E-Mail Nirvana

Source: Modified image found on
Google Images.

May I ask you a question? How many e-mails are currently in your inbox? How many across all your inboxes? Yeah, let's be honest, we are long past the time when people only had one e-mail. I mean, that's so 90's, right?

Of all the e-mails in your inboxes, how many are unread?

How you relate to your inbox and the e-mails in it (them) differs from one person to the next, so offering a one-size-fits-all formula is not a solution. Believe it or nor, for some people having an inbox bursting with unread e-mails is reassuring. For some people that little number (ok, in their case it's a HUGE number) in the red bubble is a source of satisfaction, much like a like counter in a social network. It can mean that they receive attention, that their time is wanted by an x amount of sources (people?), and that makes them feel good.

For others, the sole presence of a red bubble is a source of stress, because each number means a task, a request that needs to be checked, sorted and dealt with. Even the read e-mails in your inbox can be a source of stress, if you are like me and keep e-mails in the inbox until you have replied to them. Now, if you are like me and e-mails in your inbox irk you, then here are a few tips that have helped me through the years to deal with them. It doesn't mean that my inboxes are always  on 0, nor that I never get flooded - though admitedly, I never let e-mails go past the 50 mark, and that only happens when I haven't been checking for a good while. So, what can we do to tame the e-beast?

Tame the e-Beast

First of all, you need a filing system. This is best created with folders, even better if you can put folders inside folders. How do you do that? This is how I go about it:

1. In a piece of paper, write the most important areas for which you receive info in that given inbox. This is to give you an idea of the structure. For instance:

Work e-mail example:

• General Memos (from the CEO)
• Human Resources
• Main Job Tasks
• Secondary Job Tasks
• Important Job-Related Information
• Miscelaneous

This can give you an idea of how to start sorting the e-mails. No, it might not end up working this well, but it's a start.

2. Start at some point in your inbox, either by the first e-mail at the top of the pile, or the one at the very bottom. If there are many (more than 50), you may like to start at the top. Check the e-mail, and make the first decision:

• Is it important? If so, keep it. If not, delate it.

If you decided the e-mail is important, create a folder for it. You can leave it in the inbox if you still have to work with it, or you can file it away if you have dealt with it (downloaded the attached info, wrote the appointment in your calendar, moved the task to your to-do list, etc.). Some e-mail servers, like gmail, allow you to create a tab for each folder you create.

3. One by one, keep checking each e-mail and locating the folder you will eventually file it in. With the main structure of the first point, you can start creating sub-folders that help you organize better your e-mail.

Work e-mail example:

• General Memos (from the CEO)
• Finance
• Environmental Efforts
• Voluntary Opportunities
• Human Resources
• Pay checks
• Vacations
• Sick days
• Main Job Tasks
• Literature
• Literature 101
• Class Program
• Class Material
• Homework
• Tests
• Grades
• Medieval Literature
• Class Program
• Class Material
• Homework
• Tests
• Grades
• Research
• Schedules
• Sources
• Advances
• Secondary Job Tasks
• Teacher Meetings
• Important Job-Related Information
• Miscelaneous

See what I mean? Yes, it can grow chaotic, if you let it, but as long as you understand the logic and it works for you, it's all good.

4. Take your time. It can be cumbersome, and you might be flooded with e-mails from everywhere, but eventually you'll get there. Use slow moments of the day to go through the received e-mails and go on filing them. There's no hurry, and as long as you keep a constant effort, all is going to be well, and you'll get that coveted sense of control.

There's no need to erase all e-mails, as must of the current servers allow you to store them all, and by filing them you make sure you'll be able to find the ones you need easier.

Organizing your e-mails isn't the answer to all your prayers, and even these tips can go haywire for some, BUT it's a place to start, if yo feel like you would like to know where your info is, and not get greated each time you open your inbox with an avalanche of e-mails that mix important info with spam, work with personal stuff and so on.

A Filofax-Week

Well, of course my week is a filofax-week as I plan my days and weeks and months in my lovely filofax! But what I meant to say was that this week had a particularly "filofaxish" feel to it. You see there have been all sorts of matters rolling around my nice, dark head regarding my filofax, and some strangely - and not so strangely - interwoven with my work.

Now, as you know - at least some of you do - I work at the biggest telecommunications company of Costa Rica. State owned, proud to be, Union member and all that. However, the thing is that when you work at a telecommunications company you are somewhat expected to keep up with technology. You do see people carry paper planners, but most of those are either planners they get from the company, or those they buy from our stores, or planners they get from our providers. You know how it is, do you? Some company wants to be the next getting a contract for a software, a softswitch, a new platform, or simply a consulting contract and they stop short from handing each person attenting to the meeting the kews for their new cars. Yes, all of them in suits while you sit there maybe in your jeans, but as you have the upper hand you inspect the fitting an the fabric of their suits, the cleannes of the cuffs, the edges of the clothes, and if something strikes you as less than what you'd see on advertisement, the company is cheap and you won't hire them.

Anyway, that's not the matter here. The matter is that in our company, in our industry, people simply don't do paper planners, unless they already have it lying there and want to put it to good use. Okay, sure, lots of women get their thick, spiralbound, sticker filled girly planners, or even the popular themed ones, like Mafalda or Paulo Coelho planners, but that's it. The rest of the people use their phones - 90% of which are iPhones or Samsungs (they all look alike) - and the rest use their company scheduled Blackberries (those are given to people on a higher rank, and yes, they are all Blackberries). So when you carry a filofax to a meeting, it's like you are taking something from a museum. It's the "oh, wasn't that the book in one of those movies from the 80's?". Well, this week at one of the meetings I had - and since I'm at this new position I go to much, much more meetings than ever before in my life! - one of our counterparts from the company had a Franklin Covey planner.

