+source_example_depth=$(calculate_depth ~/cloud/example_source)
+
+# the list files are web documents with to-do lists. individual items are marked with <li>.
+item_depth=$(find ~/cloud/grunty_notes/ -type f -iname "*.html" -exec grep "<li" "{}" ';' | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
+
+# scan across all appropriately named folders in our folders that live in the "cloud".
+cloud_depth=0
+for i in ~/cloud/*project* ~/cloud/*research*; do
+ temp_depth=$(calculate_depth $i)
+ cloud_depth=$(($cloud_depth + $temp_depth))
+done
+
+##############