Tag Archives: inspirational - Page 3

Revamped Office

Posted by on October 18, 2013 No comments

Welcome to my hell.  Actually, I mean, welcome to my productivity trap.

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Many years ago – 8 to be precise – I made the purchase, nay, the investment, in good office furniture.  I ordered from Staples’ business collection, the Bush Cubix series.  Not so long ago, I revisited that purchase and was utterly shocked that I had spent nearly $500 on two pieces of furniture: a 60” desk and a bookcase.

However, as time has proven, you get what you pay for.  This furniture has been excellent despite the fact that I’ve never taken care of it at all.  But all that is going to change soon.  As you can see, my workspace has become a storage space for everything.  It has no purpose, and when I sit down at it, I am uninspired and lost.

To begin this change, I spent another $500 on two more pieces from the Cubix collection: a 3-drawer storage unit and a stand for my printer and papers.  I can’t get the hutch and locker yet.  Someday…  But, this is going to get the stuff off my desk, giving me a clear view with less distractions.  Then once everything is off, I can clean the desk.  There are some chips in the finish from a very poor decision I made one night involving a clamp.  While bemoaning the fact that my clean desk was still going to be marred, I hit upon an idea that gave me hope and inspiration for the future of my home-office work.  That idea is the humble leather desk pad.

Ok, maybe it isn’t humble.  In a lot of ways it’s pompous, since it’s a executive thing, but it doesn’t have to be.  Look at the current state of my desk.  Look at how many things are sitting in front of me.  Now imagine a desk pad blocking all that junk.  The desk pad says, “No.  Not here.  This is not storage area, this is creative area.”  And that is where I am drawing my inspiration.  In the chaos that is my desk right now, the desk pad is going to be a sanctuary of openness.  Things enter that sanctuary to be worked on, then are retired to their homes.

Of course, the new furniture is the other part of it.  Right now, there is no home for everything on my desk.  Also, my files are in a box in the closet off to the side.  Because it’s such an annoyance to go to the closet and get the filing box, papers to be filed pile up in my “outbox” on the right side.

Not shown in the picture is my bookcase, which is stuffed full of junk.  Yes, there’s books in there, but there’s also spindles of DVDs, envelopes, paper, labels, a drawer organizer with all my office stuff in it, manuals, and some art.  Art that is crowded out where it doesn’t  even look like art, it looks like junk.  So with the addition of my new storage units, I can get the stationary stuff and DVDs out of there.  It will give more room for proper display.  It will probably kick off another round of downsizing, as I re-evaluate the things I haven’t touched in years.

Since I have at least a week to wait for the new furniture, I have plenty of time to dwell on this, make notes, research and consider different layouts, and write about it all.  My home office is also my studio, with a recently-reduced number of keyboards (2), and some guitars.  The picture shows the heavily-underutilized rack stand, acting as a printer and mixer stand, with a couple of drawers.  I have a couple of torch lamps in the corners that are probably ready to be retired.  I can replace them with LED sunlight lamps if needed.

The bottom line is, I need to visualize what I want.  And what is it that I want?  I don’t host guests in my office.  My original layout accommodated stepping between computer and keyboards when recording.  Maybe I need something like that again?

And then…

This is my new workspace. 

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The desk is no longer against the wall, it is now in the center of the room.  One of the biggest things this relocation did for me is put the ceiling light directly over the desk.  Now I am not backlit while at the desk and my keyboard doesn’t suffer from being completely shadowed.

As mentioned, I now have a three desk storage unit to hold all my desk pieces and files.  I have a printer stand that has taken a lot of clutter off of my bookshelf.  My bookshelf is now in front of me, where I can put some more artful items.  Although the pictures don’t show it, I also have shelves on the wall.  I now have more shelf space than pieces to put on them.

And in the center of the desk is the desk pad.  I have used this just as I describe.  It is a clear space (except when the cat feels like being the center of attention).  I bring items into that space: bills, letters, computer parts, whatever.  I do the work and clear it out.  And as with my new tool kit, there is a place for everything.  I do have a junk drawer, which will need to be addressed, but that also means that everything in it needs to receive a designated place.

