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It's no surprise...
Mar. 26th, 2009 09:07 amIt's no surprise to me that Rush Limbaugh has won The UNsexiest Man Of The Year award. The question I had is; Did they come up with the contest with him in mind?
Apparently not.
Apparently not.
Mar. 26th, 2009
Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here
Part 3 can be found here
Part 4 can be found here
Part 5 can be found here
Let's get back to why I'm writing this series. Just now I read a neat little tip on making a hanging basket to hold electronic doo-hickies while they are charging.
Lifehacker is a favorite place to get my RDA of brain-fertilizer; While I really haven't put much of their suggestions to direct use, I find that reading them definitely inspires me to think in terms of hacking my own living style.
"Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, and as a last resort, Recycle".
One thing I've noted here in Yosemite is a tendency for folks to horde things. Remember the lady I spoke of, a potential roommate that had so much stuff in the room that there wasn't enough for me? That is very common here. When I was fired, I had to move out of my dorm room, and I realized that I had a lot of stuff. George Carlin said that houses are piles of stuff with a cover.
I love the internets. I just found a video of George Carlin's monologue "Stuff".
Watching this just now made me realize just how much his humor had an effect on my attitude about how I live now.
"If you didn't have so much god damn stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time". How true that is.
So here I was with all this stuff. I had to make several trips down to Mariposa, including the use of my landlady's truck. That got me to thinking; What do I really need?
In a nutshell, I need shelter, seasonally appropriate clothes, clean water, food and a means of cooking and eating it, companionship, entertainment, and a means of being creative/productive.
The trick is separating what I need from what I want. I need a computer. I want a desk and chair to use my computer. I need a shelter from the elements--for me, and my computer. That shelter has to be large enough to hold me, my bed, and my desk, and my clothes, my camera gear, my books, music, my coffee and coffee pot, my cups, sugar and creamer. It also holds my pictures, both on display and stored.
What if I had only an hour to leave my shelter? What would I take? I'm still working on that list. I do know this; regardless of where I am going, I need my clothes, my computer, my camera gear, and my cookware. The rest (with some exceptions, obviously) I'd jettison. Desks and dressers are everywhere. They are too heavy to carry, too bulky to fit in my car.
Eventually, I want to identify the stuff I really need; and I want it all to fit in my car. I doubt that I will get rid of everything else--the idea is to identify before I have to, so that should there be a flood, I can pack up and go within one hour. Leave the rest behind.
Remember how news articles used to be written? The first paragraph of a story had the 5 W's +1 H. Who/What/When/Why/Where and How. This originated during the Civil war, and the means of transmitting stories was by telegraph wire. Since wires could be cut at any time, the transmission began with the most important information. Important stuff first. What's the first thing I'd load into my car? Clothes and cooking gear/food. Down sleeping bag. Blankets, pillows, sheets. Tent. Backpack. Then my computer stuff. Then my Camera stuff. Then toiletries. Then books. Music. Then my photo prints.
I have a friend here in the valley who was homeless for many years before coming to work here. She said that even though she lived in a tent, she always was clean. I asked how you take a shower when you don't have a house; She said friends, shelters, and if it came to it, streams and spigots. "When you gotta wash the cootch, you gotta wash the cootch!". I've learned a lot from homeless people.
I once took pictures of a lovely Zen shrine/garden in employee housing up in Tuolumne Meadows lodge. I met the man who created it, and offered him some small prints of the shots I took; He declined because he felt it would make him hold on to something he meant to be temporary at best. He's built it every year I've visited up there, using the same elements, but each time it's different. "He works on it every day", one of his neighbors said.
His name is Allan, and he lives here in Highland Court. I see him outside smoking often. He is a quiet man. I recently found his chair in amongst some trees on the far side of the parking lot, beyond the bear-proof dumpsters. I asked him if it was his, he said yes, it gave him a peek at Yosemite Falls. I asked if I could sit in it, he said sure.
It's a folding chair, and there's a cushion wrapped in a plastic bag against the rain and snow and dew. In the arm is a pocket for a drink cup; it's full of cigarette butts.
I sat in it, looked up. Perfectly framed between the trees is Yosemite Falls.
What king in his gilded throne has a better view?
How I live, Intermission: Slide Show time!
Part 2 can be found here
Part 3 can be found here
Part 4 can be found here
Part 5 can be found here
Let's get back to why I'm writing this series. Just now I read a neat little tip on making a hanging basket to hold electronic doo-hickies while they are charging.
Lifehacker is a favorite place to get my RDA of brain-fertilizer; While I really haven't put much of their suggestions to direct use, I find that reading them definitely inspires me to think in terms of hacking my own living style.
"Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, and as a last resort, Recycle".
One thing I've noted here in Yosemite is a tendency for folks to horde things. Remember the lady I spoke of, a potential roommate that had so much stuff in the room that there wasn't enough for me? That is very common here. When I was fired, I had to move out of my dorm room, and I realized that I had a lot of stuff. George Carlin said that houses are piles of stuff with a cover.
I love the internets. I just found a video of George Carlin's monologue "Stuff".
Watching this just now made me realize just how much his humor had an effect on my attitude about how I live now.
"If you didn't have so much god damn stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time". How true that is.
So here I was with all this stuff. I had to make several trips down to Mariposa, including the use of my landlady's truck. That got me to thinking; What do I really need?
In a nutshell, I need shelter, seasonally appropriate clothes, clean water, food and a means of cooking and eating it, companionship, entertainment, and a means of being creative/productive.
The trick is separating what I need from what I want. I need a computer. I want a desk and chair to use my computer. I need a shelter from the elements--for me, and my computer. That shelter has to be large enough to hold me, my bed, and my desk, and my clothes, my camera gear, my books, music, my coffee and coffee pot, my cups, sugar and creamer. It also holds my pictures, both on display and stored.
What if I had only an hour to leave my shelter? What would I take? I'm still working on that list. I do know this; regardless of where I am going, I need my clothes, my computer, my camera gear, and my cookware. The rest (with some exceptions, obviously) I'd jettison. Desks and dressers are everywhere. They are too heavy to carry, too bulky to fit in my car.
Eventually, I want to identify the stuff I really need; and I want it all to fit in my car. I doubt that I will get rid of everything else--the idea is to identify before I have to, so that should there be a flood, I can pack up and go within one hour. Leave the rest behind.
Remember how news articles used to be written? The first paragraph of a story had the 5 W's +1 H. Who/What/When/Why/Where and How. This originated during the Civil war, and the means of transmitting stories was by telegraph wire. Since wires could be cut at any time, the transmission began with the most important information. Important stuff first. What's the first thing I'd load into my car? Clothes and cooking gear/food. Down sleeping bag. Blankets, pillows, sheets. Tent. Backpack. Then my computer stuff. Then my Camera stuff. Then toiletries. Then books. Music. Then my photo prints.
I have a friend here in the valley who was homeless for many years before coming to work here. She said that even though she lived in a tent, she always was clean. I asked how you take a shower when you don't have a house; She said friends, shelters, and if it came to it, streams and spigots. "When you gotta wash the cootch, you gotta wash the cootch!". I've learned a lot from homeless people.
I once took pictures of a lovely Zen shrine/garden in employee housing up in Tuolumne Meadows lodge. I met the man who created it, and offered him some small prints of the shots I took; He declined because he felt it would make him hold on to something he meant to be temporary at best. He's built it every year I've visited up there, using the same elements, but each time it's different. "He works on it every day", one of his neighbors said.
His name is Allan, and he lives here in Highland Court. I see him outside smoking often. He is a quiet man. I recently found his chair in amongst some trees on the far side of the parking lot, beyond the bear-proof dumpsters. I asked him if it was his, he said yes, it gave him a peek at Yosemite Falls. I asked if I could sit in it, he said sure.
It's a folding chair, and there's a cushion wrapped in a plastic bag against the rain and snow and dew. In the arm is a pocket for a drink cup; it's full of cigarette butts.
I sat in it, looked up. Perfectly framed between the trees is Yosemite Falls.
What king in his gilded throne has a better view?
How I live, Intermission: Slide Show time!
