I recently bought a new journal. It's an off-brand Moleskine-type book that I picked up at Target because the leather-bound one I had been writing in was getting completely filled. Funny enough, these are the frist two fancy-looking journals I have ever owned or written in because with the exception of a number off lears …
Category: Reflections
Return of the Freedom is Tyranny of the To Do List
At one point, a couple of weeks ago, I had written "make to do list" in the margins of a legal pad I was using to take notes at a faculty meeting. Later that day, I sat down to make said list and when I was done, I saw that I had filled out the …
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Lingering Melodies
So "uncollecting" music has not been a huge priority in this venture, and I was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago when Dave Holmes' piece "A Decade of Music is Lost on Your iPod. These Are the Deleted Years. Now let us praise them" was published on Esquire. Holmes is a few years …
“Your Experiences Are Valid”
I've been doing a lot of mental and emotional cleaning along with the physical uncollecting and one of the most important parts of that has been my efforts to restore and reestablish the self-confidence I seemed to have lost over the last few years. I can't pinpoint one specific thing except to say that myriad …
Personal Archaeology 5: Confessions of an Achievement Junkie
Among the piles of personal ephemera that I've found in my office are awards. Many, many awards from elementary school, junior high, and high school. A few are sports-related, but most are certificates for participation in service events, citizenship and service awards, and academic honors. They're all going the way of the trash heap and …
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Personal Archaeology 4: The People Who Barely Knew You Probably Knew You Best
My wife and I were talking on a recent episode of my podcast about who we were when we graduated high school and went away to college. One of the things that came up was the idea that when you leave a place that has been your home for a very long time and head …
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What if it Won’t Sell?
The tale is as old as collecting and collectibles--you had something that mom threw away or gave away and years later, it's worth a mint. Even I have wondered, over the years, what type of money I would have made from my old Masters of the Universe Toys (which are the only toys that I …
