Nothing New Under the Sun

I have to borrow the title of a friend's blog today. I have empirical data supporting his theory that there truly is nothing new under the sun. In this case, it's about original thought.

In January 2006, Slick and I started playing World of Warcraft (WoW.) The first thing I had to do was choose a name for my Hunter. Slick watched as I made up the name by writing random stuff down on a piece of paper. Finally, after a lot of scribbling and a beverage, I entered "Beroth" and a noob was born.

A few months ago, Blizzard (makers of WoW) introduced a player database called the Armory. It allows people to look up character stats out of game. This is great for comparing yourself to other players for gear upgrades and/or general improvement.

And what did I discover when I searched for myself? There were 26 characters named Beroth and over 50 more names starting with Beroth. There are 6 other Hunters named Beroth. AND there are two of us that are level 70! So much for an original thought. Oh well, at least I appeared first when I did the search!

Yep, further proof that there's nothing new under the sun.

So, I got rid of Cable TV

Thought I couldn't do it? Well, I did. No more cable TV. (And no, I didn't get Dish or satellite to replace it.)

I've always been a TV junky. I love the visual medium. Some people like books, some like music, I love 2d entertainment. Give me a good SciFi show or a sappy movie any day. Two years ago, I scraped, saved and begged the wife until she caved and we got ourselves a 56" HDTV. We've got it hooked up with surround sound and everything.

So, think I'll go crazy without cable? Possibly. But, I've got lots of options: Our DvD collection, Netflix, and a growing amount of online content. I'll miss sports. But what I'll really miss is turning on the TV for no apparent reason and finding something SOOO crappy, SOOO stupid that when slick walks into the room, she just SIGHS and walks out. Yep, gonna miss that a lot.

So, we'll see how it goes.

Claiming a Life of Simplicity: Step 2: Reflect

So, you've successfully opened the lines of communication with yourself, you partner, family, God. And you've looked hard at your real priorities and desired priorities. You may have even started some sort of action plan to change your life. If you're like me, you jump full speed into a project. Instead, take it slow and take time to reflect.

Reflecting doesn't sound like much of an step, but it's really important. Change is hard, impossibly hard. I'm learning that simplicity is harder. Desiring a life of simplicity is one thing. Actively seeking it is another. And here's the odd thing, getting from complex to simply can be make life more complicated. That's why reflecting is the next step.

For me, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on my relationship with God and God's creation. My evolving desire to claim a life of simplicity really has formed into some basic categories: Health, Spirit, Community, Environment.

Health: balanced diet, exercise, managing my fibromyalgia.
Spirit: Being happy, fulfilled and at peace with life.
Community: Building and sustaining relationships that matter.
Environment: Living simply and doing our part for the environment.

It would be easy to complicate our lives further by just quickly running out to join a gym, buy some self-help books, join more small groups at church and installing solar panels. That's not claiming a life of simplicity. Simplicity is about focusing on those priorities and finding ways to change your life in big and small ways to make it happen.

Next time, Actions on Health.

Faucet

Slick must have taken the camera to Europe, but the camera on my phone works fine. The new faucet is in and it isn't leaking (yet.) I'm not fond of it's craftsmanship, but there was no point in dropping huge amounts of money on a really expensive one. (Not that it was cheap either.) Anyway, it should last for a while.

The water damage seems to have cleaned up well. That tape-coated piece of wood is holding the Formica down while the glue and caulking sets the rest of the way. Only time will tell if it was a success.

So, other than cleaning up the kitchen, we're done with the projects. Hopefully, I'll have some energy left and we can go for a hike tomorrow.

Sink update

So, my father has ripped out the kitchen faucet and removed all the caulking. The old one was leaking horribly and damaging the counter-top. The problem is that we need to let some stuff dry and then caulk and then dry some more. So, no working sink until at least tomorrow!

He's offered to take me out to dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

Home repair, free meals on the town! He needs to visit more often!

Be careful what you ask for...

So, Slick is on a business trip to Europe this week. (Always marry above yourself!) Weeks ago, when I realized that she'd be gone I (mostly joking) asked my father to come visit. With the way I'm feeling, help with projects and general company is welcome. Imagine my shock when he bought plane tickets! He's here now. Don't tell Mom, but he's *GASP* cleaning the breakfast dishes as I write.

