"Sick of clutter." written by Tinypliny on estrip.org

10/16/10 03:52 - 57.ºF - ID#52959

Sick of clutter.

My flat is in a dreadful state of preventable clutter and it's annoying! There is always this small corner in my flat that has a big laundry box with piled up papers, journals, books and whatnots. I am determined to get rid of that pile today. I really like the idea of a floor level "bookshelf".

My floors are not grey but they are due for a thorough cleaning and polish. It's been 7 months since I polished them last.

tinypliny writes at 08:04:07 11/20/11 - Comment #66332: That is a really nice space.. How terrible. My corner clutter has built up ONCE AGAIN! AAArgh I made that floor level floating bookshelf work for about half a year and then I started throwing everything on top of it till it became a pile.

I think my floors are somewhat okay now - polishing them makes them very orangey but they need a clean up too. NO time till december end.

I don't like those chairs in that flat. I would sit on the floor near the windows with the low table. :)

tinypliny writes at 01:30:26 10/18/10 - Comment #58917: I would be in heaven if that was my flat!! Sadly, it is not.
Anyway, mission accomplished. I managed to get rid of every little sheet of paper that I won't be reading, gave away a zillion journals to the unofficial Mayflower basement freecycle, washed the grime off my keyboard, washed all the piled up dishes and scrubbed the sink, polished the floors so much that I think they are rather slippery now, populated a "floating" almost-floor level bookshelf with books that I will actually read, rounded up the books that I have always hated to be sold, packed up folders and old statistical methods notes to be given away, found (e:jbeatty)'s Lebanese cooking book that I never gave back (despicable me!), found a credit card that I thought I had lost and a cheque for $11!

Next weekend: Bathroom cleanup and polishing.

LOL, I guess this makes me sound psychotic, but you have no idea how much of a clutter a pile of random paper and cardboard can make. I guess this is part of how I get ready for a gloomy winter ahead - by making the flat so shiny that I can ignore the terrible weather even though I have no curtains. :-)

What I really want is the Philips LivingColours :::link::: but at $199, it's a bit too expensive to justify as a "winterizing" purchase.

dimartiste writes at 05:25:51 10/17/10 - Comment #58914: You would actually have a heart attack to enter my humble abode. I have years worth of paperwork to file (thankfully I already have the filing cabinets);Things that need to be gone through, thrown out and reorganized to my new thought processes. Beautiful flat BTW! Very neat and organized. Space as a great deal to do with your perspective. If you had a small closed flat with separate rooms your clutter would not be the same kind of noticeable. Your open floor plan makes the littlest thing out of order come to your attention. I was less curious about the rugs versus white chairs, how do you keep them White?

metalpeter writes at 10:04:45 10/17/10 - Comment #58906: great comment by (e:libertad) .... It sounds like what you need is One Filling Cabinet That could maybe be in like a corner or some type of thing to hold things you need but hide them away (I need about 7 of those).... Here is the thing that is odd. Books you read on the floor is clutter but books on the table displayed for people to look at or magazines in that half circle are part of home decorating.........

libertad writes at 06:59:27 10/16/10 - Comment #58905: Only pyschotics live in places like those. I like to have some clutter. Books on the floor?

Permalink: Sick_of_clutter_.html
Words: 81
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/16/10 03:54

Category: the odes

10/13/10 10:43 - 53.ºF - ID#52949

So what did you do today?

And now I just want to sleep for 100 hours.
Good Night.

Permalink: So_what_did_you_do_today_.html
Words: 14
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/13/10 10:43

Category: e:strip

10/10/10 08:27 - 59.ºF - ID#52932

The votes are in.

One of my three faithful readers thinks I sound like a super-boring, pedantic, self-aggrandizing and basically, obnoxiously patronizing prick on my blog.

Yes, thanks very much mum, for sharing all of that. Your honesty is refreshing.

Permalink: The_votes_are_in_.html
Words: 38
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/10/10 08:27

Category: i-tech

10/09/10 09:58 - 55.ºF - ID#52923

Classmate Tablet

What I really want is this. The design screams "Education!!" - like no other tablet can.

Plus of course, I want to able to toss the laptop on my desk in moments of frustration and not have to repent later. And how cool is that 180 deg swivel camera?!

So instead of this conversation:

Me: Mum, it's snowing here!
M: Really?
Me: Yeah! Look! *Twist Twist*
{Major twisting, silent cords tangling and..}
Me: Damn! Sorry. Unfortunately I cracked my LCD screen with the power plug. Let's talk later.

I could have this one:

Me: Mum, it's snowing here!
M: Really?
Me: Yeah! Look! *Swivel Swivel*
M: That is lovely! Are you wearing a sweater? I hope you are wearing a muffler. Did you have some tea? Are you eating well ... or anything at all? I can clearly see your bones sticking out.
Looks like you have a cold...
Me: Wait. How can you see all that when you are looking at the snow?
M: Don't change the subject.
Me: Damn! Sorry. The connection is awful. Let's talk later.

Permalink: Classmate_Tablet.html
Words: 179
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/09/10 10:13

Category: the odes

10/09/10 09:47 - 55.ºF - ID#52922

A little wicked wicket gate.

