Text messaging a breakthrough for hearing impaired

We were talking to a friend at an event last night when I got a text message on my cell phone. I casually checked the message and fired off a brief reply.

Afterward, our friend shared with us that her brother is deaf. She told us how cell phones and text messaging are real miracles for her brother; they've opened up a whole new world for him. By texting, he can now talk to anyone anywhere "just like everyone else -- and he's really fast!" She told us about the conversations they've had since he's discovered texting -- conversations they never could have had before.

Wow! I'd never thought about that before. I suddenly saw texting from a whole new perspective. I was in awe of this technology which I'd pretty much taken for granted until now. How cool to be able to communicate from anywhere, without all the extra equipment like TTY machines.

Send messages to loved ones -- after you're gone!

This sounds like the perfect opportunity to say, "Na na na na, I told you so!"

The Post-Rapture Post - The Postal Service of the Saved

If you're asking, "How can this be possible," please take notice of how these messages will be delivered after the rapture. No fancy technology needed here.

My opinion... pretty clever.

Postage Increase

You probably already know that on May 14th the cost to snail-mail a letter is increasing by 2 cents from $.39 to $.41. I guess this is because more people are using email rather than regular mail, although you'd never know it by looking in my mailbox.

The post office has issued a new stamp, called "The Forever Stamp" to compensate for this rate hike - or maybe make us feel better anyway. It will be good for mailing a letter that weighs less than 1 ounce no matter how much the rate goes up -- FOREVER.

Of course, you can't buy this new stamp at the current rate of 39 cents. It'll cost you the new rate of 41 cents.

Seems to me you could save money by paying your bills online and emailing more rather than driving around looking for the cheapest gas in town so you can make it to the post office to mail a letter.

By the way, if you're planning any sort of direct mail campaign, you might want to send it out before Mother's Day.

Hope you get your two cents worth.

I'm Stupid

I just took an online quiz to tell me if I was stupid or not. It had such a creative title - The Stupid Quiz - that I just couldn't resist. The short story is that it told me that I'm not stupid:

Gee Gosh Wow! Congratulations, you are NOT Stupid. Not by a Longshot. In fact, you are a "Brainiac!" (If you know who Brainiac is, you are however, a Nerd.)

Despite what the quiz said, I AM STUPID! Stupid enough to get sucked into the stupid quiz, anyway.

The actual quiz was kinda fun, but getting the results was painful. I had to spend time rejecting all the "free" offers before I could get to the end. And it made me enter my name, address, phone, email, hair color, shoe size, favorite taco sauce, grandfather's maiden name, etc. At least I didn't give any -- NOT ANY -- real information (I said I was a blonde). So I'm not that stupid.

By the way, I deliberately left out the link to the quiz here. If you go looking, it's easy enough to find. Then you can join the crowd and be stupid too.

Now... to run an anti-spyware scan.

5 Reasons NOT to Blog

A blog, or web log, is a regularly updated online journal or diary. The difference is that they often connect with other blogs through comments and linkbacks.

I frequently get questions about blogging from clients, associates and friends. Blogging is becoming something people think they should do, but they're not always sure why. It just sounds like a good idea, or someone along the way told them they should have a blog. (Sounds like the same reasons many people want a web site.) Many of them don't even understand what a blog is or what blogging is about.

I always caution people to think before they jump head first into the blogosphere. Sure, there are some great reasons to start a blog, but there are even better reasons not to.

1. Quality vs. quantity. You don't have to be a great writer to start a blog, so that's not what I'm talking about when I say quality. But you do need quality content. It doesn't matter if you write ten times a day if you're filling up your blog with useless information. You have to have something interesting to say; something interesting to write about that other people will want to write.
   
2. Afraid of commitment. Blogging well can be a huge time commitment. Your readers expect you to post regularly. Blog-tracking service Technorati is tracking more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55% are "active" and updated at least every three months (1 post every 3 months isn't what I would call "active"). Analysts at Gartner have said that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs. Did they run out of things to say? Got bored? Didn't have the time? Couldn't make the commitment?
   
3. No time like the present. Blogs are current. If you're always behind and writing about topics that were hot a couple months ago, you're readers might not stick with you. Many bloggers spend hours each day surfing and researching topics(or have staff to do it). Be sure to factor this into your time commitment.
   
