How Am I Going With My Filofax - Status

15 days into 2013 and I'm fairly happy with my filofax. My first filofax - could this be the haze of "I'm in a Perfect World where Filo and I will live happily ever after"? FilofaxUSA keeps sending me e-mails with sales and special offers, but honestly, none of them really tickle me. I do have been considering and checking some filofaxes, but not for me, but for a friend of mine who would profit a lot from the system - she has a job where she has to work with several clients and keep track of their accounts, so what better than a trusty filofax that won't run low on battery in a crucial moment, right?

As you know, I've got myself last year a Personal Size Chocolate Sketch filofax. Chocolate, why chocolate? Call it just brown. It's brown, and it's nice. Honestly - though I love chocolate - I would have prefered if it would have been called "coffee", but then again I think the binder isn't dark enough to be "coffee". However all those fantastic names like Cherry and Chocolate and Hyne-knows-what are - in my opinion - unnecesary adornments for this type of organizational tool. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? If you have something like a planner, which you'll use for planning and keeping your life organized, and the seller is trying to sell you on other features that don't really have much to do with planning, like "it's so fashionable", "it matches your shoes", "it evokes a perfect vacation on the shores of Cape Verde" and so on... doesn't it make you think "Why is he trying to divert my attention? Is this product faulty? Could it be that it no longer functions as it should?". In my opinion, when the most important thing about a pen is how pretty it looks and how it can hang from your purse and function as an accesory, is because you are not planning to write with it. You get what I mean?

Anyway, edible or not, I've got my brown sketch, and I like it. The stitching  isn't perfect, but I like that the corners of the binder are well worked and don't bunch up. It has many pockets, but I hardly use them. I've some of those colored dot stickers, but haven't used them yet. Maybe I'll end up taking them out and giving them to my nephew, so he can do are with them. My older nephew, I mean, because the youngest would probably stick all the dots in his golden curls. This isn't the most expensive binder of the collection, actually is one of the most affordables - currently Personal Size Maroon Sketch filofaxes are sold by as little as $16 or so! - and yet I'm not only absolutely satisfied with it, I look at other binders and think "nah, mine is better". Anyway, let me say it, so it's out there: after you had an A5 planner or so, with a Page-per-Day (PPD) for your notes and jottings, squeezing into a week-on-two-pages in a smaller size is a task. My previous planner had me all spoiled with lots of space for me to jot down phone numbers, notes, scribble down things like recipes, or what I ate, if I was in the mood, the schedules of the movies for that week... Yes, now I have a Notes section, but it's not the same, specially since I've got used to have that information on the day I looked it up, so later on I could refer to it.

But then, what was I doing before 2012, when I wasn't using a planner? I didn't jot those things down in my phone, I had a notebook with all my crazy notes, and where I hardly ever found anything. I guess it will take some time to get me used to the "notes don't go on the space of the day" system. Currently I'm set on eleven sections - yes, eleven - which are divided in three big cathegories (plus the contact one, which isn't listed under any of the cathegories): calendars, track and lists. I'm still working on this, rearranging them and all, and also considering the function some of the sections have, such as Projects, which doesn't seem to be working with me. (I normally track this on Excel, and fitting it into the filofax is proving to be a difficult task). I'm using the Financial Track quite profusely but the inserts I designed aren't as good as I would have loved them to be, but then again, Excel usually takes care of that for me, so all I have to do is still trying. Funny how both Finances and Projects are now on their second insert version and I'm still not there.

