Excesive Organizing or Planning Ahead?

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Question: How much planning is too much planning? In an era pretty much plagued by digital advances, often you don't have much of a "sense" of how ahead have you planned, or whether you've "underplanned" - if such exists. Say you don't have a devise specifically used for planning - like back in the day we had the palms or PDA's, whatever you call them or remember them as - then wherever you keep your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly plans are also dedicated to other things. Your Outlook, Google, phone... your plans are conveniently deluded among many other things. Meetings among contacts, numbers, e-mails, messages, documents... so when you get a glance at it, you see a jumble of things, not only your appointments and planning related stuff. 

Electronic calendars can give you some overview of how your appointments are going, and some even allow you to color code, and moving appointments from here to there is much easier, and yet, do you really go checking that out often? Do you have it handy all the time? And how much do you put in it?

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For those choosing old school tools, such as paper planners, the overview can be a much easier task, as these planners are usually mainly about planning, and simply flipping the pages gives you an idea of how your day, week or month looks like. These planners also contain a particular year, be it a calendar year or a school year, but in general they hardly go over 12 months at the time. With these, you normally plan up to the end of the year, and stop there, waiting for the next year to fill up the new appointments and to-do's.

If you have somewhat of a planning mania, to put it somehow, but not too exacerbated, then you may go on writting little notes for major dates at the end of the planner, clipping them or taping them to December 31st, or the next year calendar in the back of the planner. By the way, have you noticed how the first pages of the yearly planners are never looked at? First page maybe, when you open the planner, but those behind it, with all that "useful information" hardly ever get seen. The first time yes, when you think "oh, how cool! Now I'll know any time, how to convert this into that and will appear smart by knowing all these world statistics". And the year goes by and you never even look at them. Aynway, back on track, as the year reaches and end and the only pages you check as the ones at the back, then you start "standing on the edge", waiting for the next planner.

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Planners are popular and much loved Christmas gifts, so most people wait for them instead of buying them. If family and friends won't provide you with one, sure your bank, your insurance company or one of the store where you buy often will be handing you one as a courtesy. You may also wait for the last minute to get a better price or a prettier design. Be it as it may, the point is that most people - and this doesn't include the Filofax, Day-Runner or Franklin Covey fans, obviously - won't get the next planner until the year is pretty much gone.

So what happens with the people who get their next planner earlier? Say they get it already by  October or November? Believe it or not, you can get planners that early, specially if you have the type of planner that only requires refills. Even easier if you can print out your own refills. Well, once you have these at hand, before the next year even begins, you may find yourself filling the pages already with plans. Note all the cyclic appointments, and then passing those notes parked on December 31st in the dates they should be happening.

So far so good, right? It might be a little bit extreme for some, but if you think about the digital calendars where you note "White Collar" for every Tuesday at 9 pm and let it repeat into eternity, then you are already doing that and your are not freaking out about that. So when can it become too much? When you start adding notes like "write and send thank you cards", "prepare yearly budget plan" and so on? Or does it start being too much when you start setting your New Year Goals in your planner, so you can achieve them all?

Whatever planning you do, it should work for you. It has to be enough to keep you from forgetting important things, making your life easier, but it shouldn't be so much as to stiffle you, overwhelm you or rob you from any free time or a moment of spontaneity. However, where's the limit? How do we find it out? ^_^ That's a question that only we can answer for ourselves, but certainly all of us can use a good tip, right?

Please, Please Cut the Crap!

Me annoyed again? You would probably think that I'm some sort of maniac depressive or bipolar or something like that. Well, not actually, I'm happy and fine and well, just like the next person (or even more, because I do have the tendency to be happier than the average ^_^. Go rouge me!), but I read something in a paper - at Caroline Hax' column, actually - and that got me reacting. So the thing was that this person wrote to Ms. Hax to help them deal with the fact that they can't feel happy for how good their friends are doing in life, when their own life is so crappy. If you are rolling your eyes, like I did, then that means that you know people like that and you are probably thinking what I thought when I read the letter "well, who's to blame for that?". Am I right? Well, you know what Ms. Hax replied - after the whiner said that "be happy with what you have" wasn't cutting the deal? She advised them to "be happy with what they are". Yes, sure, I'll give you time for that to sink in. This is a good time to go grab that beverage you've been pondering about. Go, I'll go grab myself a coke, an energy drink... something to process astonishment before getting into the next paragraph.

So, are we back? A little bit calmer? Well, at least I am, so let's hack into this.

First of all there's a difference if you envy the lifestyle of Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, or if you envy the good living of people who technically has the same background as you, say coworkers, old schoolmates, neighbours and so on (asuming rather homogenic distribution in these groups). If you are bitter because you are not Mitt Romney, and you can't be happy for him having all that money, and as result your life is a heap of deception and sadness, well, you are sick, stupid and ... and, well, I would be tempted to suggest you to take your life in your hands and either move on or ended, but it would be just wrong to tell you to kill yourself, so I won't. 

Oh, if you decide to kill yourself, 1. I haven't prompted you, it's all on you, so I won't be taking any credit nor blame for YOUR decisions, and 2. don't destroy other people's property while doing so, like jumping in front of a car or a bus or a train. Just because you have decided that your life worths nothing, there's no reason to fuck up other people's day or budget.

Now, if you are envious of people just like you, who have done better, please refer to the nearest solid wall and bang your head on it as hard as you can until passing out.

Okay, let's go breaking this thing up, shall we? When someone is jealous for the lifestyle of other people, several things are going on. I'm not a psychologist, so I won't even attempt to autopsy the psyche of people going through this, but from the surface one can clearly tell that often these feelings come from the sense that what others get is your share too, something you are entitled to. Maybe this is a bit hard to understand or picture in the economical and social frame, but think of women, and how it happens that a woman resents another because these got married to a successful man and is starting a family, while the resenting one considers herself more beautiful, smarter, thinner, sexier... anything.

People in a perceived position of disadvantage usually think the others got an unfair advantage in some way, while they have done all the right and honest choices. They landed a better job because they have connections, they've got a better house because they probably made a deal, they vacation abroad because they have someone paying for them, and so on. There's also the tendency to darken the reality and feed themselves and others (through gossip) with stories about how all that fabulousness is result of reckless spending and hazardous decisions. If it is or isn't that's not your business. So your friend changes their car every year, okay! Good for them! So they pick a new continent to visit every year at summer vacation. Awesome! More power to them! So you can't? Well, you can't, what's the big deal? You aren't the President either, are you? And that doesn't make your life ultimately miserable, right? (If by any chance you ARE the president, and you feel envious, wall, please.)

The thing is that the people you envy, just like you, are living the result of their own choices. Those choices are often a composition of their preferences, their way of being and their perspectives for the future. Just like yours. What's the difference? Just the choices each has made and how have they faced both the choice making and the results of it.

