Well Planned Life

We all like for things to run status quo.  Life is much easier when we don’t have anything to worry about.  But what if your desire for the status quo gets out of hand?  What if you constantly strive for things to be a certain way to the point where it debilitates a few areas of your life? Lately, I have been working on my issues with perfectionism.  To clarify, it’s not that I think I’m perfect (far from it!); rather I’m constantly striving for certain areas of my life to be a certain way.  I mostly do this in regards to myself and not where other people are concerned.  I don’t expect others to be perfect or to say or do the “right” things, but I expect my outcomes to be a perfect as they can be by following ridiculous rules that I create for myself.  Just exactly who do I think this will help?  The answer of course is nobody.  I may feel I’ve achieved something by doing things a certain way, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’...

Since Steve did a guest post on my blog today, it was a good time for me to do a post for someone else. My latest Philofaxy All Stars Blog Tour post can be found over at the SNARLing post . While you're there, please read her posts, as she has been a great influence on my latest planner decisions. Thank you SNARLing for allowing me to write a post for your wonderful blog.

Today we have a wonderful treat.  As part of the Philofaxy All Stars Blog Tour , Steve has written a post on what to look for when purchasing a digital camera.  I have always had an interest in taking a photography class, and being as he knows such much about the hobby, I asked him to do an introductory piece.  Check out Steve’s blog for additional information on all things photography, as well as other techie-type information. Choosing a Digital Camera Choosing a camera these days is quite a difficult task, not because your choice is restricted, but because the number of models for sale is very extensive, terms of price and quality. These days even mobile phones have cameras of quite reasonable specification compared to the first digital consumer cameras of say 10-12 years ago. Over the years specifications have improved and the prices have come down.   When choosing a camera we will all have a price band in mind, whatever that price band is there will be...

Readers! I have given my blog a facelift. There is a new layout—I have added some features and cleaned up the clutter. It’s a very minimalistic design, which I like when looking at blogs. If you usually catch my posts in a reader, I invite to hop on over to the blog site and take a look. Let me know if any links are not working or if there’s something else you’d like to see. Leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Hello all, As my first post for the Philofaxy All Stars Blog Tour , I have written a short piece over at Imysworld . I hope you all enjoy it, and while you're there, please check out Imy's posts - she has done some great YouTube videos and has a lot of suggestions for how to use your Filofaxes. A big thank you to the wonderful Imy for allowing me to be a guest blogger - it was a lot of fun!

After all the anticipation, preparation, and hype, Hurricane Irene turned out to be a dud in my neck of the woods. We did have quite a bit of rain and the wind has been whipping pretty good, but we never even lost electricity. Some areas saw more damage than others—downed trees, flooding, storm surge and the like. Some of these areas are only minutes from me. It’s strange how Mother Nature works. But I thank each and every one of you for your concern, whether mentioned here on my blog or on Twitter. In the last few days, with all the bad weather yet to come, I often thought about my favorite place to be. Well, if truth be told, I often think about it anyway. I had come up with an idea this past summer, that if I couldn’t be there every day (at least for right now), that I’d bring a bit of my paradise to me. While on vacation this year, I bought several postcards of Vermont scenery to use in my Filo. My stock of postcards. I punched each one with my Filofax personal punch. S...

Official hurricane flag. For anyone who doesn’t know, the US East Coast is bracing for Hurricane Irene . The drama for this natural occurrence is quite high around these parts. Of course we should all be aware, keep watch and prepare for it, but people were flocking to the grocery stores and gas stations before a track had been made official (and while they have a better idea of where the storm will hit, there is still no definite information). Some gas stations have run out of gas. There was no bread in the grocery store this morning. Batteries are all but extinct. I don’t think we’re facing anything like Hurricane Katrina , but here on Long Island, hurricanes are a definite threat, mainly because we are an island jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Our beaches have eroded quite a bit, and any big storm can cause a lot of flooding and even more beach erosion . In addition, downed trees and loss of electricity can be a problem for anyone. When forecasters noticed that Hurricane I...

