See yall, no shoes is better! MINIMALISM ROCKS!

Yeah. I’m a minimalist. Duh.

I Hate Shoes!

I don’t know why but I’ve always hated shoes. When I was little my mom could barely keep me in them. When I got older, I couldn’t stand paying $80 for a new pair every year. And when I discovered flip-flops shoes became dead to me forever!

Funny story. I was in marching band for 8 years (I hear the laughter) and the Band High School Seniors all got “gag gifts” for their going away presents presented by the band parents. My gift was a pair of shoes because the parents thought I didn’t own any as I only wore shoes about 10% of the time we practiced over 4 years.

Hot asphalt and gravel barely slow me down, on account of the half inch thick calluses I have on the bottoms of my feet.

Long story short, I hate shoes.

Popular opinion used to be it was bad to walk or run barefoot, and I gave some credence to that after getting what I thought were shin splints from playing ultimate frisbee barefoot. Turns out, if you play any sport for that many hours a week your shins are going to hurt, barefoot or not.

Well, Barefoot isn’t socially acceptable yet, but the Vibram Five Finger Shoes bring it darn close!

I haven’t purchased a pair yet (still can’t stand spending $80 on shoes) but I’m getting close!

1. Expensive Running Shoes Aren’t Necessary (Lifehacker.com)
2. Health Journal: Is barefoot better?
3. Barefoot running. Is it for you?

Vibram Five Finger Shoes

Tim Ferriss on Vibram Shoes from Kevin Rose.

Well, another fantastic cartoon came into my Feed Reader today.

Minimalism is a huge part of my lifestyle, and here is just one more justification.

I posted about The City That Said No To Advertising previously in my post titled “A Clean City – Devoid of all Advertising.”

Recently I’ve been focusing on decreasing advertising in my life. A personal goal has been to avoid retail purchases at all costs, where possible. In addition to my eschewing retail stores, I’ve shunned television. Watching a television show now consists of downloading it or getting the DVD.

However, I am unable to avoid billboards wherever I go. Billboards are a blight on the landscape, much like the highway. What can be done about these monolithic advertisement mediums?

More importantly, billboards are becoming more and more similar to television and web ads. My vehicle cannot have anti-popup billboard software installed. Can it? With the creation of billboards sporting digital displays these ads are increasingly invasive.

An article on Web Worker Daily titled Ad Blocking: A Market or a Moral Issue? peaked my interest. Especially the sentence “this is not a moral or ethical issue: it is an economic one.” Author Anne Zelenka goes on to explain if advertisements no longer existed, a new business model would have to be created. This also applies to the abolishment of billboards.

Personally, I block advertisements using the FireFox extension Stylish. However, I only block ads on my favorite site LifeHacker as a few of the ads are inappropriate for my workplace.

Regardless, there is no avoiding billboards, and other outdoor, advertisements. I applaud Sao Paul for abolishing their outdoor ads.

Slow News Day.

I thought I would share what my work system looks like as I’m quite proud of it.

Twin 19inch monitors are the reason my screenshots look the way they do.

A suite of applications allow me to make my desktop look the way it does.

• StarDock – What you see in screenshot two. This is a much more attractive dock than windows menu bar.
• Firefox - Series of Addons and searching with http://www.blackle.com
  1. FaviconizeTab – set to make all tabs FavIconized (small)
  2. Personal Menu – hide menus for larger screen real estate
  3. Stylish – set customized CSS documents for certain pages
• Launchy – the best keyboard launcher. Eliminates the need for the Start menu and so much more.
• Texter – all repetitive typing, coding, or whatever is defunct with Texter!
• Writer by John Watson – an online word processor (http://writer.bighugelabs.com/) that’s all black with green text.
• Windows Auto Hide – Since StarDock is so pretty, I set my windows bar to auto hide.
• Windows Desktop – set the background color to black, and remove all your icons
• Windows Icon Editor – Open Display Properties > Desktop Tab > Customize Desktop Button > Change Recycle Bin icons to “invisible” icons. Only the name will be visible.

DumbLittleMan.com doesn’t seem so dumb in their great tips of how to be, and stay, organized.

1. Reduce before organizing
2. Write it down now
3. Have one inbox & process
4. A place for everything
5. Put it away now
6. Clean as you go
7. Develop routines & systems

Personally, I have found putting everything away now is the best way to stay organized. Also, developing routines is pivotal. Putting my keys, (lack of wallet) three main cards, cash, and my shoes in the same place every day. Never looking for these every day saves time and headaches.

Recently, I decided it was no more wallet for me.

Web Worker Daily posted Your Wallet May Literally Be a Pain in the Tush which not only vindicates my decision to not carry a wallet, but gives me medical proof I’m better for it.

Take that wallet carriers!

His response shocked me, and gave me a new minimalist goal.

My co-worker shared that he did not carry a wallet.
Rather, he kept only three things in his back pocket.
1) Drivers liscense
2) Bank Card
3) Work ID
4) Cash

Intrigued, I decided to try the same, and it feels phenomenal.

His reasoning being only those four items were needed daily, and I completely agree. The only problem I’ve run into personally is remembering to move said cards from one pair of pants to the next. Thus, whenever I get into my vehicle, I immediately remove my three cards (I don’t carry cash) and place them in the center console. Upon exiting, I retrieve them. This allows me to always have my cards without the hassle of pant searching.

Thanks Mark!

Business Week author Patrick Burgoyne just published the article São Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising

This goes right in line with my newly added Category, Minimalism.

I for one am excited about the fact that they took down the advertisements. I abhor billboards along highways and other forms of in-your-face advertising.

To quote the article, “The removal of the posters has ‘revealed an architecture that we must learn to be proud of, instead of hiding’.” Which is awesome. Could you imagine America banning advertising? Picture your local area devoid of all things outdoor advertising. Pretty different, right?

Well, I for one will be watching Brazil with piqued interest.

Keep up the Minimalism!

This article is titled: Why You Should Stop Paying For Storage And Just Get Organized

I am a huge proponent of minimalism. I will have to post some pictures of my workspaces and home to get the idea across. I hate “stuff”.

Many people I know suffer from the disease of “hoarding” the above article talked about. Also, too many suffer from what I’ve coined “tabletop syndrome.” This is a sickness that forces its victim to compulsively put “nick-nacks” on top of any open surface, or tabletop.

I think I am going to create a new category specifically dealing with “table-top syndrome,” “hoarding,” and “stuff” for all those interested in articles dealing with this. I am an organizational freak and I hate paper. If others are interested in the topic I will try to facilitate the sharing of knowledge on it.

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Edit: the new category is titled Minimalism.

I am a huge proponent for the paperless life. I hate paper.

I can not stand snail mail and I am infamous for not answering my cell phone, but letting my voice mail do it for me.

Everyone I know I direct to my email account. Email is not a perfect medium, but it is far better than the phone. I cannot get “trapped” in a long email conversation. If I want to skim, or ignore completely, an email I received, I do so.

It is quite a social fopaux to do the same when someone is talking to you. Such a practice could be labeled the “glaze effect” when someone just powers down while another is talking to them.
The above article talks about several alternatives, most of which rely on email. You can have your snail mail re-directed to a business who then scans it and emails you the files. However, what happens the next time grandma sends me a check in the mail?