2001-07-26 - 1:49 a.m.
#84: No Need for Room Cleanup
Note to self: Looking at the previous entry and the entries before that, I notice that my use of grammar and correct spelling significantly improves when I'm not on ICQ. Plus, I actually make more sense writing in paragraphs in the latter than in the former, which sound more like a couple of single line phrases pasted together. O.o I do believe I'll stick to writing my journal offline from now on, and only connect to ICQ when I've actually finished so I'm not distracted and have to concentrate on more than one thread of thought in my head at a time.... Though it still doesn't help with the problem I have with meaningless metaphors. Like just now, where I was about to write "juggle more than one thread". How does one "juggle" a thread? It's a thread! You can't juggle it, unless it were all coiled up and it was made of some heavy material! And even then, it's just ONE thread. How do you juggle one of anything? You're just passing it from one hand to another! Okay, now I'm ranting about something completely ridiculous.... -_-;;;;
Well, after several days of doing nothing except trying to reset my bio clock, (all of which were doomed to failure thanks to a combination of Baldurs Gate 2, Deus Ex and Card Captor Sakura into the wee hours of the morning) I've decided to try and do something about the state of my room.... Since I spend most of my conscious (and unconscious) life here, afterall. So armed with a garbage bag and a recycling bin for paper, I viciously attacked all the mysterious piles of stuff that I'd accumulated around my room. And after a 5 hour concentrated effort, I have done it! The room now looks.... Almost the same as before. Oh well, at least I feel a little better now that I've put the piels of stuff into some semblance of order. But now, highlights of the cleanup! (You know I mustn't be doing very much if I'm forced to do a list about cleaning my room. O.o)
(1) I've managed to sort the piles of paper I've collected from all my years at university into four different piles, each year I've spent at university being represented by a pile. I managed to fit all these handouts/assignments/projects/labbooks (not counting textbooks, just material handed out and into engineering lectures) into two small boxes for future reference, should I ever need them. Three and a half years of education, all fitting neatly into 2 rather small cardboard boxes. It's somewhat depressing. They looked far more impressive when they were just random piles of paper scattered around the room. Now they're.... TRAPPED within the confines of two brown cardboard packing boxes. It's almost demeaning. But at least I can see the surface of my desk again....
(2) On the otherhand, using one of these same sized boxes, I managed to fit in four years worth of Craccum (student university magazine/newsletter) with room to spare. Which implies that four years worth of that is worth two years worth of University engineering education. Take that ratio for what you will. Me? I'm glad I wasn't in a position to be a Craccum editor. Those poor, poor saps.
(3) The amount of paper I've put into recycling is astounding. I've killed so many trees simply because I used an entire sheet of paper just to scribble something over the top, cross it out and never use it again because it's "soiled". Quite wasteful of me. On the otherhand, these small scribbles may offer me a small insight into what I may have been thinking on those fateful days when I was still a university student. But usually they don't. Most of the time, they're meaningless jumbles of numbers, words and calculations I decided to put to a scrap piece of paper rather than scribble over my neat report. I really wonder what I was thinking when I wrote some of the stuff I did.... There's usually not enough to reconstruct what I was trying to say. Except when I'm doing math problems longhand, those are pretty obvious. But as to the random words and numbers, I can't remember at all. It's kinda freaky.
(4) Finding neat stuff you've completely forgotten about is always cool when you're tidying up your room; but this time round, I really didn't find anything at all. :-( Which is a bit disappointing.... It's one of the biggest reasons to clean your room in the first place! I did find a box full of my old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figurines, but I kinda knew in the back of my mind that they were in the particular corner all along, so that doesn't count.... Also what doesn't count are the small pile of birthday cards and letters I found, but it was fun reading through some of them again anyway. ^_^ I should write them back someday, too. -_-;;;
(5) I've also accumulated a number of brochures, strange as that may sound.... Bank brochures, travel brochures, brochures from university etc. I think these piled up from stuff like invoices from the bank or university, or official newsletters and stuff. I really should have thrown these away a long time ago, I guess I just wasn't really sure what was important, or not.
(6) I have hardly touched my desk and bedside table drawers at all. Looked inside one, saw all the mess inside; closed it, mess disappeared. I'll deal with them later since they hide messy problems easier. ^_^
(7) And just to add pizazz to my bare bedroom walls, I've hung up the remainder of the anime posters I got from Melbourne. All two of them. But they're both Rurouni Kenshin, so that's good. I was planning to hang up the Kenshin calender I got from Armageddon, but that required me to tear off pages to reach a specific month and there was no way I was going to do such a thing to something I'd paid 20 dollars for (I think). The walls still look a bit bare, though. Strange how I never thought of decorative wallhangings until my fifth year of staying in Auckland. I must be REAL slow. O.o
And there you have it: The events of my exciting day, as started from 3PM in the afternoon because my bioclock is still acting stupid! If only it were as easy to fix as a normal clock.... -_-;;; Then again, my late night snacking and watching of anime probably doesn't help the situation much either. Nuts.
