Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 35

Podcasts That Are Not Organization

With the organization podcasts a complete fail, I did some online searches for entertaining podcasts that had nothing to do with decluttering.

This was a pain in the butt. So many crime and murder podcasts. No thank you.

I finally found about four or so to try out, plus I found a podcast I used to listen to and love.

The one I used to listen and love was You Must Remember This and it's about old Hollywood. The host does a lot of research and she presents a fascinating look into the legends of the silver screen. When I listened, most of the episodes were about the 1930s and 1940s, but I see the newer episodes expand the time she covers.

Now onto the other podcasts. One of them also had a historical bent. The host would look at historical events and decide who was to blame. I made it through the first episode on the Titanic. It was okay, but superficial. The second episode was on the plague. I got halfway through and deleted the podcast. Again, there was no historical insight into anything. The blame board had entries like "rats" and "fleas." No, duh. I didn't need to listen to know this. Maybe the newer episodes got better? I didn't listen to those.

Another podcast was produced by what looked to be public radio in NYC. I think. I'm not familiar with the stations there. This one I'll actually name because I nearly kept it in my podcast list. Almost. So close, but ultimately I decided it would languish and I deleted it. The podcast is Radiolab. The premise is that they ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to answer them.

The episode I listened to was titled: The Worst Year Ever and it looked at the year 536 A.D. There was volcanic eruptions, famine, the sun was blocked by ash in the atmosphere, etc. It was interesting enough, but when I looked at other episodes, I didn't see anything that grabbed me and that's when I decided it wasn't worth hanging on to.

And the other couple podcasts? I can't even remember what they were called. I made it part way through one episode and deleted. I literally have no memory of them, that's how forgettable they were.

Photo Organization Podcast

One of the organization podcasts I listened to (and to be honest, at this point I have no idea which one it was) had a photographer on to discuss how to organize digital photographs. This is another area where I feel I'm struggling.

Her system. She puts her photos into folders by year, then month, then date. Like she'll remember the picture was from Christmas 2019 and she can go to the December 25, 2019 folder and find what she's looking for.

I already organized by year. I plan to go in and organize by month. I don't take enough photos to need to go down to the day level.

Curate, curate, curate. If you have 15 pictures of the same thing, pick the best and delete the rest. If something is blurry, someone has their eyes closed, whatever isn't good, get rid of it.

I am very bad at doing this. I will make an effort to do this when I go through the photos.

Backup to an external hard drive. No explanation needed here, right?

I have my photos on the cloud and backup to a different cloud backup service. I should use my external hard drive. I'll have to make a better effort at this.

Photobooks. She said she does photobooks regularly with her pictures. She had children, so I'm sure that's part of it. I can't remember how often she said she does this, but I'm thinking each individual can decide for themselves when to make their book.

I've never done a photobook. I'd probably have to put years' worth in a book, but it might be interesting to have them handy to view.

This podcast had a lot of helpful, actionable advice. I wish I could remember which one it was. I'll have to investigate and re-find it.

Organization Podcasts Part 1

Quick Wicked Deception update. As I'm writing this, it's with my editor. When she returns notes to me--which should be shortly--I will go back to revising the book. :-)

In the meantime, I've been looking for new podcasts to listen to. My office is a disaster right now and I hate it, so I started the search with organizational podcasts. Surely, there would be some good advice available and I would have a plan when I tackle this mess.

First, I discovered that most of the organization podcasts were horrible. Lots of advertising and promotion of their organization workshops. One of these workshops was like $900! Gah!

Second, very little useful and usable advice on organization. There was one podcast I tried that had an episode about organizing the refrigerator. This is an area where we have a big time fail in my house. I can blog about my dad's idea of storing things in the fridge because it revolves around the things he uses and my stuff gets shoved behind six million other things. But I'll save that for a day when I need to blow off steam.

Anyway, so the episode on organizing the fridge sounded exactly like what I needed. She had a guest. Okay. Who she then proceeded to chit chat with forever. Not just some opening banter. I mean for a good ten minutes of the podcast. Finally, they get to the organization part. "I divide my refrigerator into sections."

I wait. What are the sections? How do you begin this project? What kind of storage containers do you use?