Has it helped my productivity?  I think it’s a little early to tell.  I am happy for all these changes, but honestly, it did not cause a huge change in motivation.  I think I’ve been going though a slight bout of depression, from which I am now recovering.  If that’s what it was, then it’s good I’m coming out of it into a more organized living area which will be receptive to creation.

YOLO

Posted by on March 19, 2013 No comments

Just a little behind the times on this one.  I’ve heard a lot of this “YOLO” thing going on, and after some consideration, I’ve chosen to redefine it.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Theosophy, the main point of it is that, as souls, we are constantly evolving through the process of reincarnation.  With each life, we are put here to learn lessons and pay back Karmic debt built up over previous lives.  As you go through these lives, you build inherent skills, which are displayed as natural talent; wisdom, which is shown as common sense; and other intangible skills like spirituality and tolerance.  “You can’t take it with you” is only for material goods.  Your soul’s qualities persist.

So, accepting the teachings of Theosophy,  you can imagine there have been souls who have been through many different lifetimes.  Some have learned their lessons well and gained all the skill, wisdom, and wholesomeness from each lifetime.  Others haven’t learned and still continue to be cruel, greedy, and intolerant.  The world is full of both types of people, you can’t doubt this.

But the world is also full of many more people.  More people on this Earth than ever before.  More bodies, more souls.  These bodies must be filled with young souls, those who have not had the experience of many lifetimes to learn how to be good.  Many that have to pay back Karmic debt through lack and suffering.  Some that are learning from their current situation, and a lot that are not.  It takes a long time to learn some lessons.

You can see this in the attitude of the younger generations.  You can see it every day in so many people.  It’s a sense of desperation.  Even driving in the city, you can sense the desperation in how people drive.  They must pull out in front of you, because they feel if they don’t, they will never get in.  Never.  That’s how the world is behaving.  Now or never.

These people don’t understand that this life is nothing.  There will be so many more lives to enjoy if you live this life right.  If you don’t, you’ll make up for it next time.  And hopefully, you’ll learn it that time.

So, for all the desperate people and their rally cry: “You Only Live Once!” I respond knowingly, “No, You’ve Only Lived Once.”

Code

Posted by on March 1, 2013 No comments

This is a good video.  In a way, it’s very surprising to me.  I had no idea there was a shortage of software developers, much less a shortage of that magnitude.  The people in the video made some pretty good points, but I think in some ways it overplayed some parts and missed some other parts.  Of course everyone’s story is going to be different, so this is mine.

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000.

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This computer was a tiny device that plugged in to your TV and had a keyboard with multifunction keys.  The keys had upper case and lower case, and also could print out a graphic character.  But one of the biggest tricks it would do is spit out a whole BASIC command with a single keypress, when it was in context.

So one day, my dad brings home this Timex Sinclair and gives it to me.  He says it’s a computer.  I’ve always loved computers.  Back in 1st grade, in a workbook, there was a page with three futuristic views and you chose which one you felt was going to be the real future.  Unsurprisingly, I chose the one with the big computer banks and I wrote beneath it, “I like conputers (sic) and how they work.”

Since I was so awestruck by computers, I had this device hooked up in no time and immediately started using it.  The very first thing I did was type in my name, which was very difficult because each keypress would generate a BASIC command.  Laboriously, I typed in each character of my name, then backspaced over the command that was inserted.  Finally, I got my name entered and pressed Enter.

“Syntax Error”

I look up at my dad and say “What?  It doesn’t know my name?”

And my dad thrust the owners manual at me and said, “No, you have to read this.”

And so I did, starting with two-line programs that would fill the screen with graphic characters (10 PRINT “JHGJSFGJD”; 20 GOTO 10).  Then I remember the first time I struggled trying to figure out how I could fit two pages of code onto the tiny screen, thinking that if the program code scrolled off the top of the screen it would be lost.  Then I just started “doing it.”  Coding just became something I did.  And back then, if you wanted a computer to do something, you made the program yourself.

