Data Overload
Month by month, I have increasing difficulty with an overload of data. Case in point: I just purchased a digital camera for myself and Anna. It will be great to have a photo-record of our life at this time, trips we take, etc. But, getting that record is one thing (a rather simple thing with the amazing features of current digital cameras). Organizing that record into a form that is at all useful is quite another. We just finished a trip to visit my grandparents over Christmas (along with touring Williamsburg, VA and nearby historic sites), and came back with around 400 images. All dated and of great quality yes, but with useless names, and completely unorganized.
I imported them all onto my computer quickly, no longer worrying about storage space, as I have a relatively immense amount and can obtain more easily. Having gotten even this far is much better than nothing. But, I still need to rename all of the images to useful titles and organize them in folders thematically (or do so with an organizational program), to be near a point where I can repeatedly view and use those images with ease.
This is similar to the problem I face with the piles of papers and notebooks that I have collected over the years and now wish to digitize. Some of these contain thoughts and ideas that either I believe to still hold value in themselves, or which would minimally be instructive in developing an understanding of how my thought progressed to its current state. But to be such, I would need to normalize and order them.
Additionally, the same conundrum arises on an everyday basis, with an annoying additional issue. I now record thoughts and observations in a variety of digital locations, from Google Docs to Yahoo! Notebook, etc. These too must be unified and ordered to be of use. Now, however, that I fully recognize this problem, my thought is hampered by approaching its solution. I spend time thinking about how to better organize and catalog my records, and this takes away from the time I would otherwise spend thinking of and creating those records.
More on possible solutions next.
I imported them all onto my computer quickly, no longer worrying about storage space, as I have a relatively immense amount and can obtain more easily. Having gotten even this far is much better than nothing. But, I still need to rename all of the images to useful titles and organize them in folders thematically (or do so with an organizational program), to be near a point where I can repeatedly view and use those images with ease.
This is similar to the problem I face with the piles of papers and notebooks that I have collected over the years and now wish to digitize. Some of these contain thoughts and ideas that either I believe to still hold value in themselves, or which would minimally be instructive in developing an understanding of how my thought progressed to its current state. But to be such, I would need to normalize and order them.
Additionally, the same conundrum arises on an everyday basis, with an annoying additional issue. I now record thoughts and observations in a variety of digital locations, from Google Docs to Yahoo! Notebook, etc. These too must be unified and ordered to be of use. Now, however, that I fully recognize this problem, my thought is hampered by approaching its solution. I spend time thinking about how to better organize and catalog my records, and this takes away from the time I would otherwise spend thinking of and creating those records.
More on possible solutions next.
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