We're going to look at the leaky kitchen sink when he's done and see if we can fix it. I think if I was 100%, I could do it. So hopefully we (me at 50% and him at whatever speed he moves) can "get er dun!"

Anyway, even with last night's strange trip to the grocery store, it's nice to have him here.

Claiming a Life of Simplicity: Step 1: Communicate and Prioritize

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I left my job and well over a month since the wife and I came to the decision to claim a life of simplicity. So, how does one create order out of Chaos? Everyone does things differently. I'm going to start talking about our process and our progress in this blog. I'm also adding a new label called "Simple." This is not intended to be a series of conversion essays to my way of thinking. It's simply what's going on with us. If it helps you evaluate and make changes for the better, great! If it simply informs you of how we are doing, fine too.

Communicate & Prioritize

Did you have premarital counseling? Remember the Pastor or Rabbi telling you that communication is the key to a successful marriage? Well, it is.

For years, we've "dreamed" of a simple life and then bought cool stuff (mostly my doing!) It was my health that forced us to reevaluate things and consider our priorities. Then one Saturday night in a booth at the local Chili's the dream became a real discussion. We discovered that we were both thinking the same thing. Things aren't working this way. My health was not getting any better. We're both stressed. We're both out of shape. Our big house is all wrong for us. We've been completely ignoring church. Worst of all, with no end in sight how could we start a family? Something had to change. That's when we began looking at our priorities.

One of the best (and painful) exercises in the world is to come up with your desired list of priorities AND then compare it to a quantifiable REAL list of priorities. We did this with a years worth of credit card receipts and an excel spreadsheet. The results? Our #1 priority seemed to be having fun. Our desired priority was being healthy and starting a family.

The problem with these kind of moments is what you do with them. How do you go from discovery to action? I'll talk about what we are doing next time.

Reasons to consider buying a tankless water heater

If you thought this would be some kind of eco-friendly analysis about tankless water heaters, you're wrong...

The real reason to consider a tankless water heater is to avoid being woken up at 6:45AM by being told that the hot water heater is off. Thus requiring you to kneel on the cold garage floor at 6:50AM trying to read the pilot restart instructions. I mean, what's the rush? It's not like there will be hot water for a good 30-40 minutes.

Of course, by this same logic, I should also consider getting Slick a gym membership.

Healthy eating ends at Starbucks

So, the wife and I (as part of our "lifestyle" changes) are taking a hard look at our nutrition and eating habits. We found a series of really good articles in her "Cooking Light" magazine about good and bad foods. EX: why whole grains are SOOO much better for you than regular. We've also decided to track our points using her father's WeightWatchers info. Remember that post about Starbucks?

Well, the starbucks website has a nutritional page.

I did some calculating.

My beverage of choice is a grande vanilla latte. That's $&#*ing 7 points. If however, I switched that to a tall latte with skim milk & sugar free vanilla syrup, it's only 2 points! That's equivalent to having a cup of joe with 1 tbsp sugar & 1 tbsp half-half.

Grande Flavored Latte (whole milk & 2 pumps) = 7 pts
Tall Flavored Latte (whole milk & 2 pumps) = 6 pts
Grande Flavored Latte (skim milk & 2 pumps) = 4 pts
Tall Flavored Latte (skim milk & 2 pumps) = 3 pts
A tall (sugar free flavored) latte with skim milk is = 2 pts. Similar to coffee with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp half-half.

With our espresso maker at home, I can make a cafe' w/ skim milk froth & some sugar free syrup for 1 to 2 points and it'll cost a lot less!

Anyway, something to think about next time you're in line for that $5 latte!

Sixers Draft Picks

OK, I know that the current season isn't over, but I'm thinking draft.

Kevin Durant declared for the draft today. Then there's Greg Oden, who's a monster All American! Both are young. ESPN has projections.

The Sixers have 3 first round picks! If we don't do well in the lottery, I'm willing to trade them all for a top-2 pick.

An Inconvenient Truth

Last night, we finally watched An Inconvenient Truth. It was powerful.

We must do more to care for our environment. My wife and I recycle. We compost. We close up parts of our house we don't use. We bought digital, programmable thermostats. I've started replacing some light bulbs. When it was time to get a bigger vehicle, we have a "light" front-wheel drive SUV instead of an Explorer or a 4-door Tundra. Yet, we too can do more.

