While I was sitting in the patients family and friends room tonight, the 700 Club came on. The host of the show was talking about how many of us have forgotten the true meaning of Thanksgiving that it's not to thank the Native Americans but that it was first established by the president to thank the Lord for the country and all the things that make the country a great one.
For those of us that are not as religious I think Thanksgiving is expanded to thanking whatever we feel like is worth thanking. Friends, family, God, Buddha, or all that gave us strength and brought on some happiness. Could be our pets too.
This year, walking down the empty hallways of the hospital, I thought about the men and women in the medical profession. I still view the medical profession as one of the most respected and honorable fields to go into. How great it is to know that what you do each day directly makes an impact on someone else's lives? You relieve pain, you give comfort, you provide support to not only the patients themselves but also their circle of support.
Thank you, nurses and doctors everywhere. Thank you.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Surgery Date and The Waiting
5:01 AM, the non annoying sound of my alarm sounds. I was dreaming. Of what I can't quite recall, something with my mom and my brother in the same room with me talking about something. It's time to get up.
6:03 AM, we pulled into the parking lot.
Our arrival was announced through the entire hospital by my incredibly squeaky sneakers. Tried as I might to walk quietly the squeaking continues. Pop was wide awake already. He complained of poor sleep all night due to the snoring from his roommate. Which I have to agree, the gentlemen is rather loud. No wonder his son couldn't get much shuteye.
Two jackets did the trick to cover up the openings of the gown so that his bare ass and back are covered. He's not comfortable displaying the family jewels. Hell I would be too. Now that he's more modestly covered, we made our way down the hall, around the corner to the patient family room to make some phone calls. Pop called auntie and mom overseas to assure them everything will be okay and that we'll call after the surgery.
Almost two years later, we are again prepping for surgery to deal with pop's cancer. This time around things are much different. We had time to prepare for the battle adequately this year. The chemo, the rests in between, the time he had to condition his body to a healthier state should prepare him much better for the operation. Me too, I had more time to prepare. This time, I am not boarding a plane the day before the surgery, rushing from US back to Taiwan. I still remember that flight in 2004. The whole time on the plane, I was hoping we will not get delayed so that I can make it to the hospital in time to see pops before he goes under the knife. The doctor wanted to wait for me as well to see my dad. That was not comforting at all to know your father's doctor wanted to give you a chance to see him before surgery starts. As soon as I got off the plane, it was a mad dash to run to customs, praying that the lines were not long. I was already an hour late according to the scheduled operation time. Grabbing my luggage, finally headed out toward the gates to see who came to pick me up. Cousin Charles waved me down and after some pleasantry exchanges, he drove like a wannabe race driver, while calling my aunt at the hospital to inform her the pickup has been made and we are on our way there.
Not much conversation during the car ride. Hearts were heavy and really there's not much needed to be said at this point. Finally, when we arrived at the hospital, my uncle in law was waiting for me outside the hospital to usher me in, through the mazes to get to my dad.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped into that hospital room back in 2004 was how flushed my dad looked. His bloodshot eyes and his red face, a sure sign of his skyrocketing blood pressure. After dropping off my backpack and reassurance to my dad, I was rushed to see the surgeon. My aunt came with me this time. The surgeon came out of one of the OR rooms and still with his mask on explained how there are risks to the surgery, especially the stress that will be placed on his heart. He'll do his best.
With much fanfare, my dad was placed on the stretcher and along we go, the whole gang of his friends and family trailing along to see him off to the OR room. 2008, the trip to the OR was quiet in comparison. Just my brother and I with the nurses to escort him to the elevator. One short ride up to the second floor and it was time to see him off. I just said we'll be waiting for him on the third floor. He nodded and made a sound to indicate he heard.
Now we wait. The surgery was scheduled to start at 8:30 AM and last roughly 3.5 hours.
The wait begins.
6:03 AM, we pulled into the parking lot.
