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I have a new desktop on my computer.  The Wolvog set it up for me, giving it an enticing beach background so I’ll want to show up for work each day.  He placed two layers of passwords on the desktop, so it’s a pain in the ass to get in or out of it.  Which is why I now tend to stay put once I go to work.

Up until this week, I worked from this desktop.  I can swipe right and get to the document I’m working on, or swipe left and get to my email, and it makes me feel like I’m on top of everything.  Actually, that should be past tense.  I thought I was on top of everything until I realized that the only thing I was on top of was my email inbox.

I commented on this at the end of a long day where I had written very few pages but had kept my inbox at zero because… well… email is usually pretty easy and writing is hard.  But don’t worry; I didn’t just waste my time with email.  I can access music or movies through this desktop, so I listened or watched for a few minutes as a reward.  (For accomplishing nothing?)  I can get to every social media account from this desktop, so I checked in with Twitter and Facebook several times.  My feed reader is on this desktop, so I read all of your blogs.

The Wolvog suggested that I set up a distraction-free workspace.  A space with Internet access in case I need to look up a fact but is never logged into email.  A space with just the documents I need for the project I’m working on, and no other documents to peruse to waste time.  A space with nothing but my work.

It’s like being told that I need to eat oatbran for every meal.

But he set it up and made it look pretty and imported all the documents I need and none of the bookmarks I want.

As much as I don’t exactly enjoy hanging out in that space, it really has changed my work habits.  I now check my email in the morning and then “leave for work,” commuting over to the other desktop.  I set my phone across the room so I can’t easily check into email without leaving the workspace.  And, as I said, he has made it a pain in the ass to exit or enter so I tend to stay put.  Every hour or so, I quickly check email from my phone and only log out of my desktop to answer one if it’s time sensitive.  Other than that, when I’m at work, I am really, truly at work.

I have no willpower.  I admit that I have no willpower when it comes to email, blogs, and finding 80s commercials on YouTube.  But I have a new workspace, so it’s all going to be just fine.

I am fairly resigned to the fact that data is collected about me every time I use the internet, make a purchase, or walk down the street.  Even if we are resigned, we should still talk about this topic and understand the choices we’re making as we trade off privacy for convenience.

I loved a repeat Note to Self episode this summer (that I missed the first time around) featuring the author of Data and Goliath, Bruce Schneier.  If you missed it, too, you should set aside 19 minutes today to listen.

Even though he claims that no one reads the Terms of Service (uh, I read the Terms of Service), I really liked some of Schneier’s ideas; namely, that we should all do fake searches from time to time which will become part of the data files information firms are keeping on individuals.  So these firms will know what you do like, but they also will be confused because in between real searches for real items or articles, there will be fake searches for items you don’t want or ideas you don’t support.

After the episode, I went and Googled shoes that I not only didn’t want but would never wear.  Sure enough, Facebook started showing me ads for those shoes as well as others like it.  I laughed and laughed, feeling like Vizzini in The Princess Bride, though if I take a step back and truly consider the situation, Facebook is probably more akin to the man in the mask, which means… checkmate.

But still, it is interesting to think that we can control how much the firm really knows.  That we have some power in this equation.  Yes, possibly more trouble than its worth, but I’ll still throw a fake search in from time to time.  Now excuse me, I need to go look up hair care products for blondes.

Does it bother you to think about how much information is collected about you on a yearly basis, or do you not really care if someone has assembled a list of facts about you?

The twins’ school sends out a daily grade report so you can always see their grade on each assignment as well as the overall grade in the class.  Once upon a time, I looked forward to report card days because I had no clue how they were doing in class.  But now report cards are somewhat meaningless because I’ve been getting daily spoilers through the whole marking period.

I guess it’s a good idea if your child is likely to not hand in homework.  But the numbers and letters feel a lot like site stats, another thing I don’t like to check more than four times per year.  I want a general sense of how things are going, but the focus on concrete numbers makes me feel anxious.

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When I was in middle school, my dad promised to buy me the entire Sweet Valley High series if I could get straight As.  If I couldn’t, I could get the books one at a time with my own babysitting money or wait for birthdays.  Oh, and by the way, I couldn’t.  So I never got the series delivered to me in a giant stack.