It is costly, as I'm paying for the paper and the ink I use to print out my insert versions, but at least it comes out much cheaper than if I had buy the inserts and didn't like them. Um, well... maybe... kinda. However, I must say that I'm very happy with the freedom and the options filofax has yielded for me. From tracking my consuption of fuel, the recharges I put on my phone (since the price of the minutes here are the same for prepaid and post paid mobile phone services, I choose to go prepaid, so that I've on bill less to set my budget off at the end of the month. And no surprise charges!), to keeping a list of my blogposts, and keep all my Lists of 13 in one place, my filofax is working for me quite well.  No, it doesn't lie flat when I open it, but I don't see what's the big deal about it. It doesn't close up, and it keeps open the page I need open. It stays open just nice. I have it really full as it is, and as result the inner corners of some pages bend, but that doesn't really annoy me, as I have it already pinched here and there with paperclips.

The binder itself works really nice. It's quite sturdy, clean lined, simple and fits well in my bag, which is the most important thing of all. It's much thicker than my old planner, but my old planner didn't have sections, and I'm loving my sections. Maybe some will disappear with time, maybe others will remain, new ones will be added up, all that is still up to be defined, but as it is, and as I have discovered the freedom of making my own inserts, I started planning my 2014 calendars. Why? Well, it started as an experiment, and out of I have no idea what impulse, I decided to go with inserts in Hungarian. I just hope my spelling was correct. I looked at some old planners for inspiration, and came up with what you see here: a Wo2P with even slots for every day of the week, a segment for weekly notes at the end, and hours from 8 to 15 on the left block, blank for the right block. I would have loved to cover 8 to 18, but that would have been only possible if I made smaller slots for the weekends. so Why 8 to 15? Because most of my work meetings usually are summoned to start between those hours. The odd occasional meeting or appointment past that hour can be inked in the left side - normally left for things that aren't tied to specific hours, as well as for very tight days, these mark the half hours -  or by striking out a non-used hour and inking it instead.

I added most of the holidays that affect my workdays here, but I plan on adding other holidays - such as Hungarian holidays, or any funny, specific holiday from wherever my friends are, as well as astrological information.

Perhaps the secret for a good organizational tool isn't in the inserts or the binder, the operative system, the app, the devise or the paper but in your attitude, in your willingness to make it work, in putting yourself the initial sense of being still out of shape for it, but once you are getting the hang of it, it's your job to make it yours. Filofax is big, is endless, and like a wild horse, you must know what you want and where you want to take it or it is going to flip you over and leave you in a bigger mess than what you started with.

Tablet Kills Netbook?

The other day a coworker of mine sent us an e-mail where in an online article the end of the netbook era was being heralded. Acer, Asus and other big names in the field of netbooks said that they would stop producing netbooks, since the market was choosing tablets over them. This made me sad. I have a netbook, and as it's getting old (it's maybe some 5 years old, but it still works really well!), I've been starting to think about its replacement (due in one or two years, the earliest, since I've currently other priorities that take up all of my money and then some). I have checked tablets on stores some time ago and then again, and truth to be told, they don't cut the deal for me. Maybe there isn't much of a market for netbooks anymore, but from my point of view, tablets are not a suitable replacement for netbooks.

Netbooks are a bit less robust than laptops, as you all know that, and often lack some things, like CD-ROM, not to mention the capabilities in terms of harddrive, RAM and so on, but for someone who isn't going to hack into the NASA or direct a Multinational Corporation from a computer, a netbook is perfect of any civilian, regular citizen needs. What does that mean? That on a netbook I can comfortably check and reply e-mails, blog, upload a video, browse the net, but also do off-net stuff too, like work on different Office programs like Word, Excel, Power Point, Project, and even other special programs you might use for whatever reason. For those of us who use programs that deal with numbers - like Excel - often the numeric keyboard being merged into the alphanumeric is already a bit of a pain in the behind, but now imagine giving away the keyboard all together, or to work with touchscreen keyboards, maybe even keyboards that detach from the tablet. Um, no.

