Farmy Decimal (Work in Progress)

I’ve been put in charge of getting our growing library at work organized. I used librarything.com to catalog the books, one ISBN at a time. Originally I was going to use the Dewey Decimal system for sorting, but I soon realized it’s not great for small libraries — especially collections that have many books on only a couple topics.

I have this slight personality problem, where I reinvent the wheel whenever possible.

So now I have a new library system, loosely based on Melvil Dewey’s. It’s the Farmy Decimal system.

000 Spirituality etc.
	00 General Spirituality
	10 Philosophy
	20 Religion
	30 Energy
	40 Plants

100	Agriculture
	00 theory & science
		0 schools of thought
			.0 biodynamics
			.1 permaculture
			.2 agroecology
		3 botany & plant science
			.0 diseases & pests
		4 soil science
			.0 minerals
			.1 compost
				.10 compost tea
				.11 vermiculture
	10 agricultural settings
		1 landscaping
		2 greenhouses
		3 urban/small home gardens
	20 crops
		1 vegetables
		2 trees, vines, and shrubs
			.0 fruit trees
				.00 olives
				.01 apples
			.1 nut trees
			.2 vines
				.20 viticulture & wine
			.3 silviculture & forestry
		3 herbs
			.0 medicinal
			.1 culinary
		4 flowers
		5 mushrooms
			.0 medicinal
			.1 culinary
		6 animals
			.0 bees
			.1 chickens
		7 grass & pasture
	30 techniques
		1 pruning
		2 propagation
			.0 seeds
			.1 asexual
		3 grafting
		4 irrigation

200 Sustainable Living
	10 Health
		1 Alternative Medicine
			.0 herbs
		2 Food
	20 Food Preparation
	30 Crafts
		1 Building
			.0 Carpentry
			.1 adobe, cobb, and earth
			.2 strawbail
		2 Tool-making

300 Issues
	10 food and farm
	20 environmental

400 Business & Economics
	10 farm

500 History
	10 Biographies

600 Literature
	10 Essays
	20 Poetry
	30 Children's Books

700 Language
	10 Spanish

On being a gigantic nerd

I name all of my material possessions after people, creatures, and things in Harry Potter. Well, all of the things that are worth naming, anyways. I haven’t named my washer and dryer Ron and Hermione or anything. (Though now that I’ve said that, maybe… nevermind.)

It started with my last car. Then it just sorta became a thing.

• Honda Civic Hybrid: Hagrid (because it’s ironic — that thing’s a damn lawn-mower)
• my first iPod: Hedwig
• wireless network: Patronus (password was an encrypted version of “Expecto Patronum”)
• newer silver iPod: Pigwidgeon
• MacBook Pro: Buckbeak

Last week I got an iPhone, and when the dude at the AT&T store asked me what I wanted to name it, I realized I hadn’t thought of a name for it yet. I told him to register it as “Jenny’s iPhone” — he actually mocked me for being unoriginal, though I can’t imagine what he would have said if I’d made him help me come up with an appropriately dorky name.

When I got home, I started brainstorming. It’s small, it’s black, it’s connected and super-useful, so my first thought was “Dark Mark.” Ugh. No way. I couldn’t think of any creature that fits that description. Errol was the closest, being gray, but he’s just so pathetic and old, and my iPhone’s awesome and new! I ended up settling on Patronus, even though I’d already used the name.

I’m not happy with Patronus though. It makes sense for a network because it’s this sort of general thing, but for something that I hold in my hand, it needs a real name. A real character. Someone important. Someone small and sweet and endlessly helpful. Someone loved, and loving.

I’ve got it: the iPhone is Dobby. <3