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Rod Kobayashi Sensei said:

If you calmly maintain control over yourself, you will not only find a way to control the opponent but will also be able to control the situation before drastic action is necessary.

One must first learn to control oneself before attempting to harmonize and control others. Without a good balance and control of oneself, one can neither avoid an attack nor apply an effective technique on others. It is through self-control that one can learn to enjoy a harmonious way of life.

Shanghai Mahjong for iPhone, iPad and iPod [Sponsor]:

With all the excitement about the shirt, I did not want my sincere thank you to MobileAge and their excellent Shanghai Mahjong to get lost. They have sponsored this week’s RSS Feed.

I might understand if you don’t have $20.00 for a t-shirt right now. I get that. What I have a much harder time understanding is not having less then a buck to buy a beautiful game that will provide hours of entertainment. Seriously, 1.3 Billion People and 2000 years can’t be wrong.

Historical Update from reader Boris Lau:

In your latest post about Shanghai Mahjong, you alluded to Mahjong’s long history in China as a reason to buy the game. However, the “Mahjong” you are referring to is in fact Mahjong Solitaire (wikipedia) which only came to be in 1981. Other than having the same tiles, the game has nothing to do with the real Mahjong which is an entirely different game and does in fact have a long history. Just thought I could give you a quick clarification and heads up!

I stand corrected on the history. Which is great because I love history and learning more.

I’m not wrong about the MobileAge version though. Buy it.

Little Mac apps that make your life easier

“In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.”

“In our research with users, we found that the more information that was displayed on the page, the greater the anxiety.”

“I have a simple philosophy. Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. And scratch where it itches.”

- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

One of the things I love about minimalism is that it doesn’t end. You don’t get to a minimum of things and say, “I’m done.”

It’s a constant paring down. And that’s a good thing.

Why would you want to keep doing it, instead of just completing the process? Because the process of paring down is really the process of asking yourself, “What’s important?”

We tend to forget what’s important in the din and tumult of daily life. We need a mindfulness bell to bring us back to the essentials, and paring down is that bell for me.

There are numerous examples of paring down — I whittle down my clothing collection, for example, on a regular basis. I will look at a room and remove unnecessary objects. I’ll clear out programs on my computer I don’t use.

On Zen Habits, I pare down the design regularly. A couple years ago, the site was considered an example of clean design, but since then I’ve removed most elements.

Recently I removed numerous links in the sidebar and footer, and then removed photos. It was like breathing out a sigh of relief, to be able to let go of photos. No one seemed to mind — I didn’t get any comments. I love it when paring down is met with the approval of silence. As on mnmlist, I’m removing almost everything but the article, which is the only thing that’s important.

Paring down has been a beautiful way to hone in on the essentials, to be mindful each day of those essentials. I think that’s a necessary thing these days.