 1. Streetscape I have been a long time fan of abstract art, and especially art that manages to hold multiple colors harmoniously. I think Gerhard Richter's paintings are an excellent example of that. He applied colors of paint, then used squeegees to smear paint across the canvas. Bits of color would peek through others. So much going on at once, but in balance. I was delighted to find this cute little fire hydrant in Yellow Springs, Ohio. To me it looks like an abstract landscape. Brown mountains on the bottom, green trees off in the distance toward the top. And maybe a psychedelic sunrise represented by the yellow, pinks, and purple. The fact that it is a landscape on a three dimensional, mundane, functional object adds a touch of whimsy on the streetscape.  2. Fashion I fell in love with these Burberry frames when I saw them in LensCrafters (side note: I ended up buying them online from London-based Fashion Eyewear. They were cheaper. I have also had great success buying discounted designer prescription sunglasses from Fashion Eyewear). These frames combine preppy plaid with wild leopard-tortoise on the arms. The front adds a nerdy element as well. What a fantastic combination. I would not have thought of combining the tortoise on top half and the plaid on the bottom half, especially with a bold red color in it, but it really works.  3. Interior Design
In our loft/yoga studio/library/office I combined three different colorful elements, each with pattern. The curtain panels are made from recycled sari fabric from Mexicali Blues. Each panel is unique. You can choose the basic color scheme. These were the most neutral-beige choice, but I was happy that they still have just enough fun colors. The carpet is made from FLOR carpet tiles. They are so fun because you can re-arrange them, re-orient them, and change up the size of the rug. We moved from a different house where we used these as a wall to wall type look, and here they are like an area rug. The third colorful pattern element is the patchwork style dining room chair. Found these at Target. They are surprisingly comfortable and add a feminine element. I think of this room as a maximalist style. It is fitting, because of all the functions it serves.
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1. Keep It Intuitive There are so many ways to slice and dice a personal budget, and I have tried many different approaches. The one that is super simple and intuitive is: spend 50% of your income on necessities; spend 30% of your income on "wants"; and save 20%. This seems like a very reasonable aim, and at a minimum a good starting point. It's a worthwhile task to identify all your fixed necessary expenses like mortgage/rent, car payments, internet, cell phone service, trash collection; and to estimate your variable but necessary expenses like gas and electric, gas for your car, water and sewer. I also put app subscriptions, web hosting, Spotify, and Dropbox in my necessities category. I like to break my expenses out by month, by year, and by biweekly pay period. When I initially ran my numbers, my necessities were coming out to almost 60%. I was able to immediately trim some fat by switching to a cheaper cell phone plan and cancelling a couple of subscriptions that I didn't really need. I also feel motivated to keep my current car after my payments are over in a few months because that will bring my "needs" down to 54%. The spend 30% on "wants" is definitely the fun part, and should feel guilt free. The save 20% is the goal I am focusing on right now. Since I am a bit over the 50% for "needs", I am probably going to start with saving more like 11%, but even being aware of these numbers is a step in the right direction. These three categories give me a solid way to structure my budget, and I am planning to track spending in these categories and see how it goes. 2. Keep It Flowing Inspiration is a great thing. For me sometimes inspiration comes quickly, and it comes in a swirl of ideas - things I feel like I need to do, like chores; things I want to do that are fun or creative; hobby ideas; gardening ideas; exercise activities I want to do; it goes on and on, and that's good! I've tried a new method of capturing my goals and ideas that allows for a bit of randomness of the moment, or you could say letting the universe guide. I created my own sort of Tarot card deck by jotting each idea down on a notecard. I keep the stack nearby, adding as I come up with ideas, and pulling from the deck if I'm bored or looking for something to do. Like in Tarot reading, you don't have to do the first thing; you can pull three and pick one; however you want to do it! It has been really fun. I feel like I'm capturing all those thoughts, and not stressing about it. If I pull "clean the toilets" maybe I'll do it!  3. Keep Everything In Its Place About a year ago I went through a fun exercise of determining my "season" as it relates to the color of your skin, eyes, and hair. The idea is that you can identify the best color palettes to wear for makeup and clothing. I have found this super useful and I am developing a guide for developing your own personal capsule wardrobe which will include season color analysis. When I did the analysis for myself, I came up with three basic makeup looks: deep, dramatic, and warm. Each look has a few options for eye shadows and lip color, and each look includes one blush color. I was overjoyed when I found this makeup organizer at Homegoods and discovered that it fits my makeup collection perfectly. Now everything is organized based on my three looks, easy to find, and easy to use. Rather than certain items being tucked away somewhere to be forgotten about, and tempted to buy something "new" at the store, I am inspired by what I see right in front of me. It has been a year since I bought my eye shadow palettes and blushes, and they are all still going strong. I have been thinking about looking for a pinkish-summery-dewy blush that I might add to my collection. If I do, it will be intentional!   I am reading Elana Freeland's book The Geoengineered Transhuman (The Hidden Technologies of HAARP, Chemtrails, 5G/6G, Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, and the Scientific Effort to Transform Humanity). I have had to take it in small doses because it is intense information with many facts, footnotes, and scientific explanations - with very dark motivations being suggested. One chapter stopped me in my tracks, because it suggests that the sun we see may not always be the real thing, but much more like smoke and mirrors.