4. Everyone's a critic. Not everyone will love or agree with you, so be prepared for negative comments. The internet allows for a great degree of anonymity which emboldens many people to be nastier than they might be if they had to put their real name on their comments. Sure, you can restrict comments so that only the nice ones are displayed, but that may discourage some readers from posting at all. And if someone has a legitimate complaint, it's better to get it out in the open so you can address it.
   
5. Love the sound of your own voice. You may wonder if anyone is actually reading your blog. It's always more fun to write when people are leaving comments and talking back to you, but the majority of readers never make themselves known. Especially when you're first starting out, you have to love writing for yourself. If you set up some means of gathering statistics (like Google Analytics) you'll know if anyone is actually showing up. And give your blog time to gather momentum before you abandon it.

Blogging can be fun and interesting. There are a lot of great reasons to blog, but it's important to know what you're getting into. Let me know why you like to blog and what benefits you see; but also let me know what challenges you've faced or why you haven't jumped into blogging yet.

Spring Forward

The April edition of Brainstorm!(TM) is available online.

Spring Forward!

• No Dumb Questions and No Dumb Answers: Encouraging community participation
• Smart Tools: Our favorites for your business
• Brain Candy: 13 Most Fun Buzzwords of 2006
• Updates, News & Announcements from Kayda the News Hound
  

Brand Wimps?

Any blog post with a title Brands are for Cattle that starts out with "Marketers are a bunch of flaky wimps," is bound to get my attention -- and fast!

I have to agree that putting the brand above the needs of the customer/buyer/visitor is a mistake.

Marketers who obsess about brand usually focus on aesthetics over buyers. They are more interested in the color scheme of the Web site than in meeting their buyers' needs with a content marketing strategy. They care about logos not buyers. They research color schemes instead of the market. Countless marketers got their knickers in a twist about the outward manifestation of an organization's brand--including logos, image ads, and tchotchkes—all at the expense of buyers and what they need to understand the company—especially the content found on the company’s site. Well, they are flaky wimps if that's what they do.

What's really at stake—in fact what branding's really about—is a focus on the buyer. As each buyer builds an emotional response to a company, that emotion becomes the brand-image for that person. Fortunately, some great marketers understand that the provision of quality Web content does more to build brand than pretty logos, cool Web design, and hip color choice.

But I can't put the blame entirely on the marketers; sometimes it has to rest with the client -- the site owner.

I can't count the number of times clients have been more worried about what their web site looks like than what it says. That's great if you're a web designer, but not so good for the site visitor. And ultimately, not great for the web site owner.

Effective web sites focus on what the visitor wants and needs, their experience of the web site, and their emotional connection to the company through the web site. If their online experience is frustration, they will connect that emotion with the company.

Marketers aren't the only flakey wimps; some clients are too.

Read the entire post at Web Ink Now.

We don't need no stinking bylaws

A group of us are starting a 501(c)6 not-for-profit association for Denver pedicabs. I just need to say, "I hate writing bylaws!" Anytime you start a new business, the paperwork is always the worst part. I know, that's what you pay an attorney and an accountant for. They seem to like headaches like this. But no matter what - bylaws, business plans, financials - some of it you just have to do yourself.

Blegch! I feel better now. Just had to get that out of my system.

Lessons from Bill Cosby

Last week we were up late watching The Tonight Show. Jay Leno's first guest of the evening was Bill Cosby, a man I'd grown up with - I Spy, Fat Albert, The Bill Cosby Show, Cosby, etc. I hadn't seen him in awhile, but knew I'd be entertained by his wit and charm as always.

I was amazed by his storytelling as he talked about his first time in a really hot car (Selene Mustang). You probably know that Leno is a car fanatic.

I knew that if I tried to tell the same story it would take me less than 60 seconds - and anyone who knows me knows I can talk. But Cosby talked for at least 4 or 5 minutes with all the great facial expressions and sound effects that are hallmarks of the Cosby style. Laughing so hard, we were nearly rolling on the floor along with Jay Leno.

So here's the lesson: We all need to be great storytellers. People relate to stories. People respond emotionally to stories. People are more interested in what you can do for them than how wonderful you are and stories are a great way to tell them.

You know the story of your business and the stories of your clients better than anyone. How can you tell those stories so people will listen? What opportunities do you have to tell your story?

