This morning I would like to do something out of the ordinary – at least for me: Something of a “core dump” listing the various things that occupy our plans around here…
Visually, this is different from the usual headlines, but it’s much closer to how our brains work – a collection of sticky notes in no particular order, but all needing to be dealt with…
Two More Ads Will Appear
I am working at putting a few Google Ads up on my website. Yes, I know the one at the top of today’s article is too big, and yes, I will get it fixed this weekend. Reason: Cost of websites is not going down, looks like. I’m ridiculously happy with www.emwd.com, but the cost of a virtual private server, extra memory, and so forth, is less than free. Hence probably two more ads will be getting set this weekend. I try to keep it down, however.
Speaking of Websites
Is the guy who wanted to buy the www.nationaldreamcenter.come project still interested? A couple of new dreams have been posted – I need to approve them so check there later today…
Travel Plans
Elaine and I are planning to attend this year’s conference of the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine in Orlando May 15-17. I will be doing a couple of Peoplenomics reports on what goes on there…and yes, now that I’m north of 65 does have something to do with it. I want to make sure to be a winner, not loser, in Social Security Roulette.
The conference is where the real docs with real expertise go meet to figure out how to live better and longer.
Quake Spotting
With this week’s earthquake dreams, a number of readers, especially Michael down in the Portland area, have been eyeing Mt. Hood with some suspicion:
George, First I read about the earthquakes on Mt Hood, 60 miles from my home, then I read about your dream of an earthquake. You didn’t happen to see a mountain also by any chance, did you?
Recall, too, the 6.8 on March 10 off the California coast near the Oregon border (50 or so miles from Eureka, CA). At that time the webicorders for Mt. Hood and others for the Cascade mountains in OR and WA showed some of the largest events I have ever seen on them.
Not much in the way of action on this – remind people to have three or four weeks of water, two weeks of food…yet no one will listen…
Expanding Planet Theory
“Or, is the decline due to the reduced solar output (..) which slows the planetary expansion, which in turn closes down quake activity when the Sun goes out to lunch.”
A contracting object can get cracks in its surface just as an expanding one can.
Unless you mean there can only ever be expansion, and at this stage there is very little expansion going on?
That, from reader Gary is a good point: I think that global cooling will cause quakes, too. But we would be in a “change-over period” where we get a lunch break between too hot (expansion) quakes and too cold (contraction) quakes. Just thinking out loud. My degrees in geology seems to be stuck in my printer…
Deep Thinking From Ecuador
It’s always fun to get notes from Bruce down in Ecuador. He’s got a fine way of looking at the world, including this gem of a synopsis of US foreign policy:
I am always amazed at how Americans so casually believe their deservability to literally spend millions to keep themselves entertained, or should I say distracted while the rest of the world struggles to get a part of the other 40% of the world’s resources not consumed in the USA.
Boomers love to say “well I worked for it and earned it.” That is total bullshit. We created a system in which we became the privileged so we could rip off everybody else in the world.
Tell me one job you had where there was not someone else in the world doing the same thing, working harder than you were, but probably making a tenth of what you were. Question you will never really ponder in this lifetime is why do I think I am worth 10 times more than another human being.
You like to diss royalty, but consuming 60% of the worlds resources with 5% of the world’s population you are the god damned royalty in the eyes of the world. The world does not begrudge you your wealth, but f*cking up their lives in order to have yours is getting a little old.
I would note be as inclined to make such criticisms, myself. Bruce is (how to phrase this?) sort of our from under the “tax umbrella” of the US now…
”Where to You Want To Die?” Follow-Up
A couple of words on point from reader RD were good:
Where I die has become immaterial – I’ve about reached my 3 score and 10. Frankly – I don’t even care about whatever whoever does after.
Personally – if I had my druthers – I’d go peacefully in my sleep – or perhaps if I hang around a few years more – I will go peacefully with a nice shot or pill for the US HealthCare department. My child IS old enough to take care of himself (at least physically if not exactly all there mentally – they boy may actually figure life out one of these days
– and he lives closer to your II than he does to me.) His children – my grand children – are his problem and soon to be their own problem with how they do in life. With three children – it’s usually the middle one that is left out in the cold somewhere (ask me about it sometime) – but for a change – I think his center child will be the winner.
I’m still thinking over the “Where do you want to die?” question. My answer is still “Nowhere!””
Peoplenomics on Housing Stasis
This last weekend, Peoplenomics look at the housing industry – and after looking at how low rates should be powering things ahead, but today’s kids don’t have two-spare cents after $250 cell phone tabs, concludes that housing in going to be on “Stuck” for a while…maybe another year or longer. Oh,; and then, no assurance of an upward move. Could be a retest of the 2009 (or lower) lows.