As a fan of awe-inspiring art like William Turner's paintings of the late 1700s/early 1800s, I truly appreciate a great sunset, or seeing rays of light shining through the clouds. Now, however, I feel a bit of sadness, because I question whether it's "real". I like the naive belief that the moon and sun are natural and romantic; however my sense of discernment tells me it's probably not so. That being said, it is kind-of cool to think that reality may be more like a virtual reality video game, where we have multi-dimensional super powers that can be unlocked. In the Chapter "They Do It With Smoke and Mirrors" Freeland sets the stage like this:
While I am not confident that all this science "checks out" I do feel confident that there has been a war on consciousness going on. I question how free we have been during my lifetime. Have we given consent for our brains to be hacked? Have essential laws of physics been hidden from us? While there is a dark side to all this, I believe there is a light side as well. Maybe what is real is even more amazing that what we can imagine. Maybe through our authentic consciousness we can create heaven on earth: miracles and angels included! On the theme of "less is more" here are some of my current favorite things.
 I really love the book Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King, PH.D.
Here are a few lessons learned/learning: 10. Communication with plants, animals, (and even computers) is possible. 9. The three aspects of consciousness are: (1) the subconscious - heart/body - ku (2) the conscious mind - mind - lono (3) the superconscious - spirit - soul - kane 8. The main function of the heart/body is memory. Memory is “stored in the body as a vibration or movement pattern.” 7. Anger and fear cannot exist with relaxed muscles. 6. By focusing on positive memories, you can release endorphins, while negative memories can produce toxins. 5. Grokking is a way to heal by adopting the pattern of something else, knowing it from the inside, to change it from the inside out. 4. It is impossible to make a wrong decision about a future event because present decisions can only create present events. 3. Adventure shamans follow a system of spiritual democracy. 2. Self-esteem and inner authority are key. 1. The more loving you are, the more powerful you are. I recently started playing on a weekend women's doubles tennis team. I am relatively new to tennis, and I was still learning all the rules when I started playing matches. I started with a rating of "0" and was playing in the lowest tier of teams, which made complete sense because I had no experience playing matches. I thought at that level, the matches would be friendly. While most of them are, there are a few "bad apples" who are very intense and aggressive about winning, trying to get a higher rating and advance, by cheating, or at least not playing fair. In my first match ever, a player on the opposing team called the ball she hit over the net onto our side as being "in." I could clearly see that it was out. I looked at my teammate with a confused look, shrugged, and let it go. That match turned out to be really close - so close that we might have won, had that one call been fair! I later learned that players are only supposed to call the ball on the side where they are playing, so clearly the "bad apple" was wrong. I decided at that point to not let any "bad apples" bully my team; and I also realized how important one little thing can be in determining an outcome. To give my body a boost, I decided to go a month without alcohol in March. Mind you, at one point I was considering becoming a sommelier because I appreciate wine so much. While I did have one glass of wine that month, I otherwise took a break from alcohol. Surprisingly, when I drank that glass of wine I didn't really enjoy it. Thinking it was a fluke, I tried a glass of wine the next month - Bordeaux even, which is the very best wine, in my opinion, and I didn't like it! My fiancé also lost his "taste" for wine after we took that break from having it at home. Now it tastes like medicine to me. I'm not sad, though, because I realized that for me wine had become a bad habit - a reaction from a stressful day or week at work. The next thing that happened is I realized snacking, and eating generally, had been providing comfort in the day, and it was starting to show on the scale! So I started being mindful about what I ate and when I ate. I experimented with fasting, sticking to an eight hour eating window most days, and eating primarily protein, vegetables, and fruit. In three weeks I dropped thirteen pounds, felt a lot less bloated, and felt better in my clothes. Speaking of clothes...I've been focusing on building a quality wardrobe for every season, reflecting my own personal style, that will stand the test of time, and that I will love. An issue that was weighing on my mind is that I needed to pay down a credit card that has a generous 18 months with no interest introductory offer. It helped me build my spring and summer wardrobe, but