here's life

I have too much stuff.  My dining room is piled with the excess, so much so that I can't actually get to my stuff without digging through it all.  There are boards and computer parts, a bike, two large beanbag chairs, a dresser, 1.5 vacuums, an exercise mat, and a nearly complete table I have been working on since before Thanksgiving. Most of this physical baggage I either got really cheap or free, so why not have it?  Because materialism is not the spending of too much money, but being too attached to stuff.  But really, most of what I have are materials to be used in some yet-to-be-determined cacophony, which will probably end up in my living room. Hopeful this stuff will serve it's purpose by inspiring me to modify it into something nifty, so having access to lots of random, possibly useless items is the key. So, maybe it is ok, since I don't just have stuff for stuff's sake, but because it (I suppose) "makes me a better person".

Then there is the stuff that I have because it is cool, but actually cost me money. Like two (2) wireless routers (computer network items), that while they were interesting to set up, really I only use one. Or my frequent trips to places usually +8hr. away. And I dump in the gas and go. And then there is the surplus store, which I visit everytime it is open, and usually buy something, whether I need it or not. I have two 19"+ monitors sitting here beside my desk, mostly because they needed buying and will come in handy someday. Toward the end of March I am going to Alaska for a a wedding or something. Every couple weeks I go buy a bunch of tasty food, when I could buy cheaper, possiblly more healthy food. How should I decide what to spend money on, and what to not? Should I buy a car if my current one still works? How can I buy unnecessary things when there are people without food in other countries whom I could help with that money? When people I know (and don't) are headed off to the mission field (or jungle) and need finances to do so?

Today I played Ultimate Frisbee with some people from church.  Aaron, a guy from work, went with me. We had a good time, and I didn't get many pieces of vegetable keratin embedded in my skin. The ground we were playing on seemed to have less sand burrs than some other times we have played.  But, after so much running and turning, I am sore.  I need to stretch out and go to bed.