Backpacking
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on May 18, 2012
Tomorrow, my girlfriend and I are going to a hike in campsite for the first time! We do plenty of car camping, but this will be more rustic. I’m looking forward to it.
It will be great to get away for a couple of nights and enjoy the outdoors. Plus it will be interesting to carry everything we need on our backs. Usually when we go car camping, we have a big tent, big cooler, grill, extra blankets, chairs, and plenty of other stuff along with us. This is fun, but will be nice to see how a minimalist trip turns out.
We were able to find most of our gear used on craigslist so we managed to save a ton of money. Plus this way, if we hate it, we won’t be out much and can probably resell everything for about the same price.
Here is my super cool camping list:
Backpacks
Sleeping bags
Tent
Water filter
Camp stove
Fuel
Cooking gear
Pot/pan
Plates
Forks – plastic
Knives – plastic
Sleeping pads
2 flashlights
Head lamp
Water bottles
Small cooler
Day pack
Trash bags
Compass
Freezer bags
Rope/cord
Shovel
TP
Paper towels
Small towel
Knife
Watch
Lighter
Matches
Fire starter
Bug spray
Coffee cups
Duct Tape
Safety Pins
String
Bear Spray
Camera
Antibacterial
Chap Stick
Clothes to wear
Hiking pants
Dry fit shirt
Wool Socks
Underarmor boxers
Longsleeve dry shirt
Fleece
Rain jacket
Thermal bottoms
Thermal top
Boots
Hat
Gloves
Sunglasses
Food
4 steaks (two will stay in cooler in car)
6 potatoes
2 pounds green beans
6 eggs
10 strips bacon
Beef jerky
Almonds, walnuts, raisins, bananas
2 oranges
2 apples
Chocolate
Graham crackers
Marshmellows
Wine
1 pound cheese
Coffee – Starbucks VIA
Water
Gatorade
Beer/Pop in the car
First Aid
Bandaids
Guaze
Neosporin
Tums
Immodium
Excedrine
Moleskin
Probably too much stuff, but good for a first time out. Have a good weekend.
I’m Surviving…
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on May 16, 2012
Well it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here. When I started, I had the idea to write a bunch of helpful and interesting things to help people who work in an office setting live a more happy life. Then I got lazy and stopped posting.
Part of this laziness was because I’m a perfectionist and everything I wrote just didn’t seem very good. So I didn’t want to post any of it. Then I realized that I just didn’t care anymore and almost forgot about this site.
The problem is that I still want to keep writing. I find it pretty easy to forget about though. Especially when I get it in my head that all of my writing is terrible so I just stop it.
Well that’s got to change. I’m coming back to writing. This is somewhat brought on by a reminder I have to pay for another year of this site. I figure now that I had better be writing and using it if I’m paying for it. Another thing that got me going was reading the free ebook, The Flinch by Julian Smith.
I’m going to stray a bit from the theme of this blog though. Originally, I started it to help others “survive the cubicle”, but now I’ve realized that I need to focus more on surviving it myself. I’m still in the same job as I was and still growing tired of the cubicle lifestyle. I’ve yet to decide to give up the paycheck though, so here I am.
So I’m going to start writing every day that I have internet access and write about whatever comes to mind. Much of it may still be related to cubicles, but a lot will not be. Some may just be strange things I’m thinking of and also short stories that I work on. Some may even be just lists of things. Who knows and who cares. The point is that I’m writing.
My goal is to write enough that I come up with enough ideas so that I can publish something by this time next year. I’m not sure what I want to publish yet, but it will most likely be self published and free or very cheap. I just want to come up with a finished product to make myself feel better. This is mostly because I feel like I’m not accomplishing much in my job and want to accomplish something on my own.
Regardless, I’m back. Read if you like or don’t. If you like it, tell your friends and re-post the link somewhere. It may all be pointless and crazy, but my top post is about sweaty underwear, so I guess I don’t really care anymore.
This blog will hopefully either save me from going crazy in the cube or at least be an interesting read as I decline into insanity… haha kidding.. or am I?
Wow
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on May 10, 2012
Wow it’s been a long time since I posted anything here. Not quite sure why, but I just seemed to lose motivation to write on here.
Starting tomorrow morning, I will have something new to work on. It may not be specifically cubicle related, but it’s going to at least keep me interested.
