Archive for the “Recommendations” category — Page 2
Matt • 26th Apr 2009 • Africa, Life Lessons, Recommendations
I have found a strangely repulsive yet strangely attractive set of sensations from intensely uncomfortable car/truck rides.
It’s not a masochistic thing at all (or maybe it is)… but I enjoy the feeling of being silent and introverted while cramped in a vehicle for long hours or while laying in the back of a flatbed truck at night, cold as can be with splinters assaulting my back side.
I think part of what I like about it is that I don’t know when we’re going to arrive. Especially at night in the back of a truck, there is no way to tell if we’re about to pull into our driveway or if there’s still three hours left. Allowing myself to get lost in thought during the drive, giving the Unknown the driver’s seat and letting go of my need to be in control is all made easier by the crampedness, the bitter cold, and the splinters.
It’s a small measure of suffering that causes me to be uncomfortable… a decisive change from the way I live my life 99% time and a time to feel what the rest of the world feels on a daily basis. I don’t think that it’s a necessary thing for privileged people to make themselves poor, but I do think it’s important for us to stand in solidarity with those who suffer, and sometimes that means suffering a little bit ourselves.
So next time you have the option to take the front seat and be comfortable, offer it to someone else and endure the mild suffering of being cramped, cold, or splintered… Many people live cramped, cold, and splintered every day of their lives.
Matt • 24th Apr 2009 • Recommendations
Totally not Africa-related, but Some of you (Grant, Ricky, and some others) will love this.
http://www.loverslandblog.com/
Matt • 6th Apr 2009 • Life Lessons, Recommendations
I think one of the biggest problems in the world aside from poverty, hunger, racism, sexism, etc. is that people don’t truly listen to one another and observe rightly what’s happening around them.
It’s not like people are dying left and right because of this or something but I really believe that relationships would be stronger and last longer and people would be more happy and would live better lives if we all learned to see and hear with the intent of perceiving correctly and not seeing and hearing what they want to hear.
I guess I’m asking people to be less self-involved and to understand others better. It’s being perceptive to what another might be thinking and feeling and it’s a way of life that takes effort and isn’t too easy for a while… But given rough practice it can become second nature, to the point that empathy, sincerity and understanding become a part of who you are and how you live in the world.
Matt • 19th Jan 2009 • Recommendations
I feel like I owe it to all of you to tell you to check out mint.com. It’s a free and safe way to track your spending habits and manage your finances. What you do is allow the site to connect up with your online banking and your credit cards and it will automatically recognize the ways you spend your money and it was help you analyze where/how you spend money so that you can make decisions about how to change these spending habits.
The site also has a great budgeting tool that allows you to make your own budget and it will help you stick to it by sending you email or text message alerts when you’re nearing the end of a certain category (say, you eat at In-n-Out and you spend the 90th dollar out of your allotted $100 for fast food for the month).
It’s truly an amazing website and might be the future of financial management on the web. Try it!
