Pet Peeve: Tangled Phone Cords

That’s right. tangled phone cords is a pet peeve of mine. The first thing I do when coming into work in the morning is to check my desk telephone cord.  If it’s tangled, I MUST unplug the cord from the headset and untangle it.

I think this little pet peeve of mine stems all the way back to my younger years before the times of cordless phones. I remember my mom having a super duper long telephone cord so she could basically walk around the house at leisure chatting on the phone. In fact, I often recall times where my sisters and I would play limbo and jump rope with the telephone cord while my mom was in conversation. Let’s just say that things did not get pretty when we accidentally landed into the phone cord instead of jumping over it 🙂

Clutter Begone

About a year ago, I realized the overwhelming amount of clutter that surrounded me. My desk had loose paper here and there, keys out and about, stacks of CD/DVD disks piled in various configurations. Basically, I just had too much stuff!

Then, I read some articles 43Folders in which Merlin Mann talks about his own war on clutter.  Based upon Merlin’s recommendation, I got a copy of It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh.

Now that we are in the midst of selling our home and moving, the clutter has brought itself to the forefront.  One of the first things I have done is to prune the bookshelf by selling off a lot of books to Powell’s [hat tip to Unclutterer: Bringing your bookshelves back to order]. Even with that, I still had a full bookcase full of books that I will move with me.

Also, having a kid will definitely multiply the clutter if things are not kept in check. Another thing I started doing a while ago was to either take a digital picture or scan of my son’s artwork. This way, only the ‘keepers’ would stay and the rest would be tossed.

However, there is a big looming monster over my head that needs to be confronted and that’s the filing cabinet. Sure, I implemented some GTD (Getting Things Done) techniques to file things right away, but now I have way too much stuff in those folders. Time to toss those old credit card statements and utilities bills.

SYTYCD Tool

I am completely out of touch with the current music scene because the only way I get new tunes is via watching So You Think You Can Dance. All I can say is Forever by Chris Brown Rocks!

7 Random Things

7 Random or Weird things about me:

1. I started martial arts in second grade, taking lessons at the gym of a local elementary school. After years of Tae Kwon Do, I started chinese contemporary wushu.  One day, I noticed my grandma watching me practice the staff in the backyard. Later that day, my aunt tells me that my grandfather used to also practice and train the staff.  She tells me that he was able to jump on top of the roofs in their village with his staff. I wish I still trained in the staff…
2. For a person who often posts things on the internet, I am very paranoid about sharing personal information online. I know, it’s a weird love and hate relationship.
3. I am a bit anal retentive regarding my own routines. Sometimes when things go out of whack or slightly off course, I get a bit agitated. Example, I am pretty anal about GTD and keeping my action lists up to date. I take pictures of high ticket items to store for personal home inventory. I track finances down to the penny. I am paranoid about data backup and have over 1 terabyte worth of disk space for my computer alone.
4. I am always researching something.  I mostly read non-fictional works and will research for weeks before making a purchase.  I have become the ‘go to guy’ for gadgetry and other things related to technology.
5. I love podcasts and audiobooks. With a 1 hour commute to work, I try to make the best use of my time. Roughly 90% of the time, my iPod is playing either a podcast or audiobook.
6. I like to dance and will throw down with the young-ens 🙂 In my early teens, I was all about the running man and kid’n’play kickstep. During high school and college, I was a raver and it was all about poppin and liquid glides.  Recently, it’s ballroom dancing. At a family wedding about 2 years ago, I was called out by a younger cousin. I went out into the middle of the dance circle and put all the kiddies to shame.. heheh 😉
7. Anytime the Karate Kid is playing on TV, I will watch it. This drives my wife crazy! 🙂

The coffee phase out

Last week, I decided I would slowly phase out coffee from my diet. Back in college, I was a coffee junkie. After graduation, I rarely drank coffee and would sometimes partake once every couple of weeks as a social team outing.  After the birth of my son, coffee has kicked in full force due to constant lack of sleep. Now that my son is three, I have decided to cut back on the coffee.

I was going to do the cold turkey thing last week but decided against it when I began feeling drowsy during my 50 minute commute to work in the morning.  So I caved and bought a small coffee with some donuts to boot.. yumm 😉 The following weekend, I picked up a small can of coffee to tie me over.

This week, I have cut down to prepping about 3 cups of coffee every other day for my morning commute. I used to do 4 cups of coffee (completely fill my coffee mug). So far, so good. Not too many headaches and with the weekend approaching, this will mean 2 more days without coffee.

My goal next week is to cut down to 2 cups of coffee every other day, followed by 1 cup of coffee every other day the following week. This means by New Year’s, I should be coffee free. Yeah!