Writers Corner

(Cross-posted to dingsis_notebook)

Snippet taken from an IJ entry written in November 2008, but never posted.

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I have the tendency to pile up HUGE stashes of various documents and papers (and photographs and magazines and bills and the stray book and and and). I used to try and sort them all at once during a day reserved for this activity, but only ended up with three smaller piles and the feeling that the task was too daunting. And it was. I made it so.

A few weeks ago, I did a complete relabeling of my binders, structuring them by subject (e.g. work, healthcare) and chronologically. Not using all of them right away, but moving some of the already filed papers if necessary, and creating a system for further use. And I put them in a place where I could easily see and grab them in a moment's notice. Same for the hole puncher, which I placed visibly on the table. And instead of sitting in front of huge piles of documents and feeling intimidated, I started filing them away little by little. One or three or ten a day, or ten a week. Instead of "take a whole day and sort this shit even if it kills you", I now think "if you see a piece of paper lying around, and can assess in which binder it belongs, take a few seconds to file it away".

And it helps. It helps because it's just a few seconds and the task itself isn't daunting anymore. Of course there's still this massive backlog I have to work on, but I know I will have it sorted out in the long run. Which makes me feel better. I also noticed that now I am far more likely to put away new papers immediately.

A few of you might wonder what the big deal is. Understandably so, because I think strategies like these are simply common sense for most people. But not for me. I've always been a very chaotic person, I'm still terrible at household chores, cleaning, dusting off, stuff like that. My room generally looks like a mess most of the time and I get easily distracted (while feeling guilty about not being able to do things better). So, for me, changing my tactics and trying to get things done in a way that relieved my stress, and allowing myself to think that this was okay, is a big step.

(Besides, even though I have no doubt that countless individuals have blogged about this, I had the idea all on my own and without someone from outside telling me to do something about the effing stacks of paper. So I'm a little proud of myself.)

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Update:

I still use the technique described above, and there are noticeable results: several bags of waste paper thrown away, finding documents I thought to have been lost, and displacing things less often in general. Over the recent months, I started applying it to the kitchen as well, cleaning and re-organizing it little by little. It's starting to show - cooking is more fun now, and even my Mom made a remark today how much better everything looked.

I still struggle with guilt sometimes that things are taking me so long, or that I needed years to acquire basic housekeeping skills that others pick up early or with ease. It makes me feel small, lazy, stupid. I feel like I shouldn't even mention it, as if it was the equivalent of boasting that you can use the potty.

I consciously remind myself:

1. People have different levels of tolerance; some are very orderly and clean their house weekly to feel comfortable while others when faced with the same amount of dirt or clutter wouldn't mind.
2. My depression and anxiety have caused problems before when it comes to my energy level in general, and I had to re-learn caring for myself at all. I'm reluctant to even mention it because so often it's being dismissed as a lazy excuse, but I want to keep in mind that it IS a factor in my life that makes some things harder than they ought to be.
3. For fuck's sake, self: I'M MAKING PROGRESS. Yes, it's a slow process, but it beats doing nothing. Obviously.

I found this information thanks to zarhooie (source), and thought I'd pass it on / write it down so I won't forget.

You need to go to the admin console - usually located at the URL of the journal main site with /admin/console/ added at the end, e.g. http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console/ or http://www.dreamwidth.org/admin/console/ .

Then type the following:

community name-of-community remove your-username

Example: community i_wanna_leave remove das_dingsi

Hit "execute", and you're done!

Just got back from first day at work, which consisted of mostly boring theoretical training.

Awesomepoints: only the porter misgendered me, everybody else who adressed me in a gendered fashion today already knew me from last year. My temp ID card was correct, too. These little things mean the world.

I met ex-colleagues in the cafeteria and did social things, like talking to people. Really looking forward to proper work tomorrow (and meeting my two favourite superiors again).

Not-so-awesomepoints: I'm dead tired. Seriously. I'm gonna check my feeds and email, and then I'm off to bed.

PSA: I have the late shift for at least two weeks from now, which suits me just fine. (I liked working nightshifts a lot, as evidenced in this IJ entry from 2008. Also, getting up early would kill me.) However, it has the disadvantage of being online less often, and thus chatting/commenting not as much as I used to. If you don't hear a peep from me for the next days or weeks, it's because of work effing up my sleep schedule / leisure time / energy levels. (Sadface.)

The ABOUT text for this blog is as follows:

“The Border House is a blog for gamers. It's a blog for those who are feminist, queer, disabled, people of color, transgendered, rich, poor, middle class, gay, lesbian, and others who belong to marginalized groups, as well as allies. Our goal is to bring thoughtful analysis to gaming with a feminist viewpoint and up-to-date news on games, virtual worlds, and social media.”

And it actually has members of these groups as contributors! See chooseareality's intro post for an example; she's a trans woman and a lesbian. (Text might make you choke up a little, for mostly good reasons.)

Earth Destroyed By Large Hadron Collider; Martian Questioned (found via Hungry Beast, they're kind of cool at some points.)

( Video: Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody )

( derp derp derp >: )

Current Mood: okay

Er, some thoughts on Australia as potentially represented in Hetalia. I do not think that a) this is what we'll actually get b) anyone else will actually agree with me, so. That's. I also suspect that I've got a case of projection going, too, and that's… not all that great.

This also got pretty disconnected over the time I wrote it, since I… basically didn't write it all in one batch, and I tend to ramble and dot-point a lot in any case, so.

( Read more... )

♣ I was barely around today because after getting into the inner city to sign some contracts, and then therapy, I felt utterly exhausted. I don't feel that well either and more or less went straight to bed. (It's a mix of having the sniffles, mental/emotional issues, and RL stuff that causes stress ... I'm tired a lot.)

But on the good side, the contracts ARE signed and my work starts on December 1st. It's now official! And although I'm nervous (duh), I'm also looking forward to it a lot. The temp agency is a really good one that cares more about its employers than others I've worked with, and of course I'm excited to meet my ex-colleagues again! They asked for me specifically, which does good things to my self-esteem. And from January onwards, I'm gonna have more money to plan with, which is desperately needed because I can tell there are going to be some extra costs in the future. (Wardrobe, fixing the toilet, cooking and baking utensils, a better binder... that sort of thing.)

♣ Do you remember when people started migrating to IJ and created community asylum duplicates, triplicates, et cetera? And how that annoyed me so much that I even included a sentence in my IJ Beginner's Guide about it? - Looks like it's starting on Dreamwidth, too. "I know there already exist communities for [topic], but they're all dead, so I created a new one!" Which... might end up dead? Great.

Seriously, I DO think that DW has the potential to eventually have a level of activity which is not rivaling LJ but close enough. And currently there's definitely enough activity on my Subscription List when it comes to personal journals (quite similar to IJ, actually; on both sides, I don't feel "starved" in that regard). But community-wise? We're so not there yet. Much less for community duplicates.

♣ Thinking about participating in Wishlist communities. I'm also secretly hoping that people on my friendslist/reading list will, in case they have wishes I can grant. But funny enough, when faced with the task, suddenly I have difficulties thinking of wishes. Currently my list has one (1) item and then I got stuck. (For the curious, it's a Spongebob mousepad. I like Spongebob, although strictly speaking Squidward is my favourite.)

Title: No Escape
Challenge/Prompt: #29 Midnight
Original Fiction or Fanfiction [Name of fandom]: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Characters/Pairings: Anzu/Atemu
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or it's sandbox. I am just here to play with the toys and create my own alternate reality. :D
Summary: As midnight drew closer, Anzu tries to escape Atemu's possessiveness.
Author's Notes: I have no idea exactly where my muse came up with this one. I can only fathom she wanted something somewhat dark.




( No Escape )

Current Location: laying down on the floor face first
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Looking For A New Love .:. Jody Watley