Celebration Of The Randomness


Study in Unfinished Business

Every year, around this time, I and my little sister do some tedious amount of tidying up, decluttering and autumn-welcoming routines. The said routines include cleaning up our personal and shared workspaces, both physical and digital; online accounts tending after somewhat digital detox that is the passing summer; (mostly educational) resolution renewal before the “expiration date”; and finally action plan for the coming school-year.

I admit that I haven’t done my part in the physical world cleaning rampage, well, it’s not hard to judge after seeing this:

My messy room, at the ungodly hour of 4am My messy room, at the ungodly hour of 4am (reference: https://www.ted.com/talks/rives_on_4_a_m)

So, the celebration of randomness or The Randomness — what of it? After I did go through my meeting notes of the past year, some lecture notes, reminders recorded during and after various events, forgotten files, (web) bookmarks, real bookmarks shaped dog-ears, remains of my summer failures and some very sound screenshot advices, I was amazed by how random they were. It felt refreshing in a way, as if these all are doings from many different people, not at all connected to each other. Of course, when arranged by left time and related activities, the footprints or rather, handprints in this case, made sense; but we can appreciate randomness over sense once in a while, non?

That’s when this idea struck me: make lists of random (but useful) things found in different places, platforms and from different times. It could be fun and maybe creative way to get rid of your long-stored notes and long past due reminders all the while sharing piece of your world with your friends and creating content!

Here it goes.

7 random things I found in my workspace

  1. One of the hundreds of book recommendations I kept, but didn’t complete; I dream to build Mongolian version of BrainPickings with rock-star writers one day… @ Bookmarks, 2015.

  2. This one has been bookmarked for years, being my first donation to https://watsi.org/, and something of sentimental importance as a window to great design services some of which I have yet to use until now. @ Bookmark, 2014.

  3. Unexpectedly clear notes taken at one networking event with two engineers, many other networkers and some familiar faces. Strangely fun experience. Weird I never shared the actual note from the discussions with my friends or partners. @ Google Keep, 2016.

  4. A rubaiyat I tried penning down, or in this case, typing down. It virtually translates into: “Do not see with your own eyes; Do not see with the others’ eyes; If you can not “see” even with your eyes shut; Anything else will not help you, just do not see.” Originally posted on my Facebook, 2014.

  5. My partner-in-crime Lkhamsuren gave me this precious mag a while back. Now atop of my little desk, it cannot wait to be read!

  6. http://mongolianoutdoortravel.com/’s sticker on the back of my notebook because they are just sooo cool. This may appear random, but I tried re-illustrating their logo but to no success or aesthetics. Another unfinished business.

  7. TEDxNUM 2016 university-based local event took place on Oct 29, 2016 with the theme “Noosphere”. Beside its beautiful poster decorating my little door, TEDxNUM 2016 videos got stuck in the post-production state even as the next event is (hopefully) nearing in no time.

What started innocently as random findings in my workspace now turned into study of unfinished business. With the belief that admitting to have issues is the first step to fixing them, I am finishing off my first part of the Study in Unfinished Business series. Improvement, isn’t it?

P.S.: Thank you, Lkhamsuren, Aminzul and Badmaa for encouraging me to write (anything) recently. Your encouragement is truly appreciated.