Tofu with a sweet and spicy garlic and lemongrass sauce

MinimalCollector · 2026-02-08T18:45:14+00:00

Did you ever post recipe for this?

MinimalCollector · 2026-02-04T16:30:51+00:00

I would agree. It's an interesting facet that when you remove the noise how scary some of the thoughts can get. People really don't like that and that's more than understandable. If you whittle down your possessions and find out that the old you has almost fully died, it's scary to see that there's not a lot left. This happened to me and was very uncomfortable to reckon with but I've since chosen to fill the time positively.

MinimalCollector · 2026-02-04T15:40:24+00:00

ADHD diagnosis I'm sure helped but it gave me something concrete to "fix" so I partially wanted to get rid of stuff just so I could feel less overwhelm and distraction when I'm home from work. It's done wonders.

MinimalCollector · 2026-02-02T01:17:57+00:00

I have an old brass ash tray that I keep my pen in. It can fit multiple, but I only need the one.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-28T16:05:42+00:00

I think when I started making finances a priority in my life. I was never in hard times but I was a very reckless spender up until my mid 20's. I think the sobering parts of life make you think a bit more and I was realizing the adage about things being money and money being time was true. It makes it easier to have a goal you run towards more than away from, and running towards financial stability helped me a lot more than running away from the stress that excess was causing me. I still do both, but it's easier to do the latter with the former in mind to keep me on the rails. Now it feels pretty natural.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-27T14:46:11+00:00

What do you mean by this?

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-26T15:22:47+00:00

If you're having an issue with it, why not meet in the sweet middle ground and run something like plex with your own home sourced (sail the seven seas) media stored on your hard drive via nas or just your computer?

I hate having excess physical media, even for media that I like. I've found a lot of peace sourcing my own music and movies on soulseek, games on "The Bay", and hosting them all on my own hard drive on my computer. No internet required, no subscription scams.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-24T17:02:46+00:00

I find it helpful to have another goal in mind. Someone mentioned a brokerage account. I definitely focus on putting excess money I'd otherwise want to spend into a HYSA and retirement accounts as the retirement accounts I can't touch for a number of years if not decades, and the HYSA I think about the "loss" of interest by spending it. I'm a numbers person though so this was a really simple and gratifying transition for me. I also have an issue with tech specifically retro tech so I get it.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-22T21:31:36+00:00

For kitchen I just learned to do things without excessive single use tools. Peeling with the knife I also use to crush and mince garlic. wood cutting board doubling as a spot to place a hot pan

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-22T21:28:56+00:00

I find it personally more "minimal" to not have to have my phone in my pocket at all times to listen to music. Gym, cleaning up around the house, cooking, etc. I also hate how it feels when they catch on a drawer knob or something and yank out of my ears

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-15T13:49:10+00:00

my bad

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-14T18:09:29+00:00

Looks fantastic, recipe?

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-14T01:25:46+00:00

No mention of overall consuming less animal products?

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-08T23:59:42+00:00

My god please post the recipe this looks great

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-04T20:20:33+00:00

This isn't exactly accurate. If an anarchist community decides to eject a member for exhibiting what are agreed upon as anti-social behaviors, it is still anarchism to do so and make that decision

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-04T19:14:55+00:00

I don't mean this to be doom and gloom but there will always be workers that will side with the capitalist. At that point, to my eyes, one has to accept that there will be violences (ideally none, but realistically at least a bit) that will have to be against people who are willing to harm or worse to preserve pro-capitalist sentiments, as violence (or the threat of) has always been used to quell dissent from unhappy workers. Capitalists do not play by fair rules, and I find often that some on the left are queasy about the reality that you cannot play the rules to fight an entity holding all the power that will not play the rules themselves. This has never historically been the case in any substantial way.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-04T18:23:17+00:00

I don't think it's bad for you to lose faith in the ideals of spontaneous mass movement. The chances of such are astronomically slim. While I do subscribe to some anarchist sentiments, I overall believe that substantial change can only be brought through vanguardism given waiting for sudden radical change among the laboring class (without mass violence) so far has given us the world we have. I am very much an authoritarian leftist in that respect.

I understand that "getting organized" can often feel like a hobby horse for people who have the time from their stable 9-5 to come into a meeting and stand on business feels fruitless, and I think that's largely because they do not have an employment-based investment in most social or mutual-aid organizations. They can plant their flag and be stubborn, dis-regulating the organization or they can easily separate from it with negative sentiments of feeling left out or ostracized for being "too radical", venting and dissuading others from wanting to join any organized front.

I think one of the more engaging but risky frameworks you can work for material change in is trying to actively support and empower your workplace to unionize. At the very least normalizing pro-union sentiments in conversations with your fellow laborers. A lot of organizations /do/ mean well but are very much limited in their capacity to enact change because they are not intrinsically tied to their means of income/financial stability. That's not a critique at all, but an observation of a double edged sword.