Poor me.

I was telling the twins this, wondering if my dad would still buy me the Sweet Valley High series if my kids’ got straight As.  Was the offer still valid if fulfilled by the next generation?

“What is Sweet Valley High?” the ChickieNob asked.

What is Sweet Valley High?  Are you kidding me?  It is THE guide to how to behave in high school.  What if you suddenly became as rich as Bruce Patman or Lila Fowler?  You would know that you’re supposed to sneer at nerds and drive a fast car.  What if someone offered you drugs?  DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM REGINA MORROW’S HEART ATTACK?  What if your best friend’s boyfriend just got his pilot license and says, “Hey, want to go on my first solo flight?”  The answer is no.

Everything I needed to know about high school I learned from that series.  Was it garbage?  Yes.  Yes, it was definitely garbage.  But it was my garbage, and I loved it so much.  I still buy copies if I see them at used bookstores.

Did anyone else read Sweet Valley High?

Truman is walking again.  He’s not only walking again; he’s getting up on his hind legs to beg for cookies, skipping around happily, and (of course) fighting his arch nemesis, rake*.

A few weeks ago, we looked over at Truman and Josh said, “Is he on his feet?”  Yes, he was standing on his feet, though he stumbled when he tried to take a step forward.  A few days after that, he started moving a few inches at a time.  Then he started walking slowly and wheeking again.  Then he started running and jumping.  And finally, he started getting up on his hind legs to beg for cookies.

Why did he suddenly start walking again?  We have zero clue.  We have no idea why he stopped walking, and we have no idea why he started walking.  Did the medications take weeks to work?  Was it the new vitamin C tablet he started taking each morning?  Was the whole thing a ruse to get more cuddles?

All I know is that I’m glad I have my pig back.

* Rake is a blue, plastic sand toy that he loves to pounce on and bite.  He’ll creep up on rake and then take a flying leap so he can knock it a few inches, but then run away terrified when rake moves.  Rake is his sworn enemy, second only to water bottle whom he hates with all his heart.

If you’ve read this blog for longer than, let’s say, a week, you know that I often write about my extreme fear of forgetting or losing things.  For the last few years, I’ve found a work-around with bullet journalling.  I write down everything from books I want to read to a name from high school that randomly popped into my head to things I must accomplish.

My bullet journal also contains a monthly page where I write the stuff that I know will make me anxious if I ever forget it or can’t find the information quickly.  For instance, at this time last year, I was apparently very concerned that there would one day come a time when I would not remember my favourite Key and Peele sketches, so I wrote down the names of each sketch along with Google-able terms in case I wanted to find them in the future.  I also listed the twins’ MAP-M and MAP-R scores because I always liked to have quick access to those numbers when they brought home the next set.  And I apparently wanted to remember, forever, that I like backgammon.

Don’t judge.  The system works.  At the very least, it calms me down.  Moderately.

Anyway, I was very intrigued by Wonder Bot, which is a bot that can remember anything you tell it and then recall that information when you need it.  For instance, every time you meet someone new, you could tell it to remember some details about the person.  And then years down the road when you bump into someone and can’t remember how you know them, you could ask Wonder Bot and it would spit back out the results.  I love my notebooks, but they aren’t searchable.  When I’m trying to remember something that I know was once written down, I have to flip back through every page.  The Daily Dot calls Wonder Bot a “text-based memory bank.”  Which sounds like the most amazing thing in the world.

You know, except for all the security issues.

Because right now I’m working with pen and paper.  Sure, someone could steal my notebook if they really wanted to know where we went on that walking tour in London. (Clerkenwell!  I always forget the name of the neighbourhood, so I wrote it down so I could remember.)  But that somehow seems less likely than hackers breaking into cloud data or a computer.  And while I would use Wonder Bot to remember things such as the name of the restaurant we hung out at in high school (Booeymongers!), I’m going to bet that others would use it for sensitive information.

Though it’s really really really tempting when you think about how easy it would be to send what amounts to a text message and know that information could be recalled for eternity.

What do you think of Wonder Bot?  Would you use it?