now it was becoming time to chip away at it. I decided to do a clothing fast, or "no buy". I began to realize that I would shop online to "relax". Shopping for clothes is really fun to me, but it didn't seem like that should be a go-to for relaxation. I don't do much social media, but I would occasionally scroll on Substack or Pinterest which could suck me in a little. When scrolling on Substack, I saw a picture of Jeff Bezos on his yacht with his significant other. The photo was pointing out all the terrible impacts on the environment from the things in the picture. I felt completely disgusted by the image. I opened the Amazon app on my phone, and it was waving at me or something. There was something moving in the app without me doing anything, and I realized that it had been sucking me in. Who knows all the psychology behind apps like that. I decided to break up with Jeff. And just like after any healthy break up, that's when the really good changes started to happen! I went ahead and deleted Substack and Pinterest too. I also deleted the Starbucks app, willing to do without the occasional bone they would throw as a reward, Panera app, Jersey Mike's app. My big issue was that I needed to put down my phone, and do something in real life for relaxation and comfort. I decided to shop for books and magazines in person, so that I would have some healthy entertainment. I shopped first at Walmart so see what they have - they had a decent selection of magazines, plus I found the perfect big iced tea/iced coffee glasses I had been searching for on Amazon. Amazon wanted me to buy like ten of them for $30. As I only wanted a couple, I was pleased to find them at Walmart for a dollar each. I also bought a little analog clock to keep by my bed so that I didn't need to have my phone nearby to use as an alarm. Then I went to Barnes and Noble to go to the bookstore in person, which I hadn't done in nearly ten years. It was an amazing experience! I had thought that going to libraries was sufficient, but there is something so satisfying about seeing all the books displayed so nice and being able to buy them, including the newest releases - it is like a mansion of knowledge and pretty things with intimate rooms on different topics!  Coming home with a new biography on R.E.M., an old biography of the Doors, and magazines on yoga, gardening, and healthy eating, I was inspired to implement what I had learned about "merchandizing your closet" to create a mini bookstore by my bed. Now I had a fun little bookstore to pick out something to read to relax. And it is working! I am finally developing a daily yoga practice; feeling really inspired by reading about rock stars; and I'm even putting together a program (or "programme" as my European yoga magazine says) to get past the "intermediate French" hump, by having fun learning and reading French (grammar has always been fun for me!). I feel more in control of my time and I am planning my hobbies more intentionally.
I have extensively limited the use of my phone, as I see it was sucking me in when that wasn't really my intention. It was sometimes leading me, especially to buy things, or eat things! Now I have the basic framework of "checking" my phone only three times: morning, noon, and night. To me, all this comes down to steering your life in a direction you want to go, savoring each moment for what it can be, and doing what you want to do. CARPE DIEM!!!  Ever since I started using apps to inventory my clothes and log my outfits, I am honing in on my own unique style. I was very attracted to the idea of a "capsule wardrobe" and had fun trying to recreate some of the outfits I found in capsule wardrobes. I like minimalism, and tried to create my own capsule without buying a lot of new things. At first when I tried to whittle down my wardrobe into a capsule for one season, I felt I had a bit of a hodgepodge. That was winter 2023. By winter 2024, I had three "collections" that each worked together. My style was becoming more cohesive, but I found that I had too much and didn't fully utilize what I had. I started using the Indyx wardrobe app in November 2024 and it has been a total game changer! You can create collections, or capsules, within your wardrobe to organize your clothes and come up with outfits. There are a lot of fun statistics, too, like cost per wear (this has become a challenge for me, because like my fiancé says, the cost per wear for most articles of clothing should be pennies.) It's getting warmer here in Cincinnati and I am planning my summer capsule wardrobe for workwear. I thought it would be fun to think about how many pieces of clothing are optimal. Obviously, this number will be different for different people, and of course it can change. But I think numbers are fun! Step 1: Determine the different activities you wear clothes for. For me, I work in an office Monday through Friday, so that it was I am focusing on first. I also do errands, go out for dinner or brunch, lounge around the house, go biking, hiking, running, and play