When you don't like where your life has lead you, instead of whining about it, you should think about what lead you there in an objective way. Have you slacked? Have you made choices that go against what you really want in order to achieve what you assumed was expected from you? Have you perhaps expected important things or decisions regarding your life to be taken by others? How do you generally make decisions? What's what you want from your life and what steps have you taken to achieve that goal?

Now, there are things you can't control. You could be the best of your class, graduate Magna Cum Laude and end up unemployed because there's simply no jobs in that area at that given field. There's something of a crisis going on, if you haven't noticed, so if they aren't hiring in your area, that's something you can hardly fix by your own (and if you can, please go over to Greece and Spain and help folks over there), but then you might find other occupations meanwhile. There's no shame in working as a waiter or a sales person, while keeping your nose hard on your field and pressing for an opening. Honest work, hard work brings nothing but dignity to those who do it by heart.

Can't get into the univesity you want? Keep on trying! Nobody can stop you but yourself. The person you love the most doesn't love you back and won't marry you? Get a life, that person isn't the only fish in the pond.

More often than not our discomfort is the result of our own actions, our own decisions and our attitude towards the results it yields. Just because your friend won the lottery, you can't sulk, cross your arms and demand that you too win the lottery. If your friend decided to postpone marriage and concentrate on a career and now is the CEO of a big company, while you married young, have kids and have a lower income job, you have no base of being bitter and resenting your friend's success.

You don't have to be happy for your friends' success, if you don't feel like being happy about that, it's okay, but when you start resenting their success, you should really think about it and if you really consider them friends, or if you see them as some sort of competition. Let me illustrate that a little bit more. For instance, a friend of yours could just taken a big step in their lives and decide to give up everything to go live the yogi life in India, and now is succeeding as some, say Level 3 Super Sayajin yogi or what not. All happy, living in extreme poverty, thin like a super model on Fashion Week and flea ridden. If you feel like being happy for them, great! If you feel like "oh man, Terry really lost it", then that's okay too! For some converting to some religion is a big step and a success, for others is to get married, have kids, get a tattoo (Tina's is fabulous, by the way!), get a promotion, publish a book, speak to ghosts... there are are many goals as people and as many measures of success as dreams.

It doesn't matter what your dreams are, only if you are working towards getting them. And once you've reached them, all that matters is if you are happy, satisfied with them. Because yes, it might happen that you had a dream and when you reached it, it turned out to be not quite what you expected. There's no biggie then, because as long as you are not dead you can always reel back or start a new dream. We don't get one dream per life, but all those you want, and the sky is the limit.

Finally, trying to deal with jealousy with concentrating on who you are or what you are good at... hn, I'd take that with a grain of salt. For once, we are trying here to achieve happiness, and if you don't tackle the jealousy issue, you won't get there. That's like having fire in a room of your house and choosing to close the door on the fire and concentrate on all the other rooms that are not caught on fire. And after all, how can anyone be happy with what they are when they are jealous? 

Yes, because being good at making brownies from a box while leaving under mounting debt, unemployment and bad relationships is far better than having a good job, healthy finances and a happy relationship, BUT being unable to boil an egg. (Dude, the column ACTUALLY addressed it this way!) This time it's me saying "don't settle", and yes, you shouldn't. You are unhappy, and that's not the point of your life when you should go settling with the state of things. It's time to pull out your box of skills, check what you don't like about your current state, draft a plan of what you need to fix it, use the skills you have to achieve it, and learn those you need. It can take time, it may come with a couple of setback, but you wouldn't climb the Everest all in one stroll, right?

So, bet back on the bike, deal with your issues and take your life in your hand for either end you deem suitable. And stop the bitching, because we are not interested.

A fabulous day after all

Oh goodness, wasn't I upset yesterday? ^_^ Well, my fault, I'm just not taking my life in my hands, or rather I'm not managing well some of my relationships, and lo there the results. Then again, let me place the blame somewhere else too - though I shouldn't -: this is the fault also of my friends, my family and my significant relationships, including my current, beloved boyfriend. And yes, I'm including also all of my penpals - former and present - and online friends, so YOU, dear reader, are most likely included and sharing the blame. But "what blame?" you wonder. How can YOU, dear reader, friend, family, significant others from past and present (Hello Kari! ^_^) could possibly be to blame for a current crappy relationship with someone you have nothing to do with and you don't even know? Well, that's because you ALL are wonderful, loving and perfect, and I've got lazy, and haven't practiced my skills at keeping people at bay or smacking their heads when they are going past what I'm willing to take. So there! Thank you for being such perfect and adorable and loving people and being so wonderful! Now I'm at loss dealing with someone who won't follow your incredible example.

Oh, don't you look at me like that, you know you are wonderful and that I love you a freaking lot. ^_^

Any follow up on "sucky relationship"? Nah, too soon for that. I am currently auditing my feeling about the whole thing, and analizing why am I adamant about pulling out once and for all, and whether that's what I want and what I really, really want in this case and generally. That's some soul searching to do. Hn, shall I let it all out through smash booking? ^_^ Nah, prose works much better, I'd say.

Now, yesterday wasn't a horribly bad day, if you ask me, as I had other very pleasant experiences. First, I drove to a part of town I don't drive often, (not on those routes), and I discovered new ways and new skills of mine behind the wheel! No, I didn't do anything stupid, no stunts, only discovering routes I normally knew by walking, but not by driving, and rediscovering old memories that helped me navigate around the fabulous University City.

Yesterday I had this meeting in a different district, so I drove there. The meeting - scheduled for the morning - stretched all the way into the afternoon, and it was wonderful. Yes, hard to believe, but it was! The meeting actually became a tremendously productive work session where we made a lot of important break throughs and possibly saved weeks of work to our teams. Also, since I was there, I went to eat to this fabulous little Mexican restaurant Dragonfly and I have met at, but also where Skylar and I went often to lunch either to celebrate something or to talk over sensitive issues that shouldn't be voiced around the gossip vultures of our environment. Lunch was fabulous. I only missed the mandatory tequila, BUT I was on duty, and driving, so no Don Julio for me.

Once the work session was over, I decided to drive up to the University City and try my luck at enrolling for Archery. I've been rejected for three months in a row due to lack of space. The day was sunny and beautiful, and after a biker protest due to a punitive raise in yearly vehicle taxes, the streets were empty, while drivers realized that the roads were open again. I went through the streets nearly deserted, as those streets are never seen, and got to the University City. With little searching I found the enrolling-paying cashier and there was space for me! So, guess who's going to an Archery class? Me!!

Then drove to a coffee place closer to home, where I met with a friend for some talking, and found the perfect paper to reply to a penpal of mine. Ah, perfect paper! You have no idea the difference that makes. I have a stack of acid green paper that simply doesn't cut it for me. Try as I may, it spoils my letters, really! So after much thinking I changed my pen, changed my paper to a smoother and simpler notepad paper, and the pen flows with the speed of thought, and thoughts come easy and fluent like love.

Yes, yesterday was a perfect day all in all, and even that rant, that sucky relationship was nice - now in perspective - as it made me see by comparison, how incredible, how wonderful and how deserving of all the love the world has to have you all are.