The first thing that struck me was the size of the rings. I could have fitted my wrist in them and could have worn them as a bracelet! Is it supposed to double as handcuffs? It was so strange to see someone else carry a planner, and then actually use it to take notes in it. I don't take work notes in my filofax, I use a livescribe notebook and pen for that - plus my planner is less of an "all work" instrument, for me to use it to take down work notes in it. The second thing that got my attention was that in spite of having bangle sized rings, this guy had only a couple of pages in it. And I mean, 20-30 max. This had me flabbergasted. Why would you have humongus rings and then waste all that ring-space in a couple of sheets you can secure with a paperclip? For that many pages you might as well carry them in an envelope and save yourself some space.

After the meeting was over I stood behind to ask the misterious planner-binder-owner about his contraption. That's were I knew it was a Franklin Covey, that the pages were undated and that actually a $26 pack contains only two months' worth of pages, thus the wasted ring-space. I wasn't going to tell him that Filofax users usually stuff their binders like they stuff turkey for Thanksgiving. He said he liked Franklin Covey because usually he could get the inserts at Office Depot or at the Franklin Covey center. I mentioned I have a filofax, but I have to have my stuff mailed to me from the U.S. which for the average Costa Rican is now quite a customary thing to do: we no longer relay on the importers, but get things for ourselves thanks to online shopping and smart addresses in Miami. However, some people do prefer things "now", instead of paying for shipping, handling and maybe customs too that rocket the price 100% more, and on top of it wait for a week to get things delivered.

Now, though I have been thinking about my planner somewhat, specially because the closing clasp has continued to rip, this week this close encounter of the third type with the FC entity got my head rolling again about my binder. I went to the FilofaxUSA page, and started browsing for my next filofax - oh boy, my next filofax! I never thought I'll hear myself say that! - but didn't really find anything to my liking. If the cover was nice, the corners weren't tucked in the way I like them. If they did, then there was a zipper right where I don't need it, or the card slots were wrong, or the back was bulky, ot the leather's texture was too flashy... I know, I'm a hard case to work with. I hope I can finish 2013 with my Sketch because it's really a perfect planner and I've gotten to love it dearly, and so I have time to warm up to the thought of another one... not Sketch.

So far the one I see rather acceptable is the Fusion, but the inner distribution isn't to my liking. I know, I know, my problem is that it isn't a Sketch. Then the material looks a lot like denim, and that's off putting because that takes away the professiona look I expect from a filofax, but hey, I still have time to think about it.

From there I've been thinking also about the inserts, and the thought of the dividers came to me again. After having an impossibly full filofax with over 15 sections (yes, don't ask me how I did it, you don't want to know), teamed in three macro sections (yeah, that was grand), I slimmed down and used post-it flags instead of dividers. Did it work? Not as perfectly as my dividers, so after a while - today, actuall - I reinstated the flyleaves (all six of them) to mark some of my most important segments, basically because flyleaves are much thinner than regular dividers, BUT... how should I lable them? The tabs are all at the same height and I really don't want to cut them off. Also... would need at least 10 flyleaves more (okay, I can order that, that's not much hassle), and if I do, shall I also consider embelishing them by putting some picture under it I can take anytime I want?

Then I'm back to the sections... which should I take out to thin it down? I could take the calling card holders, and maybe a couple of plastic envelopes, but as I think of it, I believe I need more sections! Specially after last week. The last day we had a little "Action Movie" situation, thanks to the fact that one of my coworkers - the one I work most with - doesn't have the type of communication skills that work with me. You see, he tends to embelish his speaking with all sorts of important sounding words, and then has attention issues, so he would talk to you like you could hear his thoughts and fill in the blanks. There was something that had been basically assigned to him, or he was in charge of (he went to a meeting were details of it were hammered down, and I wasn't even let in the details), but for the day things came to be, he was out in vacations. Right before he went - the next day to be precise - he casually mentioned the case, but never mentioned the deadline or that it was a Live-or-Die situation. Well, in his absence, with him not picking up the phone (though he loves so send work e-mails in Saturdays and Sundays), I had an adrenaline filled day, where I ran, phoned and made deals like a veritable Andy Sacks. By the end of the day, I managed to send the stuff - thought it seems part of it was lost somewhere, because there was something else, but I never got the info I needed to get things rolling - and I was mad at this guy for not giving me the headsup.

Saturday he actually had the nerve to answer to one of my sms with a "No, I did tell you". Yeah right, because "Oh, do call Annie and remind her to send you 'the data' (which data? No clue), but don't worry much because they'll sure will be late with it, so we'll send it next week", is the same as "Look, Annie's people must send you the A Data tomorrow, and that has to get mailed to Roxy at B Institute tomorrow before 2 o'clock or we will face death". Is it only me, or you also see the lack of important information here? Well, I decided I won't have this any longer, so next week I'll grab this guy, sit him down and take over the control of all our operations. I'll set up a meeting table, a way for him to tell me what he's doing, with whom, when is it due for and what it is about, so the next time he decides to walk away on vacations right before an important date either I ask my boss not to let him, or at least I'll be able not to depend on his pompous blable and know exactly what's going on. For that my mind is already working on an insert for project. I used to have one but it didn't really worked the way I wanted it to work, however with the idea I have now in mind, and the type of projects or "cases" I'm working with, I could definitively use the old system or a variation of it.

Tomorrow I don't have to get to work because of the visit of the Chinese President - yes, now everybody get's the "Obama Treatment", so I have one extra day to calm down and declutter my head. I'll get on my Cleaning Program, and tackle the things I've stashed in two closets, specially now that I've suggested my folks that for my birthday they would give my closet a revamp: I want new divisions and new doors - mirrored. So yes, since I'll have to move my stuff already so it can be teared down and worked on, I have an extra incentive to just go through everything and decide what stays and what must for ever leave.