If anybody is still reading, that’s awesome!
Thanks!
Experience
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on October 18, 2011
When I was in high school I had an English teacher that was a little bit off. We all joked that he was crazy, but really he had just done a lot of drugs and had some weird experiences when he was younger. The majority of his classes would end with him rambling on about how he almost killed a guy while on acid.
One of the lectures that has stuck with me since then was about how we experience things. He tried to start a controversial debate by saying that he had no idea that the Earth was round because he had never seen it from far enough away to know. He said that just because someone else took a picture and made the measurements to see that the Earth was round, he didn’t fully believe it because he would have to take someone else’s word for it.
He went into a few other examples like how he didn’t even know if the sky was blue because he couldn’t see it right then.
This of course started a bit of argument with the students because we all knew that of course the Earth was round and the sky was blue. As high school students, most of us didn’t get the point that we shouldn’t base everything we know about something someone else tells. He really just wanted to get it through our heads that if we really wanted to understand something, we needed to experience it for ourselves.
Now almost ten years later I think I’m really starting to understand what he was talking about. I’ve realized that I spend a pretty big chunk of my life on reddit and reading blogs and other things on the internet. I’ve learned so much from doing that. There are so many things that I feel like I have a complete understanding on, but really I’ve just read about someone else who has done them.
I’m starting to think this is a bad thing. I’m realizing that I’m not experiencing much any more. Most of the time I’m just experiencing text on a page telling me about something. I’m not going to say it’s not interesting though. I’ve learned a ton from everything I’ve read, but I’m definitely not an expert on anything.
For example, I read an AMA about a guy who hiked the Appalachian Trail a while back. From that, I feel like I have a pretty good idea what it would be like to hike the Appalachian trail. I know what gear to get, what kind of food to eat, even how it feels to sit alone in the dark and hear animals outside of your tent. But I haven’t experienced it. I’ve realized that I really have no idea what it would be like.
I’m starting to think that this is a big problem in my life and probably in a lot of other people’s lives. What will happen to us when we’ve learned everything there is to know, but haven’t experienced anything because it’s all been on a computer, the television, or a book? Does knowledge make up for lack of experience?
Is it even healthy to do this?
Imagine what it would be like to have to learn everything in life on your own without a users manual or an AMA or a blog about it. Imagine what it would be like to only live in the moment and not be thinking about anything else.
I know this isn’t possible and I know that there are tons of things to be learned from others. Hey, look at me, I lost a bunch of weight because I went online and read about the paleo diet.
It’s definitely something weird to think about though. Tonight, when you are doing whatever it is you’re doing, realize that this is the first and last time that you will be experiencing that specific situation and you are the only person doing it right there and right then.
Go Camping
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on October 11, 2011
I went camping last weekend. I like going on a fall camping trip or two because the weather is usually perfect at that time of year in Minnesota. The leaves have changed too, so everything is very pretty. The temperature was actually very warm for this time of year.
We went up to a spot along the St. Croix River. We got there some time around one in the afternoon. Luckily our camp site was unoccupied already, so we set up the tent. Then we went for a hike on one of the “more advanced” trails. It was pretty easy though.
The only weird thing was that it was also a horse trail, so the ground was very sandy and loose. The horses must tear it up with their hooves. There were leaves all over. This made our walk pretty noisy as we had to trample through them the whole way. There was no way we were seeing any wild life on that walk.
When we got back we hung out for awhile. It was the perfect afternoon. I didn’t even have to wear long sleeves.
While we were sitting there, two deer came walking by our camp site. Luckily we were on the very end of the camping area. There was no one else around to scare them away. They just slowly wandered through the trees, probably looking for something to eat.
It was amazing to see how well camouflaged they were. As soon as they stopped moving, I lost track of them. At one point, I made a noise and the deer stared me down for a good five minutes before it started to move again. It was tense, but I stayed still, so it kept on moving without getting scared.
We had brats and potato salad for dinner. The food was good, but the brats got a bit burned because they were still frozen in the center.
We played a quick game of Scrabble after dinner, but that got interrupted by a short rainstorm. Of course the rain stopped as soon as we put the game away. We were tied at the time so we called it a draw.
The rest of the night was spent watching the campfire and finishing off some wine. It was very relaxing. The next morning, we had some greasy eggs and bacon and hot coffee before a short walk down by the river. The whole trip was short, but extremely relaxing.
