OK Computer

Thank God. Resuming transmission soon.

OK Computer, Not

Dear Secret Law of the Universe

Please, please, please restore my computer’s health.
Thank you very much.

Desperately yours,
M

Desktop Cleanup

MicroMOVEMent is a term coined by SARK for the method of dividing a main task into a number of tiny tasks(in chunks of about 5 minutes or less) in order to accomplish a goal. Instead of looking at the big picture, you break down the process into very small, very manageable steps. This way you’ll feel a sense of achievement for every little accomplishment, which in turn, will motivate you to move closer towards achieving your goal.

I am running out of space to work so today I want to clean my desk. My working space is 1.5m by 1.5m ….hang on a minute, let me confirm that. Nope, it’s 78cm by 60cm. No wait, that’s still not right.. I’ve included the area under immovables such as the monitor.

Ok, my effective workable working space is 35cm by 78cm, that’s less than 15in by 30in, which is small, but it’s something I can live with provided things remain in their respective places as shown above. Pens and pencils in holder, Copic markers in pencil case, pieces of papers and news clippings kept neatly in folders.

But no. In reality, my desk is an untidy mess of loose papers, uncapped pens and markers, empty snack wrappers, receipts from 2006 and 2 mugs(one for coffee, one for “other”). My Wacom tablet, something that came to my possession less than two weeks ago, is now buried somewhere underneath this behemoth pile of junk. And on top of it all there’s a CAT.

Why do I even need a cat on my desk? It doesn’t even remotely qualify as office equipment. It just sits there purring and blocking my screen. The worst part, it never fails to push my phone off the desk. Every single time. On purpose. I’m not talking about the phone accidentally falling as the kitty shifted its huge, lazy bum around. No, it literally uses its paw to push the phone down thinking, “Oh look, a phone, let’s push it off the desk.”

What I’ve drawn above is in fact a less-cluttered representation of the actual state of my desk. The pile (sans cat) is about 4 inches thick. I feel thoroughly overwhelmed each time I tried to bring myself to tidy up the mess. So I am giving micromovement a try.

Today, I’ll concentrate on the bottom right quarter of my desk.

Micromovements
1) Remove sleeping kitty.
2) Put pens into pen holder.
3) Throw away empty snack wrappers.
4) Neatly stack loose papers on top of tablet.

We’ll see how it goes.

Related post
Inspiration: SARK

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy V-Day everyone! May it be filled with heart-shaped things, chocolates, flowers and lots of love.

Using Slugs to Your Advantage

I’ve just discovered slugs.

No, not the garden variety, but the WordPress kind — Post Slugs.
(Note that I’m a newbie to WordPress having used it for less than a month).

You can read the WordPress explanation here. However I feel that Adesblog explains it better by giving an example of how to use it properly to benefit your blog.

I’m very excited about this feature because what this mean for me(and WP bloggers in general) is that I can have my Killer Titles(which may only have a faint allusion to the actual content) AND have the option to include more straightforward titles optimised for search engines.

Disposable

Do you know how much I love paper cups?
Sometimes I wonder if my love for coffee has more to do with the cups they come in rather than the coffee itself. I have a habit of collecting paper cups(properly washed, of course) only to have them thrown away by someone else.

In my previous job, located in the middle of a busy shopping belt, I frequently buy coffee for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner from one of the many cafes dotting the area. Of all the coffee houses, I frequented Starbucks the most, not because they had the best coffee, but because it was located nearest to my office. Every Christmas season, my cubicle will see the addition of another red Starbucks Holiday Cup. I kept one every year since I first started working there. I’d even find a good use for them – potpourri holders.

I loved looking at them. It’s amazing how many times I’d been inspired to do something creative just by looking at the paper cups lined up on top of my monitor. Once I wrote a story about a sad coffee bean. Another time I designed a book cover based on the color scheme of the cups, just for fun. The cleaning lady at the office would make sure she put the cups back in their exact location when she was done wiping the top of my monitor, something I greatly appreciate. The people I worked with were aware of my love for paper cups, some even offering their cups for me to keep. But paper cup-collecting is a very personal thing for me. I like to get to know the cup myself before welcoming it into my life.

One day, out of the blue, I find my cups missing from their usual location. I tried to locate the missing cups in the pantry but was met by a stranger from the cleaning company. He said the old cleaning lady was sick, so he’s taking over for the day. I asked him if he’d seen my potpourri-filled paper cups. He said he’d thrown them away because he thought they were filled with “mouldy things”. The next day, the regular cleaning lady resumed work and the first thing she did when she saw me was to apologize for the loss of my cups.

…

My most prized possession was a set of slender, unusually-sized cups(too big for an espresso, more like a generous demitasse). I bought them for a few bucks from a shop selling odds and ends near my house. They came in a pack of about 10 pieces and each one of them was beautiful. The base color was off-white. I’m not sure whether this was on purpose or because the paper had slightly yellowed with age, but it made a nice canvas for the main element – an exquisitely-rendered watercolor painting of different flowers. It stayed in my kitchen drawer for probably 7 years before I decided to use one for a special occasion (I got a pack of fancy tea as a birthday present), then another, and yet another, until only three cups were left. After that I decided I don’t want to be using them anymore as they were too precious to me. A few months ago, I find them gone. My mother had thrown them away, without my knowledge. She said that the cups looked too old to be useful.

Each time my cherished collection was thrown away I’d feel a little sad, but only for a minute. No matter how sentimental I feel about something, I accept that most material things in life are disposable.

I love paper cups a lot, but I treasure relationships with people more.

PS: Sticking a “Do Not Throw” message helps. :)