Over the past few months of using OS X, I’ve been in my old swing of using Firefox as my browser. Over the past few weeks, however, I’ve been getting anoyed with Firefox crawling along, taking ages to load pages, and generally preforming poorly.

So, since Opera make a free, ad-free version of their browser for OS X, and since I’ve had it insalled for the past few months owing to various web development, I’m going to give Opera a full “go” as it were.

I found a neat page of Firefox extension equivalents in Opera, and it turns out most of my needs are filled in Opera by default. There’s even a user stylesheet for hiding and selectively playing flash, which is a biggy for me, what with all the Youtubing I do. The only thing lacking is a true equivalent of the web developer extension, which is essential for my various tom-dickery in the web design and layout sphere. But to be honest, I don’t hate Firefox, so a flick back to it for any web development is no problem with me (especially with QuickSilver making launching so quick).

As for daily browsing, i welcome my faster, less bloated web browser to the forefront of my web experience, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

pray to be touched by
Flying Spaghetti Monster’s
noodly appendage

Yes, I know, no one actually likes poetry. I for one despise the notion that some people have, that anyone at all would want to read their structured laments about not having a girlfriend/boyfriend, or how they feel fat, or whatever.

Despite this, I am a fan of the haiku. It’s the limitations that produce the greatest creativity, and the humble 5-7-5 syllable structure is as restrictive as I’d care to be when expressing an idea. I especially appreciate haiku with a bit of humour or that managed to tell a story or set a scene with only 17 syllables. It is for this reason that I am going to write a few haiku in my own unique style.

Observe;

no one likes a poet
so write atypically
to piss them all off

Or;

graduates are smart
but lack life experience
that’s why we’re all drunk

I intend to keep this going over the next little while in order to inspire myself to keep this damn site updated : )

I’m about to crack and admit I want an iPod. For years I’ve sat denying the mp3-only bar of soap so many have surrendered their wills to. The Nano is small and has a good chunk of solid-state memory which is close to perfect.

The only things I’d add would be the ability to play Ogg Vorbis, and 10GB of storage rather than 4. Perhaps a built in short-range radio transmitter would be cool too, but that’s just bat-shit crazy.

Anyway, that aside, were I to actually fall victim to the i-trend, I’d have another item on my list straight away - this wooden case. It may not have a window to use the scroll wheel or anything, but who cares? It’s got pure class. Wood.

If you’ve been hanging out here for news of hardcoregamers‘ relaunch, then consider this the post you’ve been after.

I’ve got the design almost sorted, and I’m starting to write articles (cool, eh?). So head over to see what my other web page looks like. I’ve gone for a super-minimalist layout, which seems to work rather well for a site dedicated to a narrow subject like video gaming. I’m interested in feedback, so post it either here, or in the first article over there.

As much as I want to continue on my path to minimalising my mess, I have come to the conclusion that I should probably take care of my current financial problem instead.

Rather than selling my stuff to buy smaller, better stuff, I will now be selling my stuff to pay my bills. Until I get a job or alternative source of income, that is. So here’s what I’m going to be selling (I’ll add links once they go up);

• My PAL GameCube + GameBoy Player + Games I don’t play anymore
• My PS2 with games I no longer play
• One of, if not all of my Gameboys/ Gameboy Advances / NeoGeo Pocket Color
• My Sega Saturn
• My Dreamcasts and Dreamcast games
• Spare computers and parts
• My Bass Guitar and Amp

Things I don’t actually want to sell, but may end up having to;

• My Wacom Intuos 2 Tablet
• My Desktop PC (I’ll revert to using my router as a desktop - it’s capable)
• My precious DVDs

And that’s it. After all that, I’ll be pretty much broke and with nothing to sell, so this strategy requires I also find a part time job somewhere. And finding that job is really fucking tricky. I will complain horribly about that in my rant-filled, nonsensical, “next” post.

The definition of a minimalist so far as I am concerned, is one who lives or prefers to live with the essentials, forcing bloat and unnecessary frills into redundancy. This isn’t to say that the minimalist is one who’d prefer life in a small shack made of tin cans, consisting on a diet of squirrel and sparrow, quite the opposite. The minimalist wants a full and technologically rich life, occupying as small a volume as possible.

I am a minimalist. Not because I’ve always liked small things that did the job of much bigger things, but because I am a lazy neat freak. Too lazy to keep neat and tidy, but infuriated by mess all the same.

I hate the fact that I have 2 mini tower PCs grinding away at a great many decibels when a silent Mac Mini would do the same job in a fraction of the space.
I dislike my storage cupboard, filled with old toys, school books from last century and computer hardware I may never use again.

Having an excess of “stuff” results in mess. There’s no two ways about it. If you have only what you need, you’d live a clean and streamlined life with plenty of time and space to stretch out and relax.

Having an excess of “stuff” limits your movement with said “stuff”. Moving house is much more difficult when you’re carting around a ton of equipment and furniture, when you could easily get by with a fraction thereof.

My desire to travel, take up less space, and streamline everything around me has lead to the writing of this document, and more specifically, an account of the various actions I’m going to put into place to do away with the obese, XXXL trousers of my property.

I have categorised the main areas of bloat into the following sections, each of which will be tackled separately in individual articles (links will be added upon publication);

• Computers and Technology
• Clothing and Mechanical Equipment
• Paper Documents
• Toys, Memorabilia and Collections

I intend to reduce most of my clutter by selling it and generating a temporary cash flow, which I will control like a evil super genius, hell bent on global domination and the construction of a terrifying death canon.

Let the construction begin!
I am half way through writing my plan for my technology and electronic equipment and I intend to publish that article within the next week.