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Blogging from the LiveScribe

Just in case you ever wondered what my handwriting looks like, but also because I wanted to add a little something to the blogging from a livescribe. :-)

Oh Smoke...

My heart is bursting. I won't ask you if you know the feeling because I've most likely have asked you this before, and let's be honest, this isn't the first time I feel it (this year!) but that doesn't make it any less impressive and important. This is a chilly morning where I woke up and fell hopelessly, helplessly in love with a friend. ^_^ I'm walking on clouds, smiling without reason, feeling butterflies in my stomach... the whole nine yards. Yay! I'm in LOVE!

Well, this morning she posted a wonderful, wonderful picture in my wall. This one:

Since then the moon and the sun turn around her. :-) I can't begin to explain the ten thousand levels in which this picture works for me, and she, this wonderful goddess of beauty and imagery wrote to it "makes me think of you". ^_^ Yes, I've been in a sort of hype about Skyfall that couldn't be hidden even if I wanted to. (I'd like to watch it dubbed to Hungarian, just to see if they played the same tricks they did in the Spanish dubbing.) However it's... the whole deal. My current favorite actor, the smoking, the chains, the sort of message you can read of "chain smoking" and "chained to smoking"... these are driving me wild.

It might be a cultural thing, or Hyne knows what, but there's a thing about smoking that's terribly enticing. No, smoking doesn't make you sexy, and there's a lot of people smoking that doesn't move anything on you, but then there's a certain way of smoking, on certain people that make it all mind blowing. There's a certain sensuality in smoking, in the whole process of it, that engages all you senses and intoxicates you. The sounds, the clicking of the lighter, the burning of the tobacco and the paper, the soft, muted pop as the cig is lit. The scent of the cig, some of which are downright wonderful - kreteks(*) (usually smoked only by women) and red Marlboro's - that pulls with it taste and touch, a warmth and a leafy-woody taste I could spread on bread any morning and make my day perfect.

Then, as you pull the smoke in and down, it's more of a sensorial experience, really like breathing down a soft, silky ribbon that caresses ever so gently your insides and makes them warmer. Your breathing slows down, adjusts to the intake of prepared tobacco and your whole being relaxes. You concentrate in breathing in ways that can only be otherwise achieves in yoga. Air mingled with this beautiful, delicious, organic taste and smoke is precious, and each gout of it is to be savored. You can enter a new sense of awareness as you put the cig between your lips, or you watch someone smoke. Mouth, hands, cheeks, nose, throat... And thus taste and touch gives way to sight, the show of curls of smoke blown out or let escape like a spirit, a burning soul slowly reaching to the universe. A smoke warm to the touch, organic to the taste, muted and crispy around the edges to the ear and leafy to the smell.

Daniel Craig smokes in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and that makes me smile and wish I didn't have asthma, so I could lit up a cig as well.

(*) Kreteks are flavored cigarettes with really high contents of tar and nicotine, higher than those found in a red Marlboro, which is among the highest available in the regulated market. One of the most common kreteks are the clove ones, which are known for being rolled in black paper.

Friends that Go Missing In Action

Lau is MIA. No, she's no a penpal of mine, she's a friend from University, and who works at the bank where I used to work before I moved to my current company. The reason for Lau to be missing is that she's studying for an MSc. at the most pretigious university of Costa Rica, the UCR. That MSc. is really hard to get and it truly demands a lot of effort and sacrifice from the students, which is good, because that way they make sure to keep their good name untarnished from the wave of smuck that sticks to most of the Master Degrees you can get in this country, which are widely known for being aimed only to collect money from people, but imparting no knowledge at all.

This Masters will take around two years, and it's a non-stop type of program, that demands at least three days a week for classes, and the rest for preparing for said classes. Before Lau got into it she told us that she was going to drop off the map and have no life. Having been her classmate in our university, I know the level of commitment she has to everything she puts her heart into, so this was all expected. That doesn't mean that I don't miss her - goodness, I do! - and so from time to time we make a feeble attempt at reaching out for her. Feeble as in "shy" because we don't want to disturb her.

Friends from all spheres of our live drop off the map from time to time due to different reasons. Some get sick, say have a bad case of blues, or have to take care of someone, say a baby or a sick relative, or someone with special needs, or they start a new project in their lives that eat up all their time, like they start a big home renovation, or get a new job or a promotion that demands them to be on top of everything or pack them with thrice as much work as before, or start studying, or get into a reseach project... you name it, they all take up a large part of their time, and whether they chose it or not, could or couldn't take time to be with you, it's not something you can decide for them. Recriminations have no place in here, if you are real friends. Just because you would reach out immediately for your friends for support, it doesn't mean that everybody - even your friends - would act the same way.

Do you love them? Then care for them and respect their time out. Yes, sure, send them little snipets of color - a card, a message, a picture - but don't be intrusive. Let them reach out when they can, after all, it's not you who are in whatever they are, so you don't know what's like for them. Then, when they will emerge from the depths of whatever holds their undivided attention, I bet they'll have plenty of things to tell to all their friends, plenty of gifts of words, stories to tell to share with all.

Be a good friend. Respect.

The Secret Balance of Penpals

Do you penpal? I know a few of you do because you write to me (yay! ^_^), but then who knows what comes across from the wide world of the eternal blackness of the cyberspace, right? Ah, the mistery of the forever unknown. Anyway, penpals. They are the people who write letters to each other, where one writes, the other answers and then that letter gets and answer, and that also gets an answer and on and on until penpal friendship vanished into thin air for whatever of the millions of reasons for a friendship to end. Knowning some people, I bet some of their friends would wish their friendship would be cut short by murder, but accidental death could do it too.  Oh yes, you all know who am I talking too! And I should put that in the novel "Penpal from Hell", right?

A dear friend of mine and one time penpal, Julie - whose fabulous blog you should definitively read, and if you are a paper crazy, you should absolutely check out her stationary online store, I bet you there are millions of sheets in there that would be perfect into your A5 filofaxes! - has this blog I mentioned earlier, and in there people often post ads to get new penpals. There are several sites as well where you can go and check for people to become your penpal, and though I have met really good friends through it, you may want to think about it twice, as they are plagued with people who are not interested in penpalling at all. Anyway, when you check people who are actually into penpalling, basically meaning snailmail (which means regular mail sent through the post office, written in paper, in an envelop and all, very old school), certain features are highly valued, particularly loyalty, long letters and swift replies. Descriptions often include things like "I love chatting about anything", which is a good starter, but can be tricky as often chatting about "anything" equals flat, shallow letters. (This, of course, doesn't apply to MY penpals, all of whom are witty and funny in their very own, peculiar and particular manner, and whom I'm not sharing ^_^ They are My Precious!)

