Memorykeeper

Whiteboards 4 Home Organisation

[cgr] opens up an interesting discussion on the use and consequently the 'make-up' of whiteboards for organizing activities in the home on [Lifehack.org] called ['Using Whiteboards for Home Organization'].
This was back in August, but I have revisited it many times, just thought that it would be easier to post it here on my blog.

If you’re like me, organization somehow always revolves around lists. It has gotten to the point that the lists themselves have bogged my fiancé and me down as much as the activities themselves. I have had great organizational success using whiteboards at work, so I brought one home in an effort to combat the list problem. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment, so we got a whiteboard which is roughly 3' by 4' and we installed it on the wall of our kitchen.

Great uses of the varitions

Submitted by memorykeeper on Tue, 2005-08-02 14:36.

Great uses of the varitions of the 'whiteboard' Arnout's I find the most appealing and looks good too. Lighting seems to be the grey area here. The first comment by wynia.org took my mind to those X-ray reading boxs in a doctor's office. It will have to be a form of casing, but then it should not be too deep, that the whole look gets lost. That is if you would need to light it from below. IKEA, I believe will have a range of budget clip on lamps, which may work. Will get the drawing board, or should that be 'whiteboard'(!), and mull this over.

Great ideas, all.

Shopping List

Submitted by memorykeeper on Tue, 2005-08-02 16:11.
The way I have it working right now is a pad with long paper, stuck on a convenient side of refrigerator with ordinary magic tape. Everyone in the house has be told to write down what they used last. So if junior used up the maple syrup, he writes it on the list. Senior used up the butter, it goes on the list. The shopper then tears the list off and does a filter of the list.

In conjuction with the whiteboard, stick the pad in the lower right hand corner along the bottom and right edges [why right???? hmmm just feels right!!!:)], reachable if there are juniors around the house!

Not wierd,. Just working!

Submitted by memorykeeper on Wed, 2005-08-03 15:16.I did it the way I did because:
* got the juniors involved into the whole scheme of things
* One person doesnt not need to carry the full responsiblity of 'making' the list. Only filter it. Usually it is one or maybe two who would do the shopping, so he/she would know if anything is double listed.
* Allows 'shoppers' without PDA knowledge, to tear off the list and go on her/his merry way to the stores.

Honestly speaking, the PDA route would be my preference. Much easier. No bits of paper. No extra pen to carry.

Call me finicky, but I make up my list based on the location of the items in the store. If in a normal walk through of a store, I hit the dairy aisles first...that goes on the list first. Saves a lot of double backing with a cart, weaving in and out of other'raged, exasperated' shoppers' cart.

At the checkout, I lump similar items together. The chilled stuff, milk, cheese, frozen gets into the checkout scanner first, thus get into the bags together, making the storing away easier and less time consuming once you get home.

(I'm begining to sound like Monk!!)

The stores tend to keep changing the aisles and the displays. But should they standardise the location, then it would be a good idea for the stores to print the aisle locations for all shoppers to carry. The shopping lists would be more organised, much 'peaceful' (can shopping be peaceful????) and they would need less of the 'May I help you's' who dont really know how to help, around the store!!!!

Here's my drawing on a napkin

Submitted by memorykeeper on Thu, 2005-08-04 14:39.
cgr: this wouldnt be a bad idea for some open source software developers to work on. however, for your idea to work, the stores need to standardize the product display aisles. but an idea worth thinking about.

sysadman: the pegasus lights are pretty neat. flourescnet back lighting is the best for backlighting and would work best as backlighting a frosted plexiglass or frosted glass.

the restaurants board, personally, I dont find appealing because of the overly bright colors that end up on the board.

when i have the time and its my turn, I punch in the shopping list into the Handyshopper in my palm. However, I have not got used to the aisles bit yet. that is a handy bit of software for palm and shopping.

Here's a budget version of a backlit board:

1. Use the plexi glass from Ikea, as suggested and recommended by arnoutdrenthel.

2. Fixed mount it about 2" off the wall. Would look good if brushed aluminium studs can be used as the stud spacers.

3. Place one or two Microfluorescent T4 Light Fixtures (as seen on pegasus lighting) either in line with top and bottom long edges or the left and right short edges of the board. These, of course would need to be mounted on the wall. The T4s are 1⅜" high, so the 2" between the plexi and the wall would allow for the light to diffuse well across the board.

Alternatively, mount the glass, and lights on a thin sheet of white plexi sheet..same size as the Ikea Plexiglass...giving you a neat looking open sided light box..and that in turn could be screwed to the wall.

Now let me get back to the drawing board!!

