I often think about Mark Hamill when he's chastised by interviewers for giving his vintage first edition Star Wars figures to his children: "They're toys, they're meant to be played with!"

i’ve taken to documenting where and when i got things written on the things.

that table saw? ch max 2021

these scissors? mel mcg 2025

that sewing machine? kitty 2020

Is coffee from Texas somehow special? Or just part of the joking...

They might be referencing some specific HEB coffee. My wife gets it from a friend sometimes when the friend brings it back, and she says it’s really good.

Even though it’s certainly good to treat yourself and get the most out of life, these kinds of catchphrases are dangerous. Unrestrained hedonism is selfish and short-sighted; it is what has brought humanity to the situation it finds itself in today—on the brink of the abyss.

If we continue as we have been, we will destroy the very foundations of our existence—and, with them, ourselves.

"After me, the deluge" is not an attitude worth aspiring to.

Took me a while but I got there. I have fabric that my great-grandmother grew as flax, spun, dyed and wove on her loom, over 100 years old now. I'm using these pieces as wall hangings and sofa covers and even on my market stall - it's a simple and pragmatic ancestor practice and in a sense I uncurse her life by carrying these pieces as I walk through my life way more undisturbed, unafraid and freely than she could.

I fucking love that guy

Great advice!

What’s does living in the water and on land have to do with how you feel about your possessions?

I disagree. Good things become dull things if you have them constantly.

But if you never use them, and just hoard them, they become nothing.

My ex had brought me whiskey coffee from her trip to Scotland. I decided to save it for a special occasion, and then it expired and I had to throw it. Never again.

Honestly, being played with by Marks kids probably increased their value more than original packaging.

That's great wisdom. We shouldn't keep stuff in a jar out of respect, or out of some fear that the memory it carries dissipates. Everything decays. Using that stuff is the best mark of respect and remembrance you can pay to whomever left you it. I'm writing this message to myself

Sucks about getting old and dying. All the things you found interesting and brought you joy are often meaningless to your kids or the next generation. I don’t mean hoarding stupid “collectibles”, but things like maybe the photography you got good at, the nice piece of local art you picked up while traveling, etc.

Also wise, but missing the point I think. (which is to not hoard stuff for sentimental reasons)

You got it wrong, an antiquarian is someone who hates quars

Fun fact: there's marginalia collectors, people who collect pieces of media which contain handwritten scribbles and notes on them

Never using also makes them nothing.

The real answer is moderation in all things, especially moderation itself

I have nice matcha bowls, I alternate between them, I still have a favourite but if I don't use them all I might as well sell the ones that don't see the light of day.

Twice a month is a good balance imo.

No! Use Up the Photographs!!

While I completely agree with this sentiment. On the flipside, I've seen it in people who grew up poor that they really want to save things and preserve them for longer use even if it causes temporary inconvenience. I think it might be hard to get out of this mindset

Obvioualy there is a middle ground

Obviously

Well, it’s a fine line: The highlighted passage—"Being alive is as special an occasion as it gets"—could, in principle or at least on its own, also be interpreted to mean that one should always live in the moment and not worry at all about tomorrow or one’s fellow human beings.

This would be a very selfish attitude that considers only one’s own well-being and derives something like a right to be inconsiderate from personal happiness.

In this particular case, that might sound a bit exaggerated, but preserving old things can also benefit future generations by ensuring that records of their predecessors are preserved. How far this should go is, of course, also a matter of balance, especially since there is certainly a responsibility to use resources sparingly and not constantly acquire new things when a need could just as easily be met with what's already there.

So in short: The only point I’m trying to make is that, in my view, it’s important not to forget others—even those who haven’t even been born yet—in the pursuit of personal happiness.

So apparently, coffee from Texas is the shit, yes?

I think that those things are only meaningless because the parents/grandparents didn’t or couldn’t engage with the next generation about it. Heirlooms, trinkets, and tchotchkes have to be imbued with stories and sentiment otherwise they’re just junk.

20th century hyper-consumerism sold the idea that you could buy sentimentality and proceeded to replace things that were valuable because of their unique stories with things that were valuable because of “the collectible market.” There’s a big difference between “this Coke sign was in your great-great-grandpa’s soda fountain” and “this Coke sign is valued at $100.” Likewise, a box of old family photos fails to have value when you can’t identify the people in the photos and the relative you inherited them from didn’t bother taking the time.

is it though? it's not hedonism that's hoarding trillions and waging wars

Thrice a month?

Maybe Check the China before you use it, my wife inherited China from her parents. It's extremely high lead content means it gets displayed, not used.

Did it actually expire, or was it just past the date? Plenty things have expiration dates but are still just fine to use for months afterward

Yeah hedonism and avarice aren't the same vices, the latter is much more troubling in my opinion.

If you are on a space station orbiting Mars, maybe.

Or Kansas.

I'm not sure I'd trust much grown in Texas. Business profits seem to be the top priority for the government there rather than food safety or factory inspection. I mean they're letting Musk's SpaceX pollute at will. I'd be afraid the plants growing there might draw up any number of industrial toxins and consumers wouldn't know until people start getting sick from it.

I remarked at this as well. It sounds almost like buying a Pinot gris from Newark and sending it to San Francisco.

In a place where Jamaica and Colombia are still places, can Texas coffee even register?

Moving my mom into a home next month and dealing with the lifetime of Meaningful Things she has piled up everywhere.

Meanwhile I live in a studio apartment and whenever I clean, if I haven't looked at it or used it in a year I give it away/throw it out.

When I die only my writing will be left, and that will probably fade from cultural memory more quickly than I'd like.

There's probably a happy medium to be found somewhere. Maybe I'll start carving my name on trees or deface priceless artwork.

Coffee, especially if it's ground, will lose a lot of its character if it sits around. It won't Go Bad or make you sick, but it probably won't be good.

If you aren't a coffee snob, it'll probably be fine.

my wife inherited China from her parents

I'm assuming china rather than China, unless she's the new empress and this is the most incredible humble brag!

If it’s fresh from a specialty roaster, most of its volatile aromatics are gone about 6 weeks after their roast date, which is what makes expensive coffee so interesting. Coffee stales really really quickly but has an incredibly long shelf life, so while it’s perfectly safe to drink coffee that’s been around for a long time (James Hoffmann famously drank coffee that was roasted over 80 years ago) you’re not going to be able to enjoy it as much anymore. So absolutely don’t slowly ration it out, wait maybe 5-7 days after roast for some CO2 to escape but then make sure you drink it all within the 1-6 week window or you’ll lose what makes it expensive and fancy and it’ll just start to taste like normal cheap coffee. Unless you don’t care that much about coffee, in which case just drink it whenever, it’s not going to go bad on you.

Use it or lose it.

Reminds me Uncle Iroh. "Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights."

Coffee from Texas is... special?

It's like kopi luwak except it was eaten by a Republican.

Why? What did you think happened to it? It's not clear what you are describing, flavored dry coffee beans, flavored ground beans in sealed bags, a drink in a can?

I kept it past its date, at some point it grew mold.

Ground beans.

Trump is taxing Europe because we wouldn't buy coffee from Texas, so maybe it is.

It comes from the poop of cows or something, I think.

Having had a close relative die recently, I now have to get rid of a shitload of old stuff that might have had some value once but that's realistically unsellable nowadays. Throwing it all away is a tempting option.

I'm a dragon so I can say with 9001% confidence in my knowledge that, yes, those toys will most definitely be much more valuable because of that