The process of finding penpals can be a little difficult, as you have to click with the other person, and that doesn't happen at once. Often you can't avoid becoming a one-letter penpal because it isn't until the first or second letter that you realize that the other person isn't good for you. Naturally descriptions help filter most penpal-fails, but there are things that only come across through the actual letter exchange. In this sense the "no one-letter penpal" rule seems to me a little bit off. It's like starting date with "if you are not going to marry me, don't waste my time", which, well, is the attitude of some people.

Things such as loyalty, long letters and swift replies don't really have much space in true, free penpalling, as what loyalty is expected from you towards someone you've never seen? Not to mention what I think about loyalty. However, this is normally understood as a clausule for you not to be a one-letter penpal and an implicit promise that you'll never, ever abandon the friendship and will never, ever stop writing. Let's not talk about the strain that puts on the relationship! Then again, some people do marry and they do it thinking they'll be forever and ever together. Long letters, on the other hand, depend on how much do you have to say. If you don't have much to say, extending a letter beyond what you are comfortable writing would make writing a chore and the letter to end up uninteresting, specially since there are well known tricks to fill up pages, which only render them booooring.

Swift replies... well, you have no control upon that, let's be honest. Even if you are in the right mood for writing, if the words come easily to you, if there's no job or homework or any other thing suddenly demanding your attention, or not even suddenly, just consistently demanding time and attention from you, well, even then you can't control how fast or how slowly the post office will give course to your letter.

Look, if you want loyalty, get a dog. If you want long letters, read a book about letters, and if you want swift replies... you will have to come up with something, because often not even credit card issuing companies reply swift enough.

Penpalling, like most friendships, depend of a delicate balance that needs to be stablished by the two parties. Rules and impositions kill the friendship, render it stiff and artificial, taking away precisely that spark, that spontaneity that makes it wonderful. Some penpals disappear for a while - often they get to a point in their lives where they have too many things to take care of, of they might be overwhelmed by their circumstances - and then they might pop up again with a letter that starts with "Sorry I was away for so long", and as you read you smile to yourself and you think "Are you silly? You are back and that's all I care about!". You can hardly ever get mad at your penpals, when they are true, even if they go MIA (missing in action) for decades.

But penpals aren't bullet proof friendships that will stand against anything. Penpals you can chase away just as you can chase away your friends. Self-centered letters that never reply to what your penpal wrote to you (all letters are somewhat self-centered, as you tend to write about yourself, your opinions and your experiences, BUT they are supposed to also reply to the letter of your pal), demands, snickering, accusations because your friends don't live up to your expectations (loyal, long letters, swift replies being among the most usual) and also any attempt to control your penpals and their style. Much damage can be done, often extensively, with such careless attitudes. I personally know someone - whom I love A LOT! (hey Whoian!) - who got the penpal inky spirit mamed thanks to a bad penpal (it wasn't me, I promise!).

Yes, these things happen, and sometimes the balance can be broken beyond repair. Give it time, let it go... take whatever approach you want, but above all, just let it flow. You can't put rules on friendship (and if you do, you either don't have friends or have a lot of acquintances you call "friends" who all speak of you behind your back), and penpalling is the same. The balance is there, it's delicate, and to find it, you must let it happen, and let it go when it stops working.

Oh Black Friday

Friday. Tired Friday, may I add, with a credit card that suddenly maxed on me (got immediately paid, so no damage there!), and waking up at the wee hours of the day to click check out on my cart at Amazon.com and get my Black Friday on the go. In some three hours and twenty minutes my work week is over, and you know what will I do? I'll go straight home, change into my pj's, climb into my bed, get under the covers and watch TV until I fall asleep, which most likely won't take me more than 20 minutes, if I'm lucky. 2 minutes if I'm not. And I still haven't seen "The Perfect Student" nor Margin Call, ans I really want to!

Why is it that this time of the year weeks seem to be much shorter than usually? Have you noticed that too? Things are piling up as well, as I have to plan out my gift lists - I plan to make most of the gifts myself, but others are not that simple - and then there are plans already in formation for 2013. :-)

However, be it as it may, my Black Friday purchases are done, and my only plan for the weekend are resumed to: rest, rest, rest, rest and sleep. :-) Oh, I have many, many good plans! Maybe some scrapbooking, some crocheting myself a new hat... anything relaxing. ^_^

Happy Thanksgiving!

This one comes out late, right? It's 21:13 and I just arrived - maybe some 20 minutes ago or so, from Liberia, a city to the Northwest of the country, were we had a meeting with some partners. But this you already know because I've told you yesterday. So yes, news since yesterday are: the Money Laundring conference was less than what I expected - a.k.a. they pulled that plain sentence and stretched it for an hour. It was hideous - and today's meeting was also rather unexpected.

But today is thanksgiving, even though I missed all the NFL games. It's weird to think about making a thanksgiving post when I did a Mabon post, so I'll go simple (I'm rather tired too, so don't ask much from my brain) to avoid repeating myself.

We don't really celebrate thanksgiving here, and honestly all my thanksgiving knowledge comes from movies - specially The Addams Family's Values - so I'll avoid making a fool of myself trying to give meaning to this celebration. I'll leave a note to myself in my filofax :-) so I do better research for next year. How about that?

So, giving thanks. Do we as a world have something to be thankful for? We have crisis in Europe and Gaza is again spiking up in violence, spreaking around the already wounded-raw Middle East. Crime and drugs and terrorism rips across our nations and corruption is pandemic. Hell, corruption is the only thing we actually see following the "trickling down" theory, and that actually keeps the economy and the money from trickling down from the uber-wealthy to the common people.

Well, we have things to be thankful for. Thankful for the jobs we have, in those cases where we have a job or any honest source of income. Thankful for our friends, the ones we made this year and those we kept cultivating. Thankful for the voice we have, our courage and determination to raise it in protest. Thankful for the American elections - four more years of hope, in my humble opinion. Thanks for the sparks of wisdom, for the fun moments, the movies we love, the new books we find, the chances we get, the lessons we have the opportunity to learn. Thankful for the love in our lives, for the chance to further know ourselves and for the chance of sharing with those we love - near or far, it doesn't matter as the heart and the soul have no sense of geographical distance.

Thankful for inspiration, for the good ideas, for diversity, for those moments of progress when equality wins another battle over outdated, obtuse ideas.

Thankful because the world can be hard, but we still have the chance to make it a better place. Thankful because in the middle of everything, we still can see the beauty, we still can harvest the sweet little berries of happiness and cherish them close to our hearts.

Yes, this is not the time to stop, and this is not the time to close our eyes and pretend that everything is swell, it's time to fight, to raise our voices and make oourselves be heard. It's time to denounce and let the world know that enough is enough and the bigotry of a few doesn't represent the many, that the corruption of some won't be tolerated by the whole. And yet, there's much we still have, much we have achieved and for that, it's okay to be thankful.

Plans

I'm going on a worktrip tomorrow. Me. A real, actual worktrip and not one of those trips HHRR comes up with that have only an educational intention. Excited? Hn, I don't know, truth to be told. More scared than anything, I guess. The trip is rather far, and since we are going by car, we'll have to leave from the office at 5 a.m. Add to it, I'll be coming back at night. LATE at night. And still have to come work on Friday. Yupi.