Our arrival was announced through the entire hospital by my incredibly squeaky sneakers. Tried as I might to walk quietly the squeaking continues. Pop was wide awake already. He complained of poor sleep all night due to the snoring from his roommate. Which I have to agree, the gentlemen is rather loud. No wonder his son couldn't get much shuteye.
Two jackets did the trick to cover up the openings of the gown so that his bare ass and back are covered. He's not comfortable displaying the family jewels. Hell I would be too. Now that he's more modestly covered, we made our way down the hall, around the corner to the patient family room to make some phone calls. Pop called auntie and mom overseas to assure them everything will be okay and that we'll call after the surgery.
Almost two years later, we are again prepping for surgery to deal with pop's cancer. This time around things are much different. We had time to prepare for the battle adequately this year. The chemo, the rests in between, the time he had to condition his body to a healthier state should prepare him much better for the operation. Me too, I had more time to prepare. This time, I am not boarding a plane the day before the surgery, rushing from US back to Taiwan. I still remember that flight in 2004. The whole time on the plane, I was hoping we will not get delayed so that I can make it to the hospital in time to see pops before he goes under the knife. The doctor wanted to wait for me as well to see my dad. That was not comforting at all to know your father's doctor wanted to give you a chance to see him before surgery starts. As soon as I got off the plane, it was a mad dash to run to customs, praying that the lines were not long. I was already an hour late according to the scheduled operation time. Grabbing my luggage, finally headed out toward the gates to see who came to pick me up. Cousin Charles waved me down and after some pleasantry exchanges, he drove like a wannabe race driver, while calling my aunt at the hospital to inform her the pickup has been made and we are on our way there.
Not much conversation during the car ride. Hearts were heavy and really there's not much needed to be said at this point. Finally, when we arrived at the hospital, my uncle in law was waiting for me outside the hospital to usher me in, through the mazes to get to my dad.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped into that hospital room back in 2004 was how flushed my dad looked. His bloodshot eyes and his red face, a sure sign of his skyrocketing blood pressure. After dropping off my backpack and reassurance to my dad, I was rushed to see the surgeon. My aunt came with me this time. The surgeon came out of one of the OR rooms and still with his mask on explained how there are risks to the surgery, especially the stress that will be placed on his heart. He'll do his best.
With much fanfare, my dad was placed on the stretcher and along we go, the whole gang of his friends and family trailing along to see him off to the OR room. 2008, the trip to the OR was quiet in comparison. Just my brother and I with the nurses to escort him to the elevator. One short ride up to the second floor and it was time to see him off. I just said we'll be waiting for him on the third floor. He nodded and made a sound to indicate he heard.
Now we wait. The surgery was scheduled to start at 8:30 AM and last roughly 3.5 hours.
The wait begins.
Monday, November 19, 2007
We Are In
This morning started at 6:01 am when my alarm sang out from my cellphone. Semi awake, I turned off the alarm and plopped back to the makeshift bed on the floor. 10 minutes later, my dad walks in and informs me it's 6:30 am, which I doubted immediately since I just fell back down into the warm blankets.
Ten more minutes, I snoozed. 20 more minutes later we were on our way to checkin at the hospital on this brisky, cold, Monday morning of November. Philly did not get any snowfall overnight, surprisingly. By 10:30, we were checked into the temporary room for the night. Liquid diet is to be followed for today. Some sort of a laxative was given to my dad to help him clear out the bowel. We have a roommate. An elderly gentlement who has gone through rounds of radiation and chemo and will be moving into a rehibilatory facility to help him regain strength of his muscles.
Good wishes were expressed throughout the day by phone from family and friends. Most of them said with assuring tone that everything should go smoothly. Were the assurance for them, for me, or for my dad? Probably for all of us. I know things will go ok.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Night Before
I was jolted out of my dream world by the the sound of my father's voice in the next room. The dream was something about playing cards with a bunch of co-worker/friends and then all of a sudden, we find out one of the friends died from something. Strange, but it's a dream so I wonder what does death signify, if anything?
My parents are conversing via GoogleTalk. The marvels of technology is truly convenient and cheap too. An one hour call between the States and China on mobile would've cost quite a bit. But with messaging clients, we can go on for hours.
