{"id":25447,"date":"2012-01-16T10:53:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T17:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=25447"},"modified":"2012-01-16T10:53:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T17:53:25","slug":"on-rats-and-packing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/16\/on-rats-and-packing.html","title":{"rendered":"On Rats and Packing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Office moves are FUN!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve started packing in earnest for my impending office move in mid-February. \u00a0Though I’m going to a “real” office for the following six months, in August I’ll be moving (with the rest of the office, from grunts to VPs) into small cubes.<\/p>\n

The rule passed down is that they will only be moving 6 standard book boxes. Everything else needs to be gotten rid of, taken home, whatever. \u00a0And having now done support work for the folks who have already done moves into the new cube farms, I can appreciate that 6 boxes of “stuff” will be more than enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Phineas J. Whoopee is my hero.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am something of a pack rat. I tend to hold onto stuff that either (a) I can imagine wanting to reference in the future, or (b) has some emotional resonance to it. \u00a0Since nostalgia counts for emotional resonance, items in column (a) have a tendency to also drift over into column (b).<\/p>\n

Obviously, my clutter of “stuff” has to be gone through in detail and packed, and I’ve been doing multiple passes and throwing a lot of files into the recycle bin, and carting a lot of things home. \u00a0But now that I’m a month away from the actual first move, and have my hands on the actual six boxes to pack — I’m getting into hard decision territory.<\/p>\n

Take files. We’re being encourage to scan files that are needed, or package them for offsite storage. Most of my files, though, don’t lend themselves to the latter, and the former is time consuming. \u00a0The problem is, a lot of the files in question have become nostalgia items for me — files for big projects I’ve worked on, org charts that list names of colleagues of days gone by, performance review and hiring docs for everyone I’ve ever reviewed or hired. \u00a0Some of them exist electronically, but I’m not 100% certain of that. \u00a0A lot of them are of problematic future use, but once thrown out they’re gone forever<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
For all that I hate doing expense reports, you'd think they'd be easier to throw away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Expense reports. \u00a0I have a copy of every expense report I’ve ever filed over the 25 years I’ve worked with the company. \u00a0Hell, I have expense report data that’s been purged from the company’s financial records as unnecessary. \u00a0But for me, they provide a view on travel — oh, yeah, I remember that trip … hey, that was the one time they sent me to the Netherlands, which was kind of cool … oh, that was a stone bitch of a meeting …<\/em> — that my own memory doesn’t readily cue up.<\/p>\n

Mugs. \u00a0I have long had a collection of mugs in my office. Some were work-a-day mugs with fun messages that I migrated to the office over the years. \u00a0Many were mugs from various business units I’ve worked with (or that we acquired), making them a small history book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
What good is life if you aren't surrounded by hilarious coffee mugs?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve been hacking at both groups of mugs unmercifully. \u00a0If I love it dearly enough to want to keep at home, I’ve packed it for home (and very few of those; our supply of mugs in the basement could supply a small restaurant). \u00a0Mugs for business units — I’ve trimmed those back pretty ruthlessly to some key ones. \u00a0The rest, of both categories, I’ve fobbed off to the “communal mug cabinet” in the break room, where they will both serve useful lives and may be seen by me in the future.<\/p>\n

Some things I simply can’t throw away, but have to take home. \u00a0My wall art, for example — we took some big pieces home over the weekend, and I’ll be bringing smaller pieces home on my lap on the train the next few weeks. \u00a0My collection of Justice League action figures, though … ugh. \u00a0They have to come home for the time being; I’m 98% there will be no space for them in the New Office Order.<\/p>\n

The question on both of these, though, is … what do I do with them at home? \u00a0It’s not like we have a surplus of wall space dying to be filled, or empty shelves for the action figures. \u00a0But I hate to stash it all up away in the basement …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
It's NOSTALGIA time!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then there are really hard decisions.<\/p>\n

I got this pencil holder from my kids after my first year of teaching. It’s ugly, and heavy, and has a huge chip missing from it, and is nearly useless for purpose … but it’s a huge plaster-and-bright-paint blob of sentiment.<\/p>\n

Do I take it home and find room for it there? \u00a0I can’t afford the space in my cube-to-be? \u00a0Or do I go ahead and toss it and rely on this photo now as my memory? (I’ll probably take the first course, for the record, but it’s this kind of thing that’s driving me nutty.)<\/p>\n

Jim and Ginger have been going through their garage bays over the past couple of years — including boxes of stuff that Jim brought home from jobs in the past, some decades old. \u00a0I really want to avoid doing that in my basement in twenty years, too … but there is stuff I want to be reminded of …<\/p>\n

Another factor is the utility of the items. \u00a0Is this something I’ll ever really need to use? \u00a0<\/em>I’ve grown more pragmatic at home about getting rid of stuff, as “easy” storage space runs out. \u00a0I very much need to become more<\/em> pragmatic about it, to be sure. But I’m very much trying to apply that lesson \u00a0to these boxes of stuff at work.<\/p>\n

It’s painful. But it’s a good thing, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve started packing in earnest for my impending office move in mid-February. \u00a0Though I’m going to a “real” office for the following six months, in August I’ll be moving (with the rest of the office, from grunts to VPs) into small cubes. The rule passed down is that they will only be moving 6 standard … Continue reading “On Rats and Packing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-job-jollies","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/coffee-mug.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128137,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/22\/the-universal-new-yorker-cartoon-caption.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":0},"title":"The Universal "New Yorker" Cartoon Caption","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Sep-15 7:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which, for a variety of personal reasons, is a hell of a lot funnier now than it would have been six months ago. A New Caption That Works for Every 'New Yorker' Cartoon And it's not \"Christ, what an asshole.\" View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31131,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/05\/are-we-there-yet.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":1},"title":"Are we there yet?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Nov-12 6:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's XKCD (http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1130\/), \"Poll Watching\". (Hover caption: \"The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on Nate Silver's blog!\")Google+: Reshared 1 times Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/19\/less_with_moore.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":2},"title":"Less with Moore","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Nov-02 6:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Spinsanity has another fine skewering of Michael Moore and his film, Bowling for Columbine. Putting aside Moore's claim to be in it for the humor, the column points out the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32847,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/elvis-has-left-the-building-cosmic-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":3},"title":"Elvis has left the building (cosmic edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Mar-13 10:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Worth clicking through to the cartoon just to read the ToolTip caption. \u00a0(h\/t +Amy Shira Teitel)Reshared post from +Jason MajorLOL @ this. ;-)(Via\u00a0http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1189\/) View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11836,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/23\/moving_tips.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":4},"title":"Moving tips","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Jan-08 10:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"A great set of Lifehacker\u00a0tips for things you want when moving: Labels. Whether you use a fancy pants labeler or marker on masking tape, label every single box, bag, and...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10745,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/07\/lofty_accomplishments.html","url_meta":{"origin":25447,"position":5},"title":"Lofty accomplishments","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Jul-07 4:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Woot! With the Ks coming next week (with Kitten), the Big Plan is to do some major work in the Old Guest Room to turn it into the New Katherine...","rel":"","context":"In "Home Improvement"","block_context":{"text":"Home Improvement","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/home-improvement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}