Hitting bed early tonight? Not likely, as I signed up for a conference about the role of auditoring in money laundring. That ought to be exciting! Now, now, don't you get excited thinking I'll learn new techniques of money laundring, no, that's not the point. Hopefully, though, it won't be a flat conference sayings something like "the role of auditoring in money laundring is to prevent money laundring, so auditors must be very careful and check everything, within the law". Oh, you'd be surprised about the hability of some to delude this plain sentence into a one hour speech!

Yesterday I was supposed to go watch Skyfall again. I didn't. I had the time, I had the means, I had the opportunity, but I didn't feel like it. I had actually rented "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", so I watched him play a Swedish investigative journalist. Did you know that I still haven't read this book? And I have it! I just always find something else to read. Anyway, I swapped some suave, sexually playful 007-Daniel Craig for a more human, troubled relationship-wise, thinner, softer around the ages journalist-Daniel Craig. And I kept wishing to hear him - him actually, not dubbing! - speak in Swedish. Not like I would understand a word, but I would have loved to hear him speak Swedish!

I've other movies to watch, such as Margin Call, Magic Mike (though I might skip that, suddenly), and something called "Perfect Student". Have no idea what's it about or why on Earth have I picked it. Well, if I get home not-too-late, then I'll watch Margin Call tonight, so on Friday I can watch that student thing, and then on Saturday either watch Magic Mike or return the whole thing and hit the movies for some more Skyfall. Or shall I lay off Skyfall and go pick something else from D. Craig?

Oh well, I'll leave my suggestions in my planner, and think about them later. ^_^

Sin Laundry

You've probably heard of money laundry, right? Well, in case you've heard but don't really know what that is, I'll explain you quickly. Money laundry is when you get from somewhere from where you shouldn't be getting money, and making it circulate through other places to then make it look like it comes from a legit source. The most common cases of money laundry are linked to organized crime and drugs, and in these cases the people usually wash this money by investing it in several legitimate businesses, or making pretend sales or exports-imports, to make it look like the money comes from there. However there are other cases were you can see money laundry, like politics. In these cases the most common type of money laundry comes from illegal donors, or donations of an ilegal nature, so the money is turned around a couple of times through banks and businesses until it looks legal. The point is that you take something that's bad and make it look good.

Well, actually money isn't the only thing that gets laundered. Sins and flaws also get their share of laundering, and basically everybody does it. In my opinion that's just as bad as money laundry, but socially is very accepted. If fact it's so accepted and so normal that it has it's own name. It's called "making excuses".

Either we do it for ourselves or we do it for others, making excuses isn't doing any good to anyone. For instance when someone is mean to you, maybe even abusive, and you constantly try to find excuses as to why they treat you or others poorly, what do you intend to accomplish with that? Telling someone that someone else treated them badly or hit them because the other person is [insert excuse] won't make it better. The partner that beat you purple still beat you and you are still hurt, the child that ruined your one-of-the-kind whatever, still destroyed something of your property, the person that made you look stupid or diminished you because of your gender, race, age, religion, political stand or whatever, still dealt damage on you. Is knowing that they are old, or just children or very tired, or perfectionist or suffering from an illness makes it better? It doesn't, but it actually makes sure that the same type of unwanted behavior continues without the chance to complain again, because the sin has been already laundered.

Where should we put a limit to the request of tolerance, when tolerance is requested on stuff that's a harming imposition on you?

Yes, a hard question, as there are things we might not feel comfortable with, but tolerating them is the civil way to go. Well, there's a difference between being tolerant and letting others trample on you. This limit could be put on when something directly affects you. For instance, if you are straight and in restaurant on the table next to you a gay couple is kissing, well, it doesn't really bother you, does it? But if in the same restaurant a family with unruly children start screaming and crying so hard that you can't hear your own thoughts, or they start throwing things around, then they are directly affecting you.

Often we launder sins because we think that's the nice thing to do, or because we are looking for a quick solution for a given case. You launder your shortcomings and make them look like they aren't so bad or as if they weren't even there, but happened because of an external situation. And again I ask: what do we win by doing that? We earn repetition, the eternal propagation of the sin. Wouldn't be simple to just admit to it and do something about it?

So cases are indeed hard, like when you have to admit to yourself that someone you love or someone you depend on isn't good for you, but lying about it won't fix the problem, while facing you will give you the strenght you need to fix it, either by talking to this person about what hurts you, or taking action - in case it's you - to stop doing what's causing you harm.

Hey, it's not bad to realize you have sins! They show you were you still have to work on yourself to be a better person! So go out, face them, be better and allow others to find those spots where they can perfect themselves.

Organizational Tools: Little Helpers or Little Devils

My boyfriend doesn't really enjoy the posts about filofaxes. And you know something? He might have one! We can't decide about it, because he has it stashed somewhere where nobody can find it. Ah, that's my darling boyfriend ^_^. Well, indeed gaping so much about planners and organizational tools isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for those of us for whom it is, isn't it something delicious? ^_^

Well, I don't want to bore my darling too much with this topic - promise I'll post about something else soon enough (I have been rolling around a topic where I go ranting again against the Social Plan, which includes the Expected Cycles of life of getting married and having children. Yeah, you know me, actively fighting for the recognition of unmarried and childfree lifestyles as normal, ok, and "get off my back! Just because your life sucks you don't have to ruin mine too!"). However I've heard something recently that got me thinking about these organizational tools. After mentioning planners to someone - and how I tend to write down just about everything or I'll forget it - this person said to me that they avoided using planners as much as they could, so that way they forced their memory to keep working by having to remember everything - or most things. Personally I was surprised. Granted, this person is very organized and does manage to keep on top of every important thing. I, on the other hand, have to write down even the schedule of my flights just in case I forget the printed out reservation, and also to have a clear view of my on-land time in case I want to go out in between flights and explore the city (yes, I do that. How do you think I've gone to visit Paris?).

So I was wondering, do planners and organizational tools make our brains lazier and diminish our capabilities, or are they the little helpers we believe them to be and for which they were intended to be? Is there a point after which the planner does more damage than the benefit we pull from it? Like the famous "Mother's Little Helpers" that were supposed to keep women happy and in control of themselves while dealing with a chaotic household (and if you have ever taken any of them - I believe they were all from the benzodiazepam familiy - then you can say, that oh lord, do they make your life all pink and fluffy again!), but all that goodness turned out to be harming in the long term.

In my personal opinion, planners aren't such a brain-muddling, brain-slacking tool, as in order to used them you need to develop a personal discipline. Check them ever so often, remember to note everything, keep your codes in mind, remember that's not only writing stuff down, but later doing somethig about it, making decisions... Planners could pretty much act like "thought warehouses" where you unload small bits of information in order for you to have room and energy enough to deal with other things. Say you have to finish this project, or pick a gift for someone you love, maybe help Suzie with her homework. Well, you'll need your mind on it, and not keeping there that you have to go for your car to the mechanic tomorrow or in three days. Park down your mechanic appointment on your planner, and then sit down and put your whole attention to that project, gift or homework.