tennis (tennis clothes are just the cutest). So if I was looking for a total number of clothes in my wardrobe, I would look at all those different categories. Step 2: If you live in a place with seasons, when you change the types of clothes you wear, estimate the number of days in each season. For example, the way I dress in Cincinnati weather I would estimate: Summer - 4 months Fall - 2 months Winter - 2 1/2 months Spring - 3 1/2 months Step 3: Calculate how many days (or outfits) you think you will wear for a particular category in a particular season. For example, summer has 4 months, or about 120 days. I usually spend 70% of my days at work, so there are about 84 work outfits I will wear during the summer. Step 4: Break down the types of clothes you like to wear in that season. Focusing on one pieces and bottoms first, for summer work outfits, I like to wear 40% dresses, 40% trousers, and 20% jeans. Then calculate your number of tops you will need (40%+20%=60%). Step 5: Now you will come up with the total number of "wears" for your one-pieces, bottoms, and tops: 84*40% dresses = 33 days or wears 84*40% trousers = 33 days or wears 84*20% jeans = 16 days or wears 84*60% tops = 50 days or wears Step 6: Next think about frequency of wear for each category of clothes. Since I'm trying to decrease my cost per wear, I have a goal of wearing each top, bottom, and one piece at least 5 times in a season. With that in mind, I would need 6 or less dresses (33/5); 6 or less trousers (33/5); 3 pairs of jeans (16/5) and 10 or less tops (50/5). I took inventory of what is feeling like a summer work collection, shown in the photo below, and I think I may be close to having what I need, which is less than the calculated numbers. Blazers/outerwear, shoes, and accessories can be added to pull outfits together, and to change up the same pieces. It is worth noting that I followed the "Style Workshop" series available through the Indyx app, and it helped me refine my vision for my style, as well as select a color theme. I also found the season color analysis to be helpful to see what colors look best on me. True autumn here! To my surprise, less really is more.  
What does a New Wave band and a physicist have in common? Telecommunication.
Hal Puthoff was on the Joe Rogan Experience yesterday, and I found myself mesmerized. This guy is legit - he is super smart and well-spoken. He is definitely a scientist. He studied electrical engineering and physics at Stanford as part of PhD studies, worked for Naval Intelligence, the CIA, and was part of a think tank. I get the feeling that he is part of a wave of people involved in secretive yet important projects who are getting older and feeling an obligation to talk about what they have seen and done. He was drawn into "weird physics" not by his choice, but by chance. He went on to work extensively with remote viewing, including working on tapping into ESP for espionage at the CIA. In remote viewing, and individual can tap into an image anywhere on Earth simply by coordinates, or even another planet. In one experiment, a viewer could see a "ring" around Jupiter which was later confirmed to be accurate. Puthoff discusses the infamous 1947 Roswell crash, stating that it was a non-human intelligence craft. A piece of debris thought to be from the Roswell crash was analyzed. Although no proof could be found that it comes from out of our solar system (by identifying different isotopes), the material is nothing that could be constructed (consisting of something to the effect of layers of magnesium and bismuth the size of a human hair). He stated that the U.S. is in possession of more than ten crashes of non human intelligence craft and that there are more in other countries. UFOs have come over our missile silos and turned off all of our missiles. In Russia, "they" started the launch sequence (and then turned it off). Puthoff believes that the "Travis Walton story" is solid. Rogan described this story: a group of loggers were driving through Arizona; Travis was hit by a beam from a craft and disappears; 5 days later Travis reappears in the same clothes with a fantastic story that "they" fixed his body and brought him back. The other loggers confirmed the story. I thought it was cute that they discussed the common question, if your people have ESP, then why aren't you rich? He did an experiment with silver futures and made $260,000 in 30 days, however, he said it was an intense job to do. To me, this not only gets at the mechanics of consciousness, but the meaning of life. While I am all for prosperity and abundance, I think it is very telling that so many people still believe that being rich is the end all be all. He touches on confirmed cases of levitation, which may be cases of consciousness accessing vacuum energy. He mentions current thinking that quantum processes occur in the brain, and that the brain can detect quantum signals. Puthoff wraps up by summarizing attempts for passing the UAP Disclosure Act and hinting that UFO Files are coming out... We will see. |