Decluttering... yes, I should do that with my filofax as well.

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!

Monday Morning Coffee

My Morning Coffee - my picture

Early Monday morning, the day is chilly and the sky looks ragged with rips of golden edged clouds and light. It's December at last, the shortest working month... hopefully. People got their Aguinaldo(*) and most have already spent it. Some are yet to receive it, some should receive it, but won't because their employers are like that. In this sense, it always fills me with sad amazement how some people are able to find all sorts of justifying as to why they are entitled not to pay what they are legally expected to, and pretend that they are the ones acting acording to the law.

My aguinaldo came and went, now I'm back to being as poor as I've always been, but at least I have no more debts on my credit card (well, there was a Black Friday and I had been in dire need of clothes and stuff!). The stuff for the Christmas Gifts is somewhere done around the 50% or so, so that's also "under control". However, my mail and my List of 13 isn't under control. Something will have to be done with that. I'm definitively lagging with the readings, so I'll have to pick up with those during lunches (saving that time for my indexed magazine), and then picking up as much as I can.

There are also other stuff to take care of, such as my personal finances, which I haven't been logging... since I arrived. What do I mean by that? Well, while in Budapest I took the habit of checking weekly all of my vouchers and log them on an Excel sheet. My bank keeps my electronical balance, but while doing this I actually saw were my money went. How much I spent on books, how much went on food, on clothes and so on. It was quite an eye opener. However once I crossed the Atlantic I stopped doing it, so now I have four months worth of vouchers I'll have to organize and log in a new Excel sheet. It would have gone like that for a long time - and eventually give up on the idea and stash the vouchers in an envelope. However as I was keeping them in one of my Ikea boxes, and since I'll be working on two smash book projects a place to park all my materials and inspirational bits is in dire need, so the bill box was selected for that. As result I had to take out all the bills and vouchers yesterday, and start by sorting them by month. The task itself was HUGE so I didn't go into sorting them by day, by card (thanks Hyne I no longer use eight cards) and then doing the logging. This will also take time, but since it's not in my list and my finances are well, I'll tackle slowly.

The smash books will start on 2013, but then there's nothing stopping me from gathering all the little accesories I'll need to make them unique and fabulous, right?

I sip my coffee, I check the binder full of uncathegorized vouchers and check my work e-mails, my list of tasks and set forward for a week of stuff to do.

(*)Aguinaldo: pronounce /ah-gi-NAL-doh/. An extra monthly payment paid by law to all workers. It's amount equals the average of the monthly payments of the last twelve months. Consequently, if someone hasn't received a salary in all of the last twelve months, those months count as if paid $0. The aguinaldo must be paid between December 1st and December 20th.

Accomplished! ^_^

I still haven't finished all the items in my List of 13 - I'm actually quite behind - and then there's this thing with this document I'm reviewing, and not to mention the article I should be drafting up and sending to my friend Mile, so she can also go over it, since naturally we will be coauthoring it, BUT all in all, I feel quite accomplished. I updated my noting of blogposts on my planner - still an old planner, not my filofax - and bought all I had on my pending groceries list, ran the errands I had planned for the week - except the checking of the archery class - and went though successfully with everything.

The advance on the document - the work document - is quite good, so I can start relaxing now and maybe focusing on other things - like the lot of letters I have to reply - and slowly get on top of everything. Or everything that matters.

Family is over for lunch - pizza as usual, as the kids and I both love it - so I'm leaving for another day a topic I had in mind about the world of filofaxes and planners. So this is it for today!

Gather Up Your Thoughts

As part of my List of 13 (which I didn't publish this time, I know), I was to write down the Principles and Values I uphold. Even though I praise myself of knowing myself well, this one task ended up being harder than I expected it to be, specially because though I may be clear within myself about what I hold important and which are the rules and standards I hold myself to (or try hard to), when it comes to put them on paper it's not so easy. I gathered them up in my Book of Ideas - which was the best place to put them, since I also wrote in it about what my believes are - and that's a "chapter" that took up quite some pages, and I feel that I'm still not done with it.

With my believes I could extend myself, and my only problem was to decide where should I end, which believes would be enough for me to write into the book without turning the whole project into a million volume book series, where all those millions of books are all about my believes. (Eventually I decided to include basically my religious views and basic views on good and evil. The rest, such as my thoughts on Freedom and Independence, Life and Death, Equality, Tolerance and Purpose would receive separated chapters later on if I feel so, or just add them later as adendums.) However, when it came about my principles and values, I found myself strugging for the most acurate way to write them down. In this exercise I found out that often trying to simplyfy, summarize or gather up thoughts and stands on a couple of words may induce to error, as often we have a believe or hold up a value, but designing it with one word, making it absolute would corrupt our original stand, and twist away our message.

For instance, one of my values is "Honesty". I believe in honesty towards oneself, but not necesarily towards others. I believe in "sincerity" towards others (Sincerity is not telling lies, Honesty is telling the truth), though I also admit that white lies have their place and often sincerity can cause more damage than a well chosen lie - just refer to Diplomacy, which in my personal opinion is basically the nice word for hypocrisy, as well as etiquette - which is also another word for hypocrisy, though on a different level. If you take as value "honesty" in an absolute sense, you could end up doing more damage than good, as by your principles - if you follow them - you'd have to tell always the truth about everything - even stuff that hasn't even been asked from you (that's the main difference with sincerity, since sincerity allows you to keep parts of the truth to yourself, which are not asked upon) - and not everybody is equally receptive (not to mention that what you see to be true, might not be the truth for someone else).

