christopher ming lee

When did it become okay to welch? When was a man (or woman) no longer held to their word or their handshake? When did a promise become an empty bond?
I remember reading a Doyle Brunson story - one of the world’s most famous poker players and gamblers. He considered the word of a gambler to [...]

An Asian-cuisine restaurant recently sent out a mailing.
The envelope is the coupon, as indicated by the stamp.
Inside the envelope is their menu.
Why not design the coupon into the menu? Then include a place for postage, stamp permit, address etc. on the menu?
It’d save the paper, save the cost, and save the labor (stamping envelopes, stuffing [...]

I went to New Jersey for the weekend. On my return to Upstate, I realized I left my bag at my cousin’s house. All I had on me were my car keys, my phone, and my wallet. Everything else - sitting in a basement, where it’ll remain for months, until I pick it up.
First thought: [...]

Text messaging requires no emotional investment. In fact, it’s a negative investment. It requires zero emotional investment with whom you’re interacting with, and detracts from the interaction you’re physically present for.
If you were truly invested in the text message conversation you were having, you’d call the person. Even better, you’d pay them a visit. Face-to-face [...]

One of my worst problems is spreading myself too thin. I chalk it up to being overambitious and taking on too many things. Better that, I figure, than being complacent with my station in life. Reality dictates, however, that both circumstances produce the same results: nothing gets done.
I find myself in that situation again. [...]

I generally avoid posting viral videos. There are only so many times one can watch a shoe being thrown at our President, no matter how many times it’s edited - oh, the hilarity ensues! As this is related to materialism (and its inverse, minimalism) I’ll make an exception: Kids lose their shit over Nintendo Wii’s.
I [...]

I finished posting all the material I have on Argentina, and on Wednesday I’ll start posting about my work to self-publish. Transitioning with this post about money is a fitting segue for a couple reasons:

I’ll soon be locking the rest of my savings into an investment, and besides my pathetic joke of a checking account, [...]

Einstein´s Dreams, by Alan Lightman, was the only book I brought with me to Argentina, besides my Lonely Planet. I´ve read it about six or seven times before, and I don`t get bored of it. It`s especially inspiring considering my  undertakings of minimalism. Here`s an excerpt, about an instance of time without memory:
Some have stopped [...]

I wrote before about how I’m making an aggressive effort to eliminate material things I do not need. This has a two-fold importance when applied to traveling: first, you eliminate the mental baggage associated with ownership. Second, you remove the physical baggage you dig through your bag at the end of everyday.
Basically, I hate carrying [...]

This post is a diversion from Argentina, but it taught me a lot about my temperament and my outlook on minimalism, and I wanted to share.
When you’re working towards minimalism, you learn to let material things go. You stop subscribing to the “maybe-I’ll-need-it” ideology. If you don’t need or don’t use it, you get rid [...]