Getting Organized

It's time to get organized!
I'm getting organized.  Again!  I'm doing it now.  The important thing about getting organized is to STAY ON TASK!  So, as soon as I finish this blog post it's right back to GETTING ORGANIZED!

I've read hundreds of articles and even books on how to get organized.  These can be inspiring.  And they've helped me to get organized.  Many many times.  For one day.  The challenge for me is sticking with it.  Like most things.
Stay positive!  You've got to believe that you can get, be, and stay organized.  Embrace positive thoughts.  Reject and purge negative thoughts.  In the prior paragraph I changed my first word choice, "problem," for "challenge."  See.  Positive.  Sometimes these little things count.  But most-times not.

Getting organized reduces stress, saves you money, and generally improves your life.  Personally, I wouldn't know, but all those things are very appealing.  So, I'm in.  My approach so far has been to wake up, think about what I was supposed to do by today, panic, then run around and do it.  Mixed results.  Definitely room for improvement.  I need to PRIORITIZE!

Not remembering things has been a big issue.  So, now I write down lists of the things I need to do.  "To do" lists.  All the organized people do this.  I can write "To do" lists, so I do.  I have lots of "To do" lists.  On each of my 4 computers, in multiple notebooks of various types, on several pads of yellow paper, some "Task" thingies on the web, and on the backs of envelopes.  Frankly, my "To do" lists haven't been very helpful.  I need a better system.

I also need a calendar.  (I just found out that I didn't know how to spell calendar.  Yay, spell check!)  Like the "To do" lists, I have a lot of calendars.  There's always a sense of hope when I go to Office Max and buy a brand new calendar.  I'm going to take all of my various on-line and paper calendars and consolidate them.  As soon as I get home.  And have some coffee. And lunch.  Oh my God, I forgot about my court hearing!  I should have calendared that!  Gotta run. I'll have to do the calendar
later.

Next is ROUTINE!  A regular weekly schedule.  A good routine is key to being organized.  For me, an externally imposed routine works best.  Too bad. Wish I'd figured that out 40 years ago.  Self-knowledge seems to be important in this process.  Wish I'd figured that out 40 years ago, too.  Too late now.  Or not!  Positivity!  I don't have an external routine, so I'm on my own.  So back to it!  I can plan a routine.  I've done it lots of times.
Gotta go.  I just remembered something I was supposed to do today.

Words Are Fun

Moe Dowd starts our word fun today, using "distaff" as a noun for womenfolk.  Following up smartly with the loaded phrase "passing strange" to describe the behavior of our semi-black president.  Clever girl. Next she throws caution to the wind with Archie Bunker's old favorite, "high toned."  I can't help but wonder if Rush would have gotten away with that one.
Distaff, I learned, is a device used in making cloth, which as we all know is women's work.  See Norma Jean.  It has also been used as an adjective to describe something as feminine.  Up til now.  Maureen has nominalized distaff as her very own esoteric reference to women.  Good for her!

 

Passing strange is riskier territory.  Moe is not talking about the rock band.  Passing strange refers to folks, usually African-Americans, who "pass" as a race different than the one assigned to them by their state.  Maureen uses it differently,  or metaphorically, to point out the difference between Obama's election base of women, blacks, and Latinos and his senior appointments of white, male establishment types.  I'm not sure if she thinks Obama belongs among the former group while trying to pass as a member of the latter, or the other way around.  The bottom line is that she doesn't like it one bit.

BTW, Maureen capitalizes "Latino" but not "black" or "women."  Why is that? Apparently this is an ongoing debate among style manuals.  Now that's exciting word news!

"High toned" is next. OMG! I really cannot believe that she used it.  Does she think it helps her liberal and feminist cause? If so, I expect she is wrong.  Of course, high toned indicates moral superiority, or at least a tone of moral superiority, or something that's just classy as hell. 

But, and this is a big but, it is a loaded term in reference to African-Americans, referring either to black people with light skin color, or slaves who accepted their masters' values and were dutifully loyal. Or just black folks who are classy as hell.

Just for good measure, Dowd also tosses in "kerfuffle" and "oldfangled."

 

On the serious side of the page we find gloomy Paul Krugman explaining why the world can't get out of the recession.  Blah blah blah.  He ascribes our political leaders' stupendous incompetence to a "dismal orthodoxy."  Hah! As you all know, economics is known as the dismal science.  Love it!

Good old naive Paul Krugman.  He still believes that if politicians knew the right answer they would act accordingly.  He just cannot accept that they simply don't care.