I believe you must be brutally honest with yourself, don't kid yourself, don't lie to yourself, but when it comes to others, you often have to choose what to tell them. For instance, you won't tell a child suffering from cancer that they'll never get better, but will die among terrible pains. You tell them "I think you are looking better and better everyday!". 

Just like this, other values can be opened up and interpreted in hundreds of ways that do not fit your actual values, those you know in your heart and mind, but maybe not in proper word. We can't talk, for instance, about being "tolerant", when we really are not. If you say you are tolerant, you should also tolerate intolerant people, criminals, people who hurt you, those with values that contradict yours and so on. Even saying that you are "tolerant of diversity" or "accepting diversity" opens up the same doors. Being a wifebeater or a manhater, a murdering tyrant or a racist xenophobic person is part of diversity. I tolerate and support many things, but I can't say I'm tolerant, because I am not. I'm intolerant. I can't stand stupid people and stupidity, and that's only one of the many things I do not tolerate. So am I tolerant? No. Does that make me intolerant? No, because I'm not intolerant of everything.

The exercise has been wonderful, and though I wrote up my list or declaration, I believe there's still room for adding, changing and improving, it has already put order in my mind, and helped me understand things. It made it clear for me, that what matters in a declaration like this isn't to write these things down, but to meditate upon them, and keep the initiative for as long as it's actual in your life. Don't use these words, these lists, these declarations to limit yourself, to push yourself, to force yourself, but rather to remind yourself of who you are, what you are, and what's your frame, so if one day you lose yourself, if one day you are uncertain about what should you do, you can look over these words of yours and remember, what's inside your heart, and act accordingly.

Task Done

I'm done, dea, not-live, kaput, finita, oscisa... "don't call me, I'll call you". I just finished compiling the list of all the books I have in Hungary. All mine, because I won't even go on listing also my boyfriend's, though I started to. Since I'm flying on Wednesday morning, this had to be done this weekend or my last two days (this year) in Hungary would be a veritable horror show.

As I logged the books in the excel sheet, I've got a desperate feeling, as suddenly I wanted to read right away many of them, or at least take them with me to Costa Rica. I've so many great books! I've lost of cool things - if I may say so - so the whole process of selecting and packing has been beyong taxing. This reminded me of that exercise where you must try and give up something from your life that's holding you back, or when you have taken too many responsabilities and you need to let go of a few: How do you make the choice?

Sometimes certain things in our life are not clearly good or clearly bad, and when we feel that we can't keep up with everything, we can't make a decision about what must be left out. In many cases, the question isn't either as easy as packing things in a suitcase, where you can relay to logic and reason, and select things by asking yourself "what do I want to accomplish?" and "What do I need to reach my goals?". Sometimes the decisions are hard and the process is tiresome and murky, but keep your head up, take a break and go back to the task, because it can be managed. Even the biggest, largest, longest task can be completed.

Blessings to all!

Keeping Tabs on My Books

One of the tasks I set for myself in my List of 13 is to make a list of all my books in here. It would be easy, of course, to simply take the books and write them down on a piece of paper - title and author - but I prefer a bit more of detail. Not much but a bit more, including noting the original title of the book and the language in which I have it.The reason for this is simple: since I buy books while I still have books without being read, and I also have books both in Costa Rica as well as in Hungary, I'm prone to buy the same book twice. By keeping tabs on my books, I'll try to avoid this, but also if I happen to get it twice, I can give away to a friend.

My collection of books is a little bit big, or at least it has grown since February. I've books in different topics, from classics to modern literature, from crime to philosophy, from economics to books on different religions. I think I even have a couple of books on Christianity, particularly Lutheranism, but I'm not sure if they are here or in Costa Rica.

I started making a list of my books in Costa Rica, but somehow stopped after the 50th. :-( This time I intend to have them all listed before I go back to Costa Rica, so as I keep adding books to my collection - mostly thought online buying ^_^ - I'll be able to add them to my list, but also make sure I'm not ordering something I already have. The task isn't small, but it has to be done.

I guess eventually I'll have to complete my list of Costa Rica, and then think about my Kindle list.

Oh man... I've plenty of work to do!

We Have Sheers!

Our apartment looks different again, better, if I may say so, and the reason is simple: we hung our sheers from the windows. And Goodness Gracious! The difference it makes! Light isn't harsh in the room, though that has never been a problem, but the windows themselves have smoothed as well. The ugly gas pipes get somewhat better hid from sight, and the unslightly, discolored window frames are also discreetly taken away from the view.

We had bought the sheers perhaps a month ago, but didn't get to hang them, since it demanded time. We have three windows and for each of them there's a pair of sheers that need to be fitted. My boyfriend's job was to get on the ladder and hang the sheers twice - one for measuring them up and once when they were finished. My job was to measure the sheers, calculate the exact lenght with the expected 4% shrinkage (I totally love that IKEA tells you about this!), and then mark the lenght by ironing the part that would be the edge on each of the six sheer panes, then put in the fixing strip (a sort of plastic strip that sticks to the fabric when it's ironed to it, normally used to stiffen the fabric, but also to make a hem without stitching), and cut the excess fabric. It wasn't a short job, but we made it today at last, and I'm pleased with the results.

After visiting my penpal Trish on the weekend, I must admit that I'm quite ashamed of our apartment, as it isn't as taestfully arranged as theirs, but then again maybe I'm just being silly. There's no way, after all, that an economist who has spent most of her life in the tropic, could possibly compete with a consumed, professional interior designer and furniture connoisseur who happens to live in an artistic, tasteful town, where everything is just delightful.

Be it as it may, my boyfriend wants me to take pictures of the apartment, so he can upload them on the Real Estate web, to get a feel of the price our apartment could get. Realtors, you know.

