here’s how i like to think about the words “use” and “utilize.” may this be helpful to you if you’re having a difficult time in choosing which to write or say.
use means that an item is employed for the purpose it was created (e.g., i’m going to use this toothbrush to clean my teeth)
utilize means that an item is employed not for the purpose it was created (e.g., i’m going to utilize this toothbrush to remove the fuzz from my hairdryer vent)
it took the parking lot attendants about 20 minutes of jiggling the steering wheel back and forth to inch my red car away from the gold car enough so that i could drive home from campus. we’re not sure how the gold car actually parked less than 2 inches from my car without scratching it (possibilites discussed: dropped from above with a crane, david copperfield made it appear, driver had been on call the last 24 hours and didn’t notice my car was there, etc.). we’re also wondering if he got out of his car through the trunk, since he couldn’t open his driver’s side door. it’s the first week of classes here and people are unusually desperate to find parking, but i never thought i’d see something like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgcC-FJ62Y
just opened an account at youtube. totally free, totally easy. when you upload a video you’re required to add metadata tags so it gets filed with similar videos (i heart social tagging!). i added the tags “jellyfish” and “aquarium” since the video i uploaded was of jellies from the monterey aquarium. once you add the tags it displays how many similar videos are already on youtube. it found 6475 related videos. that’s 6475 videos of jellyfish!
organization is a personal thing. one person’s messy piles of stuff are another person’s stacks of neatness. i, for example, have a hard time concentrating on a task if there are stacks of papers or books in my visual field. as a result, my desk is empty except for what i’m working on. people that walk by my office will often comment about how clean my office is; they don’t know it’s just the way i work best. i’m sure they think i’ve got ocd. meh.
the same is true for my email inbox. if i open my inbox and see a long list of emails i really don’t know what to do with myself. i mean, where do i start? at the bottom, top, or somewhere in the middle? it’s defeating before i’ve even started. so to help myself out i made a bunch of folders, and when i’m done dealing with an email i either drag it into a folder or i delete it. that means that what’s in my inbox needs my attention (i.e., i haven’t yet dealt with it). in this way it works as a task list because what’s in the inbox has to be dealt with, or the inbox gets more full. things also don’t fall through the cracks because it’s gotten missed in a long list of emails (how many times have you heard, “oh, i must have missed that one”?) – if it leaves my inbox it means it’s been considered. and when it leaves my inbox i feel a little sense of accomplishment (whatever gets me through the day, right?).
some people are more concerned than i am about keeping emails. i get so many of them that i tend not to be sentimental about them. other people save entire threads, even the emails that say, “ok” in response to a previous email. me, not so much.
i thought i’d write about this since a colleague recently told me that her new year’s resolution was to get better organized. maybe others have fascinating email filing techniques they’d like to share? if so, leave a comment.
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Thanks for pointing this nice informational site out, Librarian’s Internet Index (http://lii.org/)!
i recently viewed the art exhibit at the lacma, “magritte and contemporary art.” it is a wonderfully constructed show. john baldessari designed the exhibit area with wall-to-wall carpeting that mimics a theme in magritte paintings, sky blue background with white puffy clouds. the entrances to the exhibit areas have shapes cut out of the doorways that mimic a shape from a magritte painting. the docents wear derby hats.
the content of the show is nicely organized. in addition to the magritte paintings are the works that were inspired by them. on the wall next to the magritee painting, “personal values,” (a roomscape with objects all out of proportion: a giant comb laying on a bed, a person-sized glass standing in the middle of the room, etc.) is vija celmins’s untitled piece, a giant comb made out of wood and painted in enamel to reference the comb in magritte’s painting. for me, seeing these two pieces next to each other made the individual pieces more meaningful. there were nice surprises like this throughout the exhibit. all in all a lovely show, well worth a visit.
for more about the exhibit: http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx
