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seven things you can do in your home

15 October 2010

#288 Identify the people in your photos

Do you know what everyone in your family looked like?

Do you know what everyone in your family looked like?

We all live somewhere, be it on a park bench or in a stately home. We probably spend too much of our lives in the home. In the middle of autumn, it may take some effort to leave the bed at all. Since your life shouldn’t be boring just because you’re at home, we proudly present: Seven things you can do at home.

There is this old black and white photograph. I don’t know if it’s of my dad or me. I've looked at the photo thousands of times. There are no dates, no details or objects in the picture that may reveal what year it is. The facial features could belong to either my father or myself.

The photograph sits in a photo album with mixed pictures of members of my family. There are pictures of me until I'm about nineteen. That was when I left home. Then it gets sparse. I haven’t put in my own photographs in albums yet. They’re in shoe boxes in the basement.

A few years ago I lived in a weird neighborhood where drug addicts and the homeless often used my staircase for various shady purposes. One morning I awoke to a knocking on the door. It was my neighbor who wanted me to come down to the basement. My photographs were all over the basement floor smelling of urine. In one corner, I saw myself as a five year old. In another corner, I was two days old. My face tensed up with anger and I began to pick up my photos.

A few years later I’m sitting in front of my computer looking at all my digital photos. I know who most of the people in my pictures are. But in that black and white one, I am still not sure.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
If you have a lot of digital images it can take time to go through them. Another thing is that it’s a bit tough seeing how ugly one was as a child or teenager. It is okay to tear up the odd photograph. Or put them away in that same shoebox.
Pros: 
You get an overview of who you were, who you are and can get a feel for who you can become.
Taggar: shoe box, seven things you can do in your home, photography, grandchildren, digital, black and white, albums, abstract in images, 365 things
14 October 2010

#287 Get your own graffiti wall

We all live somewhere, be it on a park bench or in a stately home. We probably spend too much of our lives in the home. In the middle of autumn, it may take some effort to leave the bed at all. But since your life shouldn’t be boring just because you’re at home, we proudly present: Seven things you can do at home.

It is illegal to paint graffiti. You can’t go around town with a paintbrush and paint the statues red. It’s not okay to put up mosaic art in concrete tunnels. Old ladies get angry if you pee your name in the snow. There are so many fun things that others will object to you doing. But there is no one who can tell you what you can and can not do in your own home.

I had a friend once who went down to the beach with a trailer and filled it with sand. Then he went back home and made the whole apartment into a beach. Afterwards, he invited his friends to a beach party. I am not saying that he could keep the apartment. I'm not saying you should make your apartment into a beach. I’m saying that a white wall that has been covered with graffiti for a few years is easy to paint white again. And during the years in between, you can do whatever you want with it. Nobody can prevent you from having graffiti at home.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
Spray paint has a strong smell.
Pros: 
You can sketch, scribble and paint. You can make shopping lists, crossword puzzles and hang man on your wall graffiti. You can do whatever you want on it. You can draw comic strips or write up this week's TV schedule. It’s your wall.
Taggar: spray, seven things you can do in your home, sandy beach, landlord, graffiti wall, graffiti, crayons, 365 things
12 October 2010

#285 Grow your own vegetables

It is also good to ask your caretaker for a few pots for the yard. Then find a youngling to help with the upkeep.

It is also good to ask your caretaker for a few pots for the yard. Then find a youngling to help with the upkeep.

We all live somewhere, even on park benches. We probably spend most of our lives in the home. In the middle of autumn, it might feel difficult to leave the bed at all. Since your life should not be boring just because you’re at home, we proudly present: Seven things you can do at home.

I have a friend, let’s call him J. We’re from the same neighborhood and have gotten drunk together a lot in our teenage years and it was he who helped me discover Morrissey. J is a nice guy. He has a big heart, a shrewd brain and a good laugh. But I have a story about him that still mystifies me. One summer when we were younger we partied often. Every time we were going to have a pre-party, we asked J if it could be in his apartment because he was the only one of us that didn’t live with his parents. But he never said yes. It was a different excuse every time. Either he hadn’t cleaned or construction workers were switching the fan system or something else. The whole thing would not have been so remarkable if it wasn’t for the fact that J had been a person who had ALWAYS used to have pre-parties and after-parties and who invited his friends over constantly. We also made a note out of how he had just gotten a glassed-in balcony. So us friends, we began to wonder if he had begun to grow marijuana on the balcony and if he was ashamed in front of his friends.

One late night we confronted him and asked if it was true. Had he planted drugs on his glass-enclosed balcony? Was it maybe even why he had gotten the balcony in the first place? In order to grow dope? J laughed at us. He laughed and continued laughing. Then we went home with him. He showed us the balcony. There were tomato plants and pepper plants. He pointed at them and then he pointed at us. And continued to laugh. But we never got to know the truth about why he hadn’t let us come home to him that summer.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 week or less
Cost: 
Over €10
Cons: 
Some plants are difficult to grow. They could die. This can be traumatic. But keep trying and it’ll get better.
Pros: 
You may eventually start to cook your own vegetables. Locally produced as fuck.
Taggar: vegetables, tomatoes, seven things you can do in your home, pre-party, peppers, marijuana, locally produced, CO, balcony, 365 things
11 October 2010

#284 Throw away your television

We all live somewhere, even on park benches . We probably spend too much of our lives in the home. In the middle of autumn, it may take some effort to leave the bed at all. And since your life shouldn’t be boring just because you’re at home, we proudly present: Seven things you can do in your home.

Your TV hates you. It's like a new pair of pants. If you don’t buy a new pair of pants you'll never get a chance to miss them, since you never had them. If you get rid of your TV, you won’t miss it after a while. Since you don’t have it. In addition, there will be something that you haven’t had in a long time: Time.

You know how you accumulate paperbacks each year to read during summer vacation? Bam! Now you can read them on a Monday. Time. You know how you always say you don’t have time to clean, dust, polish the windows and thus also refrain from inviting friends home for dinner even if you think that it’d be very nice? Bam! Now you can have a tapas potluck again. Time.

Your TV hates you. It steals your time with bad sitcoms, reality shows, white trash and macabre news. In addition, it’s ugly. It is not just a new pair of pants you do not need. It’s a pair of ugly new pants you don’t need. The few programs that you want to watch you can see streamed on the web. There is no reason whatsoever to have a big ugly machine that steals all the energy in your living room. Bam! Now you can sit and talk with your family at dinner. Bam! Now you can have breakfast in the living room and know what the food tastes like. Bam! Now you do not have to wonder what that voice you hear in your head is. It is your own thoughts. Bam!

Bonus - True Blood found here. The Swedish http://www.svtplay.se/ spam programs can be found here if you need them. http://www.tv3play.se/

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 hour or less
Cost: 
Free
Cons: 
You get a lot of new time at your disposal. You can’t zap. You can’t watch bad television.
Pros: 
You get a lot of new time at your disposal. You can’t zap. You can’t watch bad television.
Taggar: zap, TV3 play, tv, True Blood, SVT Play, seven things you can do in your home, new age, litter programs, garbage, 365 things