Minimalism – Marcus Can Blog

I Survived Buy-One-Take-One Day

Remember that lemon fan? Our weeks of being under the mercy of rechargeable handheld Iwata fans have ended. Yesterday, we went to our first ever S&R buy-one-take-one sale day with the main purpose of getting a replacement for our now useless electric stand fan. Well, one of the main purposes, at least that’s how wifey justified it.

The experience was crazy. I’ve heard of long queues during sale events but I never realized how long is long until I saw the queue of restless shoppers twisting back and forth outside S&R’s Nuvali store like an oversized hungry Slither.io snake. To be honest, I always appreciate Marcus’ wheelchair on days like this. We soon bypassed the regular line and was ushered to the priority lane where there are few patrons waiting to be accommodated, though including some grumpy senior citizens. A compromise I was glad to take.

Me trying to summon inner peace on our way to the cashier.

Entering the store wasn’t the end, however. This time we had to weave in and out and dodge over eager shoppers as they push their trolleys around like zombies out for blood. The line outside the store seemed more civil and subtle. To discover that not every item is buy one take one made me feel more impatient and secretly regret driving despite lack of sleep just to be there.

But wifey was a fighter. All women are, I guess. To them the word sale is caffeine. She was like on zen despite minimal lunch. What was once an empty large pushcart was soon filled. To her wallet’s credit, I noticed that the pack of toilet paper that Marcus and I were kidding her as the second on her list wasn’t the reason her cart was overflowing. Two boxes of stand fans shared space with other stuffs. Minimalism died that day.

Four hours later, we exited the store triumphant. Or more aptly, relieved. The buy-one-take-one smoothies capped our sale day. So are we going to do it again next time? Our answers are opposing. Mine and Marcus obviously on the negative side. But barely 24 hours after, I heard wifey saying she wants a second shot. Fingers crossed, I hope S&R drops prices by half in the hardware and car isles. I’ll be ready by then, hope my wallet is.

A giant Starbucks coffee pack made my day.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Can’t wait for this sleepy week at work to end.)

Blog Mileage

Update here, dump there, good posts, bad posts, anything goes. That’s what I’ve been doing regularly lately. There would be days I get stuck correcting or revising archives before I repost and there would be days I just copy and paste the article on its original timeline.

You see I’ve been busy. Running, working out, and writing have been fighting to get their own share of my time. For now I continue to focus on my goal to repost and will just worry about them later, hopefully ahead of grammar Nazis or just before Grammarly starts to force me to get its premium service. I just can’t let years worth of posts stay on my backup Word document which I saved prior to me messing up my site few years back when I wiped out several posts just because I forgot to pay attention to what I was clicking. Lesson learned: back up, back up, back up.

Today I reposted a couple more and I received a prompt from WordPress that I just hit 500 posts. Wow. And to think I’m just about to finish year 2008.

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There are things that just can’t be part of my conscious effort to embrace minimalism. Writing is one as I now have drafts and doodling all over my phone, laptop, paper notebook, and some hang on in my head. This is one of those few cases wherein clutter is probably good.

Then there’s material stuffs. This week I gave wifey the approval to buy the TV she’s been wanting to have and been saving for. The least I could do on Valentine’s week is to give a nod. There’s now a giant Ultra HD Devant TV in the middle of our small house which made me realize 50-inch is the biggest we can get unless we hang the TV across the kitchen and view it from the living room. So far the Call of Duty and Fallout 4 games of our 9-year old son have been more gory.

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Claimed our free Starbucks cake. Free always tastes better.

Wifey also got me a pair of new jeans while in SM San Pablo last Monday. This one is for the books as the last time I purchased a pair was almost five years ago. My existing pants are either tattered not by design but due to wear and tear and all of them, FYI, are a couple of inches loose already. I need a new belt next.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Cold Valentine’s Day weather.)

Just One Empty Cheap Cologne

Declutter. Dispose whatever is not needed. These are rules I’ve been following, or trying to follow, regardless if a stuff is something sentimental or not. I’ve disposed a lot and surprisingly so far I didn’t have any regrets. Must be the effect of reading about minimalism on my Facebook timeline.

If I could walk the talk was once again tested last night. While looking for a tool I found an empty cheap cologne container. There’s nothing special to it if not for how and where it was kept. It was among my valuable keepsakes.

