早上打开Flipboard，第一页就有人说乔布斯登船，以为是个玩笑，再翻几页下去竟全是乔布斯去世的消息，又打开Hacker news，满屏都是乔布斯的消息，心道这次是真的，然后就想起来了他辞职信里的那句话：that day has come。

并不是因为我对苹果产品有特殊的感情，让我感到震惊和难过的是，从2009年一月起他体重巨减到现在这长达两年半的时间里，尽管一直处于死亡的威胁下，但他未停止推动苹果这艘大船的脚步，他实实在在得为事业奋战到灯枯油尽。一个已经获得人世所有荣耀的人，一个被绝症耗尽生命力的人，是什么在驱动着他？我想起了他在斯坦福演讲时说过的两段话：

…and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

八月底读了乔布斯的辞职信，我想，他终该获得了身体和精神上的宁静吧，我甚至没有怀疑过他会战胜绝症，作为一个传奇人物，传奇还会延续，下一个传奇是乔布斯再次站在苹果发布会上……可惜这并未发生。

谢谢乔布斯，比起你创造的精密绝伦的科技产品更重要的是你身体力行的告诉世人去追随梦想，不对糟透的现实妥协。也许无人能复制你的成功，但你留下的这笔精神财富却能激励更多人做更好的自己。

 Rest in peace, Steve Jobs.

I had a pretty tough week, a thief broke into my place last Monday, luckily my room has a lock, he couldn’t get much then escaped. It’s quite scary that a stranger sneaked into the house when I was sleeping. For the record, this is the first time I got stolen.

I thought it would be a very bad idea to stay in this property any longer since the recent murder case and bomb threat (rumor) happened in my neighborhood, this is another sign to urge me leave this suburb . After numerous communications with rental agent, they agreed I could move out ASAP. I did ask them to renew my lease before, and they told me new lease had been posted, but until then I still haven’t seen anything, but when came to moving out, they started to talk about 21 days notice, I don’t like the people who have double standard.

Looking for new place, moving, cleaning etc.. plus I have to work (btw, we released moodle for iPhone 1.0.2 last Friday), I even feel exhausted when typing these words, I am really upset at the moment, I asked myself what makes me unhappy?

No, it’s not the agent, not even the thief, it’s all about the stuff I own. I spent more than two days to move them, I am sure there will be more days wasted on placing them in the right place until I move again. I realized I didn’t need most of them. That’s stupid, I bought all those to entertain me, now I became a slave of them, I maintain them, protect them and upgrade them, afraid of losing them, but they don’t give me happiness, only burdens. That reminds me that every time I think of making changes to my life, the first thing jumps into my mind is: how would I deal with my stuff?? I am jailed.

Here comes to the point to ease the stress from consumerist, time to practice MINIMALIST, what I will do from today:

1. Sell or donate ALL my furnitures except a chair and workstation
2. Get rid of paper-based books, it’s the era of ebook! With iPad and kindle, I can get nearly all information I possibly need, for the books aren’t available in digital format, they might be not good enough to be digitalized
3. Sell my Xbox 360 console, TV and games (I cannot believe I bought a TV just for gaming)
4. Sell spare PCs, laptops and computer accessories, A macbook certainly can serve my needs
5. Donate my clothes, I got way too many
6. STOP using unlimited ADSL broadband, unlimited broadband leads to abusing, I spent whole lot of time on downloading movies & TVs I will never watch, surfing on the web without actually doing anything useful. I will sign up a mobile broadband plan which only allowing me to do essential tasks only.
7. Addition to previous point, be careful with contract, it’s easy to sign, but difficult to terminate! To save $20, I signed a 18 month contract with TPG for ADSL instead of 6 month, I terminated 7 month earlier, that incurred $200 termination fee! That’s the worst $20 I saved. To terminate a connection might cost TPG $0, but… anyway, deal is deal. NO more contract if possible, use pay as you go plan instead.

That’s it for now, I will write follow up post regarding minimalist practice. I want my life simplified, dynamic, not binding with the bulk of crap I had.