I had plans for today, but none of them got completed. I was supposed to go to the Post Office, since I so brightly forgot to give my postcards to Trish - living with her kind offer - so she would post them for me from Braunau to my penpals. I think it is about time I start thinking about going to the doctor to get some "old people pills" prescribed. My memory is really, REALLY bad (maybe I sould start thinking also about getting a pillbox, so I can keep my medication in order for the future). Then I wanted to go to IKEA on a double mission. For once, the new collection would enter in August, so what better chance than right not to get a feel of what pieces of the old collection are leaving the scene and thus being sold at reduced prices. And we need two desks. Urgently.

The other reason is to search for small bottles. I'd like to take with me a few elements of Hungary that will accompany me wherever I am. Since the traditional elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) are kinda hard to get - due to the air - I was thinking about the five elements of Chinese philosophy (Wu Xing: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water). The idea of it came to me the other day, when I was once again marveling at how different the soil is from that of Costa Rica. I guess I can't get over the pale, sandy type of earth we have here. I've already located the source for all of my elements, decided on each of them BUT I haven't found the bottles. Naturally plastic bottles won't do it, because I kinda want to keep the "organic", old, natural feeling to them, AND I need them also to contain water, so wood boxed wouldn't do it either. Now, the bottle you see in this picture is what I'm thinking about, in a small size, say 7 cm (3 inches) high, or with a 1dl capacity. That's all I need. I don't want to take the whole Danube with me, along with half of the Roman Excavations. But you know what? Getting these small bottles is impossible. I'm not kidding, it is impossible!

Upon this, and having bought in February some spice jars, I thought about making it happen with spice jars.

Well, the trip wasn't made, so we shall see if I can unglue myself from bed in time to go to IKEA and take a quick check around the kitchenware and see where can I hunt down my bottles. It doesn't help my case knowing that Amazon.com has them and sells them. :-( Why!? They wouldn't make it in time! (Not like I won't buy them! I will).

I'm packing - I just finished my first packing try out today - but I still have a lot of stuff to pack and to get. I at least want a mini cauldron (you would too, if you would have eaten that FABULOUS bogrács stuff I had! Wish I could pack a real size one and tons of venison... that would make me happy), and then some replicas of medieval time swords (mini!) and jewelry I saw being sold at one of the museums I visited. I'll still visit my favorite museum, but I doubt there's anything left for me to buy there, as I've bought all the Empress Sissi books and souvenirs I could get my hands on.

Well, tomorrow is a new day, and the cleaning lady is coming, so I'll have little time and plenty to do. ^_^

Why Doesn't... Oh Hell! Mercury Retrograde

Today I had a wonderful day. I put on my dressy shorts, my favorite white blouse and went out to complete the last remaining tasks of my second List of 13. I was to this antique bookstore I wanted to go for quite a while (I had gone to the original one in Cracow, so I wanted to see what this one looks like - they don't have bagels), and also checked out the antique bookstore of the bookstore chain I buy pretty much all of my books from in Hungary. It was a fabulous trip, though this last one was less than what I expected - honestly, I wanted to see used books, old books, and not the same books they are offering in the regular bookstores of the chain, with the original price. And, note to the chain owners: finding several copies of the same book isn't something you expect to see in an antique bookstore, where all pieces are supposed to be unique. The first one - aside from the unforgivable lack of bagels, which are offered in Cracow - the place was more rundown, with less books and up front with an intense emphasis in Jewish literature. Of course, that's understandable, since the bookstore is located in the Jewish district, but it could have been nice to fill a shelve unit with regular books for the "gentile customers". Still, it was an enjoyable trip, and I've got myself two books and a ginger tea.

From there I went to the Mammut Mall, to get myself a copy of the PestiEst, so I know what movies will be scheduled from tomorrow and up to the next Wednesday. Bad week again. Could it be that nothing good will hit the movies up until August 9th? Then I directed my steps to the Starbucks located next to the Mall (not in it, because that's not as nice as the one outside), where I had a delicious Vanilla Latte Frappuccino with extra coffee, extra whipped cream and extra caramel, all sided with an exquisit and much deserved bagel with cheese cream. ^_^ Ah! I LOVE BAGELS! Armed thus with the most fabulous afternoon stuff, I sat down at one of the large tables, whipped out my trusty smartpen, and started writing today's blog post. (See the picture.) Since I have this fabulous software that turns my handwriting into typed text, I was able to write all I wanted, knowing that once at home, I'll only have to hook up my pen to my laptop, sync them, select the pages, convert, check out for possible mistakes and misspellings, copy, paste and publish. Blogging through handwriting... such a wonderful, EPIC, poetic thing! And I have done it before. ^_^

After I finished my post, as I was waiting for my lovely boyfriend, I went on pulling out the next item from my bag - my Book of Ideas - and worked on it a little (I gara think this book over. It's getting really long... in the fist part, and I have middle parts to add to it!), the when I has over with that (over but not finished!) I continued with a letter - known in the underworld as "the black letter". And things went beautifully. I loved every minute in there, even when a trio sat down close to me to talk over a big budget wedding they where planning along with a professional camera man, and to be held in Miskolc, a city I definitively don't like.

Boyfriend came, we've bought two lox bagel sandwiches, got home, I hooked my smartpen, sync it... and the text converter didn't work. Say, what?? Yes, it didn't work. But how, why, how come...? Then it downed to me...

Fucking Mercury Retrograde.

I'll see if I can have that post converted or I'll type it down - which I really didn't want to -, probably adjust it, rework it, remaster it - I don't know, because it was written in a day-tagged fashion - and publish it... maybe after Mercury Retrograde? Maybe before, but hopefully while it's still an actual and workable topic.

