A Return to Living Simply and Launching Project Spartan

Plating leaves something to be desired

So, as it turns out, I haven't actually posted about what I just did. For what looks like the next couple of months, I'm going to be living with my parents in the 3-bedroom condo while I get my financial house in order for The Big Move.

Because of that, and because I was living on my own for an extended period beforehand, I've had to downsize on gear (as a matter of fact, the 55 Gallon, which I was going to put into storage, is now for sale, which people should get in touch with me about). I've already taken a heavy sweep through my clothing looking for duplicates, rags, and those garments you can't discard but also never wear. I eventually want to get my clothing down to the point where it'll all fit in my closet - about five or six outfits, plus work clothes.

It's not just clothing and fishtanks either. Putting all of my stuff into boxes, moving it across town, and then putting it in a room roughly the size of my last bathroom has made it rather obvious just how much I actually own, and how much of it I actually need. I probably don't need the several footlockers full of CAT cable, the endless (but organized) stack of half-filled notebooks, or the tiny mountain of reusable grocery bags that I never remember to use (mostly because they are usually filed badly).

So, I'm taking a few minutes each morning to get back to basics on a lot of this stuff, figure out what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right, what I need less of, and what I need more of. I figure it'll help my bottom line in the long run, and having less things should certainly make The Big Move easier.

On a seperate-but-related note, I'm announcing the start of a writing side project. Now that I have the general sequence of the main storyline figured out, the vast majority of what I worked on for a side-plot has been relegated to the ash-heaps. To get some use out of it, I'm beginning a project called Project Spartan, wherein I post short stories about the locality in my storyline known only as "The Commune". The scheduling will be on a not-to-interfere-basis with NaNoWriMo, which should be the kick I need to finally get the first draft of the (new) first book hammered out.