Practical Minimalism

A Software Developer's Simple Journey.

[practicalminimal]

Holy fuckballs it's cold

and I have 30+ t-shirts and 2 flannel shirts.

I need less clothes overall and more warm clothes

A greater percentage of my clothes should be warm clothes.

What do you guys do? Is your wardrobe neatly divided into seasons?

[practicalminimal]

exploring minimalism

http://mnmlist.com/ This is a very interesting website. I find myself agreeing with the author often, but diverging from time to time. I attribute this to my individuality, (I and this author are not the same person) but it also helps me to introspect on my choices.

I was criticized yesterday for not following "minimalism" and that I "didn't know what minimalism meant." Yes, I might not live in an all white house with a mat for a bed, but I feel that over time I will be able to cultivate a setting where my identity is fully self-sufficient and my material possessions are an extension of that. 

It worries me how people seem to collect... stuff. I find most items in peoples homes (apartments/dorm rooms/etc) to be filler. Fluff. I first noticed it my second year of college when I walked into a dorm room and saw a lamp. Then I walked into the room next to it and saw the same lamp. I've probably seen that lamp more than 20 times on my campus. Everyone shops at Target, everyone needs a lamp, everyone gets the same lamp.

This may seem a little hypocritical, as my furniture is from IKEA and I'm certain that thousands of other people have my furniture set. I would like to clarify that it is not the fact that everyone has the same lamp, it's the fact that people have possessions just to have them. For some reason, just because something is cheap or free, we feel obligated to purchase it. It then sits on a shelf collecting dust for the next 3 to 4 years until it breaks, is donated, or is thrown away. 

I think that dust is a huge indicator of usefulness. The more dusty something in a room is, the more likely I could toss it out and nobody would be any wiser. Of course, this is not 100% true, as fine china or glass is most likely rarely used and is important (at least in my opinion) for important events or for guests. 

I suppose I leave readers with a charge. Introspect objectively and go over your recent actions regarding material possessions. Does each item hold some significance to you? Or is it simply filler? I know that I still have a long way to go and I hope that my semi-coherent rants will inspire others to join me in reducing waste and increasing thoughtfulness.

[zolloc]

.wav / zolloc.tk

[practicalminimal]

awesome representation of a wave as a morphed plane, of sorts.

[practicalminimal]

Soul searching

Apologies for the infrequent updates. My mind escapes me sometimes and I am currently focused on school and other tasks at hand. Currently I am watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos. One of my favorite series but one that I have not seen completely.

Philosophically, Dr. Sagan is one of my idols. His approach to teaching and content of his 'lectures' through Cosmos astound me and move me.

This rewatching of the series has prompted a bit of soul searching. To me, it seems that there are many options for my future as a computer science major, but there are general, major paths. For example, the IT Industry (private sector) government work (public sector) or research (private or public).

There seem, at least to me, to be pros and cons to these. The industry, whether I join a corporation/firm or found one, has very nice pay, interesting work, plenty of opportunities. But, I sense that something is lacking. I want to do something. I'm certain that work in the private sector would fulfill my personal desires to succeed and excel... but would it really do something? Would my work have an effect on the world, no matter how small?

Conversely, would work in research really fulfill my personal desires to excel and "make it?" (admittedly, a very American thought.) I simply don't know the answer to that question. It seems very cliche, but maybe work can be both. Take the giants of the tech world: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, these people made HUGE advancements possible in society and they worked in a profit-based context. Yet, how likely is it to be a giant? How likely is it to invent or discover something that will change the world in research? The questions should prompt some soul searching for everyone, not just techies. I certainly don't know the answers and I doubt that anyone does.

[practicalminimal]

Better late than never

An update:

I apologize for the lack of content as of late. College can do that to you, I suppose. I put the blame on myself, but as everyone has their own story I can tell you that mine involves a lot of coursework and out-of-coursework. However, I was finally able to afford a Macbook Air, which I absolutely adore. 

My room continues to change. Some things I've thrown out, cables I've managed, desk I've moved, laptop I've introduced to the mix. Things are getting a little complicated, but I guess that's how things go. Our lives are complicated mechanisms and we do what we can.

A pithy quote of mine: Work with what you have. Streamline. If necessary, keep. If something prevents streamlining, remove it.

Much love everyone. Stay classy and I'll update more about my continuing journey soon.

[practicalminimal]

"Should vs. Must"

Apologies for the long break, but sometimes life catches up to you. I'd like to discuss the previous article I linked, discussing a lifestyle approach called the "21 day journey." I thought the article was very well written and I'm impressed by the detail and dedication observed both by Cosmic Variance the The Minimalists

But, just like everything in life, there's no real panacea and things will have to be altered. In my case, some may just call it lazy, I call it practicality.

Could I give up my 3 laptops and a desktop? Yes, I could. Will I? Partially. I'm giving up 2 laptops. That's simplification. I also have a kindle and hardback books. Clearly that could be minimized. I have enough room for many books. But it's simply not practical.

No one should feel bad for living well. Society has progressed. While looking back to the "golden days" is fun and all (don't get me wrong I LOVE retro stuff) we have to realize that the reason we got where we are today is that people wanted to live better. Thoreau lived simply, yes, but he didn't live like a caveman. In that time I'm sure that Thoreau's living situation was quite nice. Cheap, nice locale, nice garden... sounds like the life to me. 