Comments on: [Lifehack.org: Using whiteboards for home organization]

About SportingStreams

1.  Talking about streamcast cricket, for fraction of the price, I would recommend www.sportingstreams.com.

   I subscribed to sportingstreams.com since the India-Pakistan series not so long ago and have been more than satisfied. Added advantage that you can also get links to streams for F1, the new A1 grandprix, football/soccer.

2. mark Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 10.28 am

   Just looked at sportingstreams.com and it seems way too cheap to be legal. There is also no way of seeing a test clip. R J: Is it a proper stream or someone filming the tv? And what’s the bitrate? A friend got conned on a similar site for football where the bitrate was only 36kbps..

   As the saying goes.. if an offer’s too good to be true it usually is..

3. R J Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 1.29 pm

   I am pretty much happy with the quality. I have not used Willow since I tried Sportingstreams and was happy with the quality and the variety available. I enjoy Manchester United in English Soccer. No this is not tv being filmed. The rate is anything between 186kbps ~ 240kbps. I have watched all the Indian Cricket series thus far - Pakistan, SA, Australia, SL-Ind-Ban TriSeries, SA in Windies, the local English League cricket and even the recent Twenty20 Club championship in England. If you’d like any more info shoot me an email.
   Can’t wait for the Super Series circus to start rolling!

4. R J Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 1.37 pm

   Dont do Willow, so cannot honestly compare. But there have been many who have used both and opt for sportingstreams.com. Quality and variety. No, its not someone filming TV. Rate is at anything between 186kbps ~ 250kbps. They are trying to up it to around 300kbps which would be good, but existing quality is great, especially when considering the price also.
   I have been pretty much happy with the quality. If you need any more info shoot me an email.
   Can’t wait for the SuperSeries circus to get rolling.

5. R J Says:
   October 5th, 2005 at 7.39 pm

   sorry about the double comments. i guess the comments did not post straightaway, since they may have been parked for moderation.

6. colindale Says:
   October 6th, 2005 at 2.47 pm

   Checked that site out rj and as i normally use willow i can compare the two,pros have to be the price,was also sceptical,but as you say it certainly works,was watching at 205kbps,which was fine and bufferless,the only cons i would say,it takes a while to work out the system ie sending off for the link,putting in the password,into winamp etc guess next time i will allow 5 mins extra

7. R J Says:
   October 6th, 2005 at 7.31 pm

   Yes that is true, but its a good and, on hindsight, essential safeguard. Counting down the clock for ODI2 to get underway. Hope RoW pull themselves together into a fighting team.

Comments from: [Corridor of Uncertainty]

Moving Blog

When the big banner titled 'blogcontrol*' was installed on every myblogsite blog, it was the last straw that broke my 'myblogsite' back. Time to up and leave.

I have sent the support team and F Marte and E Lee (apparently in the corporate office)daily emails reminding them of the monstrocity that has become their website. (Myblogsite then have the cheek to invite me to create a myphotoalbum????)

Add to that just around this time, their spam filters, comments controls failed and I had to close off comments entirely and sit through the night deleting close to 240 spam comments advertising all shades of black of society.

I decided to move to Typepad. Should be easy right? Generate an export file, transfer it over to Typepad and boom? No, fizzle wheezz pop, more like! The file that myblogsite generates is not in an easily convertable format.

Only a manual move was the alternative. Shooting myself in the head seemed to be the easier thing to do.

I pulled out Blogjet (http://www.blogjet.com) It enables import of all your posts, date and time intact into your PC/harddrive. (A month's full working trial version is ideal, but I liked it so much, I just bought is after playing around for an hour) :) Then export it to the new site. Setting up the blog connections is easy. A well thought out piece of software. It was tedious but easy. Only downside is that comments cannot be imported/exported in this manner. Either lose them, or peg onto the relevant post manually.

Having set up the typepad blog, I came across a fellow blogger who introduced me to Wordpress. I liked, I jumped and am now setting up a blog in Wordpress.

A big note of thanks to Myblogsite.com for seriously screwing up their bloghosting. Without this happening I would not have searched nor found the likes of Typepad or Wordpress.

Anybody having problems with myblogsite.com? Don't even bother. Lock it up and pulverise the key.

RIP: Myblogsite.com

My blog links:

'Old' memorykeeper at Myblogsite: http://memorykeeper.myblogsite.com
'New' memorykeeper at Typepad: http://memorykeeper.blogs.com

Hope the above helps anyone who find themselves in a similar myblogsite HELL!!

More than two? Sorry, unelectable

[Two-Kid Norm For Candidates]:
When Gujarat's civic bodies go to the polls next month, those whose third child was born after March 23, 2005, will not be eligible to contest. This was the date when the two-child norm came into force. The nomination forms issued by the collectorate for the elections will have a clause barring those having more than two children from contesting the municipal polls.