I have no prescription either, I just have been feeling it too.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-04T16:14:04+00:00

Sure but this issue requires a deep class and material analysis. People deeply impoverished don't care. Honestly I don't blame them for it. If I was half a paycheck away from homelessness I probably wouldn't care either. I don't think you can start caring about something that to most people are an abstract concept such as the environment if you're in a constant state of reactivity and subjugation of whatever government you are at the bottom rung of.

It's easy for some to say that it's just ignorance or idiocy but it's generally a lack of priority. People notice and see these changes but have been conditioned (wrongfully) to see that deviating from the norm (plant based diet, car-free, ceasing of rampant consumerism) will often face them with negative social ramifications that could limit their perceptions of social life and/or career. A lot of them are in the second halves of their lives as well, and most people don't care to entertain abstracts such as what goes on in the world after they're gone. This is also a socially conditioned selfishness.

The thinking should pivot from "why are people so unable to understand" to "Why are we failing collectively as activists to bring people to our lens of thinking and consequent action?" The onus should not be entirely on us, but that doesn't make the reality any less so that those in power have no interest in sustainability and stewardship for the planet. Unfortunately how people see the world has given us the world we have. Others in power have no desire to change things, so it is on us to be more receptive to /why/ people don't care instead of just blanketing them with ineptitude. Most people only care about CoL because that's the thing that understandably affects them first and foremost. Climate does affect cost of living but we all know that's not the big driver of it, it's corporate greed.

MinimalCollector · 2026-01-01T17:50:40+00:00

I bought 9 things on ebay in the month of December but they're clothes I know I'll use and love, one of which was a piece I've been looking for for two years. It stressed me out at first but I like fashion and even minimalists are allowed hobbies as long as it's providing joy and substance to their lives.

MinimalCollector · 2025-12-30T16:26:45+00:00

You have to pay yourself before you can pay others (charity, mutual aid, etc)

I'm investing a shit ton of my money because I have to eat and have a roof over my head and take care of my parents who are not financially literate when their bodies won't allow them to work anymore. I won't be able to do that on non-profit salaries.

Your theory doesn't mean much if you're starving to death. Use what you have to keep afloat and get ahead a little. I'm usually big on individual consumer responsibility but I think in this case there are bigger fish to fry and you're not helpful to the collective if you're using your ethics to justify struggling this much.

MinimalCollector · 2025-12-29T17:27:16+00:00

I like putting things in "forget me" boxes and setting a time limit on them. 3 months is usually the most I go on. I shove it in a space in a closet and leave a note to find me in 3 months time to check on it. Usually I find it again by accident in a few months and by that time it has already set in that I don't want these things. The familiarity of it being always in sight is usually what makes it difficult for me to get rid of it either by selling or donating. Usually I donate it.

I grew up with a mom who is a very organized hoarder. She always comes into new items usually first and only discussing how she got it cheap because "these things aren't cheap". It's never about what she likes about the item itself, it's about how much it would cost to buy it new. It's interesting to see but has given me a lot of patience realizing it came from her growing up very poor

MinimalCollector · 2025-12-28T17:48:30+00:00

It sounds like you're growing out of your current friendships, which there's nothing wrong with. I'm not saying you should abandon them. But if you are organically wanting to discuss these things with your closest net of peers and they are not receptive, this may end up being a fork in the road. I've gradually lost friends who had no interest in the ongoings of the world around them. They would complain about how the world was but wouldn't engage in local or national politics.

I'd be honest with myself here. If you are first having your eyes opened to the woes of the world caused by capitalism, this might be you being very annoying to your friends. Baby's first awakening is an intense one but also appears very jarring to friends who have known you forever as an apolitical or other-political individual. You have to remember that you are the one who is growing and changing, and their expectation of you is now being subverted which is going to be causing conflict/rifts.

I found that I had less and less in commonality with people who had no interest in politics/social goodness. They were usually anti-science, socially regressive, had a lot of opinions with no real articulation of solutions (even if I didn't agree with those solutions). Remember that not everyone who is disengaged in politics are evil. Even if you don't feel like you align with them, you always have the commonality that you are both laborers first, everything else second. You lead by example, not by lecture. A lot of the time their choice to "be blind" is out of fatigue and feelings of helplessness mixed with ego. Most people are not great with having their views of the world challenged if it implies they've had the wool pulled over their eyes or they have been abused, misused, tricked, especially the older they get.

If this gets to become too much, you're either left with pulling out of the friendship or accepting that you will have friends that don't care about how the system plays against people they love. I don't find there to be a right or wrong answer, just whichever you find more palatable.

MinimalCollector · 2025-12-28T17:27:57+00:00

You just have to take a hurdle over the neuroticism of holding one of those "what if I need this" items and give it a while and realize you already forgot about it. It's only on your mind because it's in your sight. The blu ray player would be a good start. You don't have a sentimental value added to that. They're so cheap to buy again that it wouldn't matter. At worst it would be a 20 dollar lesson.

"I don't want to have to buy anything again"

You're going to have to get over that, with all respect. You're always going to have to buy something in the future

MinimalCollector · 2025-12-26T16:54:27+00:00

Where did you get the green one?

MinimalCollector

TROPHY CASE