Solarpunk

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Inspiration towards a life more aligned with solarpunk values (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 month ago by thorwiththehammer@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

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Hi all!

Long time lurker here on slrpnk.net and just signed up to participate more. I have myself been moving on a fairly slow but steady trajectory towards a life aligned with solarpunk values (although not with zeal or even the knowledge of solarpunk for most of this time). I still have a good distance to go, but I also have some concrete ideas in mind going forward.

So I thought I'd make this post where people could share their stories to inspire each other to take bolder steps: what steps have you so far taken and what do you plan to do going forward to live more true to a real solarpunk? What turned you onto these ideals in the first place? If not all ideals speak to you, which do and why? etc. etc. Anything goes!

I'll post my story in a separate comment.

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[–] thorwiththehammer@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Books were my weakness, but I accepted I had to cull after two moves and the reality that liberty and sustainability require minimalism. Don’t deprive yourself though. Finish your series. You’ll pry my Calvin and Hobbes and Tintin from my cold dead hands. Whereas I didn’t need a physical copy of 1Q84; there’s no pictures.

I still have my copy of 1Q84, and it does take a lot of space... For now I won't buy new books. I haven't bought much the past two years except for a handful of cooking books (which I do like to have physically). I think books I tend to look up stuff in are where I will draw the line in the future. We'll see about culling - for now there's not really much gain (except maybe some money if I am able to sell them), but if I could reduce it before my next move, that would be beneficial.

I love your self-hosting softeare and one day when I have time, I want to build the same. I’m simply time-poor right now between job and kids. I miss RSS feeds.

I've had a steady journey on this front over the past maybe 3 years - renting a small VPS or getting a SBC like the Raspberry Pi can get you started quickly if you go the route of Docker. I got into this from a privacy point of view. Really disliked being exploited by these big tech companies, and it kinda went from there. I'm my own cloud provider now, my own media streaming service, my own code repository hosting service etc.

Eating healthy makes you feel better and saves money. Kill your high interest debt as quickly as possible and the sodium and saturated fats in instant noodles are terrible. Oatmeal, rice, and pinto beans are cheap in bulk (seal the bags well with binder clips), easy, fast (you have to soak the beans for a day but your labor time is maybe five minutes with a pressure cooker like the InstantPot), and healthier. I target <50% of the daily recommended maximums for salt, sugar, cholesterol, and saturated fats, and my blood work shows it works.

My diet is not really that bad, but my main issue has been finding those really quick meals (like porridge has turned out to be). I would find myself too frequently rationalizing buying takeaway. Spent roughly 100€ a month on this. Turns out to be a much lower hanging fruit than I had anticipated.

[–] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

Thinking about it, I believe you made my point in a more concise and articulate manner.

[–] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

I miss the cover design of 1Q84 and also keep some cookbooks around. The benefit was the same benefit as minimalism: less to move, less to dust and make dust, less to search for, less to put away, more space. You live in Europe so it's hard to convey how overflowing with goods the average American house is. My choices are a reaction to this and I still feel we own double what we should, but my spouse and kids feel differently influenced by the society they know (I am the only one raised abroad).

I own a Pi 3 and used to run a NAS, home assistant, and ad blocker but found Google Home and a Synology NAS to be easier. I also have privacy concerns, but balance it with time commitments.

One of those is commitments is cookiing Saturday mornings to save time during the week while maximizing health. Other than making a batch of whole wheat pasta, I don't cook during the week. Many of our calories come from nuts, dried and fresh fruit, and soy milk which we keep in ample supply. Is meal prep an answer to your convenience conundrum?