• Cure Clock: 3.5 weeks remaining
• Assignment: Read Chapter 8, Pages 154-184
• Finalizing Color
• Sunday Night 101
• Curees: 870 and counting...
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There's a lot going on in my apartment complex. Two people have moved out and so there are painters and electricians and plumbers and floor refinishers coming in and out of the building at all hours of the day. While I've been planning to paint my living room (moving from yellow back to the white), I've got a few things to do before that happens (new rug, fabricate a Nakashima-inspired coffee table, Craigslist the unwanted furniture, find new lamps). But I've taken advantage of this entourage of people to get some niggling repairs taken care of...
The goal is fewer wires but it's always surprising to me how many wires "wireless" technology demands. All that stuff has to be plugged in somewhere at some point. The Container Store is a good resource for different type of cord wranglers from cable turtles to boxes to hide everything in. Check this postfrom Unpluggd, our sister site, for an in-depth look at some options The bathroom sink has been snaked, pictures have been hung and my front door is being painted black (apparently a good move for my Feng Shui). The three day weekend also gave me the opportunity to go through my precarious stack of books to read; I've decided that many of them will be donated to
the library and checked out as I get around to them (this will also net me a tax deduction for next year). I no longer buy cds. Last year I took a few hours while I was cleaning to upload all of my music to my computer and then sold my cds at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. And, with Apple's Airport Express, my computer, speakers and printer are all wireless. Which, by the way, doesn't mean I have no wires, just fewer wires.
Don't take everything out at once; just what you can handle in an hour and work in alternating fifteen minute segments: fifteen minutes of going thru stuff, followed by a fifteen minute break
After media, paper is the biggest challenge in my house. There are magazines and magazine clippings; photos; old letters and cards; story notes and first drafts; bills, receipts and tax items
- Magazines & clippings: I try to go through magazines as soon as they come, pull the clippings that interest me or that might form the nucleus of an article or story. The clippings go into a box or sometimes into a folder that I can cart around, the magazines go on a rack and stay until the next issue arrives (of course, magazines I keep, like old Dominos, have a special place on a shelf).
- Photos: My latest project is to scan in all of my photos into my computer and then distribute the originals, organized into books, among friends and family.
- Old letters and cards: This can be a challenge for me as I'm very sentimental. Usually I find if I put stuff aside in a box I can go back to it in a few months and quickly separate the stuff to keep from the junk.
- Bills, receipts and tax items: I get a new one of these expanding briefcase files from Office Depot each year to file everything, divided into categories that correspond to the deductions I take: research, house, etc. It comes in cute colours and it's portable which means that I can take it with me to the accountant at the end of the year!
sometimes all it takes is a little planning to go from chaos to calm.
Because I'm doing so much work around the house, a media fast is a natural. If you really want to go cold turkey, listen to music with no words or music sung in a language you don't understand.
Music for a media fast:
- Catastrophe and the Cure - Explosions in the Sky
- Welcome, Ghosts - Explosions in the Sky
- Je T'aime Moi Non Plus - Serge Gainsbourg
- Sabali - Amadou et Mariam
- If - Etienne Daho & Charlotte Gainsbourg
- Vieni via con me - Paolo Conte
- Boum! - Charles Trenet
- Les Temps Ont Change - Amadou et Mariam
- Desert Eagle - Ratatat
- Aganju - Bebel Gilberto
- Downtempo - Jeanne Moreau
- Alone In Kyoto - Air
Laure here, wanted to add some more inspiration for paperwork and home offices. As I've mentioned my 'office' keeps changing. And sometimes paperwork and filing and 'getting organized' can sound so terrible that I need to remind myself why I'm doing it. Because at the end of the day, my home office or roving file box or dining room table (whatever my home office actually is at the moment) is going to feel so much better. It might even look like this, this or this. So a reminder to keep your ultimate vision in mind, it will really help! And if you need more support, here are some posts that inspire me:
I also wanted to mention how much I love the little bonus insert in chapter 8 on Sunday Night 101. As a person who thrives on schedules and order, it's alarmingly easy for me to get out of the habit of picking up groceries, getting to bed on time and having a book I love next to the bed. But when I make those things a priority, I'm amazed at how much better my whole life feels. It's not that birds are singing and I see rainbows everyday but I'm feeding myself in ways that can get overlooked and it can affect my whole outlook and attitude making me feel more alive and more grateful for the small things. Try it out: make an evening out of cooking a meal, set a bedtime, find a book you love and take a bath or hot shower before bed. See if you don't feel great the next morning!
[images: AT reader Anna*Lysse; AT User Kiki Clark; AT User JennDavid 1000; AT User Wig3000 from the AT LA Home Cure Flickr page]
- POST INDEX SPRING 2009
• Week 4 - Show & Tell
• Week 4 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 4 - Intro
• Week 3 - Show and Tell
• Week 3 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 3 - Intro
• Week 2 - Show and Tell
• Week 2 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 2 - Intro
• Week 1 - Show and Tell
• Week 1 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 1 - Intro
- CURE INFO
>> Main Cure Page - Spring 2009
>> About The Book
>> Excerpt from Chapter I
- BUY A BOOK
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>> From Powell's
>> From Barnes & Noble
Since you mentioned finding music with no words, I have to put in a plug for General Fuzz (yes, strange name, amazing music). I found him on Magnatune.com and have listened to the two albums there non-stop for months now. The music energizing without being distracting and that makes it great for studying, cleaning or even just dancing around the living room. Good driving music, too.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
The second picture looks like my office, glad that I have company. I am building up enough strength and focus to keep calm and carry on.
Going off to check out General Fuzz
view LoriSF's profile
Was there a tip for the photo with all the wires?
view shmoo15's profile
Please please PLEASE if you're going to sell all your CDs, make sure you're backing up your iTunes library to a remote server. I recently had a complete hard drive failure and hadn't been backing up my music. Thankfully, my husband the packrat had insisted I keep all my CDs, which I spent most of last weekend re-ripping onto my new hard drive.
I'm now performing weekly automatic backups using Jungle Disk. I'm as much of a clutterphobe as anyone, but make sure you don't make the same mistake I did and get rid of the physical media without a reliable backup. Thus concludes my Public Service Announcement for the week. :)
view FiatLex's profile
Hi shmoo15 and al,
I really like the Blue Lounge cord hiding boxes.
http://www.bluelounge.com/cablebox.php
Kind of pricy for a plastic box - but it really tidies things up.
view turk182's profile
FiatLex makes a very good point - also if you get a new computer you will need to copy it all over from the old one, not a major deal (as long as a bad hard drive isn't the reason for a new computer) but something you should be aware of, and also if you need to wipe and reload your computer you need to do the same thing.
view Leigh Anne's profile
schmoo15 & LoriSF, the photo with the wires was mine and without an explanation is kind of confusing. This photo shows what's left to get rid of from the floor, and it's all going to a new home this week--
here is the canvas I used to use to hide all those wires when my desk was here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendavid1000/2954055309/in/set-72157607918227004/
here is where my desk is now (and I have a laptop):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendavid1000/3405837406/in/set-72157607918227004/
and here is what the canvas has been recycled into:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendavid1000/3434752781/in/set-72157607918227004/
Say HELL NO to wires! LOL.
view jendavid99's profile
jen, I love that entryway 'wallpaper', looks great!
view laure's profile
hey thanks, laure... but someday I'm determined to get the real thing.
view jendavid99's profile
Love the shelves from pic #3. Where'd they come from?
view jenfu's profile
Cool list, I'll have to check some of those out! I would also suggest Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. (Icelandic)
http://www.poweredbytofu.com/
view poweredbytofu's profile
Thanks for this post. This is exactly where I am now: overwhelmed with the piles of paper and unsure of what to throw away or keep. This weekend I need to finish up my room reorganization, and I'll reread this post for inspiration.
view Eliza's profile
PS. About that Sunday night thing... I am trying more and more not to turn on my computer when I get home, but to spend time with my husband. We always cook dinner anyway, so that's nothing new, but now we are sitting and just chatting instead of checking our email after dinner.
Last night I got in bed at 10 (very early for me) and read The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, which I've been reading for a few weeks and really enjoying. Lights were out before 11, and i woke up an hour earlier this morning. Which I love. I'd rather be wide awake and ready for the day than dragging myself out of bed later than I should and then running around so I'm not late for work.
view Eliza's profile
What is Chapter 8 Sunday Night 101? Is it in the Cure? I haven't gotten that far yet...or is it a different book? Stupid question, I'm sure ;-)
view saraluna14's profile
saraluna14: yep, it's in the book. even if you haven't gotten there yet, skip ahead! as laure pointed out, it's a great tool for reconnecting with what's important.
view abby's profile
jen,
my apologies! the rest of the caption didn't make it into the post. that's now corrected. i actually used your picture because it looks exactly like my, and probably like most peoples, cord situation. wireless technology -- yeah right!
view abby's profile
Ohhhh, I thought that tiboutoo created the canvas octopus screen, but it was you, Jen! Brilliant as usual.
I wanted to add a shout out to Bernie Jungle who built our bookshelves in picture 4. More pix here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98704941@N00
view wig3000's profile
Wig, that canvas has definitely made it around our house, LOL. It's had three different lives already, and I think hiding my computer cords was the best solution so far. And even tho it's pink now and hanging in the entry, I reminded my husband it could always be repainted a different color in the future : ) .
view jendavid99's profile
My computer cables are out of control too.. Right now thankfully i just have a printer and wifi hooked up.. I'm working on getting bluetooth microchips installed on both my laptop and printer so they are wireless too. But for now a nice new desk eludes my every attempt to find one..
In a few months i will get a new Mac laptop and a 6 foot long desk hopefully.. :-D Wish me luck with the evil conundrum!
view cafegurl19's profile