February 25, 2007

Too Much Stuff

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:07 pm

It’s truly unbelievable how much ‘stuff’ we accumulate, and you don’t realize it until you have to pick it all up and move it somewhere. Moving from a 2000 square foot house to a 600 square foot apartment really shows it. Before moving Kim and I donated boxes and boxes of books, clothes and other things thinking we’d be lean and mean for the move. Then we opened up cupboards and cabinets and nearly cried. Thanks goodness we’re getting this taken care of now and not right before we’re planning on leaving the country for Peru.

On the upside, it’s easier than ever before to get rid of ‘stuff’ responsibly, that is not just throwing it in the dumpster. Anyone who hasn’t heard of craigslist has been living under a rock and missing out on the best mover of stuff maybe ever. Freecycle is another cool idea, but I use it much less often. People will come and take your stuff off your hands, usually picking it up at your house and sometimes paying for it! It’s a great way to accumulate a lot of stuff for dirt cheap too… Of course, if your stuff is worth a lot and small it’s probably better to put it on ebay and get more money for it. Or you could get all philanthropic and probably save yourself a lot of time by donating your stuff. I’m finding out the tax benefits are decent too now that I’m having to itemize my tax returns. For clothes we like giving to The Last White Elephant in Seattle, which uses money from sales for educating people about animal rights and vegetarianism. Books and CDs we always give to EcoEncore, partly because Kim used to work there but mostly because they’re a great organization that uses proceeds to support local environmental nonprofits.

EcoEncore even promotes a great book called Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everday Things that’s a great little read on how much energy actually goes into making ‘stuff’.

The less stuff I have, the better I feel lately, no matter how much I sometimes crave buying new toys, they don’t usually satisfy me for long, but having a clean, clutter-free environment really does feel satisfying, even if it’s difficult.

Moving to Capitol Hill

February 17th, 2007
This post will become visible after your registration is approved.
February 15, 2007

Lindy Hoppin

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 11:48 pm

I said earlier I wanted to take swing lessons, but lindy is pretty darn similar. Kim and I are loving the class through the UW Experimental College taught by Travis Whetman and Lorraine. Kim and I had seen lindy once before at the Century Ballroom, but with only a 1/2 hour intro to it, we really didn’t get it. However, even that one night of just trying it helped a lot, because there’s these weird triple steps all over that just take a lot of getting used to. Kim said I’m probably the best lead in the class, which is something I’m not used to at all. However, that’s not saying much, especially as we’ve gone out dancing recently and watched some really good dancers that just blow me away. It’s like watching a gap commercial with people jitterbugging all over and jumping and being thrown.

Anyway, it seems like learning to lead is really hard to start, and not all that fun and just awkward for the first few dance classes, but once you get some basic leading down, it applies all over the place and makes classes really fun.

See more progress on: Take swing dance lessons

Valentines at Banya 5

February 14th, 2007
This post will become visible after your registration is approved.
February 13, 2007

New Tech Website

Filed under: Technology — mmrobins @ 11:26 pm

It’s time for me to branch my blogging: one for personal stuff, one for work related technical stuff. I’ve never really wanted my personal blog to be big on search results for my name, even if I have a way of keeping my personal posts mostly personal. However, it’s always bothered me a little that searching for “Matt Robinson” I don’t even register on the first 5 pages (I quit looking after that). So I’ve nabbed a sweet new domain: mattrobinson.net. Both .com and .org had been taken, and honestly I’m surprised this one hadn’t with all the matt robinsons there are. Now I can write technical, nerdy stuff and get recognized for it. Potential employers will Google me and find stuff that looks good for a job app instead of my vacations and movie reviews that I post here at mmrobins.com.

Anyway, hopefully anyone who actually reads this isn’t upset about possibly subscribing to two RSS feeds, but then most people who read this don’t even know what RSS is, so they definitely won’t miss my tech writing, of which there should be a lot more now on the other site.

Hawaii Honeymoon – Kauai

February 13th, 2007
This post will become visible after your registration is approved.