Then again, maybe that's a simplistic point of view. Maybe the brain is able to remember everything without thoughts using up energy and getting in the way when you don't need them. Maybe. Maybe our brains do have a build in Brain Outlook or something we have neglected, but does it worth kicking up a working system and risking forgetting important appointments just to try and get your memory working as it should? And when your memory starts failing due to age or you being tired, does it worth risking missing things because you rather exercise your brain than keep a record of things?

It's a hard question.

Today's Mom's and My Aunt's Birthday!

Today's Mom's and Auntie's birthday! Yes, because they are twins. This in the picture is my Mom. Isn't she beautiful? ^_^ I'm terribly proud of her. My Auntie is just as beautiful with with a slight difference: Mom's more like the damsels from the epic poems with knights in shiny armors, while my Auntie looks more like the pricesses from the fairy tales. They are both very kind and ladylike, and you will never, ever hear them say a bad word. Really. They just don't say bad words. Funny right?

They are both very smart, strong in a quiet way and accomplished women. They both excelled in their careers and are recognized by their peers. Mom is a language teacher at one of the most important univesities of Costa Rica and Auntie works as a librarian at one of the most important libraries of Hungary.

Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, they have both lead quite lives and became loved by everyone who knows them. Really, they are like my boyfriend: it's humanly impossible not to love them!

With age they grow wiser, and stronger, but somehow time doesn't seem to touch their pretty little complexions. They are both so youthful! I guess they have both aged well and gracefully. They are simply young with added experience. ^_^

For what we have planned for them I can tell you, that I've asked my boyfriend to pick up a present for my Auntie at L'Occitane, while in here Mom will get a Lunch with her family, a book from her favorite author - Noam Chomsky - and a facial treatment at L'Occitane. It's early yet and I haven't even showered, so I can't tell you how it went, but I bet you that it will be a great day!

Late Post

It's 21:54 and I'm tired. This has been a very productive day, having made several lanwyarns and earrings, most of which are all for others, not for me. Wonder if I'll be able to actually make some money out of them, such as my friend Roo suggests. Well, all I can do at this point is try, right? Many coworkers have already expressed interest for them, so why not give it a shot?

But giving it a shot isn't an easy as the business of beads is a tricky one. I've made myself a new lawnyarn  with little green stars. I wanted to make more, but I didn't have enough stars either in green or any other color. So I went to the bead store and there were no more stars. Actually there were no beads from any kind I used to buy a year ago. They were all new beads. So this time I grabbed a couple of beads (a coworker said she would like butterflies, so I grabbed a couple of three different types) and made some "samples" so if anyone is interested they can pick the type of bead and maybe have them in a different color. We shall see then how it goes on Monday, see if I can sell some or at least get a couple of orders. :-) Then I'll make some more and give those I haven't sold to my friend Lau, so she can wear them and "market" them among her coworkers. I can't really market them myself, for I'm using lawnyarns made out of beads you can no longer get, or beads you wouldn't get in here for I brought them from Hungary or Roo sends me from the States. Oh, the purple butterflies will be shipped to Roo for she loves purple and butterflies and wants me to make her one of these lawnyarns.

Other than that, today I posted a letter to a dear friend (hello Arjen!), as well as the Franklin Covey inserts I offered in y previous post. I also got myself three sleeping gowns. I've one, silky, in Budapest, but other than that I haven't had a sleeping gown in ages. I normally sleep in pyjamas or an old T-shirt and some comfy track suit bottoms. These are long t-shirt type with funny inscriptions. One says "espresso yourself" and the other says "grumpy but gorgeous". Well, both fit me to perfection ^_^, specially the grumpy part. Just ask my boyfriend ^_^ I'm the worse morning person in the world. I bet I'm even murder-capable in the morning.

Then, I also got myself - finally! - a printer, exactly like the one we've in Budapest, except on American code, or Latin American code, I'm not sure, it has TX instead of SX, and stocked up with coloured glue and coloured pilots for the scrapbooking/artbox supply. With nephews like the ones I have, art supplies are consuption goods, they are finished like milk glasses.

However, by 10 pm I'm dead meat, so I'll blog, try a printing and hit the bed.

See you tomorrow!

An Idea

After writing extensively about "do you really think THAT's the way Filofax should go? And have you considered doing something else with you life? Say like something you ACTUALLY know how to do?", I was thinking about what would I recommend filofax to do to step it up and keep up with the tendencies while not whoring out their product or selling their souls to the highest bidder. And so what came to my mind was the proposal of an actually smart, functional collaboration: developping a joint product with Livescribe.

Source: Google and Livescribe

Livescribe is an American company (I believe) who developped a smart pen, which is basically a pen with a camera and a recorder, available with a 4GB to 8 GB memory, and most likely developping larger memory capacity. This pen is a success for taking notes - and you know how filofaxists love to take notes - because while you write you can also record what's being said (if you choose to), and all the notes you take you can then upload them easily to your computer, turn them into text, share them online and even let others see and here for instance as you draw a graph and explain what's about.

How would this work with filofaxists? Well, this smartpens requiere a special type of paper, called dotpaper. This is because the camera in the pen reads the dots in the paper to know where the lines and letters are traced. The margins of the paper also include a series of "tools" which you tap with the pen to start recording, pause, stop and go through the pen's menu. Here basically what filofax and Livescribe would need would be to develop filofax inserts in this dotpaper and adjust the penloop on some binders - or creating a brand new line aimed specifically aimed for smartpens.

The point with this - and this would be the tricky part - would be also to develop a software such that allows you not only to upload the contents of your filofax up to your computer - thus giving you an automatic backup (if you regularly hook your pen to your computer) - but also allow you to sync your filofax with your computer (most such softwares already include calendars, contacts, to-do lists and notes, and fixing your financial pages to upload as Excel sheets shouldn't be so hard), from where you can then sync all your devises. Livescribe allows you also to send pages by e-mail, just by writing a special command on the page. The page then gets sent the moment the document gets to a computer and this is hooked to the net. Just imagine the possibilities! You are on YOUR filofax, commuting in the metro - where there's seldom good mobile signal - at least not in Hungary - and you remember you had to send an e-mail. So you pull out your filofax, don't have to start it, unlock it, get online, find your e-mail account and send it, or compose the message, punch in the number of find the contact and send it, you just open the filofax on "Notes", "Work", "E-mails" - it's your filofax, so you name it! - write down the e-mail and write the command on the bottom, the top and once you get home, or get to the office, you hook your smartpen on your laptop and there it goes!

Now, you can do that right now with your Livescribe smartpens, and maybe you can get yourself an A5 size filofax and tuck the Livescribe notebook or journal in the back, but wouldn't you like it better if you didn't have to? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the software were developped so that you could write appointments on your filofax and get an alarm on your phone, for instance? "Meeting with the Clients in 30 minutes", "Pat has football practice today", "Pay the bills". You know, the best of both words.

Would it appeal to a new segment of the market? Well, what do you think? Would the current filofaxists love it? I know a couple that would, though to implement this filofax should have to make a serious market study (may I suggest at least 50% of the sample to be composed by current filofax user? After all those who come after - and are here to stay - will probably tend to copy and adapt the techniques and habits of the seasoned filofaxists) about what do people use their filofax for, and what digital products consider they closest to these uses. Focus groups would also be a success - these with a higher percentage of current filofaxists - to get a good hold of filofaxes out there in the real world.

However, this wouldn't be enough to solve other issues such as the slumping quality of the products several filofax users have complained about, or the communication issues with the clients.

There's much ahead, mistakes can be made in the process, but as long as we correct them and go back on track, focus on what's really important, on the core, nothing can really go wrong, right?

The Fashionista Fallacy

Sometime in September a heated argument broke out in the Internet, specifically among Filofax fans and users due to the comments of a representative of a marketing company about the features that identify the "filofax customers". I didn't know about this until yesterday, though I had noticed a couple of disturbing publications I'll talk about later. This person basically said that their studies showed that filofax users were basically "people who like to take notes and are interested in fashion". The moment I read that I heard in my head the sound of a car hitting the breaks fast and hard and screeching across the asphalt. Wait, WHAT? That's like saying that gardners are people who like to dig holes, or students are people who like to sharpen pencils. Well, this didn't sit well with the many regular customers of filofax.

Now, to put you quickly on black and white about what's going on, on one hand it seems that filofax has been lagging in the areas of product quality and customer service. You can notice that from comments people do around the Internet about it. I didn't think much about it, but did noticed when I was browsing for my filofax that many looked really nice and shiny outside, but the inside was less-than-perfect. Take for instance the Metropol, where the edges of the outer cover material aren't nicely tucked under some lining. Specially look at how the corners look like with that unfinished frilling - or whatever you call it. And before you argue, no, there are other ways to solve this, such as the way they did it for the Sketch model, which is the one I have, and which - good grace! - is cheaper than the Metropol!

On the other hand, we all know that the world is changing and this change is taking people towards the digital universe. More and more people - and therefore the market - deepens its dependence on electronic divises - particularly those connected to the web. The PDA's - also known once as palm pilots, though that was the brand - came and went, so what's teh future of paper planners, particularly an expensive type of planner in a binder like filofax? It's going to become a casualty in the battle of smartphones? What can they do to keep hold or earn a stronger hold of their market share? Maybe get more clients? Well, as step one they hired this marketing company, which made a study, upon which they decided to work together with some designers to come up with a trendy, fashionable product that appeals to the customers. (BTW, according to the interview, the "attitude studies" were applied to a sample of 1200 people, 300 of which are current customers. I personally found the sample size small, and the proportion of current customers non-significant, particularly considering the characteristics of the product - this having turned into a product with a loyal customer base. This would be similar as to evaluate the idea of making a new Japan Animation movie sampling 1000 people from which only 250 watch currently this type of movies. The results wouldn't speak about the current market conditions. Oh yes, and it would say that otakus like to watch doodles and are aware of fashion.) So yes, they came out with carpetbag filofaxes, which appeal to the fashionable... who in turn would rather keep their lives and appointments on an iPhone/Samsung Galaxy.

Now, what's going on here? Well, first of all, filofax is throwing money to anyone willing to give them an answer, a magical solution as to how to increase their income. As result, however, they may not only not see the return of their investment, but they may end up loosing what they have so far. Let's hope this won't happen.

You see, companies, enterprises, they produce stuff or give a service and they have clients, customers. Basically they need these customers to get an income, since the customers are the ones paying for what they do. However at some point some companies forget about this organic link, and start believing that customers are a nag and they (the customers) should be glad they (the company) even dains to throw something in their direction. Examples of this we have with Facebook and Windows, but I bet many of you automatically thought about phone companies and computer companies. Has Facebook or Windows ever considered what their users/customers want when they implement some change? No, they don't. Do they care about people trashing them for their latest stupid innovation that nobody likes? No. Facebook say "deal with it", becaus they know people can't leave them, and even if they do, Facebook keeps all their data, all their uploaded pictures and documents. Have you tried to leave Facebook? I did. The last thing they say to you is "we know you'll be back".

Windows is pretty much the same, they don't care if you like the newest innovations, because they have such a big market share that even if you move to another segment, you'll have to deal with Microsoft products eventually, and if you manage not to, then you'll be part of a slim percentage that keeps the Government off their backs about "monopoly". But not everybody can do this and live to tell. Ford has it's time back in the day, when they could even decide that all cars would be black, but then times changed and if they don't adjust to the market, then they fall out of it.

Trends can be killers for products that either don't keep up with them, or that have bet on the hype of the moment, became a fashionable article and then the whim of the market killed them. Examples of these are the PDA's murdered in cold blood by the smartphones - starting with the Blackberry, and then the QWERTY keyboards on smartphones - such as the Blackberry's (isn't karma a bitch?) - which were gunned down by the touchscreen. The Blackberry making company, Research in Motion (RIM), has been rumoured to be about to cave in and go bankrupt, with it making an effort to keep their heads over the water and maybe be saved with the latest phone that would be unveiled on January 2013. What went wrong? Nothing, it's just that iPhone and Samsung Galaxy happened, and when a product strives so hard to remain fashionable, it will eventually plunge into the darkest pits of oblivion. These products are short lived, so if you are into one of these, you basically have to create disposable brands and companies, cash in as fast as you can, and harvest as soon as the first signs of decay happen. These companies need to take the pulse of the market closely. They will be the top notch when they are up, but nobody will remember them when they fall down one step.

Then there are other types of products, products that are eternal and that cater to a very particular segment of the market. These are the "eternal products". Examples of these are Apple, Channel, luxury car brands and, yes, filofax. What are the distinctives of these brands? That they have formed around their products a very loyal customer base, one that would remain for ages with their products. For instance, maybe the Samsung Galaxy does end up being the best mobile phone ever, and will win the market battle, and the market massively will move to the Samsung Galaxy, but the true Apple fan would never leave the iPhone. Their markets are smaller, more compact, have specific needs, are prone to communicate with the company, and are willing to try out all their new products even if they don't really need them in the begining. The customers of these companies take the shot with the company and have a higher tolerance towards the shortcomings of the company - which they signal! but they stay waiting for the correction.

Their revenues may not be as astronomical as that of fashionable products - filofax would hardly compete with Lady Gaga - but when they do recognize their customer base and attend to them, they can count on a sustainable income that will outlast any fashion icon.

The marketing company should have done their homework first, should have mapped out the company, understand it, and then work from that on. Well, evidently they keep their appointments in their smartphones, and must hate making notes.

