Paperwork Statistics

I hate paperwork.

Thanks to my podcast addition — I subscribe to almost five hours a week — my housework and exercise habits are coming along nicely, but I can’t listen to podcasts while doing paperwork.

I really need to do the paperwork. My diary shows I last paid bills six weeks ago. This from the person who in 22 years has paid only $100 in late fees (excluding library). (Edit: At the end of today, it’s now $125.)

So why the problem now? I’m in a nasty cycle of leaving things too late, so I do too much too fast, and then I’m too wiped to finish the last few non-critical bits, like filing. It all sits messily until the next deadline looms (and passes). I can’t work in a messy environment. More precisely, I need a tidy micro-environment, although now that I’m pulling ahead on the housework, clutter outside my office is more distracting (or tempting me with an excuse to listen to another podcast) than it used to be.

Last month a good kitchen scale was on sale, and I wanted accurate weights for some production knitting. It goes down to grams. (My husband is amused that I finally found a scale that could hold yarn.)

Anything to keep me motivated, right?

Today’s goal was the red folder: Unopened envelopes, excluding obvious junk mail (which is tossed the instant it arrives). I open some things that I can’t identify without opening, but usually stuff them back in the envelope. Total weight, with envelopes: 897 grams.

Things stay in the red folder until I either deal with them, or read enough that I know they’re not date-critical. The idea is that, once it’s out of red, I can put it off.

Previously, I’d deal with the red folder every week or two, so there was no need to have an even more urgent folder.

Pass 1: From financial adviser, two months worth of monthly statements. Each account gets a separate envelope: RRSP for each of us, spousal RRSP, registered and unregistered account for each kid. 189 g statements, 62 g envelopes.

The law says they have to send this stuff monthly. Company policy is each account gets separate envelope — for privacy. (We joked that sending stuff to the house is a great way to keep it secret from husband.)

The investment companies like this extra tree killing. It makes their job easier. We get so much that we never even open the envelopes. By the time we get curious, the 30 day limit for complaints is long past.

Down to 646 g.

Pass 2: Junk that required opening envelope to identify. 100 g, including envelopes, of obvious junk mail, from people who somehow got our addresses.

Red folder now weighs 430 g. The math isn’t working here. The junk pile weighed 100 g. I dealt with some other quick stuff that didn’t get weighed with the junk pile. 50 g is in the outgoing mail, resealed, and labeled “Moved in 2006″. I also stopped including the actual folder.

Next Pass: Charities and subscriptions.

(You may ask why I’m not going right to the bills. Good question. I start with the things that give me the most weight per minute. Then the oddball things. Then routine.)

Red folder now weighs 223 g.

Final pass. Routine bills and bank statements.

Red folder now weighs 1 g: A Scholastic Books coupon and a Tilly Hat warranty. The coupon is here in the theory that if I see it often enough, I’ll remember we have it when book orders are due. I’m terrible with coupons, but this is a good one.

Day’s goal has been met. The red folder is done!

The next goal, not for today, is email. It’s a real mish-mash. Login to the electricity company to download bill for our records. Follow-up on permission to tell a story (author sent me publisher contact details). Call the Girl Guides about a company asking for ID so they can do a police check on their behalf — probably legit, but still something I have to check. That sort of stuff.

After that is the yellow folder: Everything that wasn’t urgent but isn’t ready for filing, including receipts and paid bills that need to be entered into the accounting program, documents to read more carefully, statements to reconcile, filing I was too lazy to put into the filing pile, and pieces to match with other pieces.

The yellow folder started the day at 260 g. Very few envelopes in this pile. It ends the day at 394.

But first, lunch, and maybe another podcast while I do the next load of laundry. By then it will be time for physio. Hopefully I’ll remember to take the outgoing mail, and it won’t sit on the car seat for two weeks like last time.

Weekly Virtue: Recap Chastity, Prepare for Humility

The virtue this week was chastity.

Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness.

The easiest virtue yet.

Next week is humility.

Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

I don’t recall Socrates being particularly humble. He told people to be humble, like he was. Jesus suggested that people be humble, but didn’t set himself up as an example.

This one requires balance. It’s good to be proud of our accomplishments and skills, and our plans. It’s also good to be proud of others, both those close to us and those at a distance. Putting yourself down in private is unbalancing. Putting yourself down in public makes others uncomfortable, or can be a form of bragging.

My plan is to continue to be quietly proud of myself and my family, but also to be aware of others’ pride. Give them recognition and encouragement, and give them time and space to feel proud, and be happy for them.

