Email is something we all use on a day to day basis but it’s not something that we think about a lot. It has become such a staple of our daily lives that we don’t give it much thought. Kind of like driving or going to work, but it can be a huge time sucker.

Most of my life I have been an I.T. professional. What does that mean in terms of email? It means that I have had a phone with email for many years and it also means that I get A LOT of email. I was used to getting 25 – 75 emails per day. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve always known who Chef Gordon Ramsay was. I knew he was a world famous chef and I knew he did a few TV shows. I also knew he was a bit harsh on people who had horrible food.

Then I got my hands on season 1 of Kitchen Nightmares. As of the past week I’ve burned through ¾ of the season and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Ramsay is in your face, down your throat, and kicking you in the ass. He has zero tolerance for people who don’t try or even make any effort.

So what can we learn from Chef Ramsay?

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To me, a contract is like an ex-girlfriend that just won’t go away. They follow you around every where and just won’t leave you alone. You can end the contract with causing a huge problem and digging into your wallet. A contract is an evil thing disguised as a sweet little innocent piece of paper telling little lies into your ear.

Below you will find a typical conversation you might have with a contract. I envision the contract having a sweet seductive voice mixed with the voice from the computer in 2001 Space Odyssey.

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• Sell my old TV (takes up a ton of space)
• Go through at least 2-3 boxes of stuff
• Organize the storage unit
• Donate at least one box of stuff that can’t be sold
• Sell LCD monitor

Out of those 5 goals I completed 3.5 of them.

I was able to sell my unused LCD monitor on craigslist and get enough grocery money for the rest of the month and a little extra. I was also able to make it to my storage unit and dig into 4 boxes and clean them out; that’s one more than my goal mind you! Finally I dropped off half a truck load of random stuff that wasn’t needed anymore.

Ohh…what is the half a completed goal for? That is for my old TV. I listed it on craigslist but haven’t been able to sell it yet. I listed my old modded Xbox on craigslist also but haven’t had any luck there yet either.

My plan is to do this once a week and hopefully either totally eliminate the storage unit all together or at least move what ever is left into a 5′x5′ unit. I’d really like to get rid of the $40 a month bill that comes with my current unit.

The two pictures below include…

The current state of the storage unit and the bed of my truck. The cooler and the few items inside are to be sold online and the 3 boxes in the corner have some food and spices as well as items to to be sold and donated. The rest is going to be dropped off at the Good Will.

[View with PicLens]

Yesterday, myself and a few others headed up to Mt. Bachelor to try out their Snowblast Tubing Park. We had an absolute awesome time! The weather was a bit to be desired but overall a good time was had by all.

The way the park works is probably like most others. There is a mini lift that you attach your tube to and it pulls you up the mountain and automatically disconnects you from the line. Read the rest of this entry

This weekend is the first weekend that I won’t be extremely busy. The previous weeks I have either been working, out of town, or up at the mountain skiing.  The goals for this weekend are get rid of some more stuff from my storage unit.  I plan to…

• Sell my old TV (takes up a ton of space)
• Go through at least 2-3 boxes of stuff
• Organize the storage unit
• Donate at least one box of stuff that can’t be sold
• Sell LCD monitor

I’ll be sure to take some photos of before, after, and what I’m getting rid of.

I’m posting this in hopes of motivating myself to complete at least most of my list for fear of looking like a lazy ass.

On a side note

I was surfing the net reading random blogs about minimalism and ran across a list. The list was about different ways you could eliminate your stuff.  The list had the typical donate, throw away, etc, etc. Then I read one that really stuck out in my mind.

Mail one thing to a random person

This I thought was a fantastic idea. It will be something small (since I don’t want to have to pay any more than I have to for shipping) and useful in some way. I haven’t the slightest of what it’s going to be but I’m sure I can find something.

The only downside is that I won’t be there for the discussion between the family members of where this item came from. I can make something up in my head and have it be extremely entertaining though.

About a year and a half ago I started having a lot tooth aches and pains. These problems were stemming from the fact that I didn’t take care of my teeth for a number of years due to financial problems. I couldn’t afford it and wasn’t able to shell out the money for my dental needs.

Eventually the pain got so bad that I was forced to go to the dentist. Having a job at the time but no insurance I called around and had gotten a few referrals to some really good dentists. Finally, I picked one that was going to allow me to make payments but with no interest. I thought I had struck pay dirt. Read the rest of this entry

Yes, that’s right. I didn’t hit the zero key an extra time or two. As of writing this Gary Vaynerchuk has 846,529 followers on twitter. I know its not 850,000 but I don’t care it’s close enough and 850k sounds better than 846k.

If you haven’t heard of this guy then you need to ingest all you can of what he says. His ideas are unique. His story is nothing short of amazing and I think the best is yet to come.

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This weekend myself and the little lady took a short trip to the Oregon Coast. It was a last minute “I need to get out of town” kind of trip. After searching and searching for a nice little hotel room we were coming up with a lot of the same generic stuff for about $60-$80. Then the misses and I had an idea. Why not make it fun? Get a room with a hot tub/Jacuzzi? We did some searching and found a few that sounded promising. Read the rest of this entry

The 80/20 rule is a fantastic rule to apply to many aspects of your life. Living a minimalist lifestyle this rule can come into play in even more areas. This post is aimed toward the things you use on a regular basis.

The thing to keep in mind when picking up a new item that you just have to asking yourself one question…

Can I use this object in more than one situation?

or

Is this object able to serve a dual purpose?
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