Claire's Random Thoughts

I have thought a little bit more about my 42 Thing Challenge and done a little spring cleaning. My conclusion? Wow, this is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Thus, I have decided that since my magic number is 42, I will allow more grouping of items than the original 100 Thing challenger, David, allowed, especially for small items. Once again, my main objective is to reduce clutter and make moving in and out of college dorms easier. The original author’s main objective was to combat American consumerism habits. Since I’m more interested in reducing clutter, I will group smaller items into a single entity. For example, my box of writing instruments counts as one item, as does my disc wallet with miscellaneous loose CD’s and DVD’s.

I am also excluding important documents (passport, license, etc). I don’t think the original author included them either. And anything else that goes in my wallet. Oh, and keys don’t count either. Storage containers are also excluded, as they actually help create less clutter and make it easier to pack and move around (but I shouldn’t need many of them once I get rid of the junk, right?).

Rather than completely excluding clothing, shoes, accessories, toiletries, makeup, etc, I decided to count each category as one conglomerate. I have enough in these categories already and still hope to downsize on them. The rule for to prevent me from splurging in these categories is follows: No increasing the size of any conglomerate. Just like my 42 item limit, when I get one new thing (i.e. a new shirt) that belongs in a conglomerate, I must get rid of another thing in that conglomerate. However, if I decide to reduce the size of a conglomerate voluntarily, I can’t “save” up the disposal of items and replenish later.

Strategies to make this work:
1. Think twice before buying. As I discussed in the previous post, this should help me save money by reducing my huge number of unnecessary purchases.

2. Digital all the way!
Hello! It’s 2010, for God’s sake! Digital downloads are the way to go now for media, not annoying books and discs. My goal is to have digital videos and music on my 640GB external hard drive exclusively (so that’s one thing, as opposed to several hundred or thousand). Keep everything digital and sell the media if it has any value. I don’t need any more paperback books either. Ebooks on my Sony Reader are the way to go. As for textbooks, I have not yet decide if I’m going to count all of my textbooks as one item or each textbook as an item.

3. ONE of each thing
Why the hell did I have two laptops, two digital cameras, three calculators, and two cell phones anyway?

4. Sell old gadgets as I upgrade
Well, I kind of do this already, but I still need to slim down on the gadgets. Yes, I’m kind of a gadgetholic. It’s better to get rid of some now that they still have value instead of waiting and rarely using them.

5. Don’t be afraid to get rid of old, large, worthless, and useless junk
Sounds pretty logical, right? I need to stop being a pack rat and be more willing to throw things away when necessary.

I have also decided on a time frame. My goal is to slim down to 42 things by the end of the semester (when I have to move out) and keep my possessions at 42 until I graduate and move into a permanent residence.

Without farther ado, here is my tentative list (please note that some things on this list include more than one item, so I’m in trouble if it gets to 42 already). Once I get the list finalize, I can get sell/store everything else!
1. Clothes
2. Shoes
3. Purses
4. Toiletries
5. Make-up
6. Vitamins/Medication
7. Kitchenware
8. Class Notes
9. Textbooks
10. Scientific and Financial Calculators
11. Writing Instruments and other desk supplies
12. Laptop
13. External DVD-RW Drive
14. Camera
15. Camcorder
16. Portable hard drive
17. Sony ebook reader
18. Cell phone (hmm…but I have two on contract right now)
19. Sony Walkman MP3 Player
20. Bose QuietComfort 15 Headphones
21. Bose Computer Speakers
22. LCD TV
23. Playstation 3 with accessories and games
24. AA and AAA batteries and charger
25. Disc wallet
26. Rubik’s Cubes

Haha, I’m a huge techie. Is everything here really necessary? No. I guess I can’t play minimalist, which was the original idea of the 100 Thing Challenge. I can, however, simplify my life by cutting down to things I most frequently use.

This is my response to David Michael Bruno’s famous 100 Thing Challenge.

My philosophy: Less clutter, less hassle moving (I live in college dorms), less waste, and more money (aren’t college students supposed to be poor?). Simple, right?

Quality over quantity. I can no longer even keep track of how much money I’ve wasted on things that I buy and never use or only use for a short period of time. If I have quality stuff, it should last me for longer, and I can waste less.

I have been known to have multiples of things that most people only have one of (laptops, cameras, cell phones, etc), and I’m trying to change this.