This is the last of Ben’s list. Any recommendations for the next list? If there are non, I’ll either start Ben’s over again, or try the Seven Heavenly Virtues.

Weekly Virtue: Recap Tranquility, Prepare for Chastity

Tranquility

Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Pretty good this week. I messed up on bedtimes too often (and when I got to bed on time I woke at 4am and started thinking about the characters for a new novel). So, I’ve been too tired to get excited about anything. Less patience than usual, but the flare-ups die down very quickly. I just can’t sustain them.

I’ve been pretty good about not getting excited at online discussions. I commented less than usual. When I trust my judgment, I say all sorts of things, confident that I’ll phrase it well. When I don’t trust my judgment, I’m more cautious, and often say, “Why bother writing it if I’m not sure I should post it.” Very relaxing, to catch myself before I get caught up in something.

Next week, the virtue is Chastity.

Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness.

Still gotta love Ben’s spelling. Any guesses how many search hits I’ll get for this entry?

Chastity is not abstinence. It just means following the rules of your culture and/or religion. Also, sex can be an important part of a healthy marriage.

This one’s gonna be easy.

Tip of the Day — Print Vista Directory Listing

There are times I want to list a directory on paper, or at least in a plain old text document. The most recent was this morning while I was trying to organize my backlog of podcasts.

And, finally, it all came together, enough of the correct words that Google was able to help find the rest.

This works for Vista. The original method worked on DOS. I’m sure a variant or combination of the two will work on any OS in between.

Vista:

Short answer, for people who used PCs back in the early 1990s:

Start / Run... cmd
dir | clip
"paste" into text editor.

Long answer:

Start / Run...
That brings up a dialogue saying to type the name of a program, etc., for Windows to open.

cmd [enter]
Type the letters “cmd”, then the enter key. This opens the command prompt, which back in 1991 was the way we talked to PCs.

Navigate around until you’re in the right directory. You do this by typing in commands. Moving the mouse won’t help.

cd is “change directory”
cd abc is “change to the abc directory”
cd / is “change directory, go to root”
cd .. is “change directory, go up one level”

Then:
Open a text editor or Word, so you have a place to paste the text that’s about to be hidden on your clipboard.

Back in the command line window,
dir | clip
Back to the text editor:
/edit / paste (or ctrl-V)

Explanation: The | is a “pipe” command, meaning take the output from the DIR command and put it into the device CLIP, which is the clipboard. There used to be a device PRN, so you could pipe it to the print queue, but Vista doesn’t recognize that.

There you have it. Enjoy!

Falling Rocks

This is a reprint of an essay (rant?) I posted to to my social group back in 2006, referring to events in a different group.

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Most groups, no matter how focused, end up with personal tidbits thrown in. Often, it’s bad things that have happened, sometimes bad things that might get worse. Good things don’t have the same urge to be shared.

Sharing of bad news is perfectly understandable. There’s a rock over your head, hanging by a thread. It’s pretty hard to ignore. Even when you’re taking a break, especially in a group where where you’re comfortable, you end up mentioning it.

And, our hearts drop. We respond, usually with hugs and chicken soup. Sometimes with helpful advice and comments, sometimes with stuff that’s intended to be helpful but isn’t. And a part of our hearts is committed to the cause, to making that rock just a little bit lighter, to deflecting it just that tiny bit and make the situation bearable.

I don’t mind being shown the falling rock, or being asked for a hug or support or time off, or whatever it is you need. I offer my that part of my heart freely, knowing that someone will do the same for me. This rant isn’t about being shown the rocks.

It’s about the next weeks and months. We walk carefully around you. We don’t want to ask and open bad memories. We want to respect your privacy.

But meanwhile, there’s a part of our heart missing, a part that we can neither reclaim nor mourn.

For you, the rock has landed and rolled away. Life moves on.

But the rock is left hanging over a piece of my heart.

Weekly Virtues: Cleanliness Recap, Tranquility Preparation

Still working through Ben Franklin’s 13 virtus. This week was Cleanliness.

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

This was the worst week in a long time for cleaning the kitchen first thing in the morning. It often waited until the kids got home from school. Not good. The rest of the house is about average.

Husband has been awesome. He cleaned the box graveyard in the basement and moved shelves around so we have better aisles. He also supervised cleaning the dresser in the front hall and selection of winter woolies.