Did any of my questions get answered? No. All I heard was neither one of them use a lazy Susan because it takes up too much space and they store the condiments on the door. They never--not either one of them--mentioned how they decided to divide up the fridge. The one thing I'm listening to an organization podcast for--HOW TO ORGANIZE--and they don't give that information.

Sadly, this happened frequently with the various podcasts.

There was one podcast that had some promising subjects, but the audio quality was so poor, I literally couldn't understand the guests. I tried two different episodes before I gave up on this one. I don't need perfect audio, but I would like to be able to hear what people are saying.

I tried an online search next. It pulled up some more podcasts that my app hadn't shown me. More of the same.

There are a couple that I didn't delete from my app:

Hoardganize. This is for people who are hoarders and not merely normal overwhelm, but some of the processes she has works for anyone. For example, how to sort through your things and decide what goes and what stays. I will listen to more of her episodes.

A Slob Come Clean. This one was good enough that I went looking for her books. One was available in Prime Lending and the other was on sale, so I bought it. I started reading the one from Prime Lending and so far so good. But again, this doesn't really address my problem. She was talking about making sure she did the dishes every day. Um, I always did the dishes every day. In fact, I have them in the dishwasher in minutes after I'm finished with them. But overall, she has advice that sounds as if it will work for anyone, whether or not you're a slob.

If I find any others that are worth listening to, I'll try to remember to write another post. I'm not holding my breath.

Frankensteining Water Enhancers

As I write this, I'm revising Wicked Deception and I am hugely pressed for time. I am blaming that for this choice of blog topic.

Water enhancers.

I know I should drink plain water, but I almost always add some kind of water enhancer to make it more interesting. I know, I know.

Sometimes I find a flavor of water enhancer and think it's awesome and start stocking up on it a little at a time. Only to get tired of it and literally never want to drink it again.

Enhancers are expensive so I'm not just going to toss them out. I came up with a solution. Frankenstein them!

Right now, I'm mixing Strawberry Watermelon (which got old fast!) with Acai Berry (which has caffeine in it, but I'm also tired of) with Strawberry lemonade (which I still love). I call this my half-caf blend. I squirt a little of the number one, a little of number two, and a lot of number three. It's actually quite good and I'll be sort of sorry when the Strawberry Watermelon runs out--which will happen shortly since I'm down to the last couple. I still have a lot of the caffeinated Acai Berry. I'll probably mix it only with the Strawberry Lemonade to see how that tastes.

I do have another flavor in my drawer which I've mixed with nothing yet. I'm not sure what goes with this blue stuff. Maybe I'll try mixing the Acai with it and see what I get.

There might be more of these types of blogs because I will be buried deep in revisions from my editor and then copy editor for a while. Story writing has to come before blogging.

Great Ocean Road

My latest medal is from the Great Ocean Road. This virtual challenge had street view all the way through the route, which is something I really enjoy. Every day, I'd drop into street view and look around at where I was.

The Great Ocean Road is in the southern part of Australia and I found the terrain beautiful there. It made me sorry that I didn't get to that area when I was in the country. Of course, we were racing to see what we did get to see, so it wasn't as if we had extra time to head there.

The other thing I kept thinking of as I looked at the pictures (which included many ocean views) was how some of the most aggressive great white sharks are in this part of Australia. It was part of 2021's Shark Week on the Discovery. It's such an odd thing to think of when the trail is completely on land (and virtual at that!), but sharks interest me. And scare me, too.

I've talked before about how much I enjoy these virtual races. They're incentive to keep my step count high every day so that I can progress faster along the course. And get my medal!

Conqueror doesn't send the medal until you complete the route, although other companies do send it out right away. One of the companies I tried, I'm glad I got the medal right away because their app was terrible! If I had to earn the medal before they would send it, I never would have gotten it despite the fact that I more than completed the challenge for them. Their app just didn't work. I started keeping track of it on the FitBit app. Yeah.

I still have not put up my medal holder that I shared in an earlier post. The problem is where to put it. The location that I was thinking of is right over a light switch and I started thinking about all the wires behind that wall. The second place I thought of has the same problem. Location one is in my office which would be great since I don't want it in a living area, but except for that one spot, my walls are filled with bookcases, my kanban board, windows, or a cork board.

So where do I put it? Not the garage, not the laundry room. The master bedroom? The master bath? The powder room so all my guests can see how many races and virtual races I've finished? I'm still working on it.