Yay!... Ow... First Filofax Fail Moment

Yesterday I finally got my Filofax. ^_^ Yay! I've been all giddy about it I could barely stay put all day. My first surprise was the size of the box: it was so tall. It was half filled with airbags, so that explained it and relieved me, because I really didn't want to figure out how to fit that box in my bag. So I took the box home and unpacked all the parts. I was surprised not to see the same box all other filofaxes come in - at least in videos and blogs -  but a simple "paperback" like sleeve, opened on the spine, which housed my Personal Size Sketch filofax. Chocolate color ^_^. Of course chocolate!

The inserts came all without any missing, so I was rather pleased. A black loose ruller came also along, which I didn't order, and I'm not sure what to do about it. If I knew that it's added by mistake for sure, I will return it - no questions asked - to filofax. However, unlike my brown ruler - which I did order - came in a pack, while the black one didn't. The puncher is nice but really hard to use - unless it's just me who needs to put more elbow grease into it, but I did tried it out on the page included with it and I was close to grab a hammer and smack the freaking thing close. Hopefully it's much easier to operate with thinner paper.

The filofax itself is beautiful. It came with an insert of Week on Two Pages calendar, which I pulled out because I use the Page per Day planner and the Month on Two Pages calendar. I've got monthly tabs to make the maneuvering of agenda. I had to make compromises as often months started on the left page, which ended up with me putting the tab between 1st and 2nd, though most likely as we get there I'll move the tab one page back, so I can still clearly seen 1st and 2nd at one glance. June and October start on the right, so I'm very happy about it. There were also some 2 or 3 To-Do pages and some 13 contact pages. Well, contact pages I would need more, that's for sure. Not because I keep my personal phonebook in my planner, but because I keep my penpal's addresses in my planner. It does makes sense, right? Track paper on paper.

There were also six colored, numbered dividers and also colored Two-Letter dividers for contacts. I didn't expect the contact tabs, which is why I ordered the colored Two-Letter dividers. A waste? Well, maybe not. As it happens, the colors of the numbered dividers and the Two-Letter ones is... well, it's not pretty. I don't know how to explain them, but they are... ochre colored. Do you know ochre? When I was little this colored stone powder was used un humble homes to color the floors. Anyway, the dividers come in the darkest, most somber colors of ochre red, and ochre green and ochre blue... and something else that might be ochre yellow, orange, brown or khaki. I can't remember. Then, the paper for the notes, which are far too little in number, came also in those dreaded, dark colors. There were a couple of sheets in white, but the other were in Nightmare Ochre. I haven't replaced them yet, but most likely I'll add the brighter colored Two-Letter dividers and then make my own for the other inserts from either scrapbook paper to maybe plastic, colored paper or whatever I come up that inspires me.

I'm not a "pretty" type of person, full of frills and glitter and rhinestone and shiny things. I don't do shabby chic either. I do... me. And me is more clean cut, straight lined, solid with the crazy packed in here and there. I do post-its.

The filofax in itself is just... wonderful. I didn't make pictures of it as I was burning to set it up. The Calendars come with these segments of personal infor and all sorts of things I don't really need. Yes, they are interesting, but they take space, and you know when will I consult them? On Never Day. Just let's be honest here for a moment: yes, it's nice to have at the tip of your fingers info such as the holidays in many places - specially if you have friends across the globe - and a list of holidays by religion (and I wondered why Pagan celebrations weren't included in the calendar, but oh well, and why wasn't Mardi Gras included, but there you go), and information about countries and all that... but how often are you realistically going to need it? Clothes sizes and conversions, yes, I could use that rather often, but I could take from the lists those I need more often, like gallons to liters and inches to cms. A post-it can do that for me. As for sizes, I can write down my own and be done with it, right?

It was bothersome that the Personal Information page came in four or five languages... one on the back of the other. If I wanted to use the less pages possible, and keep the info insert, I would have to keep the Italian one. No, I have nothing against Italian, and I can rather understand it from Spanish, but I'm not carrying stuff on Italian! Italian isn't a language that currently interests me, so... no.

Now, I could go around that quite easily, for instance by making my own page. After all, I already have the paper puncher, and cutting is easy and simple, right? Besides that way I truly control what information I want out there. For instance I'm not one to note on the Personal Info stuff like who's my doctor - not like I have one - or what's my insurance number and so on. However I've signed on my Driving License to be an organ donor in case I die in a car accident and there are still usable spare parts someone else can profit some. Well, personal information usually don't include that, so I included it.

This to the left is my first template. I love peacocks and peacock feathers, in case you haven't noticed. So, then on the back of this page you can add up all the stuff you need from all those other extra pages of useful and smart information you never really use. Just you know, have what you really need.

Now, so far so good. Is this the "filofax fail" moment? No, if it would have been only this I would have gotten over it and been a happy camper. The "filofax fail" moment came after I fit my Page Per Day planner in my filofax, and realized that It was too stuffed. But what did I had in in by then? Well, the Personal Information and added pages, the Month on Two Pages, the dividers, the Page per Day, the few note pages, the To Do pages and contacts. And that was it. You see that yellow notepad pad? Yep, that didn't make it in. The plastic envelopes? Only one got in. I was devastated! What about all my plans? What about my sections? I had it all very well planned: Fuel tracking, Office project tracking, Blog post tracking, List of 13, Other Lists, Notes, Literary Ideas, Economics Ideas... They were all to find a home in there! Was I supposed to now get another filofax?

I fitted the filofax into my smallest bag, and it fitted perfectly, so no, this would have to do it. Bigger rings? No chance, that would take up hangbad space I can't afford. Thinner paper? No chance, for the paper is of very good quality. Taking out the PPD and getting the Wo2P back in? Well, I don't have to admit it, I really don't, but it seems that that's the only solution if I want to add the rest of the things. But I don't want to! I really like the space PPD gives me... :-(  Taking part of the PPD and putting it back as I need it? Nope, I want the whole thing in one place. So what should I do? As it is, the last and first pages are really hard to reach and hard to turn.

What to do? :-( Do I really have to make peace with the Wo2P? Really? Even after I've already marked up the PPD with all my important stuff, such as birthdays, appointments, holidays and all the dates of Mercury Retrograde (I like being prepared for the communications and technology crash downs. We are now in a Mercury Retrograde, you know?)? That's not fair. Plus I really, really use up all that space. I would show you a picture of my planner right now - which is an A5, on thin, Bible paper, so you can see how I go filling up the pages to the brim, but I tend to write stuff that shouldn't be out there, such as the phone numbers I must call, account numbers I need to reference to, amounts paid and so on.

I had a small - really small - planner in 2010 which sported a Wo2P, and I somehow managed, so maybe, JUST MAYBE! I'd be able to make it. Oh hell, isn't it a blessing that I still have a month and a half to go over this?

I've just one question: how people who use PPD or Do2P do it?

I'll mull on it and when I've gone over it and settled with my filofax, I'll post you a picture of it. (However, anyone with replies and suggestions, please don't hold your tongue!)