Friday, August 28, 2009

I would make a terrible bloodhound.

If my mind always stayed on target when I was involved in a task, I am sure I would be a much duller person for it. I've often found that when I ignore the gentle urge to digress when I'm doing something, I've shut out some potentially juicy information. This creates a dilemma for me.

Although undiagnosed, I am fairly certain that I have some sort of attention disorder. My mind constantly buzzes with new ideas, new ways to use them, observations, and the general jetsam left behind in the wake of my day. I've decided to combat this and make a fun project out of my mind's wanderings in two ways:
  1. I've become a bag lady. I often carry around a small notebook which allows me to record little snippets of thoughts I have throughout the day so that I don't have to interrupt what I am doing to follow a new lead. And sometimes I take the little brochures, cards or ads for events that relate to my digressions... making my purse an incredible collection of scrappy paper, haphazard notes on gum wrappers, and an assortment of writing utensils, making it impossible to find things when I need them-- like my cell phone. [I have also been known to carry around purple markers, after-dinner mints, and broken sunglasses which I think I might like to fix-- and yet often misplace my phone, ultimately driving my friends into a mild rage when we are trying to meet up for dinner.] Although, it does make cleaning out my purse feel like I'm treasure hunting-- every cloud has a silver lining, doesn't it?
  2. I've started this blog, so that I might organize my thoughts on at least part of the random but thoughtful tangents I have during the day.
Although the purse needs work, I like the idea of the blog more, and so will spend more time improving upon it.

Here are some of my current projects:
  • Watch every movie on AFI's top 100 list.
  • Post my books onto LibraryThing.com
  • Read the incredible amount of books that I have collected throughout the years but haven't read which I remembered I own after posting them on LibraryThing.com
  • Continue reading old civil war letters from the unpublished letters at the Historical Society.
  • Continuing Latin
  • Studying for the GREs
  • Learning Italian
  • Painting

So there it is. The world is my oyster, and information is my pearl.