Busy Days
I have embarked on a mission. A long, challenging, difficult mission. By which I mean, I’m organizing all the files on my laptop.
Now, don’t get the idea that things are strewn willy-nilly across my deskto—music mixed with photos, professional docs tumbled together with financials, personal notes, memes, and so forth. No. Files are named for ease of keyword searching using mostly-consistent naming conventions. I have labeled sub-folders nested in a logical fashion within container folders. There is an administrative structure of a sort.
HOWEVER. That file structure has been through multiple system upgrades, multiple archive copies, and multiple machines since I last tidied my virtual office. Folder hierarchies that made sense a few years ago no longer matched my needs, which led to a breakdown in file-saving practices. Naming conventions drifted. Duplicate files and multiple versions proliferated.
Clutter. It’s not just for closets anymore.
I can always find what I need, but the time it took to hunt down older files, or less-regularly used ones, was steadily increasing—as was my frustration and anxiety. I faced the non-zero chance of irreprarably losing writing progress by modifying the wrong version of a file and later deleting or flat-out losing it.
And yet. The scope of the reorganization was daunting. I have rather a LOT of files. Graphics. Photos. Music. Ebooks. Multiple versions of multiple drafts of stories both published and unpublished. Scads of data from a decade-plus of publishing, not to mention all the personal documents that have moved into the virtual realm.
I’ve been procrastinating this task for months now. Possibly years. It was just too daunting to contemplate. I was avoiding some other chore on Sunday and decided to “move a few files and maybe delete some duplicates.” That’s how it always starts.
As of today, my virtual desktop is covered in piles of file clutter, but a whole new folder structure is in place, and I’ve cleaned up the majority of the duplicates and excess archive copies. I’m into the fun part now: moving files into the newly configured folders. Clutter magically disappearing. So freaking satisfying.
I can click on folders and know what I’m going to find inside. It’s quite exciting. (I live a quiet life, yes.)
AND I have rediscovered quite a lot of cool creations that have been lost for ages. They went into limbo when I saved them into the wrong subfolder, or named them something that made sense at the time but not later, and “out of sight, out of mind,” is a real problem for me.
So. My big lesson from all of this: it’s a good thing to sit down and look at All Of Your Things once in a while, even if it feels like it’ll be hard work. Wading through the mountains of material will yield than enough happy moments to make the effort of cleaning it up worthwhile.
I have done more since the last update post than just mess with files on my computer.
What, exactly?
Planted seeds, set up summer plantings, & engaged in other gardening fun. The lilacs are blooming, and the peonies are blooming already too, which is kinda freaky. I’m used to tehm being a June bloom.
Read Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse and Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney (both highly recommended)
Made reservations for future travel, did home and car maintenance and did sundry other Life Chores, including installing new tollway transponders & dragging all the window fans out of winter storage. It’s that traveling and fresh air time of year again.
Watched Conclave, the new season of Night Agent, and another season of Bones. Also started a weekly buddy-rewatch of Leverage: Redemption episodes with a friend. Three episodes a week will give season 3 plenty of time to finish before we catch up to it.
And yes, I am writing. Not much, it’s a matter of fits and starts and many digressions into timeline checks and character profiles. That’s still progress, and Tiny Box Of Chaos continue to entertain me. Nothing ready for sharing with anyone but Spouseman yet, but soon, I hope.
Next post I’ll have some yard pics for you. Until then, enjoy this pic of a wistful Pippin.
Look at that adorable kitty face. This is what greets me at the door when I get home from work. (Yes, my cat is tall enough to see out the window of the entry door. And tall enough to work the lever handle. This is why the door is kept locked at all times.)