You know how they say that a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind? Just look at the mess on my desk! Magazine clippings, notebooks, writing implements, a computer that resides there only to recharge, a tangle of clothes I just can't seem to put into the laundry hamper. I've been thinking about this lately because the executive editor at the magazine I'm working at has so much going on, yet her desk is immaculate. She may have been my former intern, but the structure of her mind seems far superior.

Speaking of superior minds, today was dedicated to interviewing "futurists" for a feature I'm writing for one of my clients. Needless to say, it's been very mind-numbing for me. I'm just not on their intellectual level, yet I have to make a story about them. At certain points of the conversation I would just check out. I'd insert an "uh-huh," "wow," "cool," and "I see" every 10 seconds or so just to let them know I didn't fall asleep. Even though my mind was so blank I might as well have been dozing.—SF