Post Migrations This Weekend
Since 2004, I’ve maintained a snowboarding blog at my old Shobek domain. Last night I moved all of those hundreds of posts to this blog and replaced the old site with a redirect. I also once maintained a blog on building virtual communities on blogger. I imported those posts as well. Unfortunately, blogger doesn’t allow an easy method to redirect traffic. Eventually, I’ll pull that blog down entirely I think.
Left lingering are blog posts on MySpace, Intent.com, WebcraftStudios.com, and probably a couple of more places I can’t think of at the moment. I will be pulling all of these posts together as well. Then I hope to sift through it all, re-arrange categories, remove the really useless posts, and have a nice clean archive of everything I’ve blogged. I may even go so far as to manually pull in the weekly updates from the RPG I was working on in the 90s. I also have some posts on GoLightWeight.com that I might import, unless I decide to do the site right.
I’m in a frustrating phase of life right now. I work at an amazing company, but I don’t enjoy my job. Mostly, it’s the project itself. There’s nothing to really be proud of or excited about. I really wish we were building something innovative. I also really wish we were building something that brought some real value to the world. In addition to (or conflict with) work, I also still have this heavy desire to go nomadic for a year or three. I’m starting to think this feeling may not just “go away” unless I just go do it. Finally, I have about half a dozen projects I want to be working on, but I’m not giving enough attention to any of them directly. Focusing is hard. Ultimately, I’m sorting through a lot of conflicting desires – and it’s terribly confusing.
I do seem to be slowly cleaning a lot of things up. For the first time in a year, I’ve got nearly all the paperwork at my desk cleared away. I disposed of an entire filing cabinet of paperwork that was no longer needed. I sold my truck. As mentioned here, I’m consolidating blogs. I still need to unsubscribe from a lot of mailing lists and clean up my gmail – which now imports mail from all of my other accounts. It’s crazy how much work it takes to simplify my digital life.
It does seem that less is more. I’m about to order a nice laptop. I already have a ton of equipment, but the new laptop should replace most – if not all of it. I have a desktop machine, a laptop, a netbook, a media PC, an old SFF PC in the closet, and an n800. I might keep the netbook, the latptop will replace the rest. I suppose I should do the same with a lot of my sporty toys. I currently have 4 snowboards and two bikes (I did get rid of an extra mountain bike a year or two ago).
Maybe I’m going about things the wrong way. Maybe I should pile all my stuff up, pick out what I really want, then let anyone else pick out what they want, and then set the rest on fire! That would be the Burning Man way to go, after all. But, for now, it’s one step at a time. I’m going to clean up my blogs, working on putting together the camper van, and see what projects I (and Nino) can make happen.
Did you ever read about the guy who decided to reduce his number of possessions to only 100 things?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html
I did… seemed like it became a fad briefly. While I heard a lot of people talk about it, I don’t know of anyone who actually did it.
Trying to move items to blogger without a proper redirect is a pain. You can do a redirect on their site that will basically say the blog is shut down and it is now here. Not the optimal way and you lose all the links but if you just want to lock it up and move on you can do that.
I’ve moved four times in 16 months, all for good reasons. I found that just consolidating and simplifying just made life in general easier. Be it online accounts, equipment, what have you… I totally know what you are going through right now.
It’s overwhelming when you think about how far beyond survival humans have journeyed. Is there such a truth as natural living anymore? Our “needs” have evolved it seems. We have been brainwashed by the corporate machines to believe that enough is never enough. We buy into the notion that our lives will be easier or justified if we join the ranks whom are willing to supplement their commodities. It’s no secret that businesses familiarize themselves with human psychology to boost their success for profit through marketing. Having a daughter, I can attest to buying into the amusement numerous times. Diapers, for example, have claims that suggest anything from leak-protection, to comfort-stretch fit, to color changing indicators when dirty. After trying several brands, I decided that no matter how many I sampled in the end the gimmick was solely fantasy. Game over. Sometimes a diaper is just a bag for housing poop. Looking back, now with rational clarity, I realize I could have used cloth diapers and avoided all the marketing chagrin. Not to mention the landfills would be a lot less pregnant with neatly packaged fecal bombs. Sure my workload would have increased to some degree… but a natural, money-saving solution would have resulted. The older and wiser I become the more I long for simple living, but unquestionably not without technology or the acceptance of new ideas. I would welcome a less cluttered, more natural lifestyle (especially with how often we move from place to place). Kudos to you for taking the right steps, Scott!