No more impulsive buying. If I have to get rid of something in order to get something new, this should greatly reduce if not eliminate impulsive buying urges.

I also agree with his Reduce (existing stuff), Refuse (new stuff), and Rejigger (prioritize) concept. He said he was trying this challenge to fight bad American consumerism habits, not to reduce clutter, which I disagree with. It is, however, in my best interest to reduce clutter. I’m tired of moving excess junk multiple times per year (again, I live in college dorms) and figuring out where to store everything (currently grandparents’ basement).

My rules:
1. The magical number of 42 items instead of his 100.

2. I, however, will have more exclusions.

David excludes shared and household things, books, and household tools.

I will exclude things that come with my dorm (which makes sense because I don’t actually own them), food/drink related items, apparel/accessories, and grooming items.

Quite simply, food and things related to food (pots and pans, silverware, etc) are too hard to devise a system to keep a count of. David probably counts items related to food as household items, which would also be excluded under his system anyway.

If you look at David’s list, approximately half of his items consist of clothing. He also doesn’t need as many grooming items and accessories as a female would. Since I am only allowing myself 42 items instead of 100, excluding apparel and accessories does not seem unreasonable. I am a single and job-seeking female, so I don’t wish for this challenge to compromise the way I look, dress, and smell, which is why I’m excluding apparel/accessories and grooming.

Does this mean I can just splurge in these categories? No, I am planning to pack and store things I don’t wear and avoid buying multiples of the same color/style. The idea here is to minimize but look the same way I do currently (I.e. I don’t need any more suit jackets. I have one of every color, one short-sleeved, etc. already. I only need one pair of shoes for each type of occasion/weather, so I won’t buy any more. No new make-up until it gets gross or I run out).

3. If something is only sold in a cluster, then I’m counting it as one item. Some other similar and complementary groups may also count as one (similar to David’s rule about grouping)

4. When I get new things to replace old things, I have 7 days to get rid of the old thing I’m replacing. I’m allowing this extra 7 days, because it takes time to sell stuff on eBay. Also, since I order most things from the internet, I can’t accurately anticipate exactly which day I will receive the new thing, so this prevents me from being without.

5. Gifts: I haven’t quite figured out what to do with gifts yet. I feel bad getting rid of gifts, but it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t count them either.

6. If something is in storage (currently at my grandparents’ basement) and I don’t plan to use it, then it doesn’t count. If I pack something in a paper box I am planning to store or ship out (if I sold it on eBay), then it doesn’t count either. It would be ridiculous if I had to put something in storage every time I exchange one of my 42 things.

My time frame for this? Not sure yet, but I’m going to start making a list of essentials and gauge how long it will take to get rid of everything else.

This is the second step in my guide in Developing Proxy Sites.

It is recommended that you use a custom template/theme to customize your proxy site, preferably one that is optimized for adsense or SEO more so than the default is. After all, the whole point of starting proxies is to gain traffic and collect ad revenue, right? I wouldn’t go for a paid theme. There are simply too many free ones for a paid one to be necessary. If you use a fancier theme, does that mean more traffic? Doubtful, unless your theme is so eye-catching that it becomes impossible for visitors not to remember.. anyway, I would stick with the free themes.

I give up in finding an organized site with an index of Glype proxies. They’re kind of all over the internet if you do a google search, but there is no single site with a large index of templates. one website I found with a few good ones is GlypeDesigns.com if you want to use Glype.

All Nuke Stuff has some nice ones for PhProxy

Zelune templates are a little harder to find, since Zelune is used less extensively overall. However, there are a few good ones, such as the one I used for my Clean and Simple proxy setup.

I’ve really only been a finance major for just over a semester, yet I feel like I feel like I have been for much longer. At the very least, I now understand what recruiters are talking about at networking events, and I can usually figure out what most of the common acronyms stand for. Before I enrolled at NYU Stern last semester, I was able to say that everything I know about finance I learned from Prosper. Now, I may have to amend that statement and say that everything I knew about finance, prior to coming to NYU Stern as a finance major, I learned from Prosper. I came to Stern to learn finance, but in reality, I learned that I really should be here to learn (and still have a lot to learn about) how to fit into the financial world.

Prosper is an online peer to peer based lending/borrowing service. That is, some users lend to other users who borrow. Borrowers sign promissory notes upon receiving money which lenders can then hold onto and collect month to month or trade in the Prosper market. This sounds like trading any kind of financial security, doesn’t it?

