Getting Rid of Some Junk

Packing sucks but it's an opportunity to take stock of your belongings and whether they should continue belonging to you in particular. I have a longstanding love of video games and generally like to hold onto them forever and ever but it turns out the more games you have the less of them you can play. I made the tough decision to sell a few of them. An added bit of help making decisions to get rid of things is the fact that our place in Seattle is going to be significantly smaller than our in St. Louis.

My Playstation 2 reminds me of college. I played it a lot instead of doing homework or interacting with other people. I recall one instance thinking I was very cool playing the latest Grand Theft Auto in my Gardner dorm room with the sound all the way up on some very large speakers. 

There was a couple of years I lived with my parents in Springfield, IL after returning from Japan. I took pride in having all of my maybe 20ish video game systems all set up and ready to play at a moment's notice. I referred to it as "the library". Here's Brandon getting very groovy on the Nintendo Wii Fit. I've been a Nintendo nerd since I was a kid so getting rid of a Nintendo system is a big deal for me.

I briefly considered not abandoning my treasures but there was a very scary person nearby who demanded a sacrifice.

I'm not sure why but I ended up with a very heavy box of relics from my dad which also met their end during packing. I never tried to get this working but it did teach me a new word: "lapidary is the practice of shaping stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems, and faceted designs. A person who practices lapidary is known as a lapidarist." Lortone, Inc. actually still exists in Seattle.

No idea.

I also had this kiln thing of his that he used to melt down metal. I assume that if you got the timing right it could also be used to make toast.

I took my treasures to Vintage Stock to sell for a pittance. At least someone else may get some enjoyment out of them.

I suppose spending my earnings on Animal Crossing characters at the nearby Build-A-Bear Workshop would be against the spirit of this exercise.