i know i'm anal by nature, but i didn't realise just how much so until i decided to google the proper way of using a paper clip. huh? did i lose you there? how many ways can there be to use a paper clip, right? well, hundreds, it will seem, or so google tells me. lest you forget there was the trade paper clip for a house story but that's not the point of mine. i'm talking about really using the paper clip as it should be; to hold papers together.

you arrange the papers and then you just shove the thing in. what gets under my skin is that some people use it with the small curve facing up, whilst i usually use it with the big curve facing up. you can really get the gist of how anal i am now, right? well, the thing with sticking the small curve up is that the curved tip goes inwards towards the paper, making it impossible to add a new piece of paper to the stack, unless you take out the clip again and re-clip it. it probably doesn't happen to other people much but i seem to wasting many minutes of my life taking out paper clips and re-clipping them just because some other people are not using the paper clip right. however, as i am not the authority on the proper way to use a paper clip, i decided to consult my best friend in the whole wide world; mr google.

it took me a little bit of searching because who else will also be so weird as to post something on the proper way to use a paper clip, but nevertheless, hard work pays off. however, i don't think i was quite prepared for what i found.

that one continuous piece of metal has 10 parts!!!! (just in case you can't hear it, this is the part where you visualise my jaw hitting the floor)

i will bet that you were yawning at this boring post a few seconds ago, but what do you know, you learn something new every single day. as long as there are weird obsessive people like me around you. lol. so, coming back to the proper way to use a paper clip, it will seem that the moon loop, which is the longer curve, is meant to "ensure the rear-side of the paper does not slide backwards", which means that the long curve should face the back!

i have been getting it wrong all these years and being pissed off at others when they are right. still, i wasn't convinced. how can someone design something so that you can't add more papers in without removing the clip and re-clipping it again? aha!! (that's where the light bulb above my head lights up in 1500kw) that's when i discovered that this little paper clip is really a nifty design. the person who designed it really is ingenious.....or are we really dumb for not knowing how to use it. paper clips should come with an instruction manual as thick as a phone book :-p

if you hold the paper clip with the short curve facing you, then proceed to attach it to the paper, you will have the curved point facing out, which means you will have absolutely no problem in adding more papers to the pile. however, if you are holding the paper clip with the long curve facing you, and attempt to attach the paper clip so that the short curve faces the front, then the pointed tip of the short curve will face inwards to the paper, making it almost impossible to add another paper to the front page. if you don't get my dribble, just play around with your paper clip and you will get it!!

so, now, not only do i know how to properly use the paper clip, i also know the names of the different parts of the paper clip. who am i kidding? besides the moon loop which i paid attention to, i didn't really bother about the other parts. still, that's one part more than almost everybody else. :-p see? you really learn something new when you read my blog!! :-D believe me, it's not something that you will be able to google for anywhere else in the world wide web! (insert reader's feeling of privilege here) :-p

by the way, i think the above is only relevant for triangular paper clips, which i think was invented just to annoy the hell out of me :-p

however, what really blows me away, is not the design of the paper clip, nor the proper or inproper use of it, but really how totally anal i am!