Rules of finance I’ve learned from Prosper:
Prices of securities and interest rates are determined by the market to satisfy the laws of supply and demand
When borrowers on Prosper apply for a loan, they often start with an interest rate higher than they are expected to pay. In practice, it actually does not matter what rate they start at, as the market will adjust to a rate that seems fair considering risk and return. In this example, this borrower has a AA rating, the highest possible in Prosper. The initial offered rate was 12.50%, but at this rate, more lenders would be willing to supply money than the $15,000 demanded. Thus, during the bidding process before the loan is written, lenders compete by gradually bidding lower rates that they are willing to accept to loan to this borrower. My prediction is that within the time remaining, the loan will probably be bid down to about 7%, typical of low risk AA.

Investors demand higher expected rates of return for higher risk/volatility
So, if two investments have the same expected return but different level of risk, then it is only natural that the rate for the lower risk investment will be bid down (explained in the previous rule). Prosper offers portfolio plans, and they clearly show that more aggressive investing equates to higher expected yield.

Diversification is the way to go
Prosper’s system even suggests that you should invest with a small amount per bid and in many different loans. This is a simple concept: If you invest everything in one loan and that person defaults, then you lose significantly. However, if you invest $25 in each borrower and lend to many different borrowers, then your return will be comparable to the expected return. Some loans will default, but Prosper even calculates the expected losses based on credit rating for you.

The value of your existing security varies based on market interest rates
This is the concept of interest rate risk. Basically, the first time you decide to sell a note, you will discover that the amount you can sell it for ma not necessarily be what you paid for it with adjustments for already received payments. This is because new notes are constantly being issued, so the selling price of existing notes is adjusted for difference in yield. For example, if you bought a $25 note when the market rate was 5% but the market rate is now 7%, nobody is going to give you $25 for your note when they could buy a new one and receive 7% (provided that both notes are the same level of credit risk). Thus, your 5% note will become less valuable to compensate for the market interest rate change. Conversely, if the market rate were to go down to 3%, you would then be able to sell your existing note for a premium.

Well, there you have it. I really knew more about the fundamentals than I thought I did before I enrolled at Stern. The most important concepts in an introductory finance course I learned from real world experience from a simple peer to peer lending system! No wonder I passed the proficiency exam for the introductory finance course here

I will treat my Everyman sleep posts as a series, only kind of in reverse order. Instead of having an index before the posts, I will make this final post on the topic the index.

Previous Posts:
1. My Polyphasic Sleep Experiment
2. Day 1
3. Days 2-3
4. Off, Then Back on Everyman
5. REM Naps Yet?
6. To Stick to Everyman or Not to?
7. My Life Now Vs. Last Year

I just realized that I never reported about what happened to my Everyman sleep experiment.

To make a long story short, I quit after about a little over a month after I began. To sum it up:

I can report that Everyman does not cause the increased alertness and energy the way people who have tried the Uberman schedule have reported. Unfortunately, since it’s a hybrid  between regular cycles and REM cycles, it does not appear to be extreme enough for the brain to produce this extra alertness. I wouldn’t try Uberman either, for reasons I have previously described. It does, however, allow one to have a few extra hours per day without feeling significantly more tired than he/she would feel after the traditional full night monophasic sleep schedule.

Reasons I quit:
I just want to enjoy being 21 years old. For this schedule to be effective, alcohol is forbidden.
Even towards the end, I had a little trouble controlling my diet. In the long run, this kind of schedule will probably cause someone like me to gain weight.
Some people I knew seriously thought I was insane, clinically insane (or on drugs).
I either have to sacrifice the schedule or a normal daily life (it was annoying when any event conflicted with nap time)

Switching back to monophasic sleep was definitely easier than the adaptation period from monophasic to Everyman. For the first few days, I often woke up after a few hours in the middle of the night. I then had to force myself not to take a nap during the day so I could sleep longer the next night. However, the switch back to monophasic sleep only took about four days to get on schedule and a week not to feel tired anymore.

If the Everyman schedule fits your lifestyle, then I would say, go for it! As for me? This was quite an experience. If my schedule permits, maybe I can go back to this in the future! Or more likely, I might experiment with biphasic sleep sometime. Keep posted for updates!