week two-all my life for sale

As I read this weeks assignment I first thought about the ideas that were shared on the first page about how you can gather impressions about people from the things they buy, the clothes they wear, and what their bedrooms look like. I began to think how judgemental we are as a society how we tend to judge people by what they are wearing, how large their house is, what kind of car they drive, etc. instead of looking at their personality based on those traits. I could not imagine being John Freyer and just one day deciding to sell all of my personal possessions, especially my cell phone, laptop, and iPod in particular. To be able to sell some of his favorite things like his t-shirt would be incredibly hard for me. Those sort of "favorite items" would be the things that I would stuff into the trunk of my car. When I read the part about him stuffing everything in the trunk of his civic, the first thing I thought of was how small a civic is first of all and the second thing being how on earth is he going to make a living off of what he could possibly fit in the back of his car. I do relate with him on how he holds onto things. I always keep things and think oh I can use this later, but never actually do. Probably the reason why there is a narrow pathway to my bed, because of how I hate to throw things away. As he was talking about his website with all the names he was trying to use I began to wonder, what does this website look like? So I stopped my reading and went to his website. I could not believe all of the random things he sold on there and that people actually bought. I wish he told more of a story about where his items came from and the history he had with his items like he expected his buyers to share updates. I could not believe the second he shared that he would like to know updates on his items that people left his website, like what do you plan on doing with the items that you cannot share updates? The idea of driving around the country to visit his objects like his salt shaker was amusing to me. I do not think if I sold my things at a garage sale that I would actually go drive around to visit them, especially a salt shaker. However reading about all the places he slept at made me think also about the video of a place for my stuff about how awkward and the not so "at home" feeling you have when staying at someone elses house or a complete stranger in his case.

I found the video "A place for my stuff" to be very humorous and quite true with the points he made. With staying at someone else's house I think the also not "at home" feeling comes from not just not having a place for your things but also the feeling of the things in this house or place you are staying at are not your things and this is not your home. When I go on trips I not only have trouble with taking only a few things of mine but which things do I take? I find myself wanting to take all of my clothes instead of the only needed amount for the days I will be gone.

I liked this weeks reading a lot more than last weeks reading. I felt like this weeks reading was more entertaining and enjoyable than just an introduction of the book.