commentful / disqus
• Tweetake
• Google Reader trends.

And, for the love, do not neglect PivotTables, your best offense against huge piles of data.