Prototype of a Person

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving learning Yoga poses on the Wii Fit (video). I’ve always had an interest in yoga but was wary of it’s pseudo-spiritual side. Yoga on the Wii Fit removes the unnecessary parts and concentrates on deep breathing and stretching. The balance board that comes with the game tells you if you are in the right position, to make it as effective on your muscles as is possible. The Wii is teaching me well, because I’ve even started doing some of the poses without it, just to relax. I’ve also been enjoying the really fun balance games and exhausting aerobics. Hating how I managed to pull a muscle in my leg by overdoing it in the muscle exercises section, clearly I haven’t gotten to that stage yet.

Loving taking artsy Polaroid photos with the packs of film my GF got me. I’ve been trying to turn each and every picture into a mini work of art for my bedroom wall. There’s something very pure about Polaroid photos, it’s almost as if they are the antithesis of digital. With my digital camera I can take 1000+ photos and it’s fine if a high percentage of them are a waste. But with a Polaroid camera you must compose the picture so carefully, because the film has become so rare and expensive, so taking great photos is far more difficult, yet much more satisfying. Next, I’m going to start scratching to create even more art. Hating that Polaroid is no longer producing the film and that I might have to give up this new hobby sooner than I’d like.

Loving writing stories and notes into moleskin notebooks. Ever since I bought a Filofax last year I’ve been enjoying the freedom of jotting down random useless thoughts (and some useful ones) onto paper, rather than typing them out. I’ve gone a step further and further into geekdom by picking up some moleskin notebooks, they remind me of school copies, but cool. I wrote a small draft of this post in one. Just like taking a Polaroid there is something so wholesome about the act of putting pen/pencil to paper. I also love the slightly cut off corners, it makes the paper feel unworldly. Hating how expensive they are, astronmically expesnive in comparison to standard notebooks.

Which invention has helped you most with your working life?

Another Science Week submission…

The Filofax

I’ve given up searching for the perfect electronic organiser or PDA and rather than continue to struggle with my data being scattered across wall calendars, notebooks, post-it notes, smart-phones, my laptop, my desktop in work etc., What with going back to college and working full time I’ve had to make sure that I am very organised, so I’ve recently started using a Filofax. It is a godsend.

I don’t have to worry about charging or syncing my Filofax. I don’t have to worry about the screen cracking if I drop it. I didn’t have to spend hundreds of euro on a device that would only partially suit me and would be replaced in 6 months or so by a slicker and better value for money piece of kit. Really the only worry I have is that my writing might not be legible after jotting down notes on a speeding bus. Although, now that I think of it, I wouldn’t mind if I could put some kind of password or lock onto it, to stop a certain someone trying to figure out what she was getting for Christmas.

My favourite feature of my Filofax is that there are no constraints to what kind of data that I can enter. As I am writing this I realise that it’s strange to apply these types of observations to something that is, on the most basic level, really just paper and pen. No matter how advanced technology has become nothing can change how satisfying it is to quickly jot down notes and drawings or doodle stars and Santa Claus around your daily calendar entry for December 25th. Simply being able to do anything I want (if I can draw it, or stick it, it’ll end up in there) is very productive for me.

It is the built-in software constraints that are there to stop users making mistakes that have stopped me from really embracing any kind of electronic organiser. Nothing exists that can imitate the physical aspects, the tactile sensations and visual guides that I employ. For instance, multicoloured page markers (flags) - the different colours represent different important events. They are physically placed to open the appropriate page, and they also indicate when similar events are taking place over a certain time frame (importantly though, this information can be discerned without flicking through the pages). Even something so simple like being able to put an already written post-it note straight into the Filofax saves me time during my day (be it in college or work). Sometimes I like to jot down quick notes about a project I’m doing, these are usually really messy (but yet very organised at the same time) mind-maps and diagrams. I am a very visual person and I like my data to be visually appealing - I can’t use pink, green and blue highlighter pens in a PDA now can I?

A really great addition to my Filofax has been a template I created in Microsoft Word to print out pages of information (timetables etc.,) that will fit, and also a Filofax hole puncher so I can place the pages perfectly. So no, I haven’t turned my back on technology all together (as if!).

You can read the other submissions to this competition here.