REFLECTIONS

"An organized desk must be a sign of an organized mind." ~ John M Sometimes I fear that I'm developing an obsession with being organized. I wonder if I'm spending more time getting organized than taking action. Maybe I just enjoy the time spent setting up a calendar, writing a budget, or preparing to clean out a closet. Maybe as long as there is something to "put in order" I'll be happy. I imagine myself to be some sort of superhero. My goal is to fight the forces of disorder and to remedy whatever is lacking methodical arrangement or function. To remove the complexities, disorganization, and undue busyness of the world. It's getting to the point where I must leave some place in my life, maybe even many places to keep disorganized. Why? It's like having money in the bank. I'll always have something to rely on when things just become too organized. I need to fight disorder to help give my life some meaning. Whenever I try to u

While I was looking for the history of pedometers on the web I came across this illustration of a device used by the Romans. Here is a closeup: A description on how it worked: A gear with one tooth (A) fastened to the wheel of the cart turned a larger wheel (B) with 399 short teeth and one long tooth (C). The tooth turned the drum (D) with teeth and holes for pebbles. As the drum was turned, a rounded pebble would fall into the metal bowl (E), indicating that the cart had traveled one Roman mile. I lost the link to this site but here's a link with more information: http://encyclopedia.tfd.com/pedometer

I wanted to find a way to make notes in a book without marking it up. A book that has yellow highlighter marks, underlining, scribbling, and folded corners not only looks bad; it makes the book almost useless to the next owner. It’s even worse if the book is not yours. Library books, books barrowed from friends, are books that should be kept clean. My system is a sort of code for the location of passages in the book with room for any notes I want to make. I'll start with the simplest case. 1. Use an index card as a bookmark. 2. Write the pages you want to come back to separated by a dash. 3. To the right make notes if needed. Example: 12 - 15 means pages twelve through fifteen. Here’s how it works if you need more detail than only the page numbers: 1. In the left side of the card write the following sequence of numbers: Page number followed by a period. 2. Then the paragraph number (1st paragraph = 1, 2nd = 2, etc.) followed again by a period. Note: a paragra