That’s the background…the experience of subscriber Mark in the SF area may ring bells with you…
Being an empty nester with kids that are starting to think about nesting themselves with homes, settling down with the right woman or man in my daughter’s case…it is very frustrating here in California. While starting salaries here are quite generous compared to other parts of the Country…Both my kids started at $60k…it’s about half of what is needed to buy a small starter condo or fixer upper home. Thus the reason for settling down with the right “employed” mate.
My son has chosen to live in Santa Barbara because it is cheaper than the Bay Area…A statement I thought I’d never say. With tiny 2 bedroom apartments in San Francisco (the hip area of choice for recent college grads) going for $3,000 a month and up…it didn’t make sense for him to pay $1500+ a month in rent. So he is renting a 5 bedroom house with four of his baseball friends with a 180 degree view of the ocean off of Cliff Drive for “only” $800 a month….but saving money every month never the less.
My daughter has a sweeter deal. Also being a former student athlete in college in softball, she had some friends that played for CAL Berkeley that have a 3 bedroom condo. One of the girls quit the team and left school, but since CAL pays for their housing, she stays there for free in the vacated bedroom.
I’ve been having such talks with our kids lately – very much the same story. No chance of home-buying until we croak., But there may not be much left. Latest figures I’ve seen show that aging people spend more on healthcare in the last two months of their lifetime than they spend over the whole of the preceding period.
Friday at the WoWW – Pork and Shellfish Note
Remember that column recently where I was going to try eating pork and shellfish?
Well, I tried it – and got sicker than a dog. Worst case of over-acid stomach in my life. Swigging on Pepto and even that wasn’t cutting it, so then it was on to a half-teaspoon of baking soda. That finally knocked it, but I was miserable all night on that. The shellfish and pork is off the table.
Now we get to the point – an email from reader Douglas…
Recently, I have been practicing “Transformational Breathing”. For some reason, this modality really hits my woo woo spot, and I have astounding experiences almost daily. Like finding myself in the mind of a very young Spitfire pilot on his last mission. That one could be a whole movie, played like a memory, and was utterly unexpected. Past life? Yes and no. Memory? I’d bet on it. Transformational? Oh, yeah. Did you know those Spitfires didn’t have fuel injection in the battle of Britain and actually couldn’t fly inverted for long periods? The German planes COULD. Which sucked. Also quite underpowered at altitude. Easy as pie to fly, though. And the oxygen system was superior. Really perked one up.
Anyway, with training I have learned to consciously breathe into my chakras, and can feel them power up when the oxygen supply goes up enough. The other day I had bacon before transformational breathing, and went to breathing into my third eye/pineal, preparatory to working up to the crown chakra. I was “informed” (language is even less communicative in these realms than the “real” world.) that pork consumption prevents access to the higher levels. So I could function very well (in matters such as heart, sex, and throat (talking/writing) but integrating them with, say, my higher self, or as Emerson called it, my Oversoul, was severely limited by the pork. Never actually considered shellfish, but now will test it.
To summarize, pork may keep us in a Wordly state of mind, or in a lower “frequency” than we might otherwise be operating. Flesh in general has not had this effect yet, but as I raise my consciousness, it may. Sad if true, because my body really fails to thrive on vegan diets, and my brain shuts down, over weeks and months. NOT detox, as some say. Actual failure to thrive.
Some people who claim to be able to feel energy vortexes around living things, such as with a pendulum, say that humans and pigs have particularly erratic vortices, compared to other animals, which tend to spin one direction or the other. Don’t know, but there will be no pork in my diet if it messes with these journeys I have been taking.
I was discussing the TB with an old friend who has seen me in my peak Cartesian Duality mode in the past. He asked what I got from TB. My reply: “This morning I cried for joy for 20 minutes. It was neither the first nor last time this week that will happen. How much would you pay to cry for joy just once?”
His reply: “A lot.” Yup.
That’s nice to know. May have to try that transformational breathing stuff…research starts over here. Maybe my lifetime of asthma has something to do with how I think…
My latest personal cry for joy, by the by, happened just last week. Our refund from IRS hit the checking account. Seriously…
What “AM I?” What UrbanSurvival is – Really!
No, besides cranky and 65…. VW Rob wants to know…
Hello George,
My ‘home page’ is a web page that lives on my computer, one of the links (one of 16) is “Urbansurvival” and under that (in smaller letters, a different color and indented) it says “A mostly financial blog”
I’ve had it like that for years… just thought I’d mention it….
Ah!
Allow me to explain: I would hold that EVERYTHING on UrbanSurvival relates to financial matters, but perhaps not in the realms bounded by conventional thinking.
You see – in things like personal introspection offered by Bruce, or insights into other practices like Transformational Breathing – suggested by Douglas – it’s all about a “currency.”
There’s always a transaction going on: The transactions between our Archetypes were the basis for Edwin Steinbrecher’s The Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
In an earlier era, you might have found H.P. Blavatsky’s (Alice