“Convenience Food” –> assumes that people wouldn’t want to cook for themselves if they didn’t have to. Isn’t it just as likely that people don’t want to cook because they don’t know how or that they think it’s too hard or whatever?

Shampoo –> See No ‘Poo. (I’ve been doing this for a little over a week now. We’ll so how it goes.

Computerized Sewing Machines –> The vast, vast majority of sewers can do amazing stuff with a Singer from the 50’s that goes forward and backward. If it can do a zigzag stitch, that’s nice too. The rest…. unnecessary.

New Clothes –> The thrift store is your friend. It takes a really really long time to wear out clothes and most of the stuff in the thrift store isn’t all that used.

Fancy Athletic Shoes –> We all should be walking barefoot (or close to it). The simpler the shoe the better.

Cameras –> A fancy camera in the hands of an amateur will still turn out amateurish pictures.

Computers –> Most of us don’t really need a computer every 4 years, but we’re forced out of them by new software that won’t work on the old ones.

If I wanted to I could think of more examples. Very few things in life are actually necessary. Some things will enhance our happiness. Too many things will weigh us down.

This has huge implications. For ourselves, it means that we can get more freedom by paring down the stuff that doesn’t matter. For the world, it means we probably have the means to enable everyone to have their basic needs met.

If we have the capability to create such a world, why aren’t we? I think it’s a matter of structure. We’re a capitalist society. We’re told to spend spend spend all the time. Many of us have thousands of dollars of debt. We have a mistaken belief that more stuff = more happiness. Until enough of us shun this belief system, we won’t as a society get to that place where none of us have to worry about how to get food, shelter, and safety.

Luckily, we don’t need society to be on our side in order to reap the benefits of getting rid of the unessential. Each thing you don’t need that you can get rid of is more money in your pocket. More money means you you have more you can save. More savings means less worrying about how to feed and shelter yourself. Not having to worry about that stuff is the whole goal.

The more of us that change our lives in a certain way, the more society changes in that direction. Businesses will start catering to our new values. Then it’ll be us running the businesses. Then there may not even be businesses as such. All volunteer organizations… If you wanted to sit on your butt all day you could! Without guilt even!

I think we have arrived at the age where this is possible. To go from possible to actuality we need to focus on what’s important and get rid of the unnecessary.

Also, while I like the distraction free environment, there’s other stuff I like to have in a text editor: syntax highlighting, easy search within the file, keyboard shortcuts, etc. It does’t have to be heavy on the toolbars and text markup a la Microsoft Word or Open Office, but I’d like it if it had a little more functionality than, say, Notepad.

Truthfully, I like vim. It takes a bit of effort upfront to figure out, but after that initial investment it’s really a great text editor. Now if only it did the distraction free thing…

Oh wait. It Does!

At least it does on the Mac. Not sure if it does on the PC or Linux versions, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does.

If you do have a Mac, and you already love vim or would like to learn how, here’s how to get the distraction free version to work.

Step 1) Download MacVim.
Then install.
Then start it up.

Step 2) Pick your color scheme.
To change your color scheme you can use the main toolbar as such: Edit –> Color Scheme –> murphy.

“Murphy” is the one I’m using. You can choose whichever on you’d like. One with a dark background is probably a good idea since in fullscreen mode, the sides will be black.

Alternately you can use the command

:colorscheme murphy

in execution mode.

Step 3) Turn on spellcheck
Using the toolbar go to Tools –> Spelling –> Spell Check On
Using execution mode:

:set spell

Of course, you don’t have to turn this on, but for writing blog posts it is useful.

Step 4) Turn on Word Wrap
Using the toolbar go to Edit –> File Settings –> Toggle Wrap at Word
Using execution mode:

:set linebreak

Step 5) Full Screen
Press the following three keys:
Command Shift F
That will toggle Full Screen mode. Then you basically have WriteRoom with the features of vim.

How to get a quick word count
In command mode press the following:
g Control+g
Which is to say press g, and then press Control and g at the same time.

Enjoy!

It’s a jar of little origami stars with inspirational quotes on each star. Inexpensive but time consuming to make and it’s a really great way to start my day. It’s like opening a fortune cookie except I get to do it every morning  and I don’t have to throw out a cookie.

If you’ve got plenty of time, but not plenty of cash, or if you want to give more personal gifts this year consider this one.

There’s a few websites with instructions on how to make the stars. Here’s one. Here’s another.

She used a cotton ball holder, but you could use an old jelly or pasta sauce jar. For the paper, my friend used old notebook paper which she hand colored, but you could use fancy scrapbooking paper or whatever kind of paper you like. Etsy has ready-made supplies too.

Finding quotes can be a bit challenging. I suggest picking a theme. For instance, my friend picked “Power to Women” and most of the quotes are (unsurprisingly) from women. People like Gilda Radner, Iris Murdoch, and Sophia Loren.

Other themes you could consider:

• Love
• Inspirational
• Religious
• Philosophical
• Poor Richard’s Almanack
• Bad Puns…

I like this gift because it’s personal and it isn’t all that wasteful. All materials (the paper and the container) can be things you’d otherwise throw-away. Thrifty and thoughtful!