If you're looking for a new 30-second commercial to use at networking events, why not think about a story you can tell? If you just tell the beginning of the story, they'll be intrigued to ask for more. For example, when someone asks what I do or what my business is, I might say something like, "I got a phone call the other day from a woman who had spent a lot of money on her web site but she was really frustrated because nobody is showing up? In my business I find solutions for problems like that. Do you know anyone like that?"

What stories can you come up with about your business that would encourage people to ask for more? What problems have you solved? What is interesting or unique about what you do?

Do you share your stories on your web site? In articles or on your blog? In brochures? In classes or presentations?

I don't really know if Bill Cosby's story is true or not, but I'd like to believe it is. Somehow now I feel like I've been included in his life - at least vicariously. And if I ever get in a Selene Mustang, or any other really loud, really fast car, I'll remember that story -- and smile.

Business plan? Who needs one?

In a recent post, Guy Kawasaki references a Babson College study on alums who started businesses with and without business plans. Their findings may fly in the face of popular business [training] thought - and a lot of business planners may be unhappy. "...the study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them..."

So the basic recommendation is that you not spend hours and hours on a formal written business plan unless you're going for money - like investors, loans, capital, etc. It can serve to improve communication and get your team moving in the same direction. I think the most important statement was, "A great plan won’t make a lousy idea successful, and a lousy plan won’t necessarily stop a great idea."

I've seen too many great ideas get bogged down in over-planning, over-thinking - what some people call analysis paralysis. For some folks, planning is safer than actually doing. There's real risk involved in starting a new business. You have to put your whole self on the line. That can be a very scary proposition.

Granted, I'm generally an early adopter who jumps in quickly (although age and experience has tempered that impulsive urge a bit - just ask my mom). I've learned to spend a little more time researching and analyzing the challenges and opportunities. Guy's recommendation to keep your business plan short and not spend more than 2 weeks on it fits perfectly.

After being involved in the start-up of several successful businesses (none with formal written business plans), I say "go for it!"

Which are you?

In his blog, Seth Godin asks the important question: "Which are you?" It's much better to be a "the" than an "a". Are you A realtor or THE realtor? Are you A salesperson or THE salesperson? Whatever your profession, strive to be THE, not A.

It's up!

I've worked hours to launch a new look for the Whole Brain Technologies web site, and now it's finally up and running. Actually, it's been up for a few days. I'm still doing some tweeking and adjusting. The devil definately is in the details. But overall, I'm pretty happy with it. A very liberating experience, I'm relieved to finally claim the company as my own (more about that later).

I have a renewed appreciation for anyone spending time, money and energy on a web site - like my clients. I spent hours just looking for photos to use on the site. Going through the old site and deciding what to keep and what to leave behind was a valuable review of the company's past direction. Now it was time to articulate it's direction moving forward in 2007.

I decided to update the corporate colors and change the tagline. That was a refreshing change. I like the connection green (rather than the old teal) has to growth. I've always liked purple, so I couldn't get rid of that color. Plus, it forced me to update the designs for letterhead, business cards, and other collaterals. I even adjusted the colors for this blog.

The best thing is that now I'm free emotionally and psychologically to move forward. I've reclaimed the company as my own - something I no longer need to share with anyone.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Lessons for Pat O'Brien

For those of you who don't keep up on all the celebrity gossip, Pat O'Brien (Access Hollywood, The Insider) has checked himself into rehab after making some critical email and voicemail errors. Perhaps it's a lesson not only for Pat, but for the rest of us too.

Before leaving Access Hollywood in summer 2004, O'Brien sent out a drunken email critiquing his co-hosts including Nancy O'Dell. The email was promptly followed by a public apology and an admission of a drinking problem.

Lesson #1 for Pat O'Brien: If you write an email while intoxicated, sober up before hitting the send button.

After leaving Access Hollywood, O'Brien got his own entertainment gossip show called the Insider. At first it looked like O'Brien got his drinking under control. However, he apparently decided to get drunk, do a few lines of cocaine and leave a string of dirty voice-mail messages all over the place.

Lesson #2 for Pat O'Brien: If you are "horny" and doing illegal drugs, don't call everyone in your address book and tell them. You are a celebrity damn it! Especially don't leave voice mail evidence that can be recorded and leaked all over the internet.

