Wow another few weeks fly by. Lets see. I put my Wii onto ebay and it sold for just over $200. I’ve spent a few days learning python and mucking around with it in mod_python and then mod_wsgi. I’ll be playing with it and mongoDB for a small project that I’m building to scale up. I finished reading The Art of Being Minimalist, and started on Minimalist Business, both are highly a recommended read.

The DVD ripping project has progressed further. I’ve finished all movies and made a good stab at the TV shows. This lead to a much more in-depth understanding of de-interlacing filters than I would have preferred. As the perfectionist in me decided it needed to be right I had to find the best settings. Many of the disk’s I have are poorly mastered that there is little you can do to fix errors, however some come up brilliantly with just the right settings. I noticed that usually NTSC/USA sourced material (even region 4 PAL versions of USA content) come up OK, but PAL sourced material (ABC/BBC) stuff really needs a lot of work to make it not look like a total dogs breakfast. Some disk’s were even interlaced and then de-interlaced with the wrong field order prior to being re-interlaced to go onto DVD. The result was essentially unfix-able. De-interlacing video correctly is like voodoo, and as much as I have no respect for so called professionals who screw it up, it really does take skill, knowledge, practice and some luck to get it right. That aside, there is no excuse for screwing up the final product especially if it’s being mass produced and sold. When I pay full price for something, I expect it to be right, not half assed. Free stuff can be half assed, because it’s free, fine. It’s breaking the old adage, you get what you pay for. It’s things like that which make people think the vodafone network has good coverage or speed.

That’s similar to the reason I stopped buying DVD boxed sets. You get screwed by supporting early, and rewarded for jumping in late or after the boats left. Don’t ever buy a show season by season, because after the show’s finished they’ll release a box of the lot, which will be better, for less money. Or while the show is airing, they’ll change the cover/box artwork so your neat set doesn’t match. I’ve been burned enough times to know that it’s not a once off or my bad luck, it’s standard procedure, so my response is to vote with my feet and not play that game.

While all this was going on, more house cleaning was done, I like it when tasks complement each other. The feeling of achieving a result is great. So I filled more bins full of crap and they have been dumped. I’ll soon be putting up a list of DVDs which are essentially free to a good home for a token amount of cash back.

We’re nearly through the silly season now. So much craziness. As the year is about to wrap up, perhaps a review of last year’s new years resolutions. I aimed low this year, and managed to achieve. I simply wanted to “Not eat maccas all year” or really, to see how long I could last without going. Well as it turns out I haven’t eaten there all year (since mid December 2009), and only drank coffee from Mc Cafe twice, in October, while in Esperance prior to the Tour De Freedom 1000. Even that was my fault, as I hadn’t yet found the Coffee Cat who despite being busy and slow (it was holiday time) manages to produce something that could pass for coffee in Perth. Even if it’s not just a coffee cup.

Recently I noticed there’s a lot of talk going on about fair trade coffee. Is it just me or does this sounds remarkably similar to Victory Gin from Orwell’s 1984. In fact, even the fair trade logos (there’s heaps) share some subtle similarties. I think I really need to read 1984 again, as it’s been many years and even though it might have been written a long time ago in a totally different world to which we live today, maybe Orwell could see what was going to happen, perhaps it was already in motion for some time when he wrote.

Although I have recently watched another conspiracy documentary. All very scary, all very how could we let this happen. Sure take it with a grain of salt and all, but I still don’t like the way so many things are heading. The writing on the wall isn’t great (though I do appreciate artistic graffiti) and that makes you wonder if there is some grand plan being followed (religion or alien perhaps) or if it’s just the illusion of power at the top that drives us all. Orwell touched on that, Equilibrium did too. Hopefully as in both, freedom and freewill will prevail. Without freedom what is the point?

Has anyone else noticed the gradual dumbing down of the workforce and population. It seems most people really are sheep and just do as they’re told, think as they’re told and essentially live their whole lives as someone/something else intended them to. I think we’re losing the ability to make decisions and we’re just stuck in a loop of a routine. At work people have even lost the view of the whole, maybe they never saw/understood the big picture, but I’ve seen a lot of “work” being done because higher up said so, despite it negatively impacting others work or even causing loss of service to the customers. No wonder IT in general has a bad image in most (if not all) workplaces. There’s a total lack of consideration/compassion. To be part of this mess makes me feel bad inside. I pride myself in doing quality work, and when the powers that be dictate otherwise it actually hurts me.

That segues nicely into some great news. Recently I quit my job of 6(+2) years to focus on mental clarity and meaningful work. After some weeks doing stuff I’ve needed to do for ages, I’ve now entered the job search game, and hope to have a new, meaningful job sometime soon. With all this time on my hands I’ve actually achieved so much. I’ve finished some programming projects that have been shelved for ages, I’ve completed some other time consuming tasks that needed focus and time to achieve. Above all though is the process of clearing my mind. Part of this mental purge is to clean up the house. I’ve accumulated way too much crap, and a lot of it has to go. So I’m going to sell some stuff on ebay and reduce. Looking back it’s easy to see what you use and what you don’t. Even if you think you’d use something or would like to use something, if you haven’t in years, what’s the chance of you using it in the next few years and by then is it even still relevant. I’m not yet factoring in how much keeping things costs me in terms of volume occupied or mental effort to maintain it, that might be the tipping point from a good exercise to going somewhat crazy.

I’ve read a lot about Minimalism lately and most of it sounds great to me, I’m not sure how to apply all of the ideas to my life. Or warp my life around it to make things work. Sure it might just be a phase, but it does make sense to me, and I’ve been writing that less is more and the more you have the more problems you have, for quite some time now. It’s just now I have the time to put it into practice, and it’s making me feel really good. Forcing yourself to justify things seems to make you realise so much about yourself and how you even think. All very deep and meaningful, and the other benefit is the house has never been cleaner. I’ve been keeping notes on what I’ve been doing, and who knows I might even turn it into an ebook (to follow in the path of the other great successful minimalists).