Iterative Perfection
Since I started cooking a handful of years ago, making a big batch of curry and rice has become a minor tradition for me when I move somewhere new.
It implies I’ll be settling into a place long enough that it’s worth investing in the requisite equipment, spices, and fresh produce, but also that I’ll be around long enough to indulge in the bountiful leftovers that tend to result from my approach to such dishes.
I made some curry last night, so I guess that means I’m home.
I’ve made other acquisitions as part of my move-in process, beyond those directly curry-related.
I’m now the proud owner of a standing desk, a small bookcase, and a colossal, second-hand Instant Pot that the previous owner used once and then got rid of because it was too big for any of their cabinets (perfect for me and my huge-batch cooking style).
It’s been interesting sorting through my many “needs” and “wants” after having found a place to live, figuring out the dimensions of the space I’d be occupying, and then sorting out what actually makes sense to buy compared to what makes sense according to someone else’s priorities or needs (and what has been sold to me as something I would enjoy by clever marketers, but which wouldn’t actually be fulfilling after the initial burst of “I bought something, yay” pleasure chemicals).
Driving the stress that can sometimes emerge when we change locations, I think, is the desire to not just adjust our physical geographies, but to adjust ourselves: to build a more perfect space, within which a more perfect self can live and grow and flourish.
I absolutely feel this drive, and part of my justification for building a home base—a place from which to travel, but also to which I can return after traveling, which is a deviation from my typical way of doing things—is to see what it’s like to set up something more permanent for a while. To see if I might like having a little at-home recording space that’s optimized for the purpose, and to get a standing desk, a nice electric kettle, and a bookshelf upon which I can put things I actually intend to keep and use and appreciate over time.
The implicit lack of temporality is moderately stressful. It calls for a different mental stance than the one I would typically assume when moving into someone else’s space, or some kind of furnished, pre-templated situation.
I have the opportunity to build something that looks like me; and that’s tricky because I have a good sense of what I look like through the lens of what I carry, but little sense of what I look like translated into a two-bedroom apartment.
I’m currently finding some sense of equilibrium and balance by reminding myself that perfection is not something that can be achieved, so it’s okay if my space isn’t perfectly me, perfectly optimized for my purposes, or perfectly anything—it will not be, cannot be perfect, and that’s okay.
I'm also reminding myself that the concept of perfection is arguably more ideally and healthily thought of as a verb not an adjective. It’s a process, a journey, and it’s through the continued, conscious act of iteration that I’ll be most likely to not just make a space in which I feel comfortable and productive and fulfilled—and in which I can produce gargantuan quantities of curry—but in which I actually feel at home, rather than merely living in a set location where I receive mail and keep my Instant Pot.
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Projects
Let’s Know Things:Wolf Warriors
Curiosity Weekly: June 1, 2021
One Sentence News: Info / Subscribe
Interesting & Useful
Some things to click:
The Grawlix(a term I didn’t know, but I’m very glad I do now)
How Cities Will Fossilize(it’s been nice seeing more long-term thinking-focused pieces from mainstream publications, of late)
Scan the World(an excellent argument for getting a 3D printer: this is an open source library of scanned materials from museums you can print at home)
Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis(archive of mediaeval manuscripts; some beautiful work)
City Guesser(this is a lot of fun: guess the city based on a video walkthrough of a random area)
Fonts in Popular Culture Identified Vol. 3(all three volumes are pretty neat, and will help you notice design-things in pop culture you never thought to think about before)
Internal Combustion Engine(simple, animated explanation of how an ICE works)
PS: if you like this sort of thing, subscribing to Curiosity Weekly (link in the previous section) nets you an email containing just curated links every Tuesday.
Outro
This has been a somewhat frantic week, as I’ve moved to Milwaukee, put together what seems like a million pieces of flat-pack furniture, and have tried to get my legal, health, and other such issues (insurance, license and registration, etc) figured out while also not falling behind on work-related efforts.
As such, I feel generally out of sorts and off-rhythm. But I like my new place, love the area (Riverwest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA), and feel pretty good, overall.
I also have far better internet connectivity (for those of you who understand the involved measurements: I had an average of about 10mbps in Missouri, and now I’ve got something like 450mbps), so there’s a good chance I’ll be doing some online meetup-style things (maybe even games?) in the near-future.
Stay tuned for info about that in the coming weeks, and if you have any ideas related to platforms, tools, or general approaches to chats/calls/games that work well with a group of people located around the world, please let me know!
What’s life like in your neck of the woods right now? Able to make plans, or are there still too many uncertainties? Looking forward to anything in particular? Dreading anything in particular? Any goals or aspirations you’re working toward right now?
Drop me a line and tell me what’s up, vent or brag or ask a question, or just introduce yourself: I love hearing from folks on the other end of these emails. You can reach me at colin@exilelifestyle.com or by replying to this newsletter.
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