Completely annoyed with the new wicked wicker wicked gate that has sprung up blocking the small concrete path that leads around the LinNor building.

It was the only way to avoid jumping over or falling into the gaping holes of construction all around the North, N.Pearl and Franklin intersection.

Which means I have one more fence I really want to learn to jump.

And this time it's not even an option. I would rather jump this fence than strategize my way around and across a muddy slushy pit... and possibly fall in. The trouble is I am not sure jumping that fence is going to be easy to begin with, let alone jump with a long coat on or in the rain or snow - when that shortcut path REALLY helped. Damn you. LinNor.

Permalink: A_little_wicked_wicket_gate_.html
Words: 139
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/09/10 09:52

Category: music

10/09/10 08:40 - 53.ºF - ID#52921

Hackwave

Totally digging Pronobozo's electronic-D&B masterpiece - Hackwave right now!

Permalink: Hackwave.html
Words: 13
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/09/10 08:42

Category: the odes

10/09/10 08:20 - 53.ºF - ID#52920

Danbo

The Japanese have the weirdest obsession with crazy new toy concepts.

Meet Danbos.

Look at the quality of these boxes! Makes Amazon.co.jp that much cooler.

-- Photos belong to Randy Santa-Ana

-- What in the world is a Danbo?

Permalink: Danbo.html
Words: 57
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/09/10 08:20

Category: the odes

10/07/10 09:25 - 57.ºF - ID#52915

Crows on Linwood

A murder of crows is shrouding Linwood right now.

They are cawing up a frenzy. They have been fluttering around since the afternoon. I wonder if one of the baby crows has fallen out of a nest or if someone has died on the street.

1. Photo from

2. American Crows have a fascinating natural history

Permalink: Crows_on_Linwood.html
Words: 73
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/07/10 09:35

Category: the odes

10/05/10 09:55 - 47.ºF - ID#52904

Baking is sub-cellular alchemy.

Didn't you know?

My building management wants me
to freeze to death.
Can't feel my toes or
the tip of my nose.
My fingers are turning
a lethal shade of whitish-purple.

No. That's not Deep Purple or you know, Annie Lennox. It's just that weird fifth floor tenant in that corner building up the street from (e:PMT) - croaking to the tune of Die Another day. So in celebration of not being frozen already, I just read this on the fresh loaf:

I decided to revive my dormant Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail starter last week, so I had a lot of nice ripe starter by the end of the week on hand that I wanted to use up. I used an excel spreadsheet I made up for Flo's 1-2-3 sourdough to use up any amount of excess ripe sourdough starter, except in this case, I needed to increase the hydration since I was using all whole wheat flour in the final dough, so it became 1-2.25-3 bread (78% hydration final dough). The reason I made this as 90% whole wheat is simply because the excess starter I had was made up of about 25% whole wheat and 75% AP, so even though the final dough is all whole wheat, there is about 10% AP in the overall formula due to the large amount of starter

That is just so very confusing on so many levels. I am going to try and decipher all of this patiently. So Griffith made some kind of a sourdough starter from the yeast he collected from the Oregon trail? Back in 1847? And in 2010, exposure to these mutant yeast made thefreshloaf bloke use Excel for quantum calculations. He has an alter-ego Flo, who is learning to count at the kindergarten - obviously a Frog, by the sound of it. That much is crystal clear, thank you.

That's it. The rest of it is quite clearly in *that* cryptographic code taken from the most superficial crater on Jupiter's 10th moon. I think my fingers are too purple for wikipedia.

Permalink: Baking_is_sub_cellular_alchemy_.html
Words: 342
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 10/05/10 10:08

Category: the odes

10/04/10 06:38 - 47.ºF - ID#52897

Dilli heartbroken.

Dilli (better known as Delhi to most) literally means the "City of Hearts". But I doubt if any hearts are beating there this week after months of harassment of the ordinary Dilliwala. Endless construction, trench digging, random curfews, road blockades, military deployment on the streets and the obscene hubris and corruption of a parade of filthy, mean-minded, grubby and sadistically-selfish politicians have managed to wreck the spirit and soul of Dilli - something that centuries of British oppression couldn't even come near to doing.

The government, in its infinite wisdom, has poured more than $7.5 billion into staging this absolutely loathsome spectacle called the Commonwealth Games. And now it wonders why the average Dilliwala isn't buying the overpriced tickets to any of the games after paying out the entire $7.5 billion in super-inflated taxes.

So. $7.5 billion. $7.5 billion!!! Mind boggling. Corruption at various levels of politics made it possible for the venal government to pay out insane amounts of money like the $200 for each roll of toilet paper at the game venues and the $130 for each umbrella over empty seats in the sunlight. The list of excesses goes on till it makes a reasonable person nauseous - well, maybe not the person who actually paid the 40 cents for the TP and pocketed the rest of the $199.60.

This very same government refused to fund family planning and health services for Dilli because it argued that $5/person was clearly too astronomical an amount for something so trivial as healthcare.

I am heartbroken along with the millions in Dilli who are now wondering if they belong in the city at all. It is time for a revolution - rather like the ones the Frogs pulled off. But the question is does anyone have a heart and guts to bell the evil little political monster in Dilli anymore?

Permalink: Dilli_heartbroken_.html
Words: 301
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/13/12 04:28