Challenge Accepted: Minimalism

I have decided to become a minimalist as much as possible. This is particularly hard for me not because I keep lots of things in the sense that I am a horder, but that I keep lots of things in the sense that I like to "keep my options open". For instance, I may have 3 different apps on my tablet that all do practically the same thing, but I like each for different features. Some apps I even just download once, explore a bit, then never use them again. This can also be applied to other areas of my life. I'm wasteful in some of my food (e.g. I'll buy a dozen eggs only to use half), I don't ever wear some of my clothes, or some books don't ever get read.

I am beginning a mission. I will try to cut out the parts of my life that are not used (or are rarely used) in order to better spread my blessings and wealth to others. I'll get rid of the clothes I don't wear, buy less food (or make an effort to eat more of the stuff I do buy), etc. Books are the only thing I haven't convinced myself to cut out. I'm trying to build a library of books so that I may share it with others and show others my...je ne sais quoi...personality? of books I like.

Along with this will come the Hunter-Gatherer diet and other implementations.

The Hunter-Gatherer diet (also known as the Paleolithic diet) basically states that I cannot eat anything that, bluntly, can't be hunted or gathered. This means any food that is more than one "separation" away from a hunting or gathering state cannot be eaten (e.g. bread, ice cream, cheese, cereal, etc). As some examples, I can eat eggs, milk, nuts, seeds, meat, spices, vegetables, fruit, rice, beans, etc. There is one thing that I am allowing (because I know it to often be healthy and because when I have these meals I often make GORP) and that is granola. Something else that is kinda controversial (in my mind, at least) is fruit juice (apple, orange, etc). The main idea behind the Hunter-Gatherer diet is to avoid processed food.

The reasons for this are four: an effort to improve on my life (physically, mentally, etc), to bring myself into a closer relationship with my Creator, to improve the ideas that others hold of me, and to prepare myself for my hike of the PCT (where the food supply will be restricted to much fewer options).

Philosophy of Vacations

When working tonight I was closing down the SSC and I heard a commercial about vacations. Obviously it was advertising a vacation spot. Spurred by my contempt for things of commerce and the ever-fleeting idea of "I have to have the next great thing", I started to analyze vacations. To me, they often seem like a form of quitting or giving up. "I've been doing this for a while, so I think I need a vacation." You don't need a vacation. You want a vacation. Besides that small grammar fact, does it strike anyone else oddly that vacations are pretty much a "First World Country" idea? Mainly this is because in other countries, it is often the case that working is how you survive. You can't afford to take a day off (no matter what). This is even often true in our First World countries, so maybe I should define this as the idea of the Upper and Middle societal classes.

Our society is so used to being able to give up and quit when we like that our will power and perseverance have lost their strength. When throw in the towel when the going gets tough  and we don't try new things (because if something's too hard for us, how will we ever complete it?).

This is probably just another one of those things where I look upon it in contempt because we use our wealth for things we don't need where someone else could use it for things they do need. I believe an equal distribution of wealth is paramount to any other issue facing our world today.

Tonight is the first all-nighter of, I believe, my college career. That is, if it indeed ends up being an all-nighter. I have a Calculus III assignment due tomorrow, a Dynamics test tomorrow, and 10 papers due tomorrow in Social Psychology (of which, at the beginning of this night, I had done 6). Poor planning on my part. Also, I am driving some students to the Airport through SCAB's airport transportation service at 0500 tomor--correction: today. To keep me awake, I have two energy drinks: the standard Guava Rockstar (my energy drink of choice) and a Monster Rehab (which is a line of Monster energy drinks with a tea base). I don't usually enjoy Monster (and I am not too much this one) but I kinda like the black tea-lemonade-energy drink combination. It is definitely something that is an acquired taste though. I am saving the other for last and drinking the Monster first.

I do believe in the limited capabilities of words, but I believe even more in the power of them. Words bring great ideas to their knees and transfer them from one mind to another through the audible voice. Without them our ideas would run wild without any bounds or limitations. It is as if we are trying to catch a school of fish and we focus on trying to catch every fish rather than trying to define which fish we should (and can) catch. Words are the net that we throw out to show where an idea begins and ends and how it is different from this idea and that one.

A change in pace...

I have decided to write more here on this blog. We'll see how long this idea lasts and if, in fact, it is a good one at all. If it does not last, I apologize and, enjoy what you can with what is here. If it does last, enjoy what is here and maintain patience as I try to procure a habit for posting on here.

Previously this blog was simply a place where I would post good quotes. I've decided to still do that, but, in addition, whenever I feel like ranting about something, I'll do it here (instead of ranting to someone else in person, which I am not necessarily fond of doing because it attracts a lot of attention to myself).

Today I read through II Corinthians 4. Very interesting and moving passage. A lot about how God saved humanity and how we are not worthy of such an act. I would encourage the reading of it.

"It's odd that the word 'Atheist' even exists! I don't play golf, is there a word for 'non-golf players'? Do 'non-golf players' get together and strategize? Do 'non-skiiers' have a word and come together and talk about the fact that they don't ski? I can't do that. I can't gather around and talk about how much everybody in the room doesn't believe in God."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson (Self-proclaimed Agnostic)

"To live with the mysteries of faith requires that we do not demand of God that we be able to comprehend His being. We must in the last analysis accept that as the heavens are higher than the earth or as a mature adult's understanding is higher than a toddler's, so God's ways are higher than our own."

- Psychology through the Eyes of Faith

"Likewise, many artist, composers, poets, mathematicians, and scientists achieve creative insights as images. Peak religious moments, too, are sometimes experienced inarticulately; later the person struggles to express the mystical experience within the confines of language but finds it, as the apostle Paul reported, "inexpressible." If words are sometimes the mere containers of ideas, they are nevertheless containers that shape the thoughts poured into them.”

- Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith

"Or consider the adjectives that people are fond of piling up before the word 'Christian'. It is not enough to be simply a Christian. One must be an evangelical Christian, a mainline Christian, a Bible-believing Christian, a born-again Christian, or even a really truly born-again Christian. One scores additional points, it seems, by piling the adjectives on top of one another. Thus we have Bible-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, and even a few really truly born-again, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, evangelical Christians."

- Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith