Simple. Organized. Life.

John’s Phone: A Beautiful, No-Nonsense Mobile Phone

August 9, 2011 by David · 4 Comments

No more internet. No more email. No more texts. John’s Phone does what a mobile used to do (and rarely does now, if you own an iPhone like I do) perfectly fine — make phone calls. Self-proclaimed as “the world’s most simple phone”, it has no frills and no unnecessary features such as a camera, text messaging and an endless number of ringtones. You call, you hang up, and that’s it. It is a no-contract cell phone that is compatible with any type of SIM card. The phone has a standby time of more than 3 weeks, and the back of the phone features a small opening with an address book and pen.

johnsphoneblack Johns Phone: A Beautiful, No Nonsense Mobile Phone

johnsphonewhite Johns Phone: A Beautiful, No Nonsense Mobile Phone

johnsphonebrown Johns Phone: A Beautiful, No Nonsense Mobile Phone

While I certainly appreciate all I can do with my iPhone, I also wonder if I could get by with a phone that does what a mobile phone was initially designed to do. In today’s busy, always-on, always-connected world, I dig what John’s Phone has come up with. Priced at 79,95 euros, or about $114 US dollars as of this writing, I would be lying if I wasn’t tempted to try one out. If you are (or have been) looking for a mobile phone that just makes calls and that’s it, you might want to check these out. Priced right and beautifully designed, I think if word gets out about them they could sell a ton.

Filed Under: Simple Living · Tagged With: digital, iphone, simple, simple living, simplicity

Simple Security: Automatic Off-Site Computer Backups

August 5, 2011 by David · Leave a Comment

I cannot stress just how important it is to backup your computers often and in multiple places. Computer hard drives fail more often than anyone would like to admit, and having several separate backups of all your important documents, photos, and music can ensure that you never lose any of it in the event of a computer crash, fire, or theft. While I have written here before about having a backup hard drive in your home that you back up to daily, you also should consider having an off-site backup that constantly (and behind the scenes) backs up the contents of your computer’s hard drive. I have a good friend who lost both the internal drive of his iMac and his backup drive in his home office on the same day. Talk about coincidence! So while for most people a single backup is usually enough to recover from a simple computer disaster (not theft or fire, though), he lost his primary and backup drive at once; if that was all he had for backups he would have lost everything. Luckily, he was using an off-site backup service as well, so he contacted them and had DVD’s made of all his files and mailed to his house so he could put everything back on his new computer.

There are many solid options out there for off-site computer backups, but I have been using BackBlaze without fail or falter for over a year now. For $5 a month, it backs up my computer on a daily basis without my even knowing it’s doing it. Simplicity! For $60/year, it’s a piece of mind that I am absolutely willing to pay for as my entire life is inside my MacBook. Any time I want I can log in to their website and look at my files, access them, download them, or just make sure that my computer is still backing up every day (it hasn’t ever missed a day, FYI.) It even lets you “find your computer” should it get stolen away from you.

If you aren’t doing off-site computer backups, I highly recommend you start doing them right away. No one thinks their computer and hard drive will fail on the same day, or that their house will burn down with both inside, or that your home office will be burglarized. But stuff happens — and if you are anything like me you have a lot of important data on your computer you can’t afford to lose. So simplify your computer security with off-site, automatic backups as soon as you can. You never know when you may need it!

Filed Under: Organization · Tagged With: digital, home, office, Organization, preparedness, simple, simplicity, storage

What Exactly Does Simple Living Really Mean?

July 27, 2011 by David · 7 Comments

To live simply means different things to different people, myself included. For example, I am not willing to forgo everyday conveniences like electricity, television, the internet or a few decent items of clothing — but some are. But I am willing to give up expensive sports cars, a mortgage I cannot afford just to try to impress people, extravagant vacations to far away lands, and going out to dinner every night of the week. Why am I willing to give those things up? So I don’t have to work 60 hours a week at a job I don’t like just to be able to try to pay for them all! There was a time back in the day when feel as though I sold my soul for money. Sure, I didn’t make a deal with the actual Devil, but I might as well of – I hated my job, I hated the travel I had to do for it, and I was becoming increasingly lethargic and unhealthy because of it. But hey, the money was good – and that was all that mattered, right? Until one day I said enough is enough, and walked away without a safety net. Something in me keyed me into the fact that no matter how much money I made or how much harder I worked, this lifestyle was not going to make me happy and I had to get out asap. So I did, and that was the beginning of trying to live a more simple life.

Ever since that day, I have worked to get away from the consumer-based lifestyle I had been trying to keep up with. I stopped going shopping all the time just because I was bored. I made due with what I had, for the most part, instead of buying a new “this” or “that”. I like living where there is no traffic, no keeping up with the Joneses, no “holier than thou” attitudes…just people living their lives as they wish, with no one getting in their business (or caring).

So for me, simple living is living the way you want to live without having to compromise who you are or who you want to be. By owning my own freelance business, I make my own hours and (usually) earn enough income to live comfortably. Am I going to get rich doing this? Nope, probably not. Do I feel the need to get rich anymore? Nope. I am doing things my way, at my new speed, and that is what we were after. That’s my definition of simple living. What’s yours?

Filed Under: Simple Living · Tagged With: lifestyle, simple living