All in all, with the Retrograde and all, it has been a wonderful day and I have spent a marvelous time! Thanks to going out, thanks to making a couple of good decisions, thanks to beating down laziness, and thanks to that great idea called "List of 13". The next one will be different. :-) I plan not to include any weekly activity, all new things! Sure, I'll keep some of my weekly activities "off the record", but this time my intention isn't to keep me entertained and growing, but to break with the rutine, concentrate on the "unique", and find 13 absolutely magical things to do. How's your 13 going on?

The Accomplishments of the Day

It's past 22:30 h and I'm sitting at our desk (not my desk, though I would have loved to have a desk of my own by now), sipping delicious Yoga Tea by Demmers Teehaus. This is a kind of beautiful herbal tea that helps you relax, calm down, just like a good session of yoga, and which I'd love to call Shavasana Tea. This particular tea is also beautiful because it changes color as you pour the hot water onto it. First goes blue, then gray, then green to brown and finally a golden, bronzed red. The taste is amazing and it does prepare you gently for sleep. I love this tea. ^_^

Tomorrow we'll go to Mezőkövesd (again) with my Mom and Dad to visit Mama and Papa and stay for a day. Due to this, it seems that we'll also be carrying Cinder around, since we can't ask her to feed herself while we are not here. Then Kari is right too, this is a great chance to see how she behaves around Mázli and Picur (the other two cats), as well as around Gina and Bence (the dogs), since probably he'll have to ask Mama and Papa to catsit Cinder when he comes to Costa Rica.

The plan to go to Helsinki is not going as smoothly as planned. The airplane ticket is what's giving us a headache, as there's a really good price at one airline we can't get hold of (no phone to call, no designated contact to help us in case something doesn't go as planned), and the others are a bit more expensive than we would have liked it to be. Oh well, oh well... something will come out of it... eventually, I hope. However I did manage to finish Trish's letter and mail it, as well as sending a short misive for a friend in Costa Rica, plus a couple of postcards. I had also lunch at Nordsee - first time in Hungary, as I usually have my Nordsee fix in Vienna - and then had a coffee at Starbucks, while getting acquinted with the fab mugs and thumblers you can get, and one if which (at least) I would certainly own and take with me back to Costa Rica! Yes, I know, I'm going all crazy for tea and all, but coffee... coffee is my soul!

Today I feel quite accomplished, even if for many it doesn't seem like a day where I've done much. Yes, I didn't save the world from inminent death, nor I completed my whole new List of 13, and add to that, the movie Headhunters - based on the book of the same title by Jo Nesbo - is premiering THIS Thursday, and I've only read chapter one of the book, so I have about two days to finish the book, so I can run into the movies as fast as I can to watch it as fresh as I can knowing well the difference between the book and the movie... from the perspective of the book. Yeah, better spoil a movie than a book don't you agree?

And yet, today is a great day.

You Can Make It

When I was compiling my Complimentary List of 13, I was a bit on a tight spot trying to come up with good ideas to color up my rutine, so I had a lot of ideas that weren't really doable, such as "finish a chapter of the new story" and stuff like that. Something like isn't feasable because you can't command your inspiration to work on a schedule. At the end I've got a list done - as you all know it - but as I started working around it I realized that some of the tasks I've wroten for myself might be a bit farfetched. How was I supposed to read all that and do all that? And how was I supposed to visit all those places? And cook too? By yesterday afternoon I was thinking that I've got a bit over my head, specially when the visit to the used book bookstore fell through the cracks for me. I was kinda upset because of it, specially after having done so well with the first list. Was I going to fail the second list? One week into it?

I started to think about the lists and whether it was okay to make them so constraining. Should I hold myself to tight to their schedule, or is it okay if I don't comply with them? Not complying with the list I wrote to myself feels kinda like failing to myself, but do I really fail myself if I don't follow the list I've written for myself?

This happens often with things we promise ourselves, and this often can give us more problems than if we wouldn't have made ourselves such promises. Just think about the New Year promises - though those often are more lax and most people tend not to take them seriously -, or when you decide to lose a certain amount of weight (or fit into clothes four or more sizes smaller than your actual size) by a certain date, or you promise yourself to have a fabulous job by this date, or become rich and famous by the time you are 30, maybe even get married by 28 and have two kids by 34. Some of these promises might seem farfetched, but even those you may think within reach - like getting a diploma in four years - could be trumped and made difficult to achieve. As dumb as it may sound, often when we can't keep the promise we've made to ourselves, we feel really bad, specially because - unlike with the promises made to others - we can't fool ourselves as easily with excuses. We may try, but down inside we know the truth about the excuses, and that doesn't help.

Thing about these promises and these lists, is that they are often done without we ourselves knowing the turf or having in consideration all the externalities that can influence the feasability of the task we've set for ourselves. Also, often we mix "desires" with "tasks", which makes accomplishing them far more difficult, specially because some of these desires depend partly of elements you can't control. For instance, you may want to get married in a year, but if you don't even have a boyfriend or girlfriend, how do you intend to accomplish that? And even if you do, how do you intend to get someone to marry you, who may not want to? (Yes, unlike popular believes tell, just because someone is in a relationship with you, it doesn't mean that they want to marry you and have kids with you. Marriage isn't the natural outcome and the ulterior motive of all relationships.)

It's okay to do lists and set yourself goals and purposes, and "failing" them is okay as well. Whenever you make a list of goals or tasks, first have in mind the Central Purpose of the list. What do you want to achieve with it? Then, instead of concentrating on the individual goals or tasks, consider always the Central Purpose. For instance, you may have decided to lose 20 pounds of your weight (10 kgs) by the next year, and no matter how you tried, you lost less or didn't lose any weight at all. What was your Central Purpose? To lose weight? You actually may have achieved that if you lost some weight. To be healthier? A number of pounds won't tell you how healthy are you, but you can check up with a physician. To be happier? Well, it's sad if your happiness depends on your weight. If it is so, I can guarantee you that you'll never be happy.