It's important to understand that tablets and netbooks cater for different needs. A netbook gives you mobility, allow you to take your work, your projects with you and usually fits in your bag. It's a tool for working. For instance, my thesis mate an I wrote our whole thesis, run the numbers, made the math, tabbed the interviews, all on a netbook - this lovely thing of wonder I'm typing away on right now. A tablet is more of a tool to check on stuff the way you would on your big screen smartphones. Yes, you can type, answer e-mails, probably blog and write, but it's not as comfortable as a netbook. It still doesn't give you a CD-ROM, and doesn't offer you the same memory capacity. It certainly offers you more mobility, and can easily swallow up your e-reader, so you don't have to invest in a Kindle or a Nook, but it the end, it can't really swallow up the job of a netbook.

When the market comes to this point - and it reaches it quite often in the tech arena - you must be very clear with what your needs are and what are the best tools to fulfill it. I know I need capacity, and I need something that doesn't weight much, that's very mobile and I can stuck in my bag without problem. I mean, I've already downsized my planner as I went from an A5 planner to a personal filofax! I certainly don't need any more bulk! So, a laptop won't do it. Yet, a tablet runs short when it comes to the fact that I may want to flip out my netbook/whatever I have then on my flight to wherever, and watch an episode of whatever I've, or read some document I have, or I've a sudden struck of inspiration and I want to work on some document I have. Maybe I feel like doing my accounting (yes, I have sudden strikes of numbers. Today I had one), would the tablet be able to hold all this for me, and stand in a position that's comfortable for me to hold for hours and hours. Would the tablet be able to do that? So far I haven't seen the tablet that can hit the measure for me.

So, when the time comes, what will I do? Ask me on 2015, and by then, I may have the answer.

Trip To Cuba

It's been a while since I haven't posted every day, and it felt strange not to do it - I mean, not posting every day - but I survived it! Wow! That was something! But now I'm back, vacations are over, and even my personal mail is up to a lot, which is unsettling for me, as I like to see all of my mailboxes empty... except of my real life mailbox, where my letters arrive. But anyway, shall we get this show on the road?

As you know, my boyfriend and I spent a few days in Cuba, a place where none of us had gone before. Cuba was a destination interesting for him, as he wanted to see what did it look like, being one of the last remaining Socialist countries in the world. I must admit that Cuba wasn't really a destination that would attract me much, though I do have read some about it and their economical system does intrigue me a lot. Now, I won't get on much details about the travel as I'm really not good at it. You should as my friend Trish, Aileen or Arjen to give you a fabulous recount of a trip. Instead I'll tell you about what I noticed, the things you should be aware of, what you are told and what really goes on. But just for formalities, this was our trip: we arrived to Cuba on Thursday afternoon, got picked up by the transfer we requested, got to the hotel, next day paid a tour at the touristic places of Havana, including a stop at the Cigar Factory, Romeo y Julieta. Then on Saturday we got a trip to Varadero, a fabulous beach 2 or 3 hours away from Havana, then on Sunday woke up freaking early (like 0:45, yes) and caught our flight back to Costa Rica.

Any thing else... we stayed at a Meliá hotel, and used the transfer and touring services in Cuba of a company called Solways.

Now, can I tell you what I meant to tell you? Good.

First of all, if you go there you should know that there's a very, very high chance that your credit and debit cards won't work there, even if you have checked previously. That's because they can't process any type of card which issuing bank or financial entity has any type of connection with the United States. Why? What the hell do you care? It doesn't work. Period. So, if you plan on going - and you should - take cash, though never any amount over US$5000 or you'll have to declare it. Also, don't take American Dollars. They can take them, but the conversion rate is very low, and allegedly - I've no actual data about this - you must pay some extra fee, so you'll end up getting much, much less. Take Euros, those are accepted just fine.

I'm not very good at making reservations for travels, as I basically leave it all in the capable hands of my favorite airlines and Booking.com, however with Cuba you won't find much on this last site. I remembered that I had a membership card for the Meliá hotel's, so I went on it's website and found myself our hotel, and it worked fine. Note of advise: the site took my credit card when I reserved the hotel, since that was managed globally, BUT at the hotel in Cuba they couldn't process it, so just because ut works on the site, it doesn't mean it will work on the hotel. So please, take cash! Listen to me! A good way to know how much you might need is to take the amount of what you're paying for the hotel, multiply it by two and round it up. That's the amount of cash you should take.

