Waiting for the table to arrive...

I had an automated call on my answering machine from Barry, one of the Jordan's furniture founders. kestrell was here when I played the message. She enjoyed the juxtaposition of this automated voice over the Jeff Buckley in the background.

Jordan's also use his voice for the IVR (Incoming Voice Routing, the industry term for phone-tree systems or "for English press one"). It's very soothing, really. His voice is just enough hoarse that it sounds like an uncle talking. Damn, that works wonders when you screw up your button mash on the IVR and need to go through again.

Oh right, message contents! I'm supposed to be 18 or older and be here between 9 a.m. and noon. I woke up at 8:30, took a shower and dragged some recycling to the basement. now it's getting closer to 10 a.m. and I may need to steep a pint of coffee soon. I think the movers are coming from the warehouse in Taunton, at least 45 minutes from here without traffic. Taunton is on the far side of Boston from here -- South Shore, rawdy rawr. Taunton is pronounced "TAWH-`n" by the locals, the apostrophe representing a glottal stop. That's the sound people made in my home town when saying "Clinton" unless said person was actually a toney resident of the village of Clinton as contrary to the rest of the town of Kirkland in which Clinton was incorporated. The rich folks said "KLIHN-tihn" and overspoke the T so much that the unstressed vowel got pronounced. "KLIH-`n" was good enough for the trailer park folks.

Once the table and chairs arrive, I can get back to doing... uhh, something. I forgot to drop off my rent check at the landlady's yesterday (silly me) so I should do that. I should also run some numbers to figure out whether I have the dough to grab a hotel room for I-Con. I want to go but I may only be able to spend one night and then drive back at night. I'm in a lull until the next paycheck (the 15th) except that my tax refund may show up before then. Either way, I'll be set to close debts as of the 15th. I may let the weekly car payment stay how it is until May.

Oh hey, the movers are here!

It's not even 10:30 a.m. and the two guys are finished. The one guy, an African gentleman with the kind of accent I could listen to all day, was telling me the last time they moved one of these marble-top tables it was up a third-floor walk-up... and then back down when the customer decided she didn't want it. No such problem here -- the cold marble slab is heavy and fits perfectly in my dining area. It'll take it a few days to warm up, I suspect.

Hmmm... should I go to I-Con? I should because I don't get to see medievalsweetie or uber_dragon enough. Will I be able to pull it off? Yeah, I think so. Magic happens around me when I need it.

I still have cleaning to do today -- this will be the start of my Office Reorg. My computer room, a.k.a. the office, is a sty. Cleaning will not be enough here -- I need to tidy, survey locations, assess situations, haul heavy crap into corners, and sort a small but messy room. Daylight is the most effective time to work on this.

So, anyone want to get dinner after sunset? Maybe I could invite folks over and serve dinner at the new table. Ideas? Comments?

-and hey four wooden, black chairs!

Silver "whiteboard" to the rescue!

Remember how I mentioned I'd bought some whiteboards recently? There are two 12" x 12" square panels that are meant to tile a wall or just hang out without being mounted (no heavy backing, no plastic rim, no pen holder). There is also a mid-sized whieboard with a rim and holder (and even two magnets) and a larger silver-colored whiteboard that really had caught my eye.

The silverboard is just shy of 18" by 24", came with three magnets and seemed so classy. My plan was to use the silverboard in the office as a focal point for brain splats about projects.

My regular thinking patterns are web-like: one idea triggers a few others which lead down a lot of loose paths. I'm not always able to express the trek the thoughts traveled, just the sum of the endpoints touched by the web. I have to backtrack in other explain what I was thinking and thus make a set of conclusions. When I am handed a task, the web in my head throws out some node results but will keep rolling them in my head until they all get out. This helps me to recall stuff but it also prevents me from finishing a thought because I become too hung up on holding onto the thoughts before I forget them. I have to get them into a visual plan so that I can prioritize them. Some of the nodes won't be useful at all but I can conclude that faster by getting the thoughts out on a surface.

When I'm working on building or fixing a computer (or handling most computer tasks), I take written notes. While my handwriting is slow and increasingly atrocious as I get older, I know I can flip back to a page and reread results. I use three colors of pen: black for regular notes or thoughts, blue for screen output, and red for command names or input I gave the computer. This allows me to know at a glance whether I'm seeing a screen dump or a brain dump. I don't use other colors because I don't need them and I can't guarantee I'll be able to find green or any other color in an office.

Brain splats are really how I get thoughts going from a rolling jumble into a set of activities. I just came up with the term but I think it describes the process succinctly. I start writing, much of the time in paragraph form but increasingly in outline form. As I write, I can see priorities and refinements I need. I then cross stuff off or rewrite to sort. The brain blows the nodes onto the canvas in a splat of mental paint as physical ink and I can carve what is useful from the mess.

I found out recently that the whiteboard is very useful to me for this process. I can write, change colors, erase, rewrite and transpose. In fact, I'm starting to think a tablet PC would be useful for this task (which helps me to think what I'd purchase if I bought a new laptop sometime in the summer). While I type at a decent speed (45 or 50 wpm), I find a few simple lines can connect my thoughts very effectively. Maybe a Wacom tablet would be useful... ( ...and so would an lj cut tag. More behind it. )

Karol Wojtylas was not the only pope in my lifetime but he was the only one of my conscious life. It's hard to imagine anyone else in that place. Not bad for a boy from Wadowice to become one of the emotional leaders of the world. Too bad he couldn't marry, have kids smart as he was, be a real man in his community. Priests are purposefully emasculated, which I feel gnarls them. If his children are the youth he inspired, then fine. He inspired me to spend my life seeking a faith based on equality and process.

-non habemas papam so have a popadom