Joking aside, my point remains. Just like Cosmic Variance and The Minimalists have said, do try and introspect on your life. But as hinted by Cosmic Variance, don't become flat. You're a human and by definition you have needs, wants, desires, hopes, dreams, and a bloody soul. Use these! Minimalism is a lifestyle, sure, but my belief is that it shouldn't turn you into a robot.

In essence: live simply, but still live.

[cosmic-variance-deactivated2015]

In following my minimalist lifestyle change, I plan to roughly follow TheMinimalists 21 day journey. (http://www.theminimalists.com/21days/day1-2/). Day one suggests that we must stop “shoulding" ourselves and start “musting". TheMinimalist blog states "a decision is not a real decision until...

[practicalminimal]

I found this article. It's interesting and I'd to discuss it at a future time.

[practicalminimal]

Bastardizing an OS

Sometimes you just need to get your hands dirty.  That's my motto right now. As my shopping for a new computer continues, (leaning towards a Mac and Bootcamp with Windows... that's another story) I'm doing what I can to survive my current setup. My desk is glass (yay!) but I have little to no storage (boo) and lots of crap. So what to do? First, I got a desktop organizer. Black, cardboard-ish. Whatever, it works. I began to put my office supplies in that. Other random items I either tossed out or put in "storage" (aka, my nightstand). so far on my desk I have the following items that are not arranged nicely. Starting from the left: An Xbox controller. Headphones. A dollar bill. A USB Drive. A pocket knife. a jug (I kid you not. It's how I stay hydrated). A pair of sunglasses. a code to redeem a digital copy of Daft Punk's new album. A coffee mug. Two empty bottles of Woodchuck. A chromebook and on top of that a spiral binder. Three (semi-decorative) shot glasses. A champagne cork I converted into a pin cushion. Finally, a breast cancer awareness rubber duck. As I typed those things out I suddenly realized how much shit I still had on my desk and began to clean. This is the urge that has been getting to me lately. Most of what I listed is still on the desk, but other things have found new homes. I'll always keep the duck. I like it.

My desk has quickly become the focus of this post. That was not the original intent. As my title suggest, I should be focusing on what I have done digitally rather than physically. In short, I still have Windows. Ubuntu has caused me untold amounts of annoyance and I'll stay with Microsoft for now. But, in order to make the interface more bearable I made some changes. First off, there is now a dock. I used Rocket Dock as it suited my needs perfectly. Secondly, there is no taskbar. Dexpot helped me get rid of that and allowed me to have multiple workspaces and an expose-like feature. Neat! Finally, I edited icons. Flat and minimal were the only requirements, luckily Metro UI from Windows 8 has brought this style to the forefront. The result: (linked because it's too damn big otherwise) Clicky

So, I've taken Windows 7, put an OSX style dock with a UI reminiscent of older Linux distros. That, my friends, is practical, nice looking, and minimal. And it's definitely bastardizing an OS.

[practicalminimal]

It all started....

with an itch. I love my Android handset. I adore it. It's nice looking, it's powerful, and it was reasonably priced. But something bugged me. Something made me cringe. That was the aesthetic. I think I began to notice issues when I heard about iOS7. Contrary to what many readers might think from the short work I've done, I actually am not an Apple user. That might change in the near future, but I've always been a Windows/Android/Linux guy. The last time I used Apple's OS was back with Macintosh. Those things were awesome. 

Anyway

My point is that I found the community and environment behind Android to be top of the line, bar none, but I found the design to be severely lacking.

Why can't everything look like the new google maps? or google now?

So I dove in and started doing what I could to make my phone's UI look... crisp.

and I succeeded. Thanks to Stark icons, Apex Launcher, and Google Now HD backgrounds, I had a UI to be proud of. The thing just looks spiffy. As I looked through my icons... I noticed something

(example of Stark icons)

I really like these new icons. I mean really liked them. There was something about the simplicity of them. Square shapes, limited color palette. To the point. At the time I had no idea what to call this style, all I knew is that it kind of looked like Windows 8's Metro... sort of mixed with Google's Holo design... with a dash of iOS7 (except not hideous).

Flat. Minimal. Gorgeous.

[practicalminimal]

Intro

For my first post, I believe I should explain the purpose of this tumblr. This is not a minimalist blog to show how much crap I've thrown out or how clean and sparkly my workspace is. Although I hope those things will come to pass over time, currently my physical space is somewhat messy. But I've noticed changes. Changes that have started to accumulate that make my room distinctly... new. I've begun to align myself with minimalist ideology, but I do not wholeheartedly agree with it. If you want to be truly minimalist, you should probably live in a white cube out in the middle of the woods with bread and water. Maybe even no bread. Clearly, that is not what I will do. I am a computer science student and a software developer. I have been connected to the internet for as long as the internet has existed (nearly) and I will continue to do so. But the mindset and aesthetic behind minimalism intrigues me. Leave behind what is not needed seems silly, but leave behind what is not practical speaks to me. 

Thus, I created this tumblr. Not to circlejerk or post pictures of minimalist cats, but to chronicle my experiences with minimalism and share the design choices I take in my life.

Welcome, and please enjoy your stay.