Did you know that there's talk about the Southwest of the US turning into a dust bowl?

Is anyone else bothered by the weird disappearing bee phenomena?

I'm not advocating becoming a "tree hugger" or running for congress. My wife believes that if the President (not this one) made global warming a national priority (like WWII mobilization or the Space Race) we could do something. As of today, there are still 652 days left for the current administration, it's up to us to start making our own changes. There is a Take Action page to help. And if you're too lazy to click on these links, there's a list of Ten Things to Do.

Change a light
Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Drive Less
Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often. You'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don't drive!

Recycle more
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.

Check your tires
Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%.
Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothe in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year)

Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%

Adjust your thermostat
Moving your thermostat just 2 degress in winder and up 2 degrees in summer
You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.

Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime

Turn off electronic devices
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, Stereo, and computer when you're not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Spread the Word

The Hope of Easter

My favorite web comic, PvP had an amusing cartoon on Thursday. Brent was trying to get out of work on Friday by claiming that he was Christian. His boss, Cole told him he could go if he could explain the meaning of Good Friday. Brent couldn't.

Well, today is Easter. Christ is RISEN! What does that mean? God's promise is fulfilled.

John 3:16 (also known as the sporting event sign!)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

This year, I'm hoping that Easter has one more meaning for me. I've been living my own 40-days. A Lenten discipline of pain. It was not lost on me that I left my job during holy week, or that I've started reflecting on my spiritual discipline during Holy Week. So, this year, I hope that Easter is a re-birth for me as well. I've given up a lot for a promise of a better life.

As the song goes:
We've come this far by faith. Leaning on the Lord. Trusting in his Holy Word! Oh, don't turn around. We've come this far by faith.

Happy Easter everyone. May the resurrection be a blessing for you NOW!

Must Listen

Have you heard about B Flat?

For reasons that remain mostly mysterious, the note we call "B flat" does the oddest things. It aggravates alligators, it lurks in the stairwell of an office building, and it emanates from a supermassive black hole 250 million light years from Earth.

ROTFLMAO

If you aren't a NPR listener, why not!?!

Grande Mocha FATpuccino

Holy CRAPpuccion Batman!

A 16-ounce Starbucks Grande Mocha Frappuccino has 420 calories, 150 calories of which are fat!

Diet Tip of the Week

No wonder I'm so fat!

Slick and I have started using the home espresso machine she got me for Christmas and making the froth from skim milk. I can't give up my sweet stuff completely, so I put a little vanilla flavoring in mine.

Sleep

OK, maybe most people won't find this post-worthy, but I slept last night. I woke up once around 4AM and that was it! I got just under 8 hours sleep. That hasn't happened in 2 weeks (and I take prescription sleep aids.) So, I'm happy. Maybe it'll be a good day after all.

Star Wars Humor

If you're a Star Wars junky (or at least were one before Jar Jar and orphan Annie Skywalker killed it for you) and love pop culture parody, make sure you visit YouTube from time to time. There's a lot of good stuff there. Here's an example...

I learned it by watching you!

01.20.09

So, I'm following this honda and it's got this bumper sticker that simply reads 01.20.09. I'm thinking, "What?" The danger here now is hoping for a long stoplight so I can inch up and read the fine print. And guess what, it was worth it!

01.20.09 = The last day of Bush's presidency.

Oooo...addition. Found the website that goes with it.

Bush's Last Day

Claiming a Life of Simplicity

The title of this post comes from something my pastor said to me the other day. It is officially being added to my list of personal principles.

Now for what's going on and the reason for the title.

The wife and I are planning a radical change in our lifestyle to deal with my fibromyaligia & chronic fatigue syndrome. The first step happened today, I left my job. I am not seeking re-employment at this time. Instead, I will be focusing on my health and our well-being. This change will most likely necessitate our selling this house and moving somewhere more cost-effective. We are going to make a number of major lifestyle and spending changes as part of this process. We will probably be dropping cable and just using netflix. (Keeping high-speed internet and World of Warcraft!)

I will be 35 this year. For me, the window of realistic expectations for starting a family is closing. We simply can not start one with my health the way it is. We hope that this change will be the first step in finally being able to start a family.

Part-time or telecommuting work are things I'm thinking about for down the road. But, our big goal is to adjust our lifestyles to one income and to the simple idea of claiming a life of simplicity.