Sewing vs Knitting

I'm not sure whether to label this post as Knitting or Sewing because I'm planning to talk about both of them. :-) Not that I've done either one lately. All my spare time has been spent writing. I'm doing this post a few weeks before it posts (because writing), and I'm nearly finished with Wicked Deception . I actually would be finished if I'd been able to stick to the word count I was aiming for. It will be about 10,000 words more (I'm estimating), so extra writing time is needed.

Anyway, I've never been good at crafts. Too impatient, so it's been a revelation to be able to learn to knit and to sew decently enough to be wearing a T-shirt I made. (I won't wear it out of the house, but I am wearing it.) My mom didn't knit or crochet, and while she sort of sewed, it was when she had to, and that wasn't often. And when we closed up my parents' house in Minnesota after she died, we got rid of all her sewing stuff because I was never going to use it.

Yeah.

Picking up knitting was cheaper. A lot cheaper. All I needed was a set of needles and some yarn. And yarn comes in different price points, so there is cheaper stuff available.

Sewing? Luckily, I already had a machine. That was bought in 1994 and had never been out of its box until I had to sew masks at the beginning of the pandemic. But I didn't have sewing scissors or pinking shears or pins or thread or fabric or extra sewing machine needles or elastic or buttons or a decent iron or a million other things.

I still don't have a tailor's ham or seam roll for ironing or one of those wooden clapper board things, also for ironing. Heck, I don't even have an ironing board! I don't have a serger or a overcast machine. I don't have a button hole cutter thing or all the feet I need for the sewing machine. And probably a million other things I haven't thought of yet.

I'm trying to pick things up over time because sewing equipment is expensive. Like it seriously adds up fast. Good scissors alone are like $30.

When I think of all my mom's sewing stuff that we donated, I want to cry. I could have had everything I needed including the ironing board. But who ever would have guessed that I would sew? I mean craft-type stuff isn't my bag, and when she died, I wasn't even knitting yet.

With my knitting, I have multiple sets of needles and a stash of yarn and I'm good. I mean I literally have everything I have to have. I'm not sure I'll ever manage to buy everything I need for sewing.

At least the machine I have can do some of the stitches that an overcast machine can do. It might have been made in 1994, but it has some nifty features. In the meantime, I'll pick up items one at a time as they became must-haves for a project.

Now if I only had time to sew. Or knit.

My 2022 Baseball Post

I try to limit myself to one baseball post a year because I know most people aren't as interested in the sport as I am. I used to write while it was on. Something about the rhythm of the game was relaxing and conducive to creative thinking.

My topic for this year is about "small market teams."

I see a lot of people complaining about how their poor, pitiful small market team can't compete and it makes me crazy because BS. The really small market teams are receiving revenue sharing monies, which a fair number of them are pocketing as profit. Also, please think of the poor billionaire owners who won't eat if they don't rake in huge bucks from their team.

Ugh.

The other thing I see posted a lot is it's the high salaries these players are getting that's making it so expensive to go to games. Um, no, it's not. They're charging what the market will bear. They have algorithms to figure out what they can charge for a Saturday night game as opposed to a Wednesday afternoon game. When the Orioles cut their payroll down to the bone, did they lower ticket prices? Yeah, it has nothing to do with what the players are paid.

And the third thing is where I'm going to end. Poor, poor pitiful me. I have no choice except to be a small market fan, so there should be a salary cap.

You totally have a choice on who to pick as your team. It's not as simple as this is where I was born and/or this is where I live, I have no choice.

I was born and lived most of my life in Minnesota. I grew up a Minnesota Twins fan (and I still root for them), but when I was in school, the Chicago Cubs were on WGN every day. So I'd get home in the afternoon and I'd turn on the games. I became a Cubs fan.

Later, when I moved into my house in Minnesota, I paid for the MLB.TV package so I could watch out of market games. (The Cubs had moved off of WGN and the Braves had left TBS.) I'd start with the east coast, but later in the afternoon, everything east of the Mississippi would be over with. If you saw my note above about writing with a game on, you'll know that I had to find a west coast team.

So I'd flip around the package. And there was this one announcer that was really, really good. I started watching that team's games whenever I needed a later game. The announcer? Vin Scully. The team? The Los Angeles Dodgers.

