Saturday, January 05, 2008

If I wanted a Tube map, I'd live in London

I've just sat here for fifteen minutes trying to remember what I've done today; which at least accounts for fifteen minutes of it, I suppose. As for the many other minutes between 9:30am and now... Erm, pass. I suppose this must be why people write diaries. What did I do today, they must ask themselves, and there it is, helpfully transcribed. That must be nice. Ah, yes, they must exclaim, that's what I did! Of course. How could I have forgotten? Wrote in my diary. Brilliant, I can get on with the rest of my day now.

At least, not having one myself, that's what I imagine people with diaries must do in such circumstances... (my failure to keep one is longstanding, and often quite literal - I gave away the one I got this Christmas). And if I did have one, I'd only open it to the relevant page and find the words Forgot to write in diary, or something. That sounds like the kind of stupid thing I'd write. And then instantly forget about. Oh, look what that says, I might think, that can't be right. And then lose whole days to pondering the inherent paradox.

Which reminds me: intentionally blank pages in exam papers! That's a bloody cruel trick to play on a philosophy student. I once spent half an exam thinking it was just a particularly obtuse question.

What?

The exam was on intentionality.

Anyway, diaries. That's exactly what would happen if I had one, I'd innocently wonder what I'd done all day and the next thing: paradox. I can't remember half of what I do with my life anyway, without some diary making things worse! And come to think of it, who do they think they are? Calendars, without the pretty pictures! Anally retentive notebooks!



Tsk! Stupid, stupid inventions.




[Woo! It's fun being grumpy :) ]

7 comments:

Sean McManus said...

I think diaries are more useful for recording appointments and remembering what you're going to do.

The problem with diaries is that all the boxes are the same size and some days you want to record in hundreds of words and preserve forever, and others nothing much happens. You're better off with a blog.

We can't lose the tube map, though. It's traditional. I'd be happy to see a Nottingham tram map or Cornwall bus map added on the previous pages though, if that makes you feel better.

Taiga the Fox said...

I have nothingness to add.




...
oh, how is April going over there?

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Taiga:

Something prompted me to turn over the calendar last night, so it's September 2007 here now - I've always liked The Hallucinogenic Toreador. Oh, and thanks - Finnish nothingness is always that little bit more expressive :)

Sean:

Yep, I've had diaries explained to me before (and calendars), but still can't quite bring myself to use them properly... On the odd occasion I try to get organised I tend to just turn to post-it notes and phone alarms. Organise me, I scream at them, as they mock me with their stubborn impassivity. Damn things.

Or not.

As for Tube maps in diaries...er, well, the whole post was just me being gratuitously grumpy really. When I was a little kid, I quite liked the Tube map - totally mystified me. What were these nice colourful lines, I wondered. Mustn't whatever they were a map of be hellishly busy and confusingly labyrinthine?

[Insert own answer to that one]

Taiga the Fox said...

Erm, the British sound clip of nothingness was nice, but bit cryptic, though.

Have you noticed that when you now already live in September 2007, Not 4'33" lives in November 2007? I'm quite excited to see what happens when your time zones collide. Of course let me know beforehand when that happens, because I'm usually everywhere two hours early.

Emily said...

I have an appointments diary. I need one else I never have a clue what I'm doing when and where, which meetings, court dates, jack dates etc etc. Even with a diary i manage to double book myself frequently - which may imply that the diary isn't as effective as I thought it was to begin with. But it feels like it helps my sanity and that has to account for something!

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Oh, I meant to mention this post when I saw you, Em. It really was me just being grumpy for the fun of it. I get why people use them... but something has never quite clicked in me when it comes to either diaries or calendars.

Mind you, if I actually had anything to organise :)

emapple said...

Hey, being grumpy's great.

I remember all the diaries i used to keep where I'd start the first two weeks of the year anally filling pages and then trying to work out the dilema of whether I wrote what I was feeling on a particular day or whether I should catch up with all the days I'd missed. As always, I'd end up doing neither as I couldn't figure it out.