Order in my lists
I spent more of today thinking about family and friends than I had expected. No special reason related to the calendar, nor were there any communications with me from any of them. Instead, I was trying to probe the deep, mysterious depths of the contact list.
Part of my professional role is to test alternatives in software for my co-workers. After all, we shouldn’t be forced to have the same “outlook” as everyone else. I’ve had agenda software for years now, going back to the earliest databases on my trusty Kaypro, and one of my proudest print jobs ever was the telephone list in microprint produced with a font manager on a Gemini Star 10 dot matrix printer. Everyone I knew on a piece of paper no larger than a burger receipt, stored in a side pocket of my wallet; the original PDA.
I became a registered user of a product called Time & Chaos, which still runs, but the trying to keep up with version changes finally got the best of me. I resolved to memorize a certain subset of phone numbers and never call anyone else (that’s why some of you haven’t heard from me in decades – sorry!) But then along came email and programs that automatically added every incoming address to a sprawling list which was of only minor utility. Pressure to keep a calendar at work saw me with Thunderbird Lightning in two places and a bizarre “outlook” on other dates and times.
A rash purchase on eBay has left me the owner of an older Palm, which fits my older palm well. I try to keep it charged to allow the occasional game of Sokoban or Tetris, but the Calendar and Contact functions kept saying “try me, try me”. Now, I have. Or rather, now I’m “trying to, trying to”. You see, nothing is simple anymore.
Every calendar and contact manager I’ve tried has its proprietary manner for storing, importing, exporting and mangling my data. This afternoon, I succeeded in entering the majority of my mixed metaphors into the Palm and I am proud. Not enough to haul it out and stylus my way through the day, but my massaging of names and numbers reminded me that I don’t know enough about easily doing some tasks.
Now it’s time to resolve to organize. When I receive a new contact card, I will have one place to “enter and store same”. If you ask me for my own number things will be fine; it’s memorized. All others are now contingent on the charge state of an aged PDA.