By some interesting coincidence, exactly 12 years ago I took this cheap cologne on a special trip. Its scent filled my room each morning while I get ready for the day’s equipment training, it competed with the aroma of strong brewed coffee and fresh breakfast muffins I would hoard from Holiday Inn’s little pantry. The smell reminds me of Watertown, Wisconsin which was my first trip to the US, one that was unexpected. There’s some anxiety but I am now letting go of this cheap cologne. One stuff down, more to go.

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I was contemplating on getting our cable subscription disconnected as we seldom watch the tube anymore. Every now and then we would but Netflix was tough competition. Plus there’s Marcus who has commandeered our flat TV.

So wifey had a win-win idea: Transfer the cable connection to our bulky Sony Wega. This got me occupied after dinner last night which led me to finding the cologne bottle ahead of the tools that I really need. Need to declutter more I guess.

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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Some trivial suffs do keep big memories, don’t they?)

The (tough) challenge to turn minimalist

My current focus has been on the path of being a minimalist. It’s not that I live a complicated lifestyle, full of stuffs to flaunt or experiences worthy of a Facebook or Instagram post. I’m not one of those but I feel that there are still opportunities to declutter and make my life simpler yet fuller—the basic philosophy of minimalism. Thankfully, the transition is made easier as there seems to be a trend and resources to face this challenge as what I have found mostly on Becoming Minimalist.

Do not be fooled though, for decluttering is a big word. It does not only mean disposing physical objects like decades of magazines, baby toys, used clothes, gadgets, etcetera, but it also means dealing with emotional burdens like grudges, lost opportunities and anxieties, whether due to attachments to things we cherish the most or for some other reasons, that hold us back from moving forward and achieving a life that’s less stuffy.

The need to face this challenge head on started to become more serious when we decided to transfer to another house. I was hit with a realization that we have things at home that have either never used or that we will never ever need. This despite giving away clothes regularly when we hear on TV about people needing some due to typhoon or fire. We’ve also given away some of our son’s old toys on trick or treat days or on Christmas seasons. Still it seems that those weren’t enough.

Except for movable things like the stand fan and a turtle in the basin, this area remains clear like on our first days. I have also blocked my wife’s plan to buy a stationary bike.

So when we eventually got settled in our current house, I made sure that more unnecessary stuffs will have to go—having no shelf or extra cabinet helped in the decision making. So far I have given away paperbacks that I once find hard to dispose due to sentimental reasons. Marcus has also agreed to say goodbye to some of his old McDonald’s happy meal toys and Duplos. Wedding gifts like tea sets, plates, glass bowls and the likes were also given away with wifey’s permission. Every one of us did our part in clearing the tangibles and make the house clean and wheelchair-friendly.

Some of the books that have once made me occupied in the parking lot have been given away. I’m now using Kindle.

Clearing the mind of anxieties, however, is a tougher enemy and is an ongoing battle. To let go of what-would/could-have-beens is often hard to shake off. While I have started to get used to look at Marcus straight in the eye when I reassure him that not being able to walk shouldn’t be a big deal, I would sometimes catch myself seeing images of him once walking naturally and him running around and enjoying an active life as an adult. But maybe it’s the life that isn’t meant to be and acceptance means changing sail and let fate take its course.

Yesterday, during the homily the priest made the perfect reminder. He said that human as we are, we tend to easily forget that what we currently have are all temporary; worse, we become so selfish that we refuse to share to those that need the most. That was spot on.

I know that what I try to achieve in a world of consumerism and self-centeredness is a feat full of obstacles. The temptation to give in is always present so focus to the goal is key. Honestly, I do not know when I would achieve minimalism or if there is even such point, but I am willing to take on the challenge and see how far I could let go of clutters so as to live life as it should be lived.

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This was tough parenting week for us. Marcus has been playing this online Minecraft game called Skywars. He claims that there are banable offenses like hacking and teaming up that results to him getting killed unfairly. When it happens he get so frustrated yet the more he wants to get even. And one frustration leads to another—me included. To prevent this from happening again, I uninstalled his Minecraft PC application in front of him and eventually his user account just to realize soon that I shouldn’t have done it. Anyway, it surprises me that he recovered sooner that I thought and it’s as if nothing happened to the game he loves the most. Maybe he would be a better at letting go than I would ever be.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Letting go of my comfort job.)