If you're out of the loop and want more info on this critical issue, check out this article at MethodShop. Or better yet, read the blog (and buy a t-shirt while you're there) or this little inside commentary.

Just a thought (since before I read the commentary) -- what's with everyone checking into rehab these days? Kennedy, Foley, and now O'Brien. I guess it's that devil alcohol that made me do it.

And those two glasses of red wine made me write this post. Rrrrriiiiiigggghhhhtttt. Oh what the hell!

Are you an addict?

More than one in eight adults in the US show signs of being addicted to the internet, a study has shown. A typical addict is a single, white college-educated male in his 30s, who spends more than 30 hours a week on "non-essential" computer use.

Users spend hours online each day, surfing the Web, trading stocks, instant messaging or blogging, and a fast-rising number are becoming addicted to Internet video games. This is an increasing problem for employers and families. "We are seeing more people who lost their jobs because of too much time spent surfing the Internet during work. More relationships are breaking up because of spouses sneaking out of bed to check e-mail in the middle of the night," says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude -- principal author of the study and head of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Though it's not yet an officially recognized psychological disorder, just Google "internet addition" and you'll find a bevy of links to recovery centers and programs.

When the future of BlackBerry was in doubt due to a patent infringement lawsuit in 2006, it was feared that Washington DC would shut down. Since it hit the market seven years ago, BlackBerry has accelerated the pace of business and bred a generation of workers who rely on constant e-mail updates. At a weekend seminar I hosted a couple of months ago, one of the attendees couldn't give up his CrackBerry habit, continually reading and messaging during class, breaks and dinner, hardly pausing to look up. Drove me nuts! Are these people the adrenalin junkies of the technology age?

Are you one of the 14% who can't stay away from the Internet? I know I am, but I have an excuse... it's my job. Heh heh.

BBC: US shows signs of 'Net addiction

Spam 2.0 - The rise in "image spam"

As if we didn't get enough junk in our email boxes already, now another form of spam jumps into the frying pan. If you haven't seen it already, you will. It's image spam where images are used in place of text.
As anti-spam tools that use content filters to weed out unsolicited e-mails proliferate, those people responsible for creating the messages continue to increasingly adopt image spam. By sending e-mails that contain no text, only pictures, scammers have found that they can evade many security systems, according to San Carlos, Calif.-based messaging management vendor Postini Inc. The messages often include image files that have a screen shot offering the same types of information advertised in more traditional text-based spam.

Depending on what stats you read, image-based spam accounts for 15% to 25% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005.

Unsavory marketers are deploying image-based spam because it is harder to detect than text-based spam, and consumers are more likely to read an e-mail with a picture or graphic, says Craig Sprosts of anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems. Remember, most search engines or other software can't "read" or comprehend images the way the human brain can.

The newest spam uses technology that varies the content of individual messages — through colors, backgrounds, picture sizes or font types — so they appear to be distinct to spam filters. The spam is delivered to consumers and companies through millions of compromised PCs, called bots.

As software gets better at identifying and blocking spam, spammers get smarter at outfoxing software. "It is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game," says Dmitri Alperovitch of e-mail security company CipherTrust.

Why should you care?

Well, for one thing, image spam uses up more resources like bandwidth and storage space than traditional text-based spam. Your email box could fill up more quickly, bouncing messages you want to receive.

More importantly, this type of spam makes it more difficult for legitimate commercial emails using images to get through. It's already challenging to get quality emails through spam filters. As software is developed to filter out image spam, how well will it differentiate legitimate html emails with pictures from crap?

I mean really -- I put a lot of thought and time into my email blasts. They're not spam!

Apologizing for something I didn't do

This domain spoofing is really getting out of hand! Things seemed to be quieting down a bit and I was getting less and less bounces for emails I didn't send.

But today things are heating up again. I've gotten nearly 300 bounces and it's only 11:00 a.m. MST. No, I don't have a virus. I have triple virus protection on all my computers and run a full scan at least once a week. No, I didn't really send out all that f***ing spam!

I feel like screaming, "I DIDN'T DO IT! IT'S NOT ME! I'M SORRY!"

There's gotta be a way to stop this. It's making me crazy! And my ISP says there's nothing I can do.

So, I'm apologizing to the world for something I didn't do. Anyone out in cyberland who's gotten some stupid spam from someone @wholebraintech.com... It wasn't me!

