My Filing Cabinet (my-filing-cabinet.com) was my personal blog and learning project for the longest time. It was a place where I store all sorts of seemingly useless information and learn to create digital content.
It has been subsumed under Springorchid Files which also contain content from my other website on Chinese soups.
Why did I start My Filing Cabinet?
A friend once commented that I seem to know a lot of things, like an encyclopedia. I do seem to remember seemingly useless stuff I should not.
However, I don’t know if I necessarily agree with her description because an encyclopedia is supposed to be an authoritative source of information. My brain is more like a filing cabinet storing all sorts of information that interest me. I forgot that I even have them. They only get fished out when someone said something that trigger my brain.
This reminds me of the memory warehouse in Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher [https://amzn.to/3RTlpfW] If you have not read it, I heartily recommend it. Although it is supposed to be a horror story, I didn’t find it that scary.
In the novel, there is a scene depicting how Jonesy, bodily possessed by an alien, locked himself in his memory warehouse. This warehouse represents the mind of Jonesy. He is trying to keep the alien out of his memories. Jonesy’s memory warehouse looks like a dilapidated library with a spiral ramp lined by shelves of books.
Although I identified with this analogy, I feel that the memory warehouse is a little too rundown and disorganized for me. 😜 I am more inclined to see my mind as a traditional library catalogue.
Rows and rows of wooden cabinets with brass handles and rods holding index cards bearing bibliographic information that points to the source of the information. 😉
I wanted to extend this filing function using the World Wide Web. Hopefully, the search function of a website is more dependable than moments of chit-chat and gossip to call up seemingly useless information.
A site is also a great tool to “file” multimedia information like songs and videos that matter to me. I want to store music that touches my soul and videos that make me laugh. Yes, the Internet is an ephemeral medium but for as long as I can keep them, I shall be contented. Moreover, I still have my brain. It is still working and filing even without this blog.
Experiential Learning
I am a firm believer in experiential learning. I learnt more about the Internet, blogging and social media with this blogging project then only reading it up in theory. It takes a lot of time, but I think it is worth it and more fun.
So much have changed with the web and Internet since I started. I still remember having to write up the code for a table by hand. Now, with a click of the button, everything is done. Embedding videos has gotten easier too.
Why WordPress?
I started this digital and online filing cabinet with blogspot.com in 2008 and then moved to wordpress.com.
I then moved to hosting it on my own using wordpress.org. A big step into the unknown for me. Self-hosting offers a lot more control than free blogging services. It was a natural step forward as my knowledge of the Internet, blogging, and social media tools grow.
I moved the blog back to wordpress.com in 2022 because wordpress.com now offer subscription plans that mirror wordpress.org. I get all the features I want without having to deal with the backend set up work myself. Their happiness engineers are also so much more responsive. If you are thinking of starting a site yourself, I highly recommend them.
To end
An influential librarian Mr Ranganathan once said,
“every book its user”
Ranganathan
In the same way, my wish for My Filing Cabinet and now SpringorchidFiles.com is that all those seemingly useless information that I “file” away will one day find their users. If my wish has come true, do let me know. 😊
Feel free to rummage through the drawers of this site:
I would like to leave you with this picture I really like.
Thanks for dropping by. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Love, Phoebe
Let me know what you think