Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?
There are a lot of things I don’t need.
Trying to limit the things in my life that I don’t need to a mere 11 would be a foolish exercise. Really, anything beyond Maslow’s chart is something I don’t need.
So, how do we chose an arbitrary number of things to say, “we don’t need this,” if we basically don’t need anything? So, at its heart the Reverb10 prompt for today was actually, “Ten things you should get rid of to make your life less complicated and more enlightened.” This makes sense, because today’s prompt comes from Sam Davidson, author of the self-help book [amazon_link id=”1596527560″ target=”_blank” ]50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need[/amazon_link].
I’m not one to deffer a person from self improvement, and I enjoy the practical approach that Davidson takes to some very classic minimalist philosophy. The problem is with me, however. I’ve lived in the past in the guise of a monk. I’ve lived a minimalist existence with few physical or psychological possessions. Its a simple, spiritual life.
AND ITS BORING AS SHIT!
I’m a technophile. I love my phone, (an [amazon_link id=”B0031MA0UO” target=”_blank” ]HTC Hero[/amazon_link]) and my computer. I love my brand new car, with its 312 miles and its 28 miles per gallon city. I love playing Fallout on my [amazon_link id=”B003O6JKLC” target=”_blank” ]Xbox[/amazon_link], while listening to Nerdcore Hiphop on Pandora.
I LOVE STUFF.
I’m not ashamed of that.
So, Here is a list of 11 things that I don’t NEED in 2011, but want… and might even get.
1. An Android Tablet – [amazon_link id=”B00422W5QO” target=”_blank” ]Archos 101[/amazon_link] – A Tablet PC is something I’ve been wanting for a long time, and I mean since the word Tablet was introduced back in the 90s. That’s right, the iPad is not the first Tablet. This is just one of the many things that makes me hate Steve Jobs, liar that he is. Why the Archos 101? Well, its a 10″ Tablet, which is the size that I want, and it runs on Android Froyo, which I’ve become to really on as the greatest mobile OS ever made… ever.
2. Overly Large Portable Hard Drive – [amazon_link id=”B0041OSQ9S” target=”_blank” ]1TB Western Digital My Passport [/amazon_link]- I like being on the go. I love that I live in the future, and can satisfy my dark needs for information and twitter from anywhere in the entire planet. Actually, this might be bordering on a sick addiction for me, and I should probably put that in check. The one thing that I really want, is the ability to carry way to much information with me wherever I go. I don’t think I could ever fill a 1TB hard drive, but I said that about my 30 gigs in 1999, too. Wow, that was funny of me.
3. Swords to Perfect my Chosen Martial Art – [amazon_link id=”B001Q72ARC” target=”_blank” ]Cold Steel Training Swords[/amazon_link] – x2. I love the art of the sword, and have studied it for over a decade. Boffer swords are fun for LARPing, and wooden wasters are practical I guess, but it be nice to have something durable and relatively cheap that handles with the same balance and weight. I need two, so that my training partner can also be rocking one while we work on forms.
4. An E-Cigarette Kit – [amazon_link id=”B004FKRZWW” target=”_blank” ]Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit[/amazon_link] – I don’t need an e-cigarette, I stopped smoking last time cold turkey, but it was a painful, difficult process that I don’t want to live through again. These things help, and I know a lot some people who use them now and are having good results. Plus, cost wise, they are actually cheaper than smoking cigarettes, and MUCH cheaper than using patches, which I have tried before and didn’t help. The appeal here is that I can drop down the nicotine level gradually like you do with patches, eventually to using just flavor cartridges, without loosing the oral fixation satisfaction of sucking on a tube.
5. Jump around Video Games – [amazon_link id=”B002BSA298″ target=”_blank” ]X-Box Kinnect[/amazon_link] – I like the Wii. I like the X-Box. I can’t wait until I am able to close my eyes and plug a a cord into my brain-port and live in an artificial world inside my head. Until then, I’ll have to settle for jumping around like a monkey to pop balloons. I’m okay with that.
6. A hardbound copy of the Eldaraenth Rule Book – I run a LARP, and right now, our rulebook is only in PDF form. I really want to get a nice hardback cover of it printed at some point.
7. An appearance on Conan – I’m Team CoCo, that’s right, deal with it. One of my lifetime goals and dreams is to be on his show. I’m… not sure how I’m going to accomplish that one yet, I’ll have to get back to you all on it. But, its on my list of goals.
8. Swanky Period Boots – [amazon_link id=”B001AH62V8″ target=”_blank” ]Boots[/amazon_link] are the hardest part of a LARPer’s kit to come up with, and without a good looking pair, no matter how awesome the rest of your kit is, you just won’t look right. I’d really like a nice pair with a real soul.
9. A new coat – I want a [amazon_link id=”B003R7K300″ target=”_blank” ]good wool coat[/amazon_link], I haven’t had an actually coat in a long time, and I have a very classic sense of style.
10. A new weight bench – I like to lift weights, and I used to do it every night before I lost [amazon_link id=”B000XKHHMG” target=”_blank” ]my weight bench[/amazon_link] in a fire a couple of years ago, and since then I’ve gained over 60 pounds. I want to get back into shape pretty badly, and lifting weights is the only work out that I’ve ever really enjoyed. I’ve tried gyms. I don’t do public.
[amazon_link id=”B002FQJT3Q” target=”_blank” ]11. A Kindle[/amazon_link] – I love books. I read a lot of them. They take up a lot of space. Nuts to that. I want them to all fit in my pocket at all times. Currently I’m using the Kindle app on my phone, but the screen is substantially smaller and not designed entirely for reading. I want one of these so bad I can taste it. You should all pitch in and buy me one.
What do things do you guys want but not need? I mean, besides anything other than food, water, and shelter?