Now, one thing we almost always hear about Cuba is how poor it is, how people live in dire conditions, and you may have also heard how they would pest you on the streets begging, asking even for your toothbrush and whatever remaining soap, handcream or old flip flops you can give them. Well, I don't know what sort of Cuba others have gone, but I experienced none of this. We had three cases of people begging, but none of them were really insistent, and actually were quite discreet. This was very, very different than Dominican Republic, where beggers followed you up to two block and wouldn't get a no for an answer. Part of the reason for this - one of our tourist guides later explained to us - is that beggers are forbiden in Cuba. For instance, if a child is caught begging, they will arrest the parents and take away their child. Streets are also full of cops, so there's nothing to be worried about. It is a good idea, though, not to go out after dark, basically because the city is very poorly iluminated, but your chances of being mugged are small.

There's a sort of culture of not giving recipes, which is very unsettling, so whatever you order, you must always make sure you know the prices (and all prices have taxes included, or at least I haven't seen a single menu which would indicate that taxes are not included), and add them up. Why? Because it might happen - specially at the bars of the hotels - that the waiters may try to charge you more. These "overcharges" go around one and two CUC (convertible peso. One Euro buys 1,27 CUC, so you do the maths from here on). So you might say that that's less than an Euro, or not even two, but if you multiply it for every time you go out to eat or have a drink, it becomes a lot, and when you don't have your card at your disposition, you have limited cash AND you remember that you need to pay 25 CUC per person to leave Cuba, then yes, it might add up and become quite an amount.

Now, not all of them are like that, and actually, even though they really need the tips to make ends meet, they can give you amazing examples of honesty. Some of them even go as far as to correct the coworker who's trying to charge you more. On the street they are quite honest with you, and wouldn't even try to either charge you more or keep the change. In any case, if you want to make sure not to be charged more - and thus feel well by choosing to tip them according to your liking - then write down what you consume, and what you ask for the bill you say something in the line of "I'd like the bill, it's #CUC, right?". If they say another number, ask for the written bill.

In some hotels - like the one were we stayed - the lobby becomes full of "high end whores". Some are very evident, and others couldn't be more obvious even if they had a t-shirt on that said "sex for money". It gets even more disturbing when they have a sort of agreement with, say, a bartender or a waiter, who makes sure to keep their sopts free, and place all of their orders before you, even if you have ordered a simple beer or a mojito  30 minutes ago.

To understand a little bit more this behavior, you must understand Cuba and its circumstances better, however if I explain it to you this post would strech eternally, and we won't want that, so I'll do my best to summarize as much as I can, but if you are interested, you'll have to investigate on your own.

Cuba has had a very particular history, much of which has been often greatly distorted by some, or at least told leaving out the parts that don't agree with the point of view of one or another part. Most Cubans, however, who live in the Island, are okay with the current regime, and you can hear them refer to the change of regime, and Fidel Castro's coming to power as "the triumph of the Revolution". You may agree or you may not, but what you have to understand is that this is their view, this is how they live and you must respect that at all times. I say this because it doesn't matter how evident it is, you can still find idiots - like two Spanish women we met - who go as far as call everything Cubans do and strive for to be bad or even "shit", and claim that the current president of the country, Mr. Raul Castro, or his brother, Mr. Fidel Castro isn't the "real president of Cuba, but Batista", the president that was deposed with the triumph of the Revolution.

