How fast does time seem to go by for you? Does it seem slow, like you're unable to get to that point in the future that you just can't wait to be at? Or does it seem to zip by like an express train? Does it seem to move at a consistent pace for you or does it seem to fluctuate wildly? Does it move at the same pace now as it did at other times in your life? Does it seem to move at the same pace for you as for other people you know? I think these are very interesting questions that deserve attentions from psychologists and philosophers.

Philip Yaffe, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has a very thought provoking article in which he asks the question, how come time seems to go faster and faster as we get older? Philip's conclusion is that the reason for this widely reported phenomenon is that anticipation slows down the perception of time while retrospection makes time seem to go more quickly. While we are young we spend a good deal of time anticipating our future and while we are older we spend a much greater percentage of time in retrospection about our pasts.

I'm more convinced by Philip's idea that anticipation can slow the perception of time. After all, every American remembers how long Christmas Eve night seemed when they were 5 years old. I'm less convinced though that retrospection accelerates the perception of time. That doesn't seem to fit my own phenomenology as well as the former idea. I'd rather parsimoniously claim that it's simply less time spent in anticipation that results in the perception of time going more quickly in older age. This seems to be an inadequately explored area. Given the importance of time to us mortal humans, the psychology of how we think about time is very important and deserves a lot more work.

Here we go. Liftoff. This is launch week for BubbleTimer and my tiny team and I are scrambling to put the last polishing touches on a few things. The time charting has been a bit of a nusaince for a few weeks. Still trying to get it just right.

I've put off creating the product tour but now it's time. No more procrastination. I have the text all set, just need to take all the screenshots. I'm a perfectionist about screenshots so I'm not looking forward to it since I know it will be a time sink of epic porportions.

The final design elements are in place including the product logo which was sourced from a design contest at 99 Designs. What a fun and smooth process that was. I highly reccommend the crowd sourcing approach to anyone needing some design work. crowdSPRING is another option similar to 99 Designs that I haven't tried out yet but I will soon.

There are a couple of tweeks to the billing, printing and exporting and then we'll be launched. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be relatively smooth. I'm keeping all the rest of my body parts crossed that BubbleTimer will prove useful to you. I've been using it for months now and I find it an indespensible part of keeping my life on track. I hope you will too.