Oh God.. very very disturbing image on TV. Duran Duran lead singer is wearing a pair of pants that's show casing which way he hangs. Righty eh mate? I don't care if you are a gorgeous Greek God, there's no need for anyone to see the silhouette of your nuts poking about the crotch of your pants.
Anyways... tis the night before check in date. Tomorrow we'll head to the hospital to check in for the surgery on Tuesday. I don't' know how anxious my dad is feeling, haven't really asked him. I am somewhat feeling detached. As if this is just another day to day routine. Perhaps it's my way of not getting too emotional.
It's an early day tomorrow. Time to head to bed.
My parents are conversing via GoogleTalk. The marvels of technology is truly convenient and cheap too. An one hour call between the States and China on mobile would've cost quite a bit. But with messaging clients, we can go on for hours.
Oh God.. very very disturbing image on TV. Duran Duran lead singer is wearing a pair of pants that's show casing which way he hangs. Righty eh mate? I don't care if you are a gorgeous Greek God, there's no need for anyone to see the silhouette of your nuts poking about the crotch of your pants.
Anyways... tis the night before check in date. Tomorrow we'll head to the hospital to check in for the surgery on Tuesday. I don't' know how anxious my dad is feeling, haven't really asked him. I am somewhat feeling detached. As if this is just another day to day routine. Perhaps it's my way of not getting too emotional.
It's an early day tomorrow. Time to head to bed.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Alarms and Dreams
I have forgotten the alarm on my cell was set for 6:01 am each day. Why the heck would I want to wake up that early? To remind my dad that he has to take his antibiotics. But, after rude awakenings this morning, that alarm has now been turned off.
Although it did help me preserve what I dreamed of this morning. Not necessarily good dreams. Visits of past memories that haunts me every now and then. What would've if things were different. The other dream was about driving in a little car, possibly the Honda Fit and accidentally scraping against a parked car by the side of the hill as I tried to squeeze pass them. Guess I, my car are not as slim as I'd thought. Immediately I got out of the car, rushed to the sorry vehicle that I rammed into. The scraping didn't' do much damage to the body. The metal left door panel on the sedan took all the heat. It was slightly indented but unfortunately enough so that the door can't really be opened. The passengers of the car were okay. An Indian woman and her mother was about to go somewhere. Not anymore, plans ruined and insurance companies were called to deal with the accident. Strangely, the next segment of my dream was like a 3 minute sales pitch of AllState using the story of how the insurance company took care of the lady so that she was better off than before the accident. I can't believe the dam commercials are getting into my dreams!! WTF..
Anyways... hmm it's already 4 hours since I've been awake. Skimmed some Black Friday ads and deal sites. Started back to scan more paper and toss things I really don't need to keep.
Purging is a good process for the psyche.
Although it did help me preserve what I dreamed of this morning. Not necessarily good dreams. Visits of past memories that haunts me every now and then. What would've if things were different. The other dream was about driving in a little car, possibly the Honda Fit and accidentally scraping against a parked car by the side of the hill as I tried to squeeze pass them. Guess I, my car are not as slim as I'd thought. Immediately I got out of the car, rushed to the sorry vehicle that I rammed into. The scraping didn't' do much damage to the body. The metal left door panel on the sedan took all the heat. It was slightly indented but unfortunately enough so that the door can't really be opened. The passengers of the car were okay. An Indian woman and her mother was about to go somewhere. Not anymore, plans ruined and insurance companies were called to deal with the accident. Strangely, the next segment of my dream was like a 3 minute sales pitch of AllState using the story of how the insurance company took care of the lady so that she was better off than before the accident. I can't believe the dam commercials are getting into my dreams!! WTF..
Anyways... hmm it's already 4 hours since I've been awake. Skimmed some Black Friday ads and deal sites. Started back to scan more paper and toss things I really don't need to keep.
Purging is a good process for the psyche.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
ScanSnap S510 - My New Love
Hmmm.... does it make me pathetic to call the sexy little black number my new love? Whatever, it's my life and if I decide the black and silver plastic mechanism is the one that captures my heart at the moment then so be it.