I started a new habit related to cleanliness. Most times I do the dishes, when I have nice hot soapy water handy, I now spend about five minutes cleaning something irregular. The habit started last week. In that time I’ve cleaned the counter, microwave inside and out, toaster oven, fruit and vitamin baskets (we have stacking baskets), and most of the fridge. Only one or two fridge shelves at a time. So far it’s working.

The goal is to add five minutes to several routine cleaning tasks. The bathroom counter and toilet already get wiped daily (guess when), so I added an extra five to that time. So far I’ve cleaned the toothbrush tray and window frames.

With twelve rooms, five minutes a day in each is an unrealistic two hours. Also, although five minutes works surprising well for most tasks (the trick is to break them down), some need more. For now, though, I’ll add an extra irregular clean to another regular task every week or so, and see how it goes. The trick is to make it routine.

So, one step back, one step forward, and one ladder in position.

Next week is Tranquility.

Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Otherwise known as “Saving my blood pressure.” All sorts of quotes come to mind, including spend energy on things you can do something about rather than on worry.

It’s good timing. I’ve been jittery and excitable the last few days. Twice there was a delay in a checkout line. I remembered my usual quote as others started fidgeting. “Someone is telling me to spend a few minutes relaxing.” It took a conscious effort to relax. I wasn’t anxious or rushed, just jittery. It was nice to focus on calming.

Over at Jane’s blog I overdid it (they’re getting used to me) justifying why we weren’t fighting the teacher who was insisting our son slow down to stay with the class. Waste of good blood pressure, since they don’t care except in a general sense. Ironically, the justification I was all het up over boils down to the best choice is not to get upset by it. (Yes, we’re doing other things to keep him challenged.)

As always, visitor comments are encouraged.

Weekly Virtues. Moderation Recap, Cleanliness Preparation

This week’s virtue was Moderation.

Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Hmmm, I suppose 10 hours on Dad’s site was excessive, especially since it included research and experiments into neat things about the program that won’t go on his site. Spending all of yesterday reading also counts. On the other hand, I didn’t knit too much on the shoe covers for the bazaar — extreme avoidance!

Overall, though, I didn’t improve in moderation, since I rarely thought about it.

Yes, I avoided talking about earlier injuries and lessons learned from them, unless you include starting physio for a wonky shoulder. Time to get the nerves working correctly again, so the muscles work properly to avoid further injury.

Next week is Cleanliness.

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

Love Ben’s spelling.

I guess this means not to let the housework slide this week. I’m pretty happy with the level of cleanliness. Yes, it could be better, but it’s about the same as other homes around here. It’s a bad week for this virtue, since I have so many deadlines. I usually let the rotation slip a bit when I have deadlines.

The kids have slid (slod? slidden?). They aren’t putting away their clean clothes, and daughter still leaves her worn clothes in one unsorted pile on the floor. Before afternoon snack would be best, but some days they need a break more than they need another thing to do.

That’s about it for this week.

Testing WordPress.com and Twitter

Twitter should say something about this post.

Shameless Familial Promotion — Treetop Circuits

Dad has finally started a revenue-neutral hobby doing what he used to do for years as an employee. He’s an electrical design engineer, with an interest in amateur radio, especially old Collins equipment. Thousands of Collins radios were built and used in the war, and, as often happens, were grabbed up by the hobbiests. Then technology changed.

In Dad’s words:

In the late 1950’s, a newer technique known as single-sideband (SSB) was introduced, and became the de facto standard for amateur radio, military, and commercial service, although AM continues to be used worldwide for broadcast services.

Some receivers from the pre-SSB era, including the Collins R-388/51J series, have become collectors’ items. Their stability, reliability, and overall performance are considered excellent even by modern standards. They will work with SSB signals, but their performance in this mode falls far short of that attained by receivers designed for SSB service.

Dad’s device fits into the radio and improves the reception, or something.

Plug this into amateur radios for better SSB performance.

So far it’s revenue-negative. He’s spent about $1000 on startup costs, including a small run of printed circuit boards, better light and magnifying glass for Mom (who does the fiddly bits of assembly), business registration, and — here’s where I come in — a website.

www.treetopcircuits.com

The site is still almost empty. Two directories with index files and one css page. It’s enough to justify his signature line in all the radio groups and on his business card. The plan is only 4 pages for the site, so a wiki is overkill. Server side includes for the skin would work just fine. I don’t think Dad will be fiddling with it, so that won’t sway the decision. He’s capable of learning HTML, but just not interested. (Yes, I’ve sent him to www.htmldog.com and ww.w3schools.com for lessons. I think he’ll be happier with HTML mode than wysiwyg. EBay decided his descriptive text is actually an anchor to a file on his computer. ) If in doubt, though, do the extra work so the project can be scaled up. I haven’t touched my own website in over a year, so I spent a few hours refreshing my memory and upgrading the pmwiki installation.

