I recently realized something. That's good.
What I realized wasn't that important in itself, but the process is. It's my new modus operandi. Hacks.
Lately I've been regretting things. A lot of things, some of them from way back in the past, like even before I went to kindergarten. Go figure.
Now, what should I do about those? What can I do? How do I change something I did 60 years ago, or more? This is not easy to figure out, but I'm not giving up. I want to improve, but I can't sneak back there and do anything differently.
However, I can do things differently now. Now is where I actually live, and I can do things where I am, or not do things: do intelligent and good things and not do stupid and bad things. So I want to try that.
I've been treating life in my apartment that way, which is what inspired me to try extending it to my whole life.
I've figured out how to fix the windows to stay open only as far as I need them to, but not too far, even accounting for the fact that one of them has a broken latch.
I've figured out how to exercise in my apartment.
I've figured out where to put my shoes to keep them away from the silverfish.
I've figured out how to keep the refrigerator from running all day because it's empty of everything besides air and a pitiful few footstuffs.
I've figured out how to get a substance to clean my laundry with, if not using what's available here, which all stinks (of industrial-strength perfume).
And many other things.
Case in point, Proper Hiking Technique:
- Go fast enough to keep up with myself.
- But slow enough not to leave my soul behind.
In these days of competitive hiking and/or proving to myself that I still got it and can go fast if I'm light enough. Should work.
Tricks. I'm looking for tricks, ways to make things work out.
Still don't get my point? Then try this.
When preparing to wash dishes, my mother routinely filled one side of the kitchen sink with hot water — about two gallons. Then she squirted in about an ounce of dishwashing detergent. That worked, but used lots of water and detergent, especially for only a few dishes, and sometimes didn't work that well, since the detergent was dilute.
What I learned from a friend: Wet the dishes in the sink. Squirt a small amount of detergent onto a sponge. Rub sponge over dishes. Rinse dishes. Done.
This uses almost no detergent, very little water, and works better than my mother's method. The detergent is highly concentrated this way, and cleans better. And you can use hand soap as well, to make it even simpler. Large quantities of dishes and things like pots with baked-on food need a modified technique, but that's also a different case.
Hacking be very cool, as far as I'm concerned, and my life improves almost every day. Now I feel a little less guilty about past things, but I still won't tell you what those are, so forget it.
I will say that I've also decided to live as though everything I do will be made public, because it usually is anyway, so I get to act more responsibly up front and then just forget about it, because at the end I have absolutely no actions to keep private.