This was before their current ownership group. Before their current front office. This was when they had an owner that was not awesome. The team did okay, but it wasn't winning the division every year. This was during the time Matt Kemp should have won the MVP Award, and Dee Gordon-Strange was still Dee Gordon and James Loney was the first baseman.

I became a Dodgers fan before they were a powerhouse, and now that they are a powerhouse? I'm all in, baby!

So when someone says they have no choice about being a fan of a small market team, I know this isn't correct because I learned to love the Cubs and Dodgers by watching their games all the time.

Yes, I still root for the Twins and want them to win, but I don't watch them often. I do watch the Dodgers games, and with my baseball package, I can watch the archived game the next day because there is no way I can watch a game that begins at 10pm in my time zone. :-/

I know it's not as easy if you don't have the baseball package because no one except your local team is available, and if you've cut the cord from cable, it's even tougher. But I'm thinking the (mostly) men I see complaining online probably do have the money to buy the MLB package. Maybe they should try it and be happier.

The Inadvertant Click and the Algorithm

I was over on Etsy a while back, looking at my home page where they recommend items to me. I'd previously looked at some printable checklists that helped with organization and there were more of those up on the page.

After glancing at them, I decided they weren't interesting, but there was one that I just couldn't figure out. What was this for?

So I clicked on it to get a closer look.

I found out why I couldn't figure out what it was for. It was in a foreign language.

Okay, their algorithm messed up and flashed some German at me. No big deal.

Except... Because I opened that suggestion, I am now getting all kinds of German language recommendations. While I did take German in high school and college, I don't speak it. I don't even remember much of anything that I learned.

Now the question becomes how much longer will Etsy recommend German language printables to me? It hasn't stopped yet, so one week and counting.

It's Basket Heaven!

Years ago, I bought a wire mesh basket in a narrow size to see if I liked it. If I did, the plan was to buy more when I had the opportunity. By the time I went back to buy more, they were gone. Nothing like them was on the website or any other online shopping website.

Last month, while I was online shopping, I took a look at the bins and baskets. I didn't expect to find anything I liked because I hadn't in the past, but this time I was pleasantly surprised. I wanted to try one--again, to see how I liked it--but unless I wanted to drive to the store, I had to order a set of six.

When they came, I tried them out immediately to organize things in the bathroom. Soaps, lotions, face care products, etc. I loved them! They were the perfect size!

And in half an hour, I used almost all my baskets in the bathroom and I'd bought them for the office!

I ordered three more sets because I wasn't being caught without them, not after the last basket disappeared from the face of the Earth. What I like about them is that they're narrow, but not too narrow. You can fit things in them.

The shelves in the bathroom were full. To the point where I wondered if I needed to throw things away. And I did look at everything before I put it in the basket, but there was nothing to toss. And then, as I filled a couple of them bins, I realized the cluttered, too-full look on the shelves was gone. Suddenly, there was plenty of space and everything looked so organized. There's no other word for it.

I might have to pick up another set of six to finish the bathroom because I'm not giving up my office baskets again.

I bought the same brand of basket in a bigger, shorter size. I haven't tried those out yet, but I'm not as impressed by the squatness of the bins.

After the miracle that occurred in the bathroom, I'm kind of excited to start cleaning up the office. Kind of.

Without a Trace

About midway through writing Wicked Deception , I had a brilliant idea for the scene I'd been working on earlier that day. Brilliant because it fit Kyle to a T and it worked perfectly for the scene and the story. I was excited to sit down and write it the next time I was able to sit down.

One small problem developed. I forgot what it was.

It never occurred to me to write the idea down. It wasn't as if I even said to myself, "I should write this down." It was just like, this is so perfect and there was no thought in my head that I would ever, not in a million years, forget the idea.

Yeah.

I hoped that re-reading the scene would job my memory, but it didn't. I thought rereading the scene before it might might do the trick. It didn't. So instead of writing this, I wrote what I was able to come up with. I'm so sad.

I'd love to say that I've learned my lesson and will never do this again. That I will always and forever make notes on everything that I think I'll need, but I know that I won't do this.

I'm going to console myself with the idea that if it really had been brilliant and perfect, that I would have remembered it for longer than the few hours that it stayed in my mind. That if it was meant to be, it would have come back to me when I re-read what I'd already written. ::sobs::