My take on being a coder, which isn’t one expressed in the video, is that it’s pretty close to being a god.  As a coder, you are creating things.  And not creating in the artist sense, because most all art is simply a static representation.  A coder creates something that does things.  Mechanical and electrical engineers should have the same feeling.  When you’re done with your work, you can release your creation and it lives on its own.  That’s pretty powerful.

The other thing about coding, and the one that always makes me tell everyone “I love being a programmer”, is that it makes your life so much easier.  If there is anything you do that is difficult, repetitive, or monotonous, you can write a program to do it for you.  Like a boss.  You can’t fully grasp how great of a feeling this is unless you’ve actually done it.  When you spend a hour a day doing a task, and you invest a couple of hours into writing a program, then you gain an hour back every day because that task is now automated, that’s the miracle of software.  And that’s the reason businesses need programmers.

The video doesn’t mention this, but software development has been one of the most resilient professions in recent times.  If you’re good, you should not have any issue finding a job.  Although the video overplays the supposed awesomeness of working at Facebook, Twitter, or Google, there are many great companies that love their IT departments and usually give them a break when it comes it corporate rigidity.  Although some people are after the money (i.e. recent post), you can still get a great income from doing something you love.  And when you love it as much as I do, it’s hardly considered work.

So, get yourself involved with coding, or get someone else coding.  Don’t see it as a chore, or a task, or as work.  View it as creating, as art, as play.  Create something tiny and say, “what if?”, then “what now?”

The Violent Life

Posted by on December 27, 2012 No comments

Today, I made a follow-up call to one of my mortgage companies, who confirmed some bad news to me.  I guess relatively, it’s not bad news at all, it’s just information.  Time is quickly running out for HARP refinancing, and my primary mortgage company extended me a really nice offer that could save me a couple hundred a month in payments.  However, when I called to redeem that offer, I was deemed ineligible because my secondary mortgage holder wasn’t on the “approved list”.  So I called the secondary company today and they confirmed that they were not participating in that program.

So what did I do then? Nothing.  I politely thanked the woman and ended the call.  I didn’t rant at her.  I didn’t punch a wall or cry and yell.  I didn’t curse the politicians or banks.  And I didn’t start scheming.  I just kept driving home.  Nothing had changed.  I wasn’t any worse off than I was before I started this re-fi process.  As I drove, I thought of a moment a couple days ago where I forgot to provide my rewards card at a costly restaurant and missed a decent amount of reward points.  Again, I didn’t get angry.  I didn’t insist on having the staff accommodate my mistake.  I shrugged and moved on.

Some people may hear these stories and say “Look at what you’re missing out on!” or “You’re ripping yourself off!”  And that’s what I’m trying to explain.  There’s a certain segment of the population that believes life is difficult and unfair – a battle that must be fought in order to succeed.  They’ve come up with motivational sayings like “Seize the day!” and “Grab life by the throat!”  They implore you to “take what’s yours” and “settle for nothing less”.  Such violent, aggressive images – why would life freely offer anything to them when they are constantly attacking it and taking whatever they can?

However, I feel I am a model case of success caused by working in harmony with life instead of fighting it every step of the way.  When opportunities are presented to me, I take them if I can, and if I miss them, there will always be another in the future.  If you would scoff and say I’m too passive to be successful, what’s your measure of success?  I’m very sure it’s not the same as mine.  If I had to get up each day and mentally plan an attack on everyone that’s out to take something that I might feel is rightfully mine, I would be miserable.  And I’m guessing those that do this are miserable, they just don’t know any differently.

I’m not making an excuse for laziness and total passivity.  You have to be engaged enough to act on your good fortune, and that can mean working and sometimes working hard.  Further, you have to be engaged enough to recognize your good fortune and give thanks for it.  Finally, you have to have the attitude that you are losing nothing.

So I wasn’t able to get a couple hundred off my mortgage payment.  I didn’t lose that offer; it was never mine to begin with.  For me to be upset about something that wasn’t mine is selfish and dwelling on it would make me lose focus on the real facts that I am getting by without that change.  I should be very grateful that is the case, with so many others that are not as fortunate. 

In summary, as cliché as it is, you need to focus on what you have been given and not what you feel you have been denied.