Nothing to do with India

Originally posted on my other blog on March 9, 2010

OK, this has nothing to do with India, but I just couldn't resist posting a link. I only like some of OK Go's stuff, but they have some really inventive videos. Remember the treadmills? This new video is my all time favorite so far! Gizmodo reports that the vide took two days and sixty (!) takes to shoot this video. To reset the machine took thirty volunteers about an hour. Lots of other fun information in the report.

Why Do We Have So Much Stuff?

Originally posted on my other blog March 8, 2010

In February 2010, I interviewed for a position that would take our family from Sammamish, Washington to New Delhi, India. I have since been notified that I received the position and that I would receive an offer and the announcement has gone out to the group and family and friends.

It is an interesting experience when you tell people that you are moving your family to India for three years. Usually they blink a few times wondering if they actually heard you correctly. Once they decide they did hear you correctly, one of two things happens. Either the person starts talking about how incredible that is and what a wonderful opportunity and how they would love to do something like that or the person gets a funny look on their face and says something like, “are you crazy”? At various times I have thought both of those things since we’ve started down this road. It is an incredible, wonderful opportunity and yes, sometimes I do think I’m crazy.

Moving to India has changed many things about the way I look at my life, our home, and our possessions. It even has changed the way that I think about things like birthdays and Christmas. You need to think carefully whether the gift will be useful in India. Here are some of the things that we own that we will need to sell or leave:

1. Pretty much anything with a plug due to the differences in voltage. This means things like televisions and electronics. It also means things like vacuums, blenders, hair dryers, appliances, and all the electric tools in my shop.
2. Our cars
3. Our boat
4. My motorcycle (*snif*)
5. Our piano
6. Some of our furniture
7. My road bike (the roads are terrible and a road bike would be virtually useless)
8. All the stuff out in the shed (lawn mowers, gardening tools, etc.)
9. Almost everything in the garage (Brenton, you know that box of stuff you have hanging around out there? Well, you need to come get it or it is going away!)
10. A lot of the books on our bookshelf that should have been given away long ago
11. All that junk that accumulates from living in a house for 10 years (ok this stuff is going to the dump not to storage)

Much of the stuff that we spend our lives acquiring will be largely useless. Many of the things that I thought would be cool to have or that I thought I couldn’t live without are now way down at the bottom of the importance list. I’ve been thinking about what that says about how I spend my time and money. The good news is that it is a great time to reorient to what is really important.