Also see: Tiny House Design and Tiny House Living
I’m am so lucky to be able to work-from-home. Katie came and reminded me it was lunch time when noon rolled around. She plopped herself in my chair when I stood up for a second with a book and started reading out-loud. Julia put some really cute pony tails in her hair today too.
To keep my inbox clean I’m trying something new… I’m unsubscribing from almost every email newsletter and email list I’m on and making better use of Google Reader.
I realized that I just don’t read all that bulk mail and so why let it clutter my inbox? It’s kind of similar to canceling catalog subscriptions and removing myself off physical junk mail lists. I fugure the less stuff, even information, that flood into my view, distracts me from what I want to focus on.
Now the most ironic part of this is that I make my living from sending corporate marketing emails all day every day. I’d like to think that our recipients don’t feel the same as I do and in fact it seems that is true because our unsubscribes are very very low. But then again we’re not sending consumer marketing emails. I actually think these folks WANT to hear from us.
On the personal blogging I use FeedBurner to automate my auto emails to subscribers. It’s free, completely automated, and works great. My biggest list is on Tiny House Design and I get very few unsubscribes.
So I guess the moral of the story is… if you send good content in your emails you won’t have people like me unsubscribing from your emails. If you send repetitive or useless junk you’re not going to be successful.
Out of the mouths of babes… Katie just said, The Pigeon is Driving My Daddy as I chased her around the house. She is a very funny girl, and as you (and Mo Willems) can tell has definitely not missed the point.
A small group of us small house bloggers & advocates launched a bi-weekly webzine on the small home movement. It’s called the Small Living Journal. Every two weeks we’ll all write on the same topic from our various perspectives. The first issue is out today and is simply introductons! The next issue will be on downsizing. Take a look at the Small Living Journalмебели софия.
Just for fun I made this little t-shirt at zazzle.com. As you can see it’s a relevant tiny house living quote from Henry David Thoreau. One of the cool features at zazzle.com is that you can change the color and style of garment. So if black isn’t your color you can pick another item to put the quote. The proceeds help fund my tiny house blogging. Oh have you seen my first set of free tiny house plans? See the t-shirt.
More and more large corporations seem to be getting concerned with the power of social media. It seems that the days are over of harmless commenting, tweeting, facebooking (can I say that?). Off-the-clock corporate employees should consider biting their tounges or at least be sure to make it clear that they are not speaking as an official company representative. I guess all the cyber-squawking has reached a decibel level to be hear in the board room.
To commemorate this time in history I came up with this stupid t-shirt for those of you brave enough to shout at the top of your lungs that you have a mind of your own and that the press should not quote you as an official representative of the company you work for by day.
I’m cerain that at some point the press will figure out that to quote all of us cyber-squawkers is simply silly, at least if they are looking to publish an article with any basis in the truth. A blog is not a credible source! Uh… what am I saying!? Nevemind… just buy the t-shirt.
Oops. I was grabbing my tooth brush out of the medicine cabinet and accidently knocked a bottle of cologne into the toilet. It busted open. I guess I’m lucky it didn’t fall on the floor. It’s probably karma because I really don’t like wearing cologne and now the bathroom reeks. Ug.
Last weekend I spent a day and a half working on my tiny free pallet house. It’s been terribly difficult to find time to build but it really felt great to be working on it again. When you sit at a desk in front of a computer all day every day it’s nice to get out and do physical work. I know that sounds moronic to those who actually ‘work’ for a living but it’s still true. Anyway I’ve posted more photos on my Tiny Free House blog if you’re curious.
Well not literally I just got tired of paying for it so I canceled my wife’s phone (which was out of contract), moved my SIM card to her phone, and downgraded to the cheapest monthly plan. I keep my iphone on airplane mode and use it around the house and on any open Wi-Fi. The only thing I can’t do is make a phone call or text message… but I rarely do that and now I get to spend the money I save on debt reduction. Just think of the money and time we’d all save if we were able to have one phone number and one email address.
Last Sunday we were working out in the front yard a little and Julia asked me to carve out some space in a some juniper bushes for Katie and a new fort. It was mostly an open little area so all I had to do was clean out the dead branches. Then just for fun I threw a pallet down, propped it up with some rocks and tossed a piece of plywood on top. I’ll build here a better little fort soon but it was cool watching her play. I’d like to built it out of pallet wood but to avoid splinters and improve safety I might just break down and buy some lumber when we build the real thing.
