plain and simple: let's protect the internet

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Coming out of my closet...literally.

My New Year Resolutions is:

Keep it simple.

There are many reasons why I have chosen to  keep things simple.

Here is one of them:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

You have probably run away from the computer
and are trying to turn off your browser with a ten foot pole right now.
But wait....

Now, for the really scary part....that is actually an AFTER picture NOT a BEFORE!
We couldn't see the CD shelves AT ALL (nor the floor) the same time last year because there were so many boxes piled up!

...

A lot of people have been commenting in blogland about how we tend to show the pretty, perfect and peachy sides of our lives.

I am
one
of
them.

Or now I can say...was one of them.

That room above is not supposed to be a closet, but it is, and we are changing that.
Finally...been sort of "working on it" for ages.


Thanks to  numerous videos on youtube and websites like flylady, zen habits (and his books) and for inspiration, better homes and gardens I have been able to stay focused.

One of the most helpful were books by Dominique Loreau.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find anything by her in English (only in Japanese and French) but I did find this lovely blog by someone who has posted about reading her and decluttering: http://l0ve0utl0ud.wordpress.com/tag/dominique-loreau/
I hope the blogger doesn't mind my posting a link....

so here are three steps I have taken so far:

step 1.

I went through my summer wardrobe and threw away everything I hadn't worn!

IT WAS LIBERATING!

Then I went through my winter wardrobe and threw away everything I knew I wouldn't wear this season.

Now, I am only going to buy clothes when something gets old and even then it will have to be in one of these colors:
blue, gray, green or pink.

Why?  Because I use to keep buying shirts in outrageous colors that I could never match with my business suits etc.  (They looked pretty in the shops...)  If everything can be coordinated it makes it easier to pack for business trips etc.

Once I cleaned out my wardrobe I could feel the weight of my belongings lift up, rise...and...
....
fly away
...
Less clutter in your home means less vibes you are constantly getting from your "stuff".
(check zen habits again here: http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-creating-a-minimalist-home/)


Miraculously throwing things away started to get easier and easier.
I started to throw away a garbage bag a week just by opening up two or three boxes at a time.

step 2.
They key was to not overdo myself.  But since it was fun, I would clean out a corner of my apartment or 3 or 4 boxes every other week. (I had LOTS of business trips over the weekend last year, so under those conditions I think I did pretty well!  It actually takes only an hour or two once you get in the habit of
LETTING GO.  (You just have to give up playing computer games...or shopping...or couch potato-ing.)

step 3.  

When you notice something... just don't walk by...stop, consider  (if you don't need it, if it is redundant or you had even forgot you owned it) and toss!

If you don't have the heart to throw something away, but you know you don't really need it:

have a clean garbage bag or a cardboard box or even a suitcase you no longer need open, toss stuff in.
The next time you have a garage sale, attend a flea market or charity bazar, you are ready to go!

.....

As you may have noticed from the picture, we have lots of CDs.
So this is what we have been doing:

repackaging CDs. 

Taking them out of the hard plastic cases and putting them in slim cases.

It saves a lot of space!

The CD shelves start to look like this:

We are putting them in alphabetical order.

Where there is a little bit if space, I have placed some of the stuff that came out of the boxes...

I know, I know...more stuff...but I am taking things one step at a time.

AND enjoying it!

Although we had to buy lots of plastic CD jackets, don't forget, I have found that the trick is not to buy more stuff to organize your stuff.  

Get rid of what you don't need first, then and only then, find the perfect place for what you have.

If you are like me, and like to collect boxes and bags, you already have lots of storage!

Thank you for reading this not so pretty blog but...

I am still on the path to clarity (mind and material).  

The art of living in Japan (and anywhere else) for me, is to:

Keep it simple.

My trip to the UK and books, books, books!

Hello.
...
Yes, I know...I have been a VERY bad blogger. SO here are my excuses and everything in between!

1. Work became really busy.  I mean REALLY busy...
2. I went to the UK!!!! in July.
Here are the pictures:

the British Museum

Spent the whole day here and still didn't get to see everything...

The weather was fantastic during my whole stay in London!

the feet of a buddha

After the British Museum, I went to a lovely antiquarian bookseller...

Jarndyce

and bought:

a 1871 edition of the Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

and a 1911 edition of Intentions by Oscar Wilde

the red book on the left is a recent buy.

It is a reproduction (facsimile) of the 1911 first edition of 

The Concise Oxford Dictionary

published to commemorate the 100th anniversary. 

It looks fabulous with the old books that I have.

The inside of the Tate Modern Museum

I spent at least 5 hours here!

London old and new.

Keble College in Oxford. The dining hall.

The dorm room I stayed in at Keble College.

I wonder who is staying there now.  

I left a copy of Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" on the bookshelf.

I had so  much fun in the UK. 

It was only a few weeks later that the riots in London started and that made me very sad...

3. In August I went to Okinawa:

and saw people dancing in the streets.

Visited Shuri Castle on my day off and found 

an interesting looking spigot!

4. At the end of August I had a few days of vacation and visited Nagasaki.  Found a very interesting structure:

that turned out to be a very long slide!

...

5. I also went to two other Prefectures in Japan (sorry no pictures) and of course Tokyo again...all for work...

But a few things arrived in the mail that reminded me of the blogging world...

first it was :

the author Lisa's bloodspot blog is here:

http://papertigertail.blogspot.com/

Finally going to start reading this now!

Which reminded me I have to write a blog on this wonderful series

but I might just wait till her new book arrives!

In the meantime check out the author's blog here:

http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/

And then IT came...

If you are a longtime blogger fan then she needs no introduction...

Tess the author of the Life at Willow Manor blog has published her first booklet of poems.

I said I would buy it if she published it and I have.  It arrived safely here in Japan just a few weeks ago.  I used to love poems but drifted away not being able to find anything new that resonated...but Patina (as is the Willow Manor blog) is filled with poems that are lovely to read out loud and lovely to read silently just like a short story.

I looked up Patina in my brand new First Edition Concise Oxford Dictionary and it says,

"Patina: Incrustation, usu. green, on surface of old bronze, esteemed as ornament. "

Hello again.  I think I am back at blogging!

5 favorite meme

Jelica over at Budapest Bits has tagged me with my very first meme!
(You can see her very interesting favorites by clicking here.)

I am supposed to list 5 of my favorite things for the following 5 different topics...so here it goes!

✐5 favorite songs
■Dream On by Aerosmith
■Madeleine Bas-de-laine by Tete
■Dejame Entrar by Carlos Vives
■Eyala by Richard Bona
■Koishikute by Begin (A Japanese band from Okinawa)


(choosing 5 favorite songs was the hardest for me...I could choose at least 5 songs for every country, I have so many favorite artists and songs! )

✐5 favorite movies
■Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
■Lord of the Rings trilogy
■Hotel Hibiscus ( a Japanese movie about a little girl and her interesting family set in Okinawa)
■The Great Dictator
■Stat Wars


(Star Wars was my first favorite as a kid so that will probably stay on the list forever. Amélie has been a favorite ever since it's release too. I love a lot of Charlie Chaplin movies, so tomorrow I might want to choose Modern Times instead...but Chaplin will forever be on my list. I was really tempted to include Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry...and then there are all the Ghibli movies...oh well...)


✐5 favorite books
■Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (ever since I read it a couple of years ago)
■The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (ever since the 6th grade)
■Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (the move from Oklahoma to California overlaps with my own history...of course, totally different times and circumstances but still....)
■Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien (ever since the 4th grade)
■Opposite of Faith by Amy Tan (her autobiography made me laugh so hard...)


(gosh, this was hard too...)


✐5 favorite crushes
■Keanue Reeves (I even went to his band's concert 3 times...the band Dogstar...I don't know what
happened to them though....)
■James Dean
■Denzel Washington
■David Boreanaza (from Buffy, Angel and most recently, the tv series Bones...)
■Jensen Ackles (from the tv series Supernatural)


(These guys are all so cool.)


✐5 favorite random things
■strawberries
■mashed potatoes
■tatami
■the smell, texture and sound of a hardcover book
■bubble wrap (I love popping bubble wrap....)




I think I am supposed to tag 5 people, am I supposed to tag 5 people?
If I'm not supposed to tag...well, these people have great blogs so check them out regardless of this meme!...


Lola at http://agliooliopeperoncino.blogspot.com
Dee at http://lucyslounge-dee.blogspot.com/
Alaine at http://coccinella-ladybug.blogspot.com/
Carol at http://thewritersporch.blogspot.com
Frances at http://cityviewscountrydreams.blogspot.com/