Wants vs. Needs

I've been thinking about the topic of wants vs. needs for the past month or so. Just one of the many topics that float around in my head and is now making an appearance in written form. I was reading a friend's blog about her 11 year old step-son wanting a cell phone. It brings me back to why I need an iphone.

Do I really need an iphone, or do I just want an iphone? Last summer (for the first time in 2 years) I was smart phone-less. I survived, I was disconnected, but survived. I checked my email once a day... but when you're not working, email is a social tool to keep in touch with others. Most messages didn't require an immediate response and could be responded to when I felt like it. But the downside of not having constant internet access was that when I left the house, I felt slightly nervous.

Did I have the directions of where I was going?
Did I have the meeting time accurate?
Did I have all the details that I needed?

Eventually I got used to the disconnected feeling and started to enjoy it. It was nice to not be broadcasting all of my actions all the time or feel like I had to know what was happening with the entire ad industry or tech world. I felt OK saying "No, I haven't read that article yet." I was out enjoying life and experiencing the great outdoors and not being tied to a computer or phone. It was nice... while I was unemployed.

Having been gainfully employed for the last 9 months, the thought of being disconnected again frightens me. When I lost my phone last month I wasn't sure how I would last the weekend. I only had to wait a day before Adam came up with a phone plan of using his "old" iphone until I found my phone or could replace it. Yes, in the time I waited for my used iphone to arrive from ebay, I used an old iphone. Life is tough. But, I was pretty insistent that I get another iphone because I couldn't go back to not having one again.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I have never bought a car. I think that I need a fancy phone, but I don't think that I need to have a car. How screwed up is that?
I can bike and bus to work, it can be inconvenient at times, but its doable. Adam has a car so if I need something on weekends, I can make it work. But, I currently do have a car and I currently drive to work. Having a car gives me the same sense of freedom my iphone does. But if given a choice, I would keep the iphone instead of my car. I would rather have a device to streamline communication instead of a "device" to streamline transportation.

Clearly, I work in a communications field.

Writing Balance.

I currently have 4 electronic venues that I've been providing content for. 3 are blogs, two solo, one group and and email "newsletter" that I send to my department at work. Of course, I also have my twitter account to that I try to provide content for that is either advertising related or something that I think is funny. Naturally, I also have the "lame" twitter updates that detail whatever it is that I'm doing. I try to limit those because, really, does anyone care? Either way, I've been trying to find different content to fill all of the writing that I have to do and slowly, its taking a toll on me. This blog shouldn't feel like work, but because I have been thinking more about my other outlets, I've had less time to think about what in the world I should put here. I want to provide some sort of value here, but perhaps just an update on what it is I'm up to covers that? To make matters more difficult, I've also started a paper journal. The more I physically write, the less I type/blog. I'm trying to find a balance of broadcasting my life into the online world and sharing. I haven't officially decided on the difference between these two, but I do know that its a fine line and I'm trying to be cognizant of not crossing it. Lastly, I'm also trying to finish the book that I started in November during national novel writing month. I was doing really well with it, but then I got crazy busy at work and just didn't have the time to reach the 50,000 words. While I haven't actively been adding to the book, my head has been actively thinking about where to take my story. Does my head really need something else to think about right now, probably not, but it has decided to do so anyway.

As I sit here thinking about 27 different things (how can I run 7 miles before work AND still get in early to finish my work project. I need to find/read content for my newsletter and form my opinion on it. I also need to think about ideas/names for another project...) I think about a Womens Health article about how multi-tasking is bad for us (I can't find it online otherwise I would link to it). We may think multi-tasking is a good thing, but in reality it just makes us do things slower and stresses us out more. What am I trying to say with all of this? I think I need to do less.

But let's face it, I won't.

Welcome, Twins.

Monday was the twins home opener and pretty much official "Twins Day" around Minneapolis. Or maybe just the side of Minneapolis that I spend all of my time in... Here is a picture of my work's rooftop patio (from David Brewster of the Star Tribune).



We can't actually see the field from the roof, but we are that close to Target Field.

Here are more facebook pictures from our day of "roof-gating" during the home opener...
CL Roof-Gating

Yeah, my job is tough.

All the signs.

It always throws me off when similar things happen. On Monday someone was telling me about a great new Mpls restaurant, then yesterday I saw a tweet about a review that was happening on the radio about the restaurant. I've mentioned the restaurant to a couple other people and they have also heard about it and want to try it.

Over the past 3 weeks, I've been thinking about re-starting a physical (not electronic) journal for myself, but it was one of those things that I just hadn't gotten around to. I found a couple old journals that I had last night- one of which I started right after high school when I first got to college. Of course whenever I dig out an old journal to write, I also need to read some of it too. My first entry was about my guy friends from high school and how I was pretty sure I wouldn't hang out with them much in college. Mostly because we were all across the country, so it was physically impossible. I sort of laughed to myself at how true it was and that even then I knew how things would turn out. What happened today? One of them called! He's throwing a birthday party at his parent's house for himself tomorrow. He was listing off some of the guys that he called and I now I'm getting pretty excited to spend an evening re-living our high school lives. It just feels like all the signs are leading me to go and well, I can't say no to that.

Exhausted.

I haven't been sleeping well lately, so I'm getting completely and utterly exhausted. I have too much going on in my head and I keep thinking about acting on it, but I haven't had the energy to act on anything yet.

I did start a new blog type thing today... www.themoreyouknow.posterous.com

I've been thinking about starting something that is more work related, so I guess that's going to be it. I guess this will remain my personal ranting forum for friends and who ever else stumbles upon this. I'm pretty sure two "blogs" is a bad idea, but I'm also pretty sure that they will serve different purposes...

It's 9pm and I'm going to sleep. I'm real cool like that.