I take damn good minutes if I do say so myself (also socks and earrings)

[edenfalling]

Things of note today:

1. Various work tasks, such as writing a renewal lease, scheduling some apartment tours, editing photos, emailing tenants who were affected by a package thief over the weekend, etc.

2. TWO AND A HALF HOURS OF BOARD MEETING, oh god kill everything with fire.

At least I have the minutes 100% done?

(I was able to whip the minutes into shape during the meeting because the final ~40 minutes were an executive session. Our policy is not to take minutes of executive sessions because A) confidentiality is a thing and B) we do not make business decisions in executive session; they're solely for discussion. So I tidied everything up and added all the relevant hyperlinks while keeping 2/3 of an ear on the conversation and occasionally pitching in, instead of having do those cleanup bits after the fact.)

3. My fancy socks arrived via the mail!!! They are all lovely, and I think I may actually manage to do laundry in a timely fashion this coming weekend, if only so I can wear all my wonderful new socks next week.

4. My second package of earring supplies (various hooks and jump rings) arrived, which means I can now get to work on fixing up various earrings whose hooks are less than ideal and turning some post earrings into hook earrings. :) Also my stash is replenished for future needs.

5. Listened to the most recent episode of Sawbones, about arsenic wallpaper.

Comments

[tielan]

Two and a half hours?

I'd be crawling under a chair to take a nap. I can barely handle half-hour meetings.

[edenfalling]

It was FAR too much meeting.

My main problem with meetings is that my attention drifts, so I need something to occupy my hands and help me stay focused. Fortunately, taking minutes is a tolerable fit for that mental slot.

[tielan]

I have tried taking minutes. It didn't go very well. I tend to end up skteching out story ideas and then coming bck to the meeting and thinking, "drat, missed fifteen minutes and they were discussing something important..."

[edenfalling]

Interesting! I am the opposite: taking minutes anchors me in the minutiae of the meeting and stops me from wandering off to write or read stories, which I am otherwise prone to do.

The one place this fails is if we get into interminable discussions of a single issue with no new points raised -- the kind of thing where I write up fifteen minutes of talking as "Discussion of [issue]. The Board decided to do [thing]." Then I drift off, because I am no longer typing.

[redwolf]

I'd forgotten about arsenic wallpaper. That would be the green dye/ink/colourant in the wallpaper? Basing that on arsenic being the colourant for green glass.

I have it stuck in my head that it was sweet and kids licked it, but could be confusing that with lead paint, which they definitely did lick. Everything in the house is trying to kill you!

[edenfalling]

Yes, arsenic-copper compounds to make Scheele's green and Paris green.

When the air is humid the arsenic can rub off onto anything that touches the wallpaper, or little scraps of the paper can peel off and kids might eat those because kids will eat the most utterly random crud. Also apparently some arsenic compounds give off a scent of garlic, so perhaps some kids found that attractive?

I don't know if lead paint tastes sweet, but some lead compounds (see sugar of lead) have historically been used as sweeteners in food, so it wouldn't surprise me.