Cuba is beautiful and there are many squares and parks and buildings of astonishing beauty. There are also other architectural structures that are amazing, which were build before the triumph of the Revolution. Cuba was then a land of dreams for foreigners with money, but many Cubans lived in dire conditions. After the triumph of the Revolution (out of respect, I prefer to used the same term Cubans use, which I heard them use), foreigners and the most powerful Cuban families left the country and their properties (you can't just pack a house, now can you), and the new Government took posession of those buildings turning them into Administrative buildings, for the smaller ones, or making hospitals, schools or houses for the people. Many buildings in the city have deteriorated, but others are being restored.

Wages in Cuba are low, with the salary of a physician being the highest, and which goes around 35 CUC. After the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the subsequent withdrawl of the support it gave to Cuba, the country started having a lot of issues, specially due to the embargo it has, which keeps them from having commercial relationships with the United States and many countries who are political or economical partners of it. When you consider that nearly all of the American countries depend on their commercial relationship with the United States, you certainly can see the bleak perspective Cuba had to make money out of trade. So they did what they could.

When the support disappeared, they decided to open to International Tourism. At this time they came up with a currency that foreigners would use - the CUC. Slowly all prices were given in CUC, and these matched European prices. Shoes, for instance, can go up to 60 CUC, so even a doctor would have to save for a while to buy them. Sounds harsh, right? Then, there's an ice cream parlor in Havana, were people stand in long lines because it's the only place where they can buy icecream with local money. The Cuban Peso worths less than the CUC. One CUC costs them about 20 local pesos.

At the same time, the majority of the houses are provided by the Government. There aren't all that many - you can't really see new housing projects being built - so the housing units are passed throught the families. They pay no rent, no tax, and nobody takes it away from them. All they pay are the amenities, which are basically electrical power and water. Houses don't have Internet, only hotels and a few companies. Even there, Internet has a speed of 15 kbps... sort of.

The Government also makes available for all Cubans a Basic Basket of Staples, which costs them nearly nothing, and both healthcare and education are completely free. They have the best medical service, and even the medications are all for free for them. Regarding education, they must study up until they are 14, but they can continue studying and go to the University. University is also for free, however only those who pass the admission tests. This way only those who would really study, who really have the passion for a given career get into it.

So, at the end of the day, we have a nation with people who have needs, who can't pay for luxuries, and can't afford things many of us consider basic parts of our lives, but they have all they need so that no one lives in misery.

They've got me thinking. You see, yes, there's these people who's strugling and are even willing to do things that aren't exactly right or moral to get what they want, but there's also other people who struggle with what they have, even in the most dire conditions, with the world against them, and they remain honest and make things work. Some are able to see the greater good, some don't want to take from others because their life is hard, and assume that others have it easy and must pay for them. Some acknowledge their limitations, but know also how to count their blessings. These are the people I admire.

Do we really need to buy shoes every week, and have the latest mobile phone? As a matter of fact, no. What would happen if we were to concentrate only on what we really need? If we were able to say "enough" and not fall prey of marketing? Maybe we would be able to appreciate the actual, real world that surround us. Maybe we would be able to stop our prejudices and be better people. There are many chances, and I'd like to see if I can try some of those out.

Another 2013 Resolution: I want to become more sensible, more rational about my expenses, and find my basics, what I really need, and cut off all the unnecesary excesses of my life.

Making Plans for the Year

Did you made your New Year Resolutions? I haven't. The only one I have so far is "post at least weekly at the Hungarian blog", but then I guess by the end of January I'll have all my resolutions outlined. Honestly, why to leave the whole thing for one day when you can think it better over 31 days? It's not like it's a regulation or something.

Today, the first workday of the year - though not mine yet - we've got a few things going on for the rest of the year. There weren't many errands to run, but one of the things I did was to set a savings planning account. This is a special type of savings account where you can monthly save a given amount of money - or more - but can't take it out until the contract is over. I decided to do this after much thinking and crunching numbers, in order to make sure I do save up some money for some future plans I have.

