And they said I would run out of topics...

I was struggling for something to write about tonight, as too much procrastination has again left me with precious little typing time. So, I looked along the bottom of my iMac, the bit beneath the screen at the myriad of Post-it notes (and yes, that's the right way to write it; I checked) that accumulate down there whenever I have a random thought.

As big a fan of little electronic notes as I am, I still believe that nothing beats a little scrap of paper for jotting down and working out ideas. Sure, it's a little easier to read when it's typed in and so I'll never find a note like the one in front of me which reads “Research possible e-steroids for flanagus” but nothing beats being able to just grab a sheet and scrawl down notes.

My Pocket PC is a relatively acceptable substitute because it turns on quickly enough but when an idea seems really fleeting, I always like to use a piece of paper rather than a keyboard and a word processor, even something designed for quick note-taking.

It makes me marvel at the simplicity of the little Post-its in front of me and at the ingenuity of people in their use. Little more than coloured paper with some funny glue, these things have been used to hold great ideas, illegible phone numbers, usernames and passwords, reminders (I have one stuck to my bedroom door to remind me to look for a Physics book before I leave tomorrow) and anything else that needs to be seen and remembered. Or made into tiny little paper planes.

Something so simple has become so commonplace that life without it, hardly considered by people who talk of going without mobile phones, or computers, or cars, is unthinkable. Like the paperclip, the clothes hanger and the rubber band, the Post-it note is surely one of humanity's greatest inventions. And I say that in all seriousness.

Image: This was going to be of that "flanagus" Post-it but I could only take it with my iSight camera and it came in mirrored. Then you couldn't see the words and since I didn't have Photoshop working yet, I fiddled around in iPhoto. Behold, the result.