You might be wondering what this has to do with working in an office. It doesn’t really, but I think we all need to get out and enjoy a bit of nature to feel better about the constant life of computers and cubicles. This weekend was really easy. All we needed was a tent, sleeping bags, some food and wine.
We’re not into anything too intense; we just were at a drive in camp site in one of the state parks. These weekends are nice too because they’re pretty cheap. The site costs maybe twenty dollars. After food and firewood, we probably spent fifty.
Sometimes we all need to slow down a bit and enjoy some nature. The best thing about this trip was the fact that we didn’t have a television or computer hogging our attention the whole time.
Oh and I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Work has been busy and I’ve been suffering from a bit of writers block.
Helping others
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on September 22, 2011
I’ve realized that I really enjoy helping people. I think this may be one of the main reasons that I get frustrated working an office job. I don’t have customers or clients or even other employees that I have to interact with on a regular basis. Sure, I can talk with my co-workers and my boss, but I don’t really need to. At least not more than once or twice a day.
Some of my favorite jobs have been in customer service. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t pay much more than minimum wage though. When I was in high school I worked at a sandwich shop. The most fun part of that job was talking with the customers and seeing them satisfied with their food. I miss this since I’ve been working in the office.
I know this isn’t totally something that applies to office work. I know there are lots of jobs out there where you can work in an office and still help people. My old job had me working with a lot of people inside and outside of the company. It was definitely nice to get a phone call about something and be able to help them solve their problems.
I think this need to help others is an important aspect of any life. I’ve had many agree with me on this. Many people even think this may be the one thing in life that makes them the most happy. Why else would so many people volunteer their time to help others?
I’m not really sure why this is though. I’m mostly a believer that there are really no selfless acts. We all live in our own worlds and tend to only do things that benefit ourselves. They may benefit others, but everything we do is really for our own reasons. We may say that we really care about other people, but I think helping people really is just about making yourself feel good.
I’m not saying that we’re all jerks and consciously think about this. I think this is all on some subconscious level. I think the reason we even care about others in the first place is because it makes us feel good. It feels nice to help people and if it didn’t, we probably would help them.
If there is something as inherent in our nature as helping others, why do so many of us work jobs that don’t really help anyone? Maybe this is why there are so many people who volunteer in their non-working hours. It’s hard because I know that I’m technically helping my company to succeed which helps its end customers, but by not being in touch with those customers, I feel like I’m missing out on something.
Maybe I just need to find something that focuses more helping others. Maybe I need to volunteer outside of work. What you do think? I know there is something to this; it definitely feels good to help people.
Just Smile
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on September 15, 2011
Do you ever notice how after you have a good conversation with someone you walk away with a smile on your face? Then you’re still smiling and you run into someone else you know. It seems like the energy and fun of the prior conversation just keeps going for the new conversation.
Sometimes this will happen to me two or three times on a good day. I can keep running into people and by the end of the day I’m in a really good mood. The bad thing is that there are a lot of days where these conversations never happen. If I don’t get the first good smile going, it’s hard to be excited to talk to others throughout the day.
So I’m going to try an experiment. I’m going to fake it. I’m going to keep a slight smile on my face as if I just got done having the best conversation with my best friend. This way I’ll be in a good mood every time I run into somebody and maybe even start up a good conversation.
I’ve been doing this today and have really noticed a difference. Even total strangers that I walk by have been making eye contact and smiling a bit. It’s weird. You can almost change your whole mood and the mood of others just by smiling a bit.
Sure I might be faking it at first, but after talking or just saying hi to a few people throughout the day I feel a lot happier. That’s definitely not fake. The good conversations aren’t fake either.
It’s almost as if when you pretend to be in a good mood, you end up in a good mood.
This definitely helps my morale while sitting in the office all day. I’d rather smile and be happy than sit around grumpy all day.
Get out of bed
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on September 7, 2011
This morning I tried something new. I got out of bed when I woke up. It was awesome.
For the longest time, I’ve always woken up somewhere between 4-6 a.m. If it’s closer to 4 I’m usually able to fall back to sleep and get a couple more hours in before my alarm goes off at 7. But if it’s closer to 6, I usually fall back to sleep around 6:30 and then am really groggy when my alarm goes off at 7.