One of the concerns was EBay’s rules. Most people wanting this device will want the manual first, and EBay doesn’t have a place to put that up (at least not that we can find). They also don’t want you to link to your own website and cut them out of a sales fee. We set up www.treetopcircuits.com/docs/ for that. No links from there to anywhere else on the site. We’ll pretend people can’t google Treetop Circuits or decode the URL.

The file format for the manual took some thinking. Most of the clients will want a printed copy. Trust me, you don’t want to have a computer anywhere close when one of the radios is open and you’re trying to solder, even if the table were large enough. PDF makes sense for that. The only question was whether any of his generation still couldn’t read PDF. Eventually, though, the time to create a proper HTML version decided the question.

Still thinking about a logo. The sign to their cottage, named Treetop Cottage, is a silhouette of a lonely, wind-caressed white pine — think Tom Thompson — on a white background. Not sure whether the background should be white or transparent. Also not sure about a border or top of a hill. Pixellated or textured like a circuit board or otherwise tying in to circuit design is also a question, but I suspect it would be easier to do poorly than to do well. Monochrome is more versatile. Also a favicon. I’ve used favicon creators enough to know that shrinking a larger image doesn’t always work. Stuff to think about, but easy enough to design something that will work both with and without.

As always, comments and critiques encouraged.

Weekly Virtues Rebooted, again. Justice Recap. Prepare for Moderation.

I think I’m procrastinating, but seeing as the last virtue was Justice, and the next is Moderation, neither of which talk about procrastination, I’m good.

The plan for these posts is to discuss how a virtue applied in the previous week, maybe talk about what various great minds say about it, then start thinking about the next one.

Fellow travelers are welcome. Comment here, or link to your own blog, or do something creative.

After we finish Ben’s list, I’ll pick a new one. Suggestions welcome. That way, virtues that many feel are important get done often, and the more obscure ones still get a turn.

Over a year ago, I set myself a goal similar to Ben Franklin’s. Each week, concentrate on a different virtue. These days, concentrate often translates to “blog about”. Not a bad thing, given the sparsity of my blog entries.

Rather than start from the beginning again, I’ll start where I left off.

The last goal was Justice. In Ben’s words:

Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

I’d say the last week was pretty good. I was fairly patient, and did a good-enough job at all my responsibilities. I wish I’d sent out the agenda, such as it is, for a meeting earlier, but all went well anyways.

I’ve been a bit fast with the kids’ bickering. Most of the time I can tell who’se earned less TV time quickly, but twice this week more information has come up later, so I had to re-evaluate things.

I got an email from a member of a trading group I used to moderate, call him Bob. Bob was supposed to pick up an item from Ash, but had an emergency and didn’t. Ash wrote Bob a letter threatening to report Bob. I think I handled it well. I’ve encountered Ash before, and don’t enjoy contact with him. I calmed Bob down, advised him to totally ignore the tone of the letter — better still, ignore the entire letter — and write the apology he would have written anyways, then end the contact. Also, a strike is a strike, and he’d earned one; Ash was right to report Bob for the no-show, since the group is trying to crack down on them and has a 3-strikes system. As for the tone of the letter, Ash isn’t going to change. Reporting it to the moderators would put the moderators in an awkward position, since tone isn’t cut-and-dried.

Without knowing more, it was the best I could do. I don’t want to know more. So, I was as just as I could be.

I have three stories in the queue for telling. I want to do each of them well, “Do them justice.” (Is that stretching it?) I set out a study schedule with lots of extra time, and have stuck to it so far.

We’ve been pro-active every night, so mornings have been good. Keeping on top of that is doing my duty to the family. Need to get better at going upstairs on time to tell Dtr it’s time to stop reading.

Next week’s goal is Moderation.

Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Interesting pairing. I would have made the second bit a separate virtue, something about not holding a grudge.

Looking ahead, I don’t see any red flags. I have several projects that need many small sessions. Usually when I have a lot to do, I go gung-ho on the entire list, including housework, even though housework should slide a bit on busy weeks. So moderation in the housework. Prioritize, and let the rest slide.

I’m not aware of resenting any injuries. Have to remember, though, to stop talking about the lessons learned from some of them.

Looking further ahead, the virtue starting November 4 is “Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.”

As I said earlier, my goal is a small community. React to my words, or reflect on how the virtue applies to your own life.