Archive for August, 2007
Friday, August 24th, 2007
[1]
A bit blurry but you can see how excellent he is! He epitomizes anti-assclownery in every way imaginable.
[Image description: A black and white cat is laying on a red chair.]
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/hpim0285.JPG
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 4 Comments »
Friday, August 24th, 2007
[1]
Yes, folks, it's been one of those weeks!
Glad it is Friday, glad to have Homofactus Press, and glad I'm here, alive! And I love Mr. Jack, my cat, the inspiration for Catnip Cat.
[Image description: a spotted cat says, "yes I know I'm an asslicker, but at least the ass I lick is my own."]
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/arselicker.bmp
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 17th, 2007
I know how much is too much in my life. But do I know how much is too little?
And can answering that question, how much is too little, create both a stronger path of moderation and a little earthly footprint?
Meep, in a comment [1] on Walking Myself to a New Morality [2], says
I think it’s okay to have a few indulgences, but the point is to keep it minimal.
Finding that minimum is a lot harder than I realized. I love clothes. They are my one indulgence. I recently read that a gentleman who frequently made the best dressed list in the 60s had only seven suits. He worked in New York and hung out with the Movers and Shakers.
In my questing to feed that clothes beast that lives inside me, I finally realized that if he can make the best dressed list in New York with seven suits, I really only one but that I wanted two. Two seems indulgent. In fact I only need one. But with two suits, a grey stripe and blue stripe, I believe I'm set for all situations. But I think I needed to read about this gentleman to shake me into realizing both what my minimum is and what luxery feels like in this particular situation.
So what's too little for you?
[1] http://jaysennett.com/2007/08/15/walking-myself-into-a-new-morality/#comment-15634
[2] http://jaysennett.com/2007/08/15/walking-myself-into-a-new-morality
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
I've been walking of late, about 26 miles in the last four days. "It sounds like a kind of walking meditation," a friend shared with me.
Perhaps so. I know this walking or urban rangering as I like to call it, is helping me to feel just fine about where I live. In the past I've wanted to be anywhere but here. But that is a spiritual affliction, not a geographic one. The walking gets me in touch with our ancestoral routes, my legs, roadkill and reminds me how much stuff I have in my life that I just don't need.
After walking to our township library this past weekend, I realize that everything I need and want I can walk to from my house.
Too, I've been getting this creeping feeling about how my excesses contribute to poverty, deforestation, and much animal and human suffering [1]. I shall share more about these connections in the next several days, I think. On my walkabouts I spend a lot of time pondering how I can pare down, economize, live in 80 square feet or 100 square feet or 300 square feet. (The size of our house is the number one reason Ms. H. and I score so badly on those tests to find out how many earths we would need if everyone lived our lifestyle.....)
My too much most certainly means someone else's too little. This is immoral.
Microliving, the culture watchers call it. I call it living my right size. Fortunately I find how very crafty people are who also live this way. Ikeahackers [2]. (Though I don't know if Ikea wins points on the environmental front or not...probably not!)
In my quest to microlive, besides walking, I've cut out snacking and eating seconds except one or two days a week. Most foods I consume are grown within 50 miles of my home. I've also been thinking hard about the 100 things I would keep if I could only keep a 100. And, I'm no longer buying books, which is hilarious because I'm a book publisher.
The library is free, promotes civic engagement, and I never feel bad after reading mediocre detective fiction [3] I checked out of the library. I have no idea where any of this activity is going but I am feeling very compelled to keep going.
More later.
[1] http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
[2] http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/
[3] http://jaysennett.com/2007/07/25/mediocre-detective-fiction/
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 4 Comments »
Monday, August 13th, 2007
In my quest to stay on top of all of the things I have to do, I have only recently realized a perverse desire to start new systems on a whim because I haven't been using the old system regularly.
Rather than admit that the reason my system for Getting Things Done isn't working because I'm not using the system, I blame the system itself!
Then I can create false drama to rescue myself from all the mess I've created, etc.
Follow-through is vital for staying organized. Checking in once a week to see where I'm at on all my next action steps, projects, and do a brain dump of what has accumulated over the week makes the whole system work. Now I'm not going to tout any particular system. Each person will find what works for them. Mine is now a lo-fi combination of Vitalist and Levenger circa letter size.
The blush of the new wears off and then it's ho-hum time, or so I'm habituated myself to believing. But I think I can transform the ho-hum into a kind of trust and contentment in my systems. Yes it takes work. I see, though, how I create more trouble for myself by not following-through.
It just so happens I am now at point in my life where the crapdrama of not following through is more painful than forming the new habit of following-through.
Who would have thought......?
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