Who takes note and accounts for all those born 'out of wedlock'? Seems to be a rule implemented as a convenience and tool for easy election to a civic body office. The cynic in me observes, especially on all things 'Power' related in India.

305 Holidays per year! GTD? What's that??

This is from a city website - [Baroda Online] - in India regarding the judicial system or rather the judicial non-system. This reflects honestly the situation of the judicial system across the board in India. Something radical needs to be done, obviously. But does this little city or for that matter, India have someone radical to intiate such changes.

[305 Holidays 'Annually']:
Did you know that 450,000 civil and criminal cases are pending in Vadodara's courts. The courts have worked for about 60 days every year for the last three years (instead of 135 days every year). The courts enjoy 23 public holidays, six weeks' summer vacation, two weeks' winter vacation, one week' Diwali vacation and a holiday on every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Each judge has about 15,000 cases on his hands, instead of the 500 cases he is supposed to handle. At least 150 judges are required to handle the cases quickly, but the court has only 30 judges.

GTD ? What in the world is that? This would be an ideal place for [David Allen] to set up shop to share the knowledge of how to [Get Things Done] (GTD)! Probably, if the system is worked the way it should be, these 'overworked' folk can still enjoy the holidays AND catch up on the back log.

Oh India!!

Neither god nor Buddha: How does Destiny happen?

I have become a firm believer in destiny and how major events of our lives have been pre-ordained. If it is meant to happen, happen it will. So many events in my life have proved to be culminations of events past or inception of events future.

Things have to happen, for things to happen. A term I am often reminded of.

How, what, or who makes these pre-ordained events happen? If we are supposed to be at a particular juncture of our life, who or what makes it so?

Haruki Murakami tries to delve into this in the following lines from his book, Kafka on the Shore, in a conversation between two charachters; one of which is portrayed as the 'representation', who or which makes the things happen for things to happen.

"..Shape I may take, converse I may, but neither god nor Buddha am I, rather an insensate being whose heart thus differs from that of man....Neither god nor Buddha, just an insensate. As such, of the good and bad of man I neither inquire nor follow"

..I'm appearing here in human form, but I'm neither god nor Buddha. My heart works differently from humans' hearts because I don't have any feelings. That's what it means..
..Since I'm neither god nor Buddha, I don't need to judge whether people are good or evil. Like wise I don't have to act according to standards of good or evil.

..I'm not beyond good and evil, exactly -- they just don't matter to me. I have no idea what's good or what's evil. I'm a very pragmatic being. A neutral object, as it were, and all I care about is consummating the function I've been given to perform...

I'm kind of an overseer, supervising something to make sure it fulfills it's original role. Checking the correlation between different worlds, making sure things are in the right order. So results follow causes and meanings don't get mixed up. So the past comes before the present, the future after it. Things can get a little out of order, that's okay. Nothing's perfect. If the account book's basically in balance, though, that's fine with me.

[Haruki Murakami] in [Kafka on the Shore]
Review by [Charles Taylor]

Want to be an Owl?

If you get up in the middle of the night to grab a glass of water, there's a simple way to avoid stubbing toes on the way back to bed. Close one eye just before you you turn on the light or open the fridge door, and keep it closed the whole time the light is on.

When you turn the lights off, open both eyes.  The eye you kept closed will still be dilated, and allow you to see in the dark.

Matthew, Tricks of the Trade

Migrated to Typepad

After my previous bloghost decided to unilaterally change my blog layouts and insertion of their own advertising gimmicks linking to my posts, I finally decided to up and move.

Moving bloghosts is as big as moving house. Leaving a friendly comfortable environment to a new, strange and different environment. Prior to that choosing the right environment. In this case, the right blog host.

Initially I was drawn to another similar bloghost. Weighing the conveniences and after the initial browsing of the respective sample blogs, I finally rested these tired feet at Typepad, albeit a trial month. On a sharp learning curve, but the incline made easy by the excellent support material and documentation.

Looks like a move which will extend further than the temp one month. It will cost, no doubt. This one month will show and prove whether the cost is a. justified and b. worth it.

Amul's Mangal Pandey!!!

Didn't take long for the Utterly Butterly to come up with their own version of 'The Rising'! Mangal Pandey becomes 'Maakhan aan de'!!

From: Amul

Take off on the Bollywood film 'The Rising' featuring 'Mangal Pandey' the sepoy of the mutiny - July'05 

Kafka on the Shore, on the bench

A wonderful afternoon read sitting on a bench placed on a sidewalk of a quiet little mall. In the shade, breeze fanning the heat away, no hurried pedestrians walking to a march keeping time with the innumerable clocks in their minds and in their lives.

A nice leisurely read. Albeit for a short while.