News You Can Use (and so can they)

For those of you who remember Philly Expatriate's very funny troll for people who are looking for naughty things on Google, there's a new twist to the phenomenon.

Several years ago, my husband and I were in an excruciating long line (pre-9/11) that was moving so slowly we were worried about missing our flight, even though we'd arrived over three hours early. We were getting closer to the front of the line when from somewhere in the snakeline we heard a man raise his voice. "If I miss my flight," he intoned, clearly trying to reach the whole terminal, "I am going to put up an anti-USAir website!"

Even pre-9/11, flying was a little tense, and it was hard to stifle the snickers. This was SO early in the internet era, I'm not sure more than half the people in line even had access to the web. (We were flying to Seattle for a wedding, so maybe we were wrong. But at the time, the internet was still dominated by academe and silliness.) "Ooooh, an anti-USAir website!" we joked later. "So other nerds won't make the same mistake!"

But a few months ago on my blog I started noticing a little trend. I wrote about loving my wireless keyboard and mouse (which ended up causing way more problems than they were worth, but I didn't know that at the time) on a WFMW post. And next thing I knew, one of my comments included a link to a site that sold the keyboards. I didn't post the comment for a few days, debating how I felt about freebie advertising for a place I had no business dealings with. But I appreciated the ingenuity and posted the comment with a disclaimer.

Shortly after that, I had my cathartic Why I'm A Composting Dropout post, and expressed my frustrations with my Earth Machine composter and my complete inability to get the top half and the bottom half to actually stay together. And within a week, I had a very kind and deferential comment from the Earth Machine people, apologizing for my difficulty and giving me suggestions on how to (literally) get it together.

Turns out, that's just the next wave in internet marketing. Companies troll the web looking for complaints and rants that they can help fix online. Check out the news story on this phenomenon from the local news here.

I'm guessing the manager of my 401K isn't looking to try to make up to me online. But overall, I appreciate the companies who are going out of their way to be responsive to customers, even those who aren't complaining directly.

Anyone else have any luck like this?

WFMW--Wireless Mouse & Keyboard Warning & Tech Solution

Hey, WFMW folks! I've been out of the loop for some time because my computer was on the fritz. No one could figure out what to do. My virus protection found nothing, my spyware zappers were going aces, and yet I had all these strange things happening to my computer. If I hesitated in typing at all, the cursor would slide backwards in my word or sentence, sometimes jumping back to the start of the line, paragraph, or page. And my web browser and other windows couldn't "hold" a page, and with no prompting at all, or when I tried to click on something, would instead go back to the home page, or up a folder, until I was back at "my computer." When I called for tech support, they were ready to just reload my whole computer to start over.

Then I got lucky and mentioned it to an IT guy at work. "Hmm..." he said, "The sliding cursor sounds like a keyboard issue, but that's pretty strange."

Well. Thank you IT guy. I came home, unplugged my keyboard and wireless mouse, plugged in my old keyboard (which thankfully worked) and a new wired mouse (since my old mouse's death prompted me to buy the wireless ones to begin with). And suddenly, my problem that multiple techies couldn't solve, was completely gone. The entire thing works fine and dandy again.

Now that it's working, I have been able to do some research and have found that bluetooth devices can interfere with wireless keyboard and mouse systems, causing these exact problems. But in my long (over 2 months!) search for some assistance with this, not one tech person ever asked if I had a wireless mouse &/or keyboard.

I hope this never happens to you. But if you do have these issues, try a new keyboard and mouse first. I still miss my wireless for lots of reasons, but I missed my computer more. And cheap solutions work for me! What's working for other people? Check Shannon's blog to find out!

WFMW--Wireless Mouse and Keyboard.

Last Christmas, about the most ecstatic email I received after the holiday wasn't from any of the computer savvy young cousins, thanking me for the fantastic presents.

It was from my mother's college roommate. And she was SO EXCITED to tell everyone about her new wireless keyboard and mouse. They changed her relationship to her computer. She just loved them. And she highly recommended them as gifts to the geriatric set, since the elimination of the wires was helpful to pre-arthritic hands and easier to deal with.

Well, she had one over on me. I'd never heard of such a thing. But I was certainly intrigued. And as our computer grows wires like our dog grows fur (camera, iPod, Palm Pilot...) I loved the idea of eliminating wires. But I couldn't really get behind throwing money at this since I had a perfectly functional mouse and keyboard.

Sometimes, the universe listens to our innermost desires and provides. Our regular trackball mouse stopped going left. Well, it would go left, but it took about fifty vigorous clunk-and-drags of the mouse to make that happen. We tried everything--cleaned the mouse, cleaned the trackball, got out the qtips and alcohol, pluged it in to a different port...nothing. The mouse had reached the end of its days.

Enter the wireless mouse and keyboard. At first, I was just going to get the new mouse. But when I got to the store, I discovered a huge price range for them...and some of them weren't all that much cheaper than a mouse and keyboard. The Logitech Wave happened to be on sale that day, and I fell in love with how it felt on my hands and that it had a built in wristrest (one more thing off my desk!). So home it came.

I don't want to say it's perfect; there are one or two functionalities I miss or could live without (most notably, I can't click the wheel for faster scrolling, or if I can I haven't figured out how yet). But wow, for this stage in life too, the wireless is great. My boys are fascinated by the computer but can really wreak havoc sometimes by playing around with it. This way, if I'm, you know, going to the bathroom or something inconvenient while they are watching a Playhouse Disney thing, I can take the mouse and keyboard with me so they can only watch. It's been a great quality of life/peace of mind addition for me. And they can play with the old keyboard without harming anything and they like it since it's "real!"

That's what's working for me. How about you? And check out what's working for them at Shannon's blog this week.

Final Post (for the contest) on the Org Challenge

Well, here they are, the final photos for the challenge for this year. I ran in to some slowdowns after some initial good gains. Thanksgiving took more time than I thought. The busy time at my new job was busier than I dreamed and that took a toll on the time I could spend. And I'm willing to wait for the free furniture, which meant I definitely wouldn't finish by the deadline. But overall, I'm really pleased with the progress that was made, and it's easier to keep it clean than to get it there in the first place, so it was totally worth it. Thank you OrgJunkie! And please note the title: this is only the "end" because it's the end of the month. When we get the new shelves, etc., I'll repost for fun (and to keep me honest). Short answer questions below pictures.

Before: Remember the "teetering" shot?


After: No piles! Yay! Lapdesk? Donated. File box? Emptied, purged, recycled, refiled. Shelves? Eh, not perfect, but at least you can reach the books without bumping in to piles now. Toys are off the floor and in or on the bin over by the shelves (see next photo).







Before:
After: The shelves here are not terribly different, because the new shelves aren't up yet. But the humongous pile beneath it is much improved. Also, for those who were paying close attention, the sideboard piece is supposed to be gone, replaced by new-to-us shelves. It's still here, but it is totally empty and ready to be picked up by a friend who needs it in her dining room far more than I need it here. And, inspired by this purge, I also sent out that I am giving away a table and chairs and a glider; all will be gone to new homes where they are wanted and needed by next week. Hooray! (And please note door to laundry room is open so you can see I didn't just throw stuff in there either!)



Before: And, of course, my computer desk. Hard to believe I can even find the keyboard.





After: my favorite part, though the hardest to keep after, since I bring a ton of paper down here to transfer info at the computer and then get distracted by other fun stuff in cyberspace. Not terribly different from when my husband and I got the big head start earlier in the month, except our mouse died and so we have new wireless mouse and keyboard, eliminating two more sets of wires. Heaven.


Bonus pictures:
The new, improved file area, where I actually, you know, file things now. I purged about 10 bags of paper recycling from here, archived and coordinated files from consulting projects and volunteer activities, and slowly am purging over a decade of paperwork.


And the shelves. They'll never make House Beautiful, but they make my house useful, and I wanted to keep it real (yo). I still have filing to do. And the stuff on the shelves isn't particularly attractive, but all the games are together, the compuer resources together, the photo albums together, and directories, office supplies and scrapbooking projects all have their own zones now. I'm almost embarrassed to type that. But the room has been through so many changes along with the family that the old zones slowly deteriorated. This system should be one I can keep up with; it's working so far.





1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

Hardest part? Making the time to do it the way I wanted to do it. But it was a good lesson in transferring what I'm good at in my job (realistically chunking work in to do-able pieces) in to my home life (where I tend to like to do things all at once).

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Well, the people at Goodwill know my car when it's coming now. Hopefully I'll keep up with them.

I also used to keep a "project bag" for each activity I'm in (alumni interviewing, breastfeeding counseling, consulting project, reunion committee...). I purged all the bags and instead of just leaving them around have filed them away in the drawers so I still have the grab-n-go ability but without the mess.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

Most of it moved on (or is in process of moving on--see below) to somewhere else. Friends took all the extra furniture in this room (and more from elsewhere). The recycling bins at my church are extra full right now. A big box of toys went to the "child free" aunt & uncle to make their house more fun for small visitors. And did I mention the paper recycling?

4. Now that you have completed the challenge, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

Yes. My husband is not embarrassed at the way the room looks. I don't have agita when he comes down the steps, and it's less work to get the room ready when his family is coming.

6. Why do you think you should win the challenge?

I hate to shoot myself in the foot, but I don't even care if I win. I needed the push to finally get going on this and get it done, and I was happy to have the excuse. It's not done yet; the "new" shelves are our brother-in-law's old shelves, and they aren't ready yet; for free, I'm willing to wait. There is more purging to be done. I didn't even touch the stuff on the deep shelves since I'm waiting for the new shelves to come to reorganize those. But it was totally inspirational to do this with others in the same boat. I loved seeing others who were willing to let me in on their messes and sucesses. I got some great ideas reading about others. And I got to make my husband very happy in the process. I feel like I already won in the ways that matter most. (Though the prizes look great!)

And can I tell you--I learned a ton of new blogging skills from this too (like how to post pictures, place buttons, etc.) so that was also appreciated!

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BONUS: Don’t forget to show me a picture of your purge pile in the trunk of your car on its way out!! Biggest pile wins the awesome bonus prize!

Dude, I wish I'd known about this before! This isn't even my biggest purge pile! Gotta read more carefully.
What you see here in all its glory: six boxes of things that need to be returned to catalogs or mailed to gift recipients; four more bags for Goodwill; three bags of paper recycling from my filing binge; three French Hens (kidding, though who could know?); a tote bag of stuff that can go to my office at work; a bag of candles for Girlfriend to use in Christmas baskets for the church giveaways; and do you recognize the Bombay Company box from the Teetering picture? Say bye-bye! AND what you can't see is a tub full of toys that are going to my sister-in-law's to make her house more kid friendly (and what do you know--mine too, by extension!).

Many, many thanks again to OrgJunkie for hosting (and for the comments on my updates--that was unexpected and very kind!) and to everyone who participated, whether you stopped by or not, and whether I got to comment to you or not. Even typing this now, I'm cheered by the fact that at least 18 of you are so coordinated you were done and ready to post before midnight, and also comforted that I bet I'm not the only one racing the clock. See you next year, everyone!