You know, sometimes, for some things, no matter how much you'd like it to work, you can't really always get with the program. You can't keep up with a diet, an exercise regime, savings plans, a book reading plan with a bookclub, or just with any club or program you may want to bring into your life. You may start these full of hopes and dreams, but as difficulties roll before you - and difficulties ALWAYS roll before you - and you get your first cracks and lags, you may fall a little behind your carefully planned program - which happens specially with things like weightloss, where you can't really plan ahead how much will you lose, and then you start losing less and less until you hit a proverbial plateau - and this can break your resolution and prompt you to quit. So what to do? How to make things work? Well, one of the ways is to make a program where you get help from sources outside of you.

Enroll into a program truly with the capacity to push you when you are lagging, or sign up with friends to do it. Sometimes it works to have help, have support and get the extra push from a third party, to get ahead with your plans. There's no shame in trying, and this can be what helps you get ahead. For instance, to get my University Degree and have my thesis done, it helped A LOT to do it with someone else - our University allows it, and often promotes it, so that less thesis have to be checked over, and they can all be easier programmed for defense -. When I felt hopeless, she lifted my spirit, and when she was about to throw the towel, I was ready to catch her and give her hope. We helped each other, stood by each other and shared the burden and the work. So it doesn't matter what plan you have, what you want to achieve, often having someone to do it with, someone to support and who supports you as well, is one of the best ways to get results.

However, remember that one thing VITAL to make any plan work is to know yourself and your capabilities. For instance don't propose to read 100 books in a year if you usually take a month to read a book either because you don't have much time to read books (others than those in your academic program, or those you need to read due to your work), or because you are normally a slowpoke reader. Trying out little, short-term tasks is the best way to measure up yourself and what you can handle. Things like List of 13 are good for this, even though these lists have been designed (by me, mind you) to be only about fun things.

Would you like to read more books? Make a mini task, like "read X books this month". Pick a relatively low number and see how you measure up to it, then go aumenting it month after month. Or pick something like "meditate once a week", "lose weight this month", "save up X amount of money this month"... or reverse things even, like "have a veggan day twice a week", or "have no unhealthy food this month"... or "spend less money on clothes/books/stuff", or "spend only X amount of money this month". Do you want to jump into it this year, no waiting about it? Well, it's up to you, but just in case, try out the mini tasks. Then, besides, your year doesn't have to start on January 1st, it could start the day of your birthday!

Whatever you decide to do, remember not to plan something that's over your capabilities - or what you can achieve in one year - seek to know yourself, and if things are a bit uphill, get help! I bet you can do it, and do it rocking!

Kickstart a New Year

2013 wakes up nice and shiny, full of good omens and lots of dreams and plans. We received it with the same fireworks we used to say good-bye to 2012, and now we look ahead for a brand new year. For a lot of people is more of the same. It's just another day, exactly like the one before, and another year with exactly the same composition as the one before. You get one year older, you "have to go through the birthday circuit again", work continues, study continues, life as a single/married/divorced/widow person continues, and why would it be different just because we write a new number on the year box?

Well, a year can be an arbitrary measure, but it helps. We measure our life and different stages of it throught the years. Years tell you how old or how young, how expert or rookie you are. Then, every January 1st you pull out a new calendar for the wall, a new agenda or planner, and even if you do digital planners and calendars, there's a change with each year, and with that change we remind ourself that we still have the chance to make our life a much better, much enjoyable thing.

Yes, December 31st isn't the end of the world, nor the sun will start raising somewhere other than East, but the first day of the year reminds you of the time you have ahead of you, and that you can achieve things with that time. New Year Resolutions? Yes, that can be one way to go, but there are other ways too. Start a new project, decide to listen better to your inner voice, give yourself a shot at achieving what you want to achieve. It is hard? Well, most things that worth it are, but if you inch towards your goal little by little, one year you will get there.

Turn the page, start making it happen, and even if it doesn't work as expected, learn from your experience, and turn this new year one richer than 2012. It's all up to you, after all!

Blessed be!