I waited impatiently for the UPS man to arrive with my package yesterday. As soon as the brown truck pulled along the side of the curb, I was out the door greeting the delivery man. First glimpse of my new office mate was quite exciting. Come to think of it, I should've taken a picture with the UPS man holding my spanking new ScanSnap S510, although he probably wouldn't have time to spare since this is holiday season and all - many more packages to deliver.
I want to clarify, this is a document scanner we are talking about.. not some other plastic mechanism. PG people.. PG...
Ah.. I was giggly when I first held my love. It's packaging was just about the same size as my XP Shuttle. Quite tiny. Once I safely carried it into my room, it was time to examine the goods.
Out came the instruction manual, the warranty card, the power, and then... behold.. the main prize - tada! My own super duper scanner. Bliss. Total bliss. I took several snapshots of this glorious occasion with my camera. These are the moments worth remembering.
Yes, Christmas has came early for me. If you are not troubled by the endless amounts of paper piled up in your office, in the endless folders crammed into the cabinets and desk drawers, you'll have little appreciation for any type of scanning equipment. If you are one of the lucky ones, this post will not be too interesting. But if you share my enthusiasm to reduce paper records, read on!
Gotten a little off track there, here we go, back to the magnificent machine.
There are several CDs that came with the machine, the Acrobat 8 Standard (with supported languages: Brazilian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, English, French, and German), the ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap 3.0, ScanSnap S510 Setup CD, and the trial version of Rack2-Filer V4.0. A little good follower of steps and procedures, I actually opened the manual and read the instructions to setup my ScanSnap. The process was relatively straightforward. Install the Acrobat, the ABBYY FineReader, the ScanSnap apps, and then plug in the scanner to the computer and power it on.
Once the little green button lights up, it was time to give it a whirl. Where to start? I have so many things to scan in. After a 10 second deliberation, I decided to tackle my medical files from several years back. Reading from other posts that staple holes sometimes can jam the feeder, I was careful to remove the staples from the pages and did a quick smoothing out of the punctured holes. Once my preferences for Scan button was set, it was time to scan.
Placed the document on the feeder and one press of the big, green button. Before I even had the chance to get out of my chair and do my happy dance while singing "Happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy joy!" the first page of my document was already scanned, sitting pretty in the designated folder, all ready for me to rename it to my liking.
Fast! So fast!
Within 3 hours, I think I've scanned and organized over 150 pages already. And 90% of that time was spent OCRing, renaming the PDF files, moving them to the correct folders. Pretty dam impressive. If I had to use my flatbed, I would've probably only gotten through 30 pages over that same period.
The OCR is great and the ScanSnap manager software is quite easy to use. The scanned documents using scan image 'Better' was good enough for me.
If anyone is looking for a document scanner, that's fast and simple to use, I highly recommend getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 (windows, for those in the Mac tribe, look for S510M). I purchased this scanner for documents only. For my photos, I will still stick to using a flatbed for the sole reason that not matter what, for photos, I do not like the idea of anything moving touching the photos.
Now, I just need to find a good place to safely store all my electronic data... that's for another day and another research project.
Invest in a good document scanner and be on your merry way to becoming clutter free!
I waited impatiently for the UPS man to arrive with my package yesterday. As soon as the brown truck pulled along the side of the curb, I was out the door greeting the delivery man. First glimpse of my new office mate was quite exciting. Come to think of it, I should've taken a picture with the UPS man holding my spanking new ScanSnap S510, although he probably wouldn't have time to spare since this is holiday season and all - many more packages to deliver.
I want to clarify, this is a document scanner we are talking about.. not some other plastic mechanism. PG people.. PG...
Ah.. I was giggly when I first held my love. It's packaging was just about the same size as my XP Shuttle. Quite tiny. Once I safely carried it into my room, it was time to examine the goods.
Out came the instruction manual, the warranty card, the power, and then... behold.. the main prize - tada! My own super duper scanner. Bliss. Total bliss. I took several snapshots of this glorious occasion with my camera. These are the moments worth remembering.
Yes, Christmas has came early for me. If you are not troubled by the endless amounts of paper piled up in your office, in the endless folders crammed into the cabinets and desk drawers, you'll have little appreciation for any type of scanning equipment. If you are one of the lucky ones, this post will not be too interesting. But if you share my enthusiasm to reduce paper records, read on!
Gotten a little off track there, here we go, back to the magnificent machine.
There are several CDs that came with the machine, the Acrobat 8 Standard (with supported languages: Brazilian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, English, French, and German), the ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap 3.0, ScanSnap S510 Setup CD, and the trial version of Rack2-Filer V4.0. A little good follower of steps and procedures, I actually opened the manual and read the instructions to setup my ScanSnap. The process was relatively straightforward. Install the Acrobat, the ABBYY FineReader, the ScanSnap apps, and then plug in the scanner to the computer and power it on.
Once the little green button lights up, it was time to give it a whirl. Where to start? I have so many things to scan in. After a 10 second deliberation, I decided to tackle my medical files from several years back. Reading from other posts that staple holes sometimes can jam the feeder, I was careful to remove the staples from the pages and did a quick smoothing out of the punctured holes. Once my preferences for Scan button was set, it was time to scan.
Placed the document on the feeder and one press of the big, green button. Before I even had the chance to get out of my chair and do my happy dance while singing "Happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy joy!" the first page of my document was already scanned, sitting pretty in the designated folder, all ready for me to rename it to my liking.
Fast! So fast!
Within 3 hours, I think I've scanned and organized over 150 pages already. And 90% of that time was spent OCRing, renaming the PDF files, moving them to the correct folders. Pretty dam impressive. If I had to use my flatbed, I would've probably only gotten through 30 pages over that same period.
The OCR is great and the ScanSnap manager software is quite easy to use. The scanned documents using scan image 'Better' was good enough for me.
If anyone is looking for a document scanner, that's fast and simple to use, I highly recommend getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 (windows, for those in the Mac tribe, look for S510M). I purchased this scanner for documents only. For my photos, I will still stick to using a flatbed for the sole reason that not matter what, for photos, I do not like the idea of anything moving touching the photos.
Now, I just need to find a good place to safely store all my electronic data... that's for another day and another research project.
Invest in a good document scanner and be on your merry way to becoming clutter free!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Stress
Stress can come in many forms and fashions. Devious little things.
Recent family drama upped my blood pressure a bit. The mantra "breathe, just breathe, calm down...think of happy things..." is repeated over and over, that and flashes of Xena videos pops into mind, noticeably distracting me.
I never got how people can relieve stress by shopping or eating, but I think I do now. It's a way of release some pent up energy. All that explosive feelings gotta go somewhere! I didn't binge eat, but I did decide to treat myself and make the most expensive purchase I've made so far .. I stress so far.. this year .... *drum rolls*.... one Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 coming right up!
Pretty pissed I'd say when I found out the Amex MyWishList is not offering Amazon coupons cuz I passed up the Newegg.com deal couple weeks ago when they had the ScanSnap with $50 rebate. But, I guess the S510 model is going to be replaced soon because the $50 dollar rebate is back again! So after much deliberation and rational justification to myself about how it'll save me so much time when I can scan over 15 ppm vs 1 with my current 6 years old flatbed, get rid of most of the paper and the stacks of magazines sitting there collecting dust, the credit card whipped out and the Finish button was pressed to send my beloved Fujitsu into my open waiting arms. The purchase for my latest office gear was made at 1 am this morning. I wonder how fast my lovely will get to me..
It's amazing to find kindred spirits through the blogs. There are many of us out there that feel the need to scan and keep keep documents/articles/magazines... and the best part is that I'll be able to search through them once they are OCRed!!! Now that's cool. I can't wait to see how well the OCR will pick up the scanned magazine pages. I will pace myself and start with 30 pages of scanning a day. That should be around 3 minutes of scanning and then possibly 1 hour of renaming the documents. Ahh.... about 1 thousand pages to get rid of... would take me roughly 35 hours? Not bad at all! Under 2 months I should be able to get rid of 80% of the paper. Sweet!!!!!
I feel better now.
Recent family drama upped my blood pressure a bit. The mantra "breathe, just breathe, calm down...think of happy things..." is repeated over and over, that and flashes of Xena videos pops into mind, noticeably distracting me.
I never got how people can relieve stress by shopping or eating, but I think I do now. It's a way of release some pent up energy. All that explosive feelings gotta go somewhere! I didn't binge eat, but I did decide to treat myself and make the most expensive purchase I've made so far .. I stress so far.. this year .... *drum rolls*.... one Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 coming right up!
Pretty pissed I'd say when I found out the Amex MyWishList is not offering Amazon coupons cuz I passed up the Newegg.com deal couple weeks ago when they had the ScanSnap with $50 rebate. But, I guess the S510 model is going to be replaced soon because the $50 dollar rebate is back again! So after much deliberation and rational justification to myself about how it'll save me so much time when I can scan over 15 ppm vs 1 with my current 6 years old flatbed, get rid of most of the paper and the stacks of magazines sitting there collecting dust, the credit card whipped out and the Finish button was pressed to send my beloved Fujitsu into my open waiting arms. The purchase for my latest office gear was made at 1 am this morning. I wonder how fast my lovely will get to me..
It's amazing to find kindred spirits through the blogs. There are many of us out there that feel the need to scan and keep keep documents/articles/magazines... and the best part is that I'll be able to search through them once they are OCRed!!! Now that's cool. I can't wait to see how well the OCR will pick up the scanned magazine pages. I will pace myself and start with 30 pages of scanning a day. That should be around 3 minutes of scanning and then possibly 1 hour of renaming the documents. Ahh.... about 1 thousand pages to get rid of... would take me roughly 35 hours? Not bad at all! Under 2 months I should be able to get rid of 80% of the paper. Sweet!!!!!
I feel better now.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Fujitsu ScanSnap Reviews
Thought I share a list of reviews written by people who actually uses it:
One extremely detailed entry on how the Fujitsu ScanSnap cleared up his paper world. But oh, there's lots more, keep reading the comments below the article and you'll discover options about backing up files and one mega paper cutter:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/11/06/palimpsest-guide-mostly-paperless-life
Workflows using ScanSnap
http://www.43folders.com/2007/10/23/fujitsu-scansnap-workflow
ScanSnap
http://www.gordonmeyer.com/2007/11/my-paperless-of.html
MacWorld's review
http://www.macworld.com/2005/12/reviews/fujitsuscansnap/index.php
ITReview's review
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1034.htm
Another review by a Mac User
http://www.noendpress.com/vroman/review/fujitsu-scansnap-S500M-review.php
Sold on it yet?
One extremely detailed entry on how the Fujitsu ScanSnap cleared up his paper world. But oh, there's lots more, keep reading the comments below the article and you'll discover options about backing up files and one mega paper cutter:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/11/06/palimpsest-guide-mostly-paperless-life
Workflows using ScanSnap
http://www.43folders.com/2007/10/23/fujitsu-scansnap-workflow
ScanSnap
http://www.gordonmeyer.com/2007/11/my-paperless-of.html
MacWorld's review
http://www.macworld.com/2005/12/reviews/fujitsuscansnap/index.php
ITReview's review
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1034.htm
Another review by a Mac User
http://www.noendpress.com/vroman/review/fujitsu-scansnap-S500M-review.php
Sold on it yet?
Friday, November 09, 2007
The Quest for the Ultimate Document Scanner
Moving, packing and unpacking should be ranked up there as effective ways of torture.
Truly everyone can agree that faced with any of the above tasks, you'd rather scrub the toilet, clean out that fridge, or even sit down and schedule all your bill payments for the next month. Having done all three gruesome exercises multiple times within the last 3 months, I have come to a decision that, really, I can do without a lot of things. Call it an epiphany or perhaps I am just sick of lugging stuff around, but seriously there's just too much stuff!
Oh the big items are the easy ones to deal with to organize.. but what about all the trinkets!! All the little pieces of memorabilia that I have collected over the years, ticket stubs to movies, Broadway show programs, letters (yes the good old pen and paper type), cards, yearbooks, magazines with articles that I believe I'll read again, what about those! Where do you put all that! Add to it, the records. Those dam records, I can't throw them away and they weigh a ton, easily taking up half of my small room. Organizing documents is one of the most time consuming (yet, sadistically satisfying) task which I've spent countless hours on. Scanning pages after pages into PDF format so I can get rid of the paper copies.
My little Umax Astra 3400 flatbed scanner has served me well over the years, hmm, has it been over 5 years? nevermind that, but it just won't do anymore. With all the advances in paperless billing, one would think the amount of paper received through the mail would be tremendously reduced -- Ehhh, wrong! Now more than ever, the paper just keeps on coming. Scanning using a flatbed simply takes too long. I need something with an automatic feeder to help me scan all the pages in quickly. Thus, brought me to another research project - find the ultimate affordable document scanner.
Fujitsu ScanSnap is one of the models that came up in my searches. Call it affordable is a stretch if you are on my budget of currently unemployed. But the thought of being able to scan duplex, 16 pages a minute has my mouth watering. Think of all the time I would save not having to flip open the flatbed scanner lid, place the paper on the glass plate, close the lid, click several buttons and wait for PDF to finish creating the 2D version of my document. 3 minutes later, viola.. finally I can shred the original. To persuade myself that, yes, the $ tag on the ScanSnap is worth it, I went on the web to search for reviews by actual users. I trust the blogs more than official so called product review magazines. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of entries and the quality of the entries. It's always a pleasure to find good, informative writing. For example, the following entry by a blogger:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/11/06/palimpsest-guide-mostly-paperless-life
I just need to order to the thing and get on the track of becoming even more paperless. Two boxes, that's my goal. That's the limit I want to place on keeping actual physical documents. Everything else should be PDF and OCRed so I can search using full text later on if needed.
Truly everyone can agree that faced with any of the above tasks, you'd rather scrub the toilet, clean out that fridge, or even sit down and schedule all your bill payments for the next month. Having done all three gruesome exercises multiple times within the last 3 months, I have come to a decision that, really, I can do without a lot of things. Call it an epiphany or perhaps I am just sick of lugging stuff around, but seriously there's just too much stuff!
Oh the big items are the easy ones to deal with to organize.. but what about all the trinkets!! All the little pieces of memorabilia that I have collected over the years, ticket stubs to movies, Broadway show programs, letters (yes the good old pen and paper type), cards, yearbooks, magazines with articles that I believe I'll read again, what about those! Where do you put all that! Add to it, the records. Those dam records, I can't throw them away and they weigh a ton, easily taking up half of my small room. Organizing documents is one of the most time consuming (yet, sadistically satisfying) task which I've spent countless hours on. Scanning pages after pages into PDF format so I can get rid of the paper copies.
My little Umax Astra 3400 flatbed scanner has served me well over the years, hmm, has it been over 5 years? nevermind that, but it just won't do anymore. With all the advances in paperless billing, one would think the amount of paper received through the mail would be tremendously reduced -- Ehhh, wrong! Now more than ever, the paper just keeps on coming. Scanning using a flatbed simply takes too long. I need something with an automatic feeder to help me scan all the pages in quickly. Thus, brought me to another research project - find the ultimate affordable document scanner.
Fujitsu ScanSnap is one of the models that came up in my searches. Call it affordable is a stretch if you are on my budget of currently unemployed. But the thought of being able to scan duplex, 16 pages a minute has my mouth watering. Think of all the time I would save not having to flip open the flatbed scanner lid, place the paper on the glass plate, close the lid, click several buttons and wait for PDF to finish creating the 2D version of my document. 3 minutes later, viola.. finally I can shred the original. To persuade myself that, yes, the $ tag on the ScanSnap is worth it, I went on the web to search for reviews by actual users. I trust the blogs more than official so called product review magazines. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of entries and the quality of the entries. It's always a pleasure to find good, informative writing. For example, the following entry by a blogger:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/11/06/palimpsest-guide-mostly-paperless-life
I just need to order to the thing and get on the track of becoming even more paperless. Two boxes, that's my goal. That's the limit I want to place on keeping actual physical documents. Everything else should be PDF and OCRed so I can search using full text later on if needed.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
November
A bit startled to see my last post was practically a month ago. Oh well there goes that resolution to blog more often. Not that I don't have much thoughts, it's just that I don't log it. So what transpired in a month? Hmm.. not so much different, moved, unpacked, packed, unpacked, reorganized, oh yah that reminds me, I should make a Target run tomorrow to get some bins for my Anthro. Hmm.. that's a good idea.. eBay, wonder if there's anything there that I can add to my Anthrocart collection. If there's a way to paint the top layer of the Anthrocarts that'll be even better. What is that part called, laminates? Is that it?
Where was I? Oh yes, what happened.. same old, trips to hospitals, visiting my dad's friends and then unpacking, stock market cursing and basically just watching. A lot of research done on stocks recently, my views of the imminent correction is coming back again, but I've been wrong many times before. Most of the cash will probably just sit there, gathering dust, and then I'll finally be overcome by the urge to trade and then buy at the top of the peak, THEN, only then will the market come tumbling down. Maybe I'll cry then.. who knows. I've only cried over stocks when I was on margin. Yah, the foolish days of youth, margin is a no no .. whoever invented that concept was probably a relative of Satan, or might just be the old devil himself.
Other researched items are bicycles. Getting a bike is on the top of my list right now. "Why! It's winter you nut!" one might be screaming, yes, I know it's winter, thus the frugal me wanted to see if there are any closeout sales to save a buck or two. One thing I overlooked in my scheme to not get ripped off, was the fact that I am not within the normalized range of the bell curve. My height and stand over height (ie.. pubic to floor measurement) is on the short side. Unfortunately for me, most of the US population is above 5' 5". It's really hard to find bikes that fit me. We are people too you know!!!!!
So that's what's been happening. Very exciting, I know. I am living it.
That's about it. There, isn't it amazing, 1 month of activities summed up in several paragraphs. Maybe my biography won't be that hard to write after all. For one, I don't recall most of the events that happened less than a year ago. Two, not much transitioned through the years. Well, I think I've gotten much more cynical. That should be the interesting part to write about.
Where was I? Oh yes, what happened.. same old, trips to hospitals, visiting my dad's friends and then unpacking, stock market cursing and basically just watching. A lot of research done on stocks recently, my views of the imminent correction is coming back again, but I've been wrong many times before. Most of the cash will probably just sit there, gathering dust, and then I'll finally be overcome by the urge to trade and then buy at the top of the peak, THEN, only then will the market come tumbling down. Maybe I'll cry then.. who knows. I've only cried over stocks when I was on margin. Yah, the foolish days of youth, margin is a no no .. whoever invented that concept was probably a relative of Satan, or might just be the old devil himself.
Other researched items are bicycles. Getting a bike is on the top of my list right now. "Why! It's winter you nut!" one might be screaming, yes, I know it's winter, thus the frugal me wanted to see if there are any closeout sales to save a buck or two. One thing I overlooked in my scheme to not get ripped off, was the fact that I am not within the normalized range of the bell curve. My height and stand over height (ie.. pubic to floor measurement) is on the short side. Unfortunately for me, most of the US population is above 5' 5". It's really hard to find bikes that fit me. We are people too you know!!!!!
So that's what's been happening. Very exciting, I know. I am living it.
That's about it. There, isn't it amazing, 1 month of activities summed up in several paragraphs. Maybe my biography won't be that hard to write after all. For one, I don't recall most of the events that happened less than a year ago. Two, not much transitioned through the years. Well, I think I've gotten much more cynical. That should be the interesting part to write about.
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