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Journal rdewald's Journal: .6k: Day One 13

Journal by rdewald
I got down one wall of the kitchen and halfway through my bedroom desk today. I worked about 90 minutes, about as long as it takes to listen to my Air America Podcast of The Marc Maron show.

(What's cool about Maron is he's really very much an ordinary guy. Listening to his show is like hanging out with your politically-tuned, funny, next-door neighbor tell you about what he's been seeing in the news. Jim Earle is funny, too.)

I learned some thing abouts myself, was satisfied to find some stuff I forgot I had, was surprised that this exercise caused me to plan my vacation travel for the next couple of years, was dissatisfied with the amount of stuff I'm leaving for the second pass, and I bookmarked the feelings of resentment that arose. I want to understand those.

I also took out a regular lawn/leaf bag's worth of garbage. My house wass clean before I started working today, by the way. I just threw a garbage bag's worth of stuff out of my clean house anyway by *just thinking* about the value of my possessions, to me, today.

I learned that I don't have this problem on the west wall (the forks are on the east wall) of my kitchen because that is where I keep my pots and pans. These pots and pans are all of very high quality, they are just exactly the number I need to cook, no more, no less, and I do not add to the collection, I just replace broken items. Hmm, I am already practicing this kind of mindfulness in the kitchen, which is where I do something I truly love and find deeply relaxing and satisfying (cooking). Hmm. I did give away a George Foreman grill I never use and reduce the number of grocery bags I am keeping to use as food garbage bags (which makes sense, since I'm eating a lot of the food I bring in with those bags). I gave away a food scale which was just a duplicate.

(In Harlem, you can give away stuff by just putting it on the stoop. People here know that means you can have it. This is very convenient for me.)

When I got around the corner of the west wall of the kitchen to the east wall of my bedroom the first real feature is my desk in the bedroom. Sigh. This project just became a sit down exercise.

In the top drawer I found a bunch of USB cords I had been looking for, the stand to my webcam, and I consolidated my collection of pedometers, of which I have six, five different makes/models. Hmm.

In the next drawer I faced the first real dilemma--a stack of about 16 maps. A number of them were NYC transit maps, no problem there--toss those into the paper recycling bin, I have PDF's on the iBook. I can always call 311 in a pinch.

But, I also had state highway maps. California! Cool! I'm going there in a month! I actually HAVE a California highway map. I did not know this. I was about to buy one. Ding ding ding ding. There's another plus to doing this! I'm going to find a bunch of stuff I forgot (or didn't know) I owned.

Going through the other maps I decided I wasn't going to need any of them because I would likely know my destination and could use an online service if I ever went to any of those places--into the paper recycling bin. But, I kept the New Mexico map because I knew I will be driving around there in the next couple of years. I kept the map of Colorado because of the Christo project in 2008. Those are commitments I really feel. I KNOW I am going to those places. Hmm. that's interesting. Didn't know I had so firmly made up my mind....

This is where it got a little dissastisfying. Finding the USB cords, well, whether or not I need to keep those depends upon how many more of them I find in the rest of the house (which I expect is going to be a lot). I found a bunch of negatives. Fuck. What I need to do here is scan these in first, then I can let these go. Keep the images, switch to perfered media, except for the special ones, keep a backup. Fuck. Backups. I need a personal backup policy. What's important enough to have two (or more) of? So much to be mindful of.

Fuck. I notice I'm saying fuck a lot, and now it is tinged with anger. Hmm, what to do with anger...let's go take a walk. This is enough of this today.

Walking...what is the anger? Don't like to see how unmindful I've been? No, that's not exactly it. It hurts to have a part of my self-concept cracked. I regarded myself as so aware. Ah, attached to the self, no wonder that hurts, no wonder there's anger. Hmm, feel the anger, makes me want to walk harder up this hill to catch a glimpse of the hottie up the trail....

