Purge Update: Day 35

My new bookcase is up. This is the first time I've actually had a fully "functioning" bookcase. It looks very sleek and sexy too.
Hmm... I'm very behind now in my cleanup. One computer is gone/donated to a friend, and I have just yet to throw out the other one. I am also excited about bringing in my new mac. It should have been here on Friday but I wasn't here to pick it up. I should have it y tomorrow... and yes it should have been by in that last sentence.... my b button is breaking! D:

Purge Update: Day 11

I have been slowing down in the past few days. I have gone through my toss pile and now weeding through the items I want to keep and trying to organize how to minimize the space the stuff I... ahem, I don't want to say keep, but rather things I would rather not toss out... Books, some class notes and projects.

A few nights ago, I was in the hospital with some physical issues. I'm hoping first of all, that I'm okay, and after that I hope it goes in line with my re-organization and allows me to re-focus on my overall socio-engineering plan. Let me explain a little bit more of the plan. I will come up with a cooler name and acronym later.
1) Mind+Clarity. First step is obviously the re-organization of my room. The symbolization of the purge will be a strong factor in removing elements from my old identity and most of the excess baggage I have kept for the past few years. Allowing me to shift positions of furniture in my room and just change the overall feel will allow me to clear my visual space and optimize the layout for better feng shui. (Reverse profile: clean out my room and pay attention to the new layout, add personality to room)
2) Physical. I've gone on a little break for the past few weeks but I will re-double my efforts in exercising. I will continue on with badminton and hopefully expand into something new. I am looking towards trying a martial art. I am still researching my options for this. (Reverse profile: move)
3) Social. I went into this a little bit. Still trying to break the shell. Inhibitions are being shoved into oblivion, but hopefully I still keep myself in check and not go overboard. Hear me speak? Then it's an improvement. Hear me tell a joke? You've seen true progress. (Reverse profile: TALK MORE)
4) Expression. I need to speak my mind. I need to express people how I feel. I am a thoughtful person and I will help when I can. I am trying to change how I dress. I am getting rid of a lot of my clothes that I feel that no longer represents what I wish to be. (Reverse profile: Graphology- write bigger, change my wardrobe)
5) Aggression+Speed. I am calm. Too calm. I tend to be still and be a rock to the environment around me. I hesitate. Decisions I make tend to be over thought and take too long.
I need to shift this more towards Sun Tzu's teachings of water. Still and calm when peaceful. But when it moves, to be swift and powerful. Slowly and surely it moves mountains. I have to learn to rely on my instincts, decide, and follow through and not be afraid of making mistakes or regretting decisions. Measure twice, cut once, cut deep, cut fast.(Reverse profile: decide. now.)

Purge Update: Day 7

I have not gotten much movement in the past few days, but I have been throwing out a lot.
I have decided on getting rid of my other old computer table as well. Since I am going for a fresh start, I might as well toss everything old out. My bed is fully dismantled and discarded so that is complete, most of the work now is getting all my old junk in storage bins out or stored in proper places.

I have good fortune doing this while my sister and her family is here. I threw out a lot of backpacks and most of them have been gifted and well appreciated by my nephew and niece. I gave a Monkey backpack to Elle, and a shoe "bag" (the bag itself is in the shape and design of a shoe) for Eisner. I also tossed in a Cathay Pacific backpack for Elle since it's her birthday today.
The nicest prize I gave up was probably a "My First Sony" CFM-2000. It is a bright red radio that looks like it was made for the 80s. (Google it, it looks pretty cool!).

Going through the self-help table at Chapters today, I saw a book called Clutter Busting: Letting Go Of What's Holding You Back . The irony was, I want to clean up my clutter, and I could not justify buying this book because it would only end up in my clutter. Haha.

Purge Day 4: Interesting Relics and Discoveries

1) A still wrapped Christmas present of a lego toy. I think I would have been ecstatic if I had actually seen it 12 years ago when I received it.
2) A Captain Planet ring. (For those of you who know what they are, I got the one with the Earth symbol)
3) Brochures from my trip to Europe. I forgot I visited Arromanches in Normandy, France. The museum described how the operations of D-Day took place.
4) My tickets from taking the lift at the Eiffel Tower, or as they say, les ascenseurs.
5) Reading some of my old book reports. My writing was more erratic back then, but I also wrote a lot bigger. (Graphology reverse profiling/engineering is also being considered).
6) Realizing how many notebooks I've actually started using but never finished. The count is pretty high, it's probably over 20. I'm considering how to combine them or whether to toss them out.
7) Bag of lightbulbs in my closet. ???
8) A lot of kid backpacks (I'm giving them to my nephew and niece as gifts--boy, do I have a lot of gifts for them)
9) Street hockey equipment I have never used. (I really wanted to play hockey when I was young, my parents ruined that dream for me)
10) An inspirational poem in my old poetry collections:

Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

An auto-socioengineering project

I've been quite unhappy for the past few years. I'm not known to be a cheerful person, but I am optimistic. I look at my room and do a profile of myself based on my surroundings. I have mostly empty walls. There's not much color in the room. I do not have that many pictures. What there is, is a lot of plastic storage boxes. There's a lot of books shelved away and also lying around in the bins, and there's a lot of electronics/technology magazines. There are lots of documents and papers in random areas. There are also a lot of notebooks in many places. Hanging on the wall is a piano certification but it is pretty low level. In the other corner by the door, there's a simple moonscape painting. The room is mostly defined by the clutter and the small bed. There is no personality to the room, no intention, no memory.

I have done a couple of re-arrangements to my room, but nothing major since at least over 5 years ago, probably when I was still in high school. I am planning to do a reverse profile. You can see the personality of a person based on their room, so I am going to try and do the opposite. Modifying my environment to influence my personality. This is not that simple considering how much I have in my room, and how I personally have a tendency to leave things half done.
This change towards my health, lifestyle, and personality has probably been headed in the right direction only since last year. I have started exercising more by playing badminton. I have lost about 20lbs(10% of my weight) since I started last May and am hoping I can keep going. I have tried to break out of my social shell, but I still find myself shy and short of words some time, still having issues expressing myself. Trying to be more outward and friendly has truly been the hardest thing for me, but it has immensely helped me feel more confident.
The major barrier I have now is fear of what direction I'm headed in. My room still resounds like a bad nightmare and I have decided to take that as my first priority to change. I have started the purge since the 25th of May, a day before my birthday. I needed to start it before because I need to achieve change before the next year of my life is already passing by.

Today is purge day 3, and I am still moving forward.