This has been really annoying. I’m wide awake when I wake up naturally, but am too lazy to get up and do anything. I just lie there until I doze off just in time for my alarm to go off. I’m so exhausted after that and generally feel like garbage all day.
Today was different though. I woke up around 5:30 and decided to stay up. I did some stretching, made some coffee, and checked my emails. It was really weird having an extra hour and a half this morning. The best part is that I’ve been wide awake all day. I don’t feel drowsy at all.
I’m sure it’ll catch up with me tonight and maybe I’ll hit the sack earlier, but this is great so far.
Apparently, we sleep in cycles of about 90 minutes. If we wake up after those 90 minutes we usually feel pretty good and well rested. If the cycle is interrupted, we don’t feel so great because we still want to sleep for the rest of the 90 minute cycle.
I’m going to keep trying this for the rest of the week and see how it goes. I might even go out and watch the sunrise tomorrow. I’m definitely not a morning person, but this might just change my perspective.
What do you think? Anybody else do this?
Living close to work
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on September 1, 2011
Commuting is a drag. I used to do it, but hated it. Even a short commute is a time sink. Especially when you aren’t really that excited about the job you’re going to every day. Does it make sense to give up on the size and cheapness of living far from work?
Most people agree that your housing expenses should be at or below 25% of your take home pay. I agree with this. It can be overwhelming to pay more than that and have the rest of your lifestyle suffer.
BUT what if you spend more, but the location helps your lifestyle? How much would you be willing to spend if you could be close enough to walk to work? Get rid of your car? Not have to maintain your home? Not pay for heating?
I’ve been living in this situation for a few years now. In a condo, close to my work, in a downtown area. I pay quite a bit more than 25% and have been frustrated with that. I know that I’m in a bit over my head. It can be frustrating to see a good chunk of your paycheck disappear every month just so that you can live in a nice place. But does the situation make up for my expenses? Would it for you?
How much of your monthly income would you be willing to spend to be in this situation? Does the lack of car insurance, gas, maintenance, and car payment, bus fare, heating bill, parking expense make up for this?
How long did it take you to buy your lunch?
Posted by survivingthecubicle in Uncategorized on August 29, 2011
I don’t mean how long did it take you to walk or drive to a restaurant, wait in line, pay, eat, and come back to work. I mean how much time did you spend working to pay for that $10 lunch you just ate?
Say you make $50,000 a year. After tax that might be $37,500. If you work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year that’s 2,080 hours year. (I know this leaves out vacation and holidays, but I’m just estimating here anyway.
So, $37,500 divided by 2,080 hours is about $18 an hour after tax. It takes you 1/18th or about 3.3 minutes to make $1 at your job.
That coffee you had this morning costs you 6 minutes. You might spend 55 hours of every month working to pay your mortgage. That new dress would be 5.5 hours. If you buy a $20,000 car it will cost you about 1,000 hours of your life. More if you take out a loan to buy it and pay interest.
Most of us don’t really get paid by the hour any more, but for some reason we’re still expected to stay in the office for 40 plus hours a week. I was thinking about how much time I spend in the office the other day and how that related to the amount of money we make.
So, I did the math. I figured out how much time I have to spend in my cubicle for one dollar based on a 40 hour work week. It takes me about 3 minutes of cubicle time to make one dollar.
It can be pretty staggering to look at something in a store or online that I want to buy and think about how long it would take me to make enough money to afford it. It’s even worse when you think about how much time you spend working just to afford the basics like rent, food, electricity, and heat.
Transportation is even worse. Say you spend $50 on gas getting to and from work every week. That’s about 2.5 hours a week spent working. Then maybe $100 on car insurance in a month. That’s another hour a week. And don’t forget the $200 monthly car payment for another 2.5 hours a week. That ends up being about 6 hours a week you spend at your desk working just so that you can spend 5 hours that week sitting in traffic waiting to get to and from work.
It can be depressing to think about this, but it really helps me keep my unnecessary spending to a minimum. Sitting in a cubicle all day is obviously not something that I get very excited about so when I go to buy something I don’t need, I can think “wow, that cost me x number of minutes to buy that”.
Figure out your own number. Write it down or save it in your phone. Next time you go to buy that new TV or car figure out just what you are giving up to get it.