Email Spoofing - I Hate It!!!

My domain name has been spoofed for email and it's driving me crazy! I get tons of bounces every day to email addresses like tuvabc@wholebrain..., email addresses that don't really exist - just random letters at my domain.

Someone in cyber world has hijacked my domain for the purpose of spamming and it really pisses me off! People all over the world are getting spam with my domain on it - my company name! I can tell by the addresses the bounces come from. I imagine millions of emails with my domain as the return address going out everyday with this crap. I feel violated! How dare someone do this to me -- or to anyone!

The worst thing about it is that there's not much I can do about it. It's so frustrating!! Especially for someone who's supposed to be tech-savvy. I can try to find out who is posing as someone from my company and sending this garbage, but then what? Ask them to stop? Yeah sure. Hire a lawyer and sue? An expensive proposition. Cross my fingers and hope my domain doesn't get blacklisted? For now, that's my only option. No matter how you look at it, the alternatives suck.

I've talked with several people about the issue, researched online, and these are the best explanations I've found. Not much help.

Spoofing: Identity Crisis

About Email Hijack, Spoofing and Phishing

Spoofed by Spammers - below article is a reprint from
Doctor Ebiz
Helping Small Business Succeed Online
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor, Wilson Internet Services
A Free Wilson Info E-zine ISSN 1529-3203
http://www.doctorebiz.com

Spoofed by the Spammers
"What can a company do when its domain name has been spoofed? In the past three days, we have received over 1,200 bounced emails that appear to have come from us.

"The e-mails are for a refinancing company. I have tried to trace the e-mails through the headers, but they are masked. I even tried submitting a phony refinance request to see if I can get them to call me.

"How can I get this to stop? How can I report these people? And how can I avoid our domain getting blacklisted as a spammer for something someone did to us? If this can happen to a little company like ours, it is happening to others as well." -- Angie Keating, Reclamere, Inc.

You're not alone; this has happened to me, also. To research your question, I consulted with Laura Atkins of Word to the Wise, LLC, an expert on e-mail abuse and deliverability issues. She said that most public blacklists don't list the spammer's domain name but his IP address instead, that spammers sometimes use open proxies overseas that hide their true IP address

It's possible that your domain might be listed in some blacklist somewhere, but if no one is actually bouncing your mail as a result, you don't need worry too much about it. When your mail is being blocked, however, you must take action.

Unfortunately, there's not much recourse for people with this problem. To nab the spammers doing this to you, you must "follow the money," determine who is benefiting monetarily from the spam. Then get yourself an Internet-savvy lawyer and take the spammer to court.

In California and some other states, there is a specific law that makes it illegal to spoof the return address, making it easier to go after such spammers. Otherwise your court case would have to be based on case law rather than existing statutes, an even more expensive proposition.

I encourage you to lobby your legislators for effective federal laws against spamming that (1) aren't watered down so much by the direct marketing industry that they don't do any good, but at the same time (2) are not so restrictive that they make it impossible to conduct legitimate, opt-in e-mail marketing.

This really should be easier!

Yesterday I wanted to look for a class at my local rec center. I had taken tai chi before, but it was at an inconvenient location so I didn't continue. I wanted to see if the class was scheduled at the center just a mile from my house.

I went to the web site (which was hard to find since it's part of one of those complicated city URLs). I could either download PDFs of each category of classes, or register for the class online. This was where I ran into the first roadblock. I'm not sure what category the class would fall under, and I don't want to download a bunch of PDFs looking for it.

The only way I found a search feature was through the registration system. But before I got there, I needed to log in. I couldn't remember my user name and password, and there were too many hoops I couldn't get through to retrieve it by email. I needed either my User ID (which I couldn't remember) or my Household ID Number (which was supposed to be on the receipt that I couldn't find from my previous class). I also needed to know what my favorite food and my favorite color was (or at least what I told them they were when I registered before. I don't remember answering those questions before, by the way).

I decided to log in as Guest. I couldn't register for anything, but at least I could look around. Ah Ha! A search function! I could search activities by listing or by type. Hmmmm... let's try "listing." OMG! A list of over 1000 classes in alphabetical order came up, with a "search by activity number" at the top. How was I supposed to know what the activity number was!?

