First I should mention what being nomadic in the modern sense means to me: being able to exercise the options when they become available to better my life in an immediate fashion. This requires the ability to pack and move house in short order, not having towering debts that restrict me to a job that pays at least $xx,xxx and other things that result in just being fiscally and materially nimble. Reducing attachment and dependence to material things is a good start, forgiving myself prior purchases for what is best called JUNK at this later stage and disposing of it as such is another. Making smart purchases for things that replace large, outdated things is yet another. A good example is my new Mora knife: at $9 it takes over the duty for every Buck knife I own, it's lighter, just as durable and if something happens I can easily get another and not beat myself up for destroying the $60 Buck 110. The Mora may see KP duty soon and if so it will have eliminated about four knives.
On to the recap, mostly going line by line with last year's:
- I am now two years into the debt management process, having the manager automatically debt my checking account has been a big stress remover. I feel like I only have to keep my job. The downside is I cannot easily become fiscally nimble until the end of this process.
- I no longer even use the 3g wireless modem, the radio internet tower upgrade has been completed for some time now so I surf the gratis connection that was given to the housemate over the wifi.
- My extended camp kit has been expanded to an 18' diameter modern teepee which was just used for the first time in a winter camp. Over this year I plan to start dropping some layers of redundancy, spreading it out over my EDC, 72hr bugout and long term/permanent kits. The biggest gear reduction will happen after Pennsic 42 which will be my last Pennsic and I just don't wear the historic stuff anywhere else. It will drop back into the long term kit. I have plans to go to PDF which may require a very stripped down camp.
- My largest reduction in material goods happened with things that were never brought here. The Harley was sold, all my gaming materials were given away, and all of my big ticket tools were sold off, giving away over 500' of extension cords. I still have the Blur (Toyota pickup at 30mpg avg for cheap daily driving) and ZAST (Suburban reimagined as a survival transport). I still live in the same situation, I did get a raise but still much less than I need to comfortably afford a place on my own. I do look for that to happen this year, but the place I have found that is budgetable has no phone or internet connectivity.
- The dating scene has been a total wash, I have either deleted or made unavailable every internet dating profile I had. I will be leaving the SCA (again) after Pennsic this year which will also remove myself from the "Scadian Singles Club," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the hookups that frequently happen there. I am content to realize that I am sufficiently unique that few females find me of romantic interest, I've already met most of them, and I'm still single for a perfectly logical reason.
- My 9V scale is still going, though I expect the battery to quit soon. I am, however, using it much less.
- My heavy glass measuring cups have been replaced by collapsible silicone cups with markings on the inside. I've also reduced to two plates, two bowls, and four sets of silverware.
- I have repurposed two canvas totes into more re-usable grocery bags, one used to hold my clothes pins (overkill, but it was handy at the time) another was used as a tool bag at work. They're nice when I'm buying something densely heavy like tanks of propane, cans of turpentine, etc.
- I use Open Office exclusively now, and use the Save As function if I need to make something available to read in other formats.
- I no longer participate in BOINC, I only have a laptop (borderline obsolete) and it was just using too many resources even after setting limits. I may need to maximize the lifespan of this laptop so it does need to be in sleep mode when I am not using it.
- I no longer use TaskSmash, I switched to Google Tasks which also appear on the Calendar, but I have also fallen into disuse. I don't do well with to-do lists, I find it is better to just do it when I recognize it needs to be done.
- I am amazed my paper shredder is still working. Especially after processing all of my old tax records. I also reused a lot of printed-on-one-side paper.
- I no longer have a gym membership, and have sold nearly all of my workout equipment. I primarily do yoga now which only requires (optionally) a mat.
- I have added a "Prepper" element to my Nomadic efforts which ties in nicely. I do have an ECD, have worked out a 72hr bugout kit and can camp self sufficiently. I did reacquire certain defensive elements again, with strict purposes and portability in mind. My 30day plan is complete. I will not hoard anything because it would limit my mobility, and what I have is going to be maintained in the most mobile fashion possible. 5gal buckets with gamma seals, color coded and other plain sense modular storage options which lend themselves to rapid loadouts.