This discussion was created by rdewald (229443) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

.6k: Day One More

.6k: Day One

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  • Going through the other maps I decided I wasn't going to need any of them because I would likely know my destination and could use an online service if I ever went to any of those places--into the paper recycling bin. But, I kept the New Mexico map because I knew I will be driving around there in the next couple of years. I kept the map of Colorado because of the Christo project in 2008. Those are commitments I really feel. I KNOW I am going to those places. Hmm. that's interesting. Didn't know I had so fir

    • You assume I want the maps for driving. Actually I want them to browse before the trips, to get ideas, to plan routes, to study the Christo project, and I want to be able to do these activities in places (on my bed, with friends at cafes, on planes) where a computer is not convenient. I also plan to be doing this in the near future (as in this summer), so housing them until then is not a problem. You've got the idea, though.

      I concur on the USB cables. Plus, I think I will be amused by the number of them

      • You assume I want the maps for driving. Actually I want them to browse before the trips, to get ideas, to plan routes, to study the Christo project, and I want to be able to do these activities in places (on my bed, with friends at cafes, on planes) where a computer is not convenient. I also plan to be doing this in the near future (as in this summer), so housing them until then is not a problem. You've got the idea, though.

        With WiFi hotspots springing up all over the place, places where computers are not c

  • When I go through my stuff and clean it out, I find myself getting angry, too. I get angry at the waste -- all that money that could have been used better, all the TIME that I have to spend getting rid of it, the energy and the thought that it's sucking up, just in the process of being there. I get angry at the stuff itself for having cluttered up my life, for weighing me down. For this compulsion to acquire more "stuff" that makes getting rid of it a constant struggle.

    Now, there's probably more to it tha
    • I think we're having related experiences, I just simplify the offense to "mindlessness." I think I am getting angry over all of this evidence of mindlessness in my life.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Did you consider buying the Gnarls Barkley CD at iTMS? I just bought it (the song Crazy, that is) myself from iTMS. I think the question of whether a download is an item is going to require a JE all by itself down the road.

      Your discussion of the magazines and the "somedays" that you may use them reminds me of "Liberation is now. You cannot be liberated in the future, only now. There is no liberation to come, no liberation that has been. Freedom is only now." I wish I could remember which sensei said t
  • "listen to my Air America Podcast of The Marc Maron show."

    Which is hosted at Simpli. ;)

    I've been considering doing this in my life as well. As soon as I get this stoopid desktop up and running, I'm going to take a stab at it. I probably won't be totally successful, but at least I'll get rid of some stuff I no longer need.

    By the way, I get angry when I throw stuff away too. It's mostly what Bethanie was saying... "Fuck! Why did I buy this? This cost me $100 and I've never used it!" (or only used it once, etc

    • "listen to my Air America Podcast of The Marc Maron show."

      Which is hosted at Simpli. ;)

      Cool! I'm pulling an mp3 from there daily.

      "I've been considering doing this in my life as well. As soon as I get this stoopid desktop up and running, I'm going to take a stab at it. I probably won't be totally successful, but at least I'll get rid of some stuff I no longer need."

      Good point. It is not necessary to pursue the exercise to the end that I have planned to just have a positive impact.

      "By the way, I get angry

  • Now, I know this is up to personal interpretation, which is why I'll just ask what you yourself are planning to do in this situation. I was talking about this last night with someone and we had a discussion on what actually made up one item. Is it a physical item or a functional group? The things we had in mind were a pair of shoes, a pair of contact lenses, two chopsticks, pair of socks, etc. Are you planning on counting these things as one or two items?

    Good luck on your quest to 600, it's very challenging
    • It depends. If it can function on it's own, it will be a single item. Therefore, a pair of shoes is one item, a single sock is also one item (there are lots of uses for a single sock). A pair of chopsticks is one item, plus I will not hang on to a single chopstick. I would count a pair of contact lenses as one item.

      The speaker and the wire that attaches it to the receiver will be one item. A USB device and the cable used to attach it will be one item, but an extension cord will be one item by itself.

      Ni
  • You might consider viewing the negatives as being the true originals, and any prints as expendable backups. (This view doesn't help very much when it comes to cutting down to 600, but it does make for a good backup policy.)
  • you can give things away by playing them on the curb with a sign that says "Free... still works!" on it. I've done that many times. I only stayed in Detroit for a week, but I found you can give things away there by leaving the door unlocked. ;-)

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interlard - vt., to intersperse; diversify -- Webster's New World Dictionary Of The American Language

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