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| Sunday, August 22, 2010 |
| Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive |
 The BBC News article: Cult of less: Living out of a hard driveVirtual homelessness
Chris Yurista, a DJ from Washington, DC, cites this trend in digital music as one reason he was able to hand over the keys to his basement apartment over a year ago.
"It's always nice to have a personal sense of home, but that aside - the internet has replaced my need for an address," the 27-year-old said.
Since boxing up his physical possessions and getting rid of his home, Mr Yurista has taken to the streets with a backpack full of designer clothing, a laptop, an external hard drive, a small piano keyboard and a bicycle - an armful of goods that totals over $3,000 (£1,890) in value.
The American University graduate, who spends much of his time basking in the glow emanating from his Macbook, earns a significant income at his full-time job as a travel agent and believes his new life on the digital grid is less cluttered than his old life on the physical one.
"I don't feel a void living the way I'm living because I've figured out a way to use digital technology to my advantage," Mr Yurista explained.
Mr Yurista feels by digitising his life, he no longer has to worry about dusting, organising and cleaning his possessions. And he says his new intangible goods can continue to live on indefinitely with little maintenance.
"Things like records snap and wear down over time. It's upsetting. MP3s don't," he said.
The DJ has now replaced his bed with friends' couches, paper bills with online banking, and a record collection containing nearly 2,000 albums with an external hard drive with DJ software and nearly 13,000 MP3s. While I am all for streamlining your possessions and minimizing your lifestyle - couch surfing and mooching off your friends when you earn a good income is just wrong. If you no longer need an entire apartment to yourself - great, but rent a room and pay your fair share of housing costs. Not to mention pay your own utility bills - that digital life needs constant power to function my friend.
- Organize Your Digital Life: How to Store Your Photographs, Music, Videos, and Personal Documents in a Digital World |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 10:17 PM *
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| 45 Comments: |
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I think I've seen three different blogs post to this story and other minimalist items like it. They all come off like self-satisfied mooches. I'm glad I have a happy nest to come home to each night.
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I am confused about the ones who say the digital revolution allowed them to give up their homes. Sounds like it is the generosity of friends??? Or do they sleep on park benches?
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Well, once his friends get tired of his mooching, he'll probably have to rethink 'creative homelessness'. One can't YET actually live on the internet, though I am sure people are working on that concept, LoL.
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Seriously - rent a room and stop mooching. It doesn't have to be huge, but don't crow about living on less when the reality is you're just leeching off the good will of friends.
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I don't know why anyone would want to advertised the fact that they're a mooch. Strange bird.
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Exactly...he isn't living off the grid, he's living ON the back of others. Scamming couch space and electricity isn't honorable. He is enabled in this feeloading lifestyle by friends who are too polite to tell him to take his fat paycheck and go sit on the curb. here are real homeless people who have no choice - this is a financially privileged eccentric kook.
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This guy is a loser. He needs to grow up and pay his own way.
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Boston Gal! We miss your posts! Looking forward to the next one. Is everything OK?
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These moochers are just Postmodern versions of Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire ("I have always depended on the kindness of strangers").
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Dear BG,
I agree with the last Anonymous post. Please give us a quick update. It doesn't have to be long, interesting or enlightening. You typically blog every few days or so, and we're going on two weeks.
What's up in Boston?
Michael
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We do miss you. I just got done reading the NYT article, "Till Debt do Us Part" and hopped over to your blog to read your witty commentary. But alas, disappointment.
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I too am hoping all is well with BG!
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Boston Gal, I too miss your posts. I hope all is ok. Please come back.
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I like the spirit of what he's doing, but I agree he's still not paying his fair share if he doesn't contribute rent money toward that couch, or the portion of electricity he is using, as you pointed out. Otherwise, I feel very similar to him (minus any need for designer clothes! Blech! There's the clue that smugness may be involved!)
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Hope all is well.
Miss your posts.
Gal in MA
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BG,
Perhaps a poll on where you are?
I'm hoping you've taken a couple of weeks off to set-up a micro wind turbine on your property to offset the lack of sun on your solar cells through the dark new england winter...
If not, my guess is a quickie marriage in NH, followed by an appropriately frugal honeyoom to Greece (Euro is cheap and Greek hotels are desparate) ...
O BG ... let us know!!!
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Are you on vacation? Find a significant other? What's up, BG?!!! We miss you!
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I hope everything is okay! Come back soon!
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I hope she is ok.
Odd to not have an update or something in so long.
Comments seem to be un-moderated? Boston Gal does not need to approve them for posting?
I need my Boston Gal fix. Please come back.
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Check the site every day. Miss you!
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BG, I hope everything is okay with you. Miss your posts.
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Getting worried. Where is our Boston Gal?
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I'm guessing you have been rehabbing the basement apt, but it's really been quite a while!
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Checking everyday for an update from you Bostongal. Hope all is well!!
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Checking in to see if you are OK. Not like you to not post in such a long time. Please just give us a line that you are OK?
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Boston Gal- if nothing put up a new article on the Red Sox or Patriots! If I keep seeing the smirk on this free loading clown as your first article posted I'm liable to punch the computer. Do us all a favor and give us a fast update so we don't have to move on !
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where are you Boston gal? we are desperately waiting to hear from you... drop a line
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BG,
I hope everything is okay and there is a something wonderful distracting you from your blog right now.
Brooklyn Money
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Boston Gal -where are you?
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aliens got her....has to be the answer...! And thats not local aliens, I mean the kind from FAR away! :)) She'll be back....
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Here is another reader thinking about Boston Gal and hoping all is well.
I've run through several scenarios now, and am currently convinced that you had one drink too many one night, fell through a time warp, and are now Lula in Wild at Heart...
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2028077337/
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Still checking too!! I hope you weren't near Tom Brady's car accident!!
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Come out, come out where ever you are... Like everyone else here, I really hope that everything is alright.
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Has she appeared anywhere? This is getting weird and creepy - I hope she's ok.
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No! Say it isn't so! Has Boston Girl's ended? Miss you... checking every day for an update...
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I'm sad and worried :( Does anyone know Boston Girl personally - and can they call her to see if she's okay?
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Hope all is ok. Sending good thoughts your way.
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this is so weird!!! Something must've happened to her!! Didn't a newspaper interview her once?? I wonder if the reporter could get in touch with her?
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Someone is approving these comments, right?
Comment Approver - If you aren't Boston Gal, will you please let us know if she is OK? And if you are Boston Gal, will you please let us know if you are OK?
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Miss your posts! Hope all is well...
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"Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."
Someone is authorizing the comments...
BG...are you there? Is everything okay?
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o where o where has my bostongal gone
o where o where has she gone?
She's left me in a load of debt that I can not repay her
I've looked afar for my bostongal, o where o where can she be
I'll write an addition verse (each worse than the last) until you come back BG!!!!!
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I think I've seen three different blogs post to this story and other minimalist items like it. They all come off like self-satisfied mooches. I'm glad I have a happy nest to come home to each night.