Okay, so let's search by type. Would tai chi be under Adult Activities or Fitness General? Well I didn't find it under Adult Activities, although I did find a bellydancing class that might be fun. Two sessions of tai chi were listed under Fitness General, along with information about the class, fees, how many have already registered, the instructor with his photo -- but no location!

So now I have 3 choices -- I can look for the course catalog that I probably got in the mail, contact the rec center by phone or email, or just forget about it altogether. I'll have to contact the rec center to get my login information anyway.

This process should be so much easier! I registered online for a class at the local community college yesterday and it was so simple and straight forward. It only took me a few minutes.

I think I'll just forget this one for now.

That Damn DAM!

I'm now into the break halfway through the 4-week Work Smarter, Not Harder class. The next assignment was to organize my work process. We do this by creating a DAM.

The DAM is supposed to keep you focused on one thing at a time, only what's in front of you. You put things into your DAM according to when you need to work on them - today, this week, next week, next month, etc.

I'm learning to work with this new system. I can see the value in using it, how it can help keep you focused and organized. My problem is that I find myself moving things around, putting things in, taking things out. Since it's still a new system for me, I keep thinking of stuff that needs to be in there - some small task or project I'd forgotten. I'm sure the process will get better as I get caught up, but for now, I just keep adding to it.

Sometimes I really don't want to work on what's in my DAM. I'd much rather do something else - like clean the oven or water the plants rather than bookkeeping or filing. But I love the sense of accomplishment when I've moved things out of my Today file - not because I'm postponing them or procrastinating, but because I actually got something done. I'm also beginning to get things out of my head and into a system. I don't worry so much about things falling through the cracks, or dropping one of the many balls I'm juggling each day.

Yes, it takes discipline. And I'm hoping this will give me some balance in my life. I'll keep you posted.

Purge, Purge, Purge... Oh Boy!

I started taking a class yesterday - one that I desperately need. 4 sessions over 6 weeks, with a 2 week break in the middle. The class is Work Smarter, Not Harder taught by my good friend Cathi Hight.

The first assignment is to organize my work space. Oh boy!

I'm moving furniture around, sorting through papers, tossing junk mail, deciding what to file, and what to shred. It's really pretty liberating. It feels good to get rid of unneeded junk and clutter. But it's hard to do, for a pack rat like me.

Why do we keep stuff we don't really need or want?

It gives me a sense of security, a sense of ownership. Even if it's junk, it's still mine. And if it's something I paid for, it must have some value. And if I need something, chances are it's in one of my piles or boxes - somewhere.

Sometimes I think that I may not need it now, but I might need it later. There have been times when I've regretted getting rid of something. This usually happens with clothing. I bought a pair of jeans that were a little too tight for me. I held onto them for a year or two, then finally decided that they'd never fit and gave them away. Of course, when I dropped a few pounds and went looking for them, they were nowhere to be found. Bummer. They were really cute jeans.

I hold onto things because I don't want to deal with them now. This is particularly true with mail. I hate sorting through the mail. I get so much junk mail, so many credit card offers I'm not interested in, mortgage refinance deals, and requests for donations to all sorts of charities. Mixed into it all are the bills I'm so happy to get each month. Occasionally, I actually get something I want.

It's always hard for me to get rid of things people have given to me. I feel guilty if I give them away. What if they come to my house or office and go looking for it? This is particularly true for my mother. It's hard for me to tell her that the orange fuzzy sweater just isn't my style, or the AA-battery-powered keyboard vac just won't do the job. She tries so hard, and I don't want to seem ungrateful.

I don't do garage sales. When I purge I throw the stuff away or give it to the local thrift store. I don't really have the time or energy it takes to put together a successful garage sale. And I'm afraid it will give me a chance to rethink my decision to get rid of something. I'll end up keeping more stuff than I sell. And what if no on wants my junk? How humiliating! At least at the thrift store, I'll never really know if anyone bought it or what they paid for it.

What I've discovered over the last couple of days (besides a lot of stuff I wanted but couldn't find and stuff I thought I'd wanted but really didn't) is that all the stuff weighs on you. It's confining, suffocating, smothering. It's stressful to see the piles. Purging may be scary, but it's freeing. Most of it can be replaced, usually with something better, if I really want it later. The things that are irreplacable go into a fireproof, waterproof safe. Anything else will be neatly organized and put in its proper place.

Rrriiiiiiiigghhtt.