So, as anyone who’s ever been to our house can attest, we have an excess of stuff. That’s basically what happens when you have four people, who are all essentially “fully-equipped” living in one house. Too much kitchenware, too many sitting things, etc. Fortunately for us, our excess isn’t all that excessive, as our two housemates don’t actually take up much of the common space – most of that is dominated by Ei-Nyung and my stuff. Still – we’ve got too much. At one point, we had three couches, two recliners, four other nice, padded chairs, two tables, and seven table-related chairs. For four people.

Now, I don’t at all have a Niralth-like minimalist sense – for the most part, I don’t mind having a variety of seating options, for instance. But today, I gave away a sit-up bench I haven’t used in years, and the brown couch I got from my parents, that I’ve had since I was quite young. I had a distinct emotional attachment to that couch, but the simple fact of the matter was that it had been relegated to a part of the house where it wasn’t getting much use, and the recent inheritance of two of my grandparents’ chairs meant that basically, we had way too much seating.

So, with a bit of sadness, I gave that away on Craigslist, to some people that needed a sofabed, and would use it. I’d rather it was used somewhere than not, here, so I’m happy that it’ll find more purpose, and utility in its lifetime. Same with the sit-up bench, without the weird emotional attachment.

There’s a lot of stuff we need to sort for a yard sale, or give away outright. I’d started doing that with shirts I was no longer wearing. There’s a clothing donation bin on the street near our house, and so I’d given away almost half my t-shirts. And I *still* have more shirts than I reasonably wear, so I’m sure the closet’s due for another culling sometime soon. It’s sort of strange – I’ve always worn t-shirts – I figured that was just the way it was. They’re extremely comfortable, cheap, and I’ve never been in a job where I’ve had a dress code. So, t-shirts were perfectly fine in every respect.

But recently, I’ve had a desire to switch to button-downed shirts – not polo shirts, I’m talking collared shirts that button from top to bottom. And I can’t for the life of me explain it, other than that I must care to some extent about the image I’m projecting to others. I think maybe it’s that I valued comfort uber alles, because it was in some sense a rebellion against what I’d imagined I was supposed to conform to as I grew up. But now, I’m in the game industry – everyone’s dressed like shit. You’ve got 40 year olds in ratty t-shirts, and they all think they’re still in their teens. And something about it’s sort of off-putting, almost.

It’s weird, because it’s not like, say, my dad, who dresses casually because he really enjoys it – it’s almsot like it’s an image that these people are trying to cultivate, that they’re hip, and “free.” So maybe part of me is rebelling against that – that the off-kilter thing to do would be to dress really *well*. Because frankly, the people at work would think it’s weird. And I don’t really need to conform, to be honest – my work does my talking for me.

It’s just weird, that I would have some desire to dress up in a suit, and go to a job where I sit in front of a computer all day, and never interact with any clients, or do any sort of outward-facing interaction. Eh, it’s all just style anyway.