Category: XTH

I guess I underestimated how hard it might be to purge stuff with a little 2-month-old gobbling up all free time. Just have to repeat “It’s a process, it’s a process…”

Still excited, long-term about finishing those dangling projects. Someday. I came across The Little Red Workshop’s 365 Things declutter project (via C. Glass). Made me think of the Do Something Awesome Everyday 2011 project that i only got about 1/3 of the way through and this new burst of ideas.

In getting ready for the week I came across some new music and figured I’d put it here.

Civil War Rust — via Rocket Fuel podcast — Good punk rock, kind of reminds me of Lawrence Arms. Look forward to hearing the full album, maybe I’ll borrow it from Jeff Rocket Fuel as we discuss his new podcast project that I might pitch in on.

Shores “Weak Trees” — via Alt Press — their half of the Record Store Day split 7″ with Creepoid. Less atmospheric and more full-band sounding than their earlier stuff. Fun to see how this band keeps evolving.

State Lines “Win Free” — Just more really good, heartfelt music on Tiny Engines. Will have to go back and listen to their full-length.

Fantasy sports are more ubiquitous now, but I’d guess 80% of that growth is in Fantasy Football, 15% baseball and 4% hockey and other sports. Fantasy Basketball people are the nerds of the nerds, no one plays Fantasy Basketball. And an even smaller coterie of geeks are in two 20-team dynasty leagues, like me. That said, who knew Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag) was a fantasy basketballer? Woot! (Edit: But wait she “hates” the Celtics, BOOOOOOO! She and the host said they’re “entitled”. Yeah, 17 (en)titles maybe! At least she likes the Blazers not the Lakers.)

Somehow The Constantines popped in my head and I searched for what their lead singer was up to since they’re on “indefinite hiatus.”

Baby Eagle & the Proud Mothers “Old Punks” — I was less enamored with Steve Lambke’s vocals for the Cons, but his stuff with Baby Eagle & the Proud Mothers is nice full band stuff — somewhere in the overlap of Neil Young and Wilco’s quieter moments?

Bry Webb “Rivers of Gold” — I was much more in love with Bryan Webb’s vocals for the Constantines, it was the thing that grabbed my ears and wouldn’t let go. Here he sings stripped down, quiet-bare songs. Interesting that 2 of Webb and Lambke’s songs are “Old Punks” and “Ex-Punks”…. a sign they’re getting older. Evidently Webb moved to Guelph and is raising a family.

Bry Webb “Sad Man’s Song” (video), “Ex-Punks”, “I Will Give You Everything” and “Viva” — at his site Bry Webb Was Here — Really stoked to hear more of Webb’s solo stuff. Can’t get enough of his voice.

Feist “The Bad in Each Other” — via Grooveshark — Bry Webb sings backup; Have never listened much to Feist, but good to know she know’s good singing when she hears it.

On tying up loose ends

I parked /Notes here just after we moved from Gainesville to Tallahassee. I was starting a new job and thought this would be canvas: To document, learn, speak, experiment. But like so many other projects it was only partially thought-out and suffered for it. 3 months later it sits here unused.

Lately, whether it’s a lack of sleep or the settling into simple routines, I’ve been feeling stuck — a surprising feeling since everything is new: A baby, new job, new city, new house. I think routines have been have been a way to escape, to narrow down the possibilities a bit so that not everything is on a growth edge (as a friend once called it), an easier, less threatening way to organize time. Stepping back though it’s unsettling and a little scary — but useful to realize that it’s also not new. I’m feeling just a variation of old feelings & bad habits.

Nothing else to do but work my way out of them. With all this mixing in my head, I stumbled across two posts in Sean Bonner’s blog. We were contemporaries in Gainesville (c. early 1990s), but ran in wholly different circles. I’ve often admired that he, unlike me, carries his silly notions through to project completion stage.

First is his “Year of Less“, a challenge to reduce stuff and clutter.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately. About how it’s easy to see in my mom, but block out in myself. About how difficult it’s gonna be to move again in 7 or 10 months. About going back to Cinque Terre and living for a year or somethign. And frankly about what a pain it would be to get rid of stuff.

Leading up to starting his Year of Less project on Jan. 1, 2012, Sean wrote:

One thing that keeps coming up that I realized last time I went through a major purge is that any single item can be justified. Take a box you have in storage, one that has been there for years untouched. One that you’ve been paying $100+ a month to store. Do you need anything in that box? Without opening it I can tell you that, no, most likely you don’t need anything in that box. You could through it out and chances are for the rest of your life you’ll never miss anything in that box. But! Open it up, and suddenly the stuff in there is oh so important. Stuff that 5 minutes ago you didn’t even remember existed is now precious and worthy of saving.

That’s the stuff lying to you.

I’ll say it again – on a single item basis, you can justify keeping anything.

Yes that camera still works and it would be fun to take it out one day and shoot a roll of film through it. Remember when you used to wear that watch all the time? Who are the people in these photos, summer school class of 1980-something? Do these batteries still work? You still have that t-shirt too?

Lies.

The truth is getting rid of stuff is hard, but it’s hard for a reason. Stuff is designed to make you want it. If you haven’t needed it in the last 12 months, you likely won’t need it again, ever.

Spot on. So while I won’t be going as far as he is (only buying 12 new things in 2012), I am gonna start the great purge of 2012. Mix some of Sean’s ethos here with what my friend Dave used to do: To bring 1 new thing into his house he made himself get rid of 2 old things. Books and music will be the hardest, but it’s about setting up a structure. I think the other big challenge will be getting rid of the past. Digitizing and organizing it seems the way to go but that means doing it.

This is more about clutter than anything else. For me there are 2 parts: physical and operational. Stuff and ideas. For some reason I’m weighed down with the unfinished. So another part of purging in 2012 will be completing the uncompleted (or at least starting work on it again, or queueing it up at the very least), or moving it from the “on hold” to “abandoned with cause” column.

Second, was To Do, Everyday. If I had a dollar for how many times I’ve scribbled lists like this in my journal. And they’re usually very similar. But what jumped out at me was the why:

But I started playing around with superbetter earlier this month and was presented with the idea that doing something I like can act as a bit of a power-up. I like this idea a lot, and I think there’s things I should be doing everyday not because they would be accomplishments, but because I like doing them and I feel better after I do, and then I can do even more things that are accomplishments. So what might those things be? I thought about it and decided to make a list:

I’m thinking of what’s already on my list. I like the idea of making the list, periodically revising.

So reading those made me dust of this: /notes. I’d been thinking already of cataloging some stuff anyways — so why not all in one place? Like Sean’s #10: Be Awesome… let’s get to it!

 

Thinking about making some sections: Hear, make, read, do?

Hear + Read

01. 40 Miler – Tim Barry
02. Top Shelf presents: Shores’ Coup de Grace
03. Horse Heaven – Creepoid

sbdc: To Do, Everyday
sbdc: Year of Less
Sean Bonner: Neo-minimalism and the Rise of Technomads

Make + Do

01. Analyzed the 2011-12 Gainesville Celtics and figured out a rough replacement-level stat line for the h2h league.
02. Kickstarted ./Notes