People say I'm crazy, doing what I'm doing.
they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin.
When I say that I'm okay, well, they look at me kinda strange.
"Surely, your not happy now, you no longer play the game."

People say I'm lazy, dreaming my life away.
Well, they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me.
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall.
"Don't you miss the big time, boy. You're no longer on the ball."

I'm just sitting here watching the [rubber bands] go round and round.
I really love to watch them roll.
No longer riding on the merry-go-round.
I just had to let it go.

People ask me questions, lost in confusion.
Well, I tell them there's no problem, only solutions.
Well, they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind.
I tell them there's no hurry, I'm just sitting here doing time.

I'm just sitting here watching the [bands] go round and round.
I really love to watch them roll.
No longer riding on the marry-go-round.
I just had to let it go.
-John Lennon

In a previous entry I mentioned my rubber band collection and intent to create a freegan rubber band ball. So I bided the half-hour waiting for my laundry in my buildings basement, stringing the bands around each other. 

My ball has gotten off to a good start!

Later in the week I received this message through the NYC freegan discussion list-serv:


I have an apartment full of items I need to pass on.  I will be backpacking through Asia for the next 6 months to a year and will be giving up my apartment. I have not been to any of the meet-ups but I do try to live by freegan principles... I am on a plane to Beijing on Tuesday, so I would like to have an open house this Sunday for anyone to take what they want... 

He then listed many items that he had available, including media (CDs, DVDs, books), appliances, furniture, electronics, and more. But the one item which really caught my attention:

-a crashed iMac, replace the hard drive and you are good to go

And I've needed a new computer since January. I jumped at the chance and was apparently the first. So I brought home a like-new iMac computer on Sunday. "Excited" doesn't quite capture the feeling.

Most of the stuff was passed on to me, so I now wish to pass it on. This will help me shed the sedentary life for the simple life -- living out of a day pack.

I'm about equally thankful as jealous. Living up the slightly-less-simple-though-certainly-FREEgan life in NYC! And yes, the rubber-band-ball photo was taken with my new computer's built-in camera. This technology is novel for me, lol =D

I don't know about you, but rubber bands are just one of those items that I can never find when I need them; and I find that I need them rather often!

In the past few months there were several instances when I actually considered going out to buy a bunch of rubber bands.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Then one day my eyes were opened. As I walked to the nearest subway station I saw not one but two rubber bands on the floor. Laid to waste.

"Freegan rubber bands?" I thought to myself. I can do this.

Over the next few days I found several more and figured I should collect them til I had enough to make a freegan rubber band ball. The photo above is a collection of twenty-three rubber bands I accumulated over TWO DAYS walking around Boston. That's a dozen bands per day.

Ridiculous.

Good to know I'll never have to buy rubber bands. Especially if I move to Boston. I'll be making that rubber band ball soon enough =D

On a related note, I've also found my fair share of paper clips. Any ideas what I can do with them?