Autumn is fast approaching, my favorite time of year, for many reasons. One of the things I look forward to is the return of my beloved television shows. Though I don’t watch much TV, what I do watch, I love. A couple of birthdays ago, I asked for a DVR as a gift. (Ask and you shall receive—unless it’s a Filo or bag.) I loathed paying the extra money for a DVR but my reasoning was simple: on the rare occasions that I do watch TV, I’d prefer to watch something I like rather than watching garbage simply because it’s the only thing on (hence the recordings of “ Family Ties ”). Of course, this is two-fold because although I can now watch what I like, I often try out other new shows I wouldn’t normally have tried because I record them and watch them when I have time. Enter the fall premier season . Each August, I write a reminder in my Filo to research the upcoming shows for fall—when they start, the synopsis of new shows, update my DVR spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet and I’ll expla...

…A classic concept of “put-together-yourself” products. A while ago (probably about a year or more), I had mentioned somewhere in the blogosphere that I saw what appears to be a Filofax in the 2010 Ikea US catalog. Now that I have a scanner, I can show you: Obviously, the page is meant to showcase the furniture, but my eyes fell immediately on the planner on the right side of the desk. (I kept this catalog all year so that I could look at it whenever I wanted to.) It’s hard to tell from the picture exactly what kind of planner it is. However, my guess is a Filofax. Here’s a close up: If you look closely, you can see the signature Filofax cream-colored tabs along the side. The thinness of the binder leads me to believe it’s from the slimline range, a size I have never seen with another brand. I can’t determine the model of the binder. The closest I came up with is a Pocket Slimline Topaz , but I’m not sure that this is right. The picture looks like the binder is more of the...

…Stays together. If only in the world of television. Confession: I don’t watch much TV, but what I do watch is a bit out-dated. There are current shows that I record with my DVR and watch when I have time. Then, there are older shows I record and watch when I’m doing things around the house—I have seen these shows before and can leave the room, return, and not have missed much. One of the shows that fits into this category is the 1980’s hit sitcom “ Family Ties ,” starring Michael J. Fox . When the show was on the air, my family watched it together. I was too young to appreciate Fox’s character Alex P. Keaton , as he’s very political, economy-driven, and a conservative republican . His idols were Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon . Back then, I thought he was a stuffy, annoying teenager who didn’t know how to have fun. (And at the age I was, my definition of fun was playing with Cabbage Patch Kids , Pound Puppies , and My Little Pony , to name a few.) Today, I can appreciate the charact...

After my last post , I am sure all of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering what my choices are. First, let me say that because of all the stress and anxiety I’ve been dealing with over the last year, I feel it’s important to cut back on my “must-get-it-done” mentality. I took a good long, hard look at my planner, what I use it for, the kind of information I keep track of, what I need it for, and so on. I wondered if there was anything I could remove from my planner to make my life a little simpler. The answer is yes. First, I noticed that I was keeping too many lists. While I love lists, this became a problem because I had several items on several lists, constantly moving things from one list to another, only to move it back to the original place. No wonder I was feeling a little disorganized and more than a little overwhelmed. How can I get done what truly needs to get done when I don’t know where it is? My past list set up: In my “Lists” section, I had lists for ...

So after my last post , I have been wracking my brain as to what inserts I should use, what information I can part with, and asking myself if I really need to keep all the information I do on a daily basis. I’m still working out the answers to those questions, and once I have figured them out, I will let you all know. In the meantime, I’ve been trying decide whether or not to buy the Compact Chameleon (as mentioned in the last post). I have heard, seen, and read cases both for and against the Chameleon. First, let me say that I have been hoping for a binder whose ring size falls between that of the personal and the slimline. The compact seems to be my answer. Of the current compact choices on the Filofax US website, Chameleon is the way I would go. The Luxe seems nice and may very well be. But I really don’t like it enough to spend the amount of money they’re asking. I have heard that there will be a Compact Osterly coming soon. But as far as I can tell, the US site doesn’t even of...