Failing also gives you the chance to review your goal or your task, to see what went wrong, or what should be corrected for the next time. You may need more time or more research, or maybe even more help, better ideas and so on. You may need to change your focus, be more flexible about your tasks and goals and reinterpret them or find new ways to accomplish them. Maybe - following on the topic of weight - you should reconsider the diet and rather try doing some exercise, or stop measuring your weight and start considering your measures - you might be developping muscles, so your measures might be going down, but as muscle weights more than fat, you might be getting heavier.

Then, whether you achieve your goals and complete your tasks or not, or whether you over achieve them (lose more weight than originally planned), review as often as possible how do the tasks or goals help you achieve your Central Purpose. Are you really looking better, or the loss of weight is making you look sickly and deforms your body? Is this race to get married getting you closer to Your One or are you in such a hurry to get married that you are preparing to tie the knot with someone you don't get along with very well?

In the end I accomplished my alotted part of the list for this week. I discovered that I can complete all my tasks if I reconsider those that are hard to achieve, if I don't stick desperately to an idea or a schedule I make myself, but if I allow myself to make discoveries and find new ways that keep the idea and remain truthful to my Central Purpose. It's not a matter of "doing it so I don't fail myself", but a matter of "what I wanted to accomplish, and given the current difficulties, how can I still achieve this goal/complete this tasks?" It's in your hands, and it's not about negotiating with yourself, but going back to your core, reviewing and searching for new paths when the old path is blocked, or reconsidering whether you've made a plan to tight, and need to reevaluate it and retailor it, so that it gives you the space you need to make things work and get throught with what you really want from the experience.

A Bad Movie, an Ok Movie and a Good Haircut

I completed actually three of the tasks of my Complementary List: I found a hairdresser and got my hair trimmed. Then again, I'm not sure about going to that same hairdresser again, not only because it was freaking expensive and they did a face when I didn't tip them (sorry, but though I liked my haircut, I wasn't blown off my feet, and the price was quite steep... and had to be paid in cash), but maybe it had to do something with the hairdresser telling me that he is or was a world champion in hairdressing. Yeah, that might mean nothing, but I want something else from my hairdresser, so I'll probably keep looking... unless I go back to my usual hairdresser. We shall see.

I also had my weekly cocktail, though with a twist: this one was alcoholfree. (Rules don't say it must be alcoholic!) Yeah, well, it happens that sometimes you are not feeling 100% physically and so alcohol might not be the best for your condition, or a good idea to mix with the painkiller combo you've just downed. In any case, the cocktail (some Catalina something) was AMAZING! Wonder what the alcoholic version tastes like.

Then I watched two movies. It's Wednesday, and that means reduced prices, which makes it more livable if the movie is bad. Well, the first movie was HORRENDOUS! I would be crying for the money even if I would have seen it for free. There's no plot, no sense, no story, no character definition, no nothing. It's a pretentious crap full of stiff acting, crappy directing and phony lines, where a mediocre attempt at presenting a reloaded American Psycho-like story goes down the toilet miserably. The only possible goal this poor excuse for a movie could have is to show that Mr. Pattinson can fall even lower than Twilight, and show that he can do even worse acting. I didn't expect it, though, from Ms. Binoche. I wanted to get out of the movie since the first five minutes, but I only stayed because I was way up and it was too dark to find the door by myself. I did consider asking the guys at projection to please turn on the lights for a moment while I get out.

It was really, really bad. A disgusting trip to some sort of fantasy stuck in the 80's minus the big hair and the shoulderpads, with constant delving into senseless monologues that try to be artistic and probably are for the many ignorant assholes whose literacy is formed by the news on Facebook and the MSN.

The other movie was the one I expected less of, and yet the one that got me smiling. The title is "Last Night", or something of the sort (I saw it dubbed), and it got me thinking and remembering. The thoughts from it would most definitively hit the blog, or my journal, if they get too personal.

Finally, coming out of the second movie, I walked past this hairdressing salon. I thought about it for a while, considered, and then decided that what the hell, I need to trim my hair. I didn't like that they didn't take card - that would have made my life easier - but yet I've got into the chair, got my hair washed and my ends trimmed. I wanted a bit of change, and so the hairdresser put my hair to the side and reduced the ends on the longer side. It isn't bangs or a fringe of any sort, but the hair now falls in my face. It's quite pretty, but we shall see how my hair behaves once the hairderssing products are out of it.

Tomorrow I'm going to Mezőkövesd visiting. Hopefully the time on the train will be spent quietly, with reading and maybe even some writing, who knows? I've a letter to finish still, and I could use some time without interruptions to get going with it. Then I've letters to read as well, as today I just received letter from two of my penpals. :-D Life is awesome with penpals, and with a trimmed, healthy, nice hair is even more!

The Complimentary List is Done

Writing today doesn't come all that easy. I had several ideas to write about, but none of them rouded up. Some did round up but I thought about them better... for the time being. (Or at least until I know of some other way to express them without stepping on one too many toes around me.) I was also catching up with my podcasts (I've currently 105 episodes to listen), but upon listening the latest episode of one really good (or normally really good) podcast, I couldn't finish it. 2 hours long, and 30 minutes into it - as one of the hosts started getting sloshed and screaming around - I had to give up on it. What happens sometimes to podcasters? There are only a few that are always a pleasure to listen to - no matter the number of episodes they post, but there are others that start great, go awesome, grow into wonderful and then just blew it off with nothing else to say, and too much winding about things that make you giggle at first but after a couple of times just make you yawn in boredom. In this sense - and since the topic I was thinking about was Spirituality and how that's actually something that's part of our daily life and not only a religion centered thing, and the get-to-my-nerves-podcast was Pagan... it kinda bew it for me. Shame, really, because I like them a lot, so I hope by the next episode they are back to human.

So, in order to post - because I wanted to post - I decided to make this one again about the project of List of 13, publishing so my "complimentary list" so I have a list to go with and complete before the Dark Moon (or New Moon, however you wish to call it). I'm trying to concentrate not only on the lessons and experiences of my first list (to go on a discovery road, to fill my days with pleasantries and amusement), but to add now elements that help out my personal and professional growth. Have picked up on things I've neglected by one reason or another, such as the yoga classes, getting my hair done - in here I'm actually considering getting myself a new hairstyle, but still have a lot to think about that - and then getting rid - for good! - of the many, MANY things that clutter our small apartment, and that never get used. (Hell, we have three toasters, a deep fryer, a shirt-press (it's a contraption that looks like a portable metal plate, like the one used to prepare teriyaki live, but no, it's a humongus thing to press shirts...), two or three DVD players (none of which work properly), two or three drills (none of which is ours) and a whole bag full of things I haven't checked out yet, nor have used or felt the need for in the past three months.)

I'm getting to the point that's obvious to everybody: when you make a list you set yourself to fulfill a task. Be it moving on, be it getting started on something, be it discovering something new, accepting something and even continue with an effort you've been carrying on for a while.

Feel free, once again, to take up on the idea of the List of 13, make it yours, adopt it, adapt it and see what can you learn from it, from your surroundings, your days and yourself.

Recent Daily Life Discoveries

I'm getting some trouble assembling my new List of 13 (8 tasks so far), mainly because I'm considering to go on a regime to lose some weight during Waxing Moon (the best time for diets), since not only I want to lose the extra pounds I've gotten, but I want to make space for all the awesome sweets there are to eat around here! ^_^ Nope, I won't look nice, fit and shapely for the summer, but I need to keep my weight within healthy values to keep on hogging on cakes.

After yesterday exhausting and beautiful day, today was a bit more calm, even though I ran some errands. I had a few things to take care of, such as getting myself a pair of black flipflops to be in the house - I've got a pair of fake crocks with those curved soles that are supposed to make you lose weight as you walk and work out your butt... they were the cheapest ones, so what tha flinking, right? I went to a commercial center in Buda, which I like a lot, but when I've got there I couldn't enter because it was being evacuated for a bomb threat. Go figure. Then again I guess everything was okay, because I heard explotion later on.

After this I went to another commercial center which is supposed to be bigger and better but was lacking of two very important things - as I found out today: it has no postal office nor a Subway (restaurant). It already doesn't have a Benetton - though it has an H&M and a C&A - nor a Pirex, which is my favorite paperstore, and their Mango store and Leroy restaurant is much better than the one at the bomb-mall, the surroundings are quite "misery-ridden" (lots and lots of dangerous looking people), though they do have a Karma restaurant - which makes an AMAZING Cosmopolitan cocktail, and shows more and better movies than the bomb-mall, I still prefer the bomb mall.

To top it all, they have a Starbucks coffee store that today had a long line. I was carrying in my bag a half-written letter, and I was looking forward to finish it calmly, sitting at a table with a Caramel Machiato, but no, a line of over 10 people waiting to place their order, a line so long that came out to the door, kept me from fulfilling a little dream of mine.The other Starbucks - where I started such letter - is right next to the bomb-mall (and there's another inside the bomb-mall), and that's simply fabulous. Granted, the coffee might not be as awesome as the coffee and capuccinos I've drank at Vienna, but I must admit that I love the vibe of the place. ^_^ Guilty pleasure, I guess.

Tomorrow I may go there - Hyne, I need to get inspired to the last five items on my List of 13 - and besides, I want to go and see what does it feel to type there, write there and be creative there. Must be something, even if the feeling is far from the elevating coffeehouse experience of the artists of the past turn of the century - the times of Art Nouveau.

Maybe I'll try it out, and tell you about it... while sipping a nice Venti sized capuccino. ^_^

The First List of 13 is Getting to an End

This week is a little bit shorter for me in terms of the time I set for myself to get my List of 13 done. After some thinking an ondering, I decided to set my Lists of 13 with each New Moon, so theoretically I'll make 13 of these lists in a year. I don't want to change anything on my original planning (setting the deadline "before June"), but when I did the list (which coincidentally turned out to have 13 items) I wasn't planning making it later into a periodical thing in my life. I didn't check the date, the moon, the stars, the horoscope or anything. Truth to be told, I believe that if I would have tried to come up with something like this from the begining, I would have never occured to me.

However, as result of this idea, I'm left now with a list that doesn't fit into the timetable I set for myself later on. I had two chances: either I extend the list to make it to the next New Moon, or I make a suplementary list, and respect the rules of the first. This second one is the one I decided to do. I plan to keep the periodical activities (those that are of the "x times a week" nature) and replace the others with new activities to complete by the next New Moon. That list will probably be published when the current list reaches the deadline.

This thing about the list made me think about something quite common in our life: our reaction to unexpected changes. It may happen that we have plans and expect something to happen in a certain way, but then it doesn't, or maybe we don't have any particular plans at all, just a regular, normal, comfortable life and suddenly a task falls on us and distrupts our rutine. In such cases most people complain bitterly and act like a victim of the circumstances. However, how many try to adapt to the new circumstances? Just because something is unexpected, just because something falls out of our box or disrupts the flow of our life, it doesn't mean it's bad or that it has to be excluded. It may not be what you expected for, it may not be perfect, but if you embrace it, if you adapt, if you take the time to actually value it without any prejudging, you might be surprised.

No, it doesn't mean that you must accept everything, and lose yourself in the constant adapting to others - let's not twist the message out of its meaning - but it means that by being open and looking for ways to work around certain situations, we can find ways to enhance our life and enrich our days.