On MOOP, journaling, and Passions

[learnteach]

At Burning Man, one of the very interesting and very useful concepts is MOOP: Matter Out Of Place. It's not trash, necessarily, llthough it often is. It's not being disorganized, per se. It's leaving things out where the playa will play with them, dust them, blow them away, turn them into trash. In a LNT (Leave No Trace) environment, MOOP is bad. Getting a handle on MOOP makes life much easier.



I, and a number of my friends, are overcome by MOOP. It's a very common thing now to have Too Much Stuff, no place to put it, etc. And managing your stuff is a major life commitment: manage it, or watch your money (which is another form of time/energy) rot away.

Anyone who moves quickly realizes there's too much stuff. Even organized people who move generate stuff. And it's MOOP if you're not taking care of it. When the piles intermix and intermingle, it becomes thought and energy needed. When one is low energy, it's tough to deal with.

Projects generate MOOP if you don't control them. Any good passion is MOOP-y if you're not careful, if you have many demands on your time, if your space is limited and your passions not.

Me? Passions everywhere. In no particular order: Make a Wardian Case, grow carniverous plants, make a glass tryptich to St. Teresa, learn aikido, install the new windows in the house, make whirlygig art, build several wooden men, put storage in the attic, organize the books...

But the passions? Carniverous plants. Learning to make better pickles. Fresh Salsa. Skilled movement, on motorcycles, dance floors, in dojos.

Journaling. This journal is too public; it is published. Incomplete thoughts put here will be judged, and questioned. Only complete thoughts can be put here; livejournal has evolved into social networking and away from idea journalling.

Some random thoughts for the day.

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

And the editing I do or do not do in mine on any given day has *nothing* to do with the fact that some other people might read it. I figure that anyone who is reading it wants to do so, so they will be fine with whatever state the words leave my keyboard...

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

There's a "Just Me" option under the "Show This Entry" To bit. I've even been known to use it.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

"live journal has evolved into social networking and away from idea journaling"

Yes, it seems that way. And now so many people are moving into Facebook, and I regret that it feels like the personal conversation aspect of it is fading away.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Small subgroup friends lists on LJ have solved that issue for me.

The MOOP thing is well put.

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

An acronym I can use - MOOP. My problem with mess in the house isn't specifically mess. It's (a)when I need to clean I need to reach surface areas and (b)the inability to find things. That last one is big since everyone comes to me when they can't find something.

I think I'll get a smidgen less grief if I replace the phrase "tidying up" with "getting rid of the MOOP".

I'll let you know - this could be a big win for me. :-)

"Reducing MOOP"

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

seems to be the win...it's not a judgement on the matter, just on the state of things. Off to deMoop a bit of the room!

Re: "Reducing MOOP"

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

To quote one of the younger two - "We're going to turn MOOP into MIP".

MOOP!!!

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

OMG--there's an acronym for this?!? For years, I've been thinking of it as "fighting the forces of Entropy"--maybe now I'll call it "MOOP-wrangling," instead :-D

anti-MOOP girl

[ktmcg.livejournal.com]

"Hi, I would like you to meet me, anti-MOOP girl. I will help where I can to sort, store, organize and, oh yes, THROW OUT your MOOP!"

What do you think? as a pitch for personal organizer services...

Re: anti-MOOP girl

[gormflaith.livejournal.com]

When I'm ready, I know who to call. I also know better than to call before I'm ready ;-)

MOOP

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

I grew up with the ideal of "putting things away in their places" -- nobody in my family consistently attained that ideal, of course, but it was always there as a shining aspiration. But when I got married and we merged two apartments' worth of stuff into one apartment, we found we had more things than places. A significant number of the things in our lives have no place to be put away, which is enormously frustrating: even when we're in the mood to "put things away," we can't.

Pickels?

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to make some pickeld green beans. As I seem incapible of doing it on my own, wanna get toegether some evening for a pickling? Maybe the evening of Sunday the 20th?

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

I love the acronym MOOP, and plan to start using it immediately. Especially in my office. ;p

I'm out of town next week (got some transformation to attend to), but the week after I'd be happy to lead a seminar on canning at my place. Care to come make some pickles? (ppfuf, would *love* to pickle with you again after all these years...)

I don't consider LJ to be journaling in the traditional sense. I have a pen-and-paper journal for that. For me, LJ is a way to get ideas and opinions on life issues and problems from friends.

ppfuf and I were

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

JUST talking about that...she suggested the 20th. How's that for you?

Re: ppfuf and I were

[fighter-chick.livejournal.com]

The 20th works for me. We're on!

[martianfencer.livejournal.com]

MOOP is a wonderful concept. Thank you.

To save space, will your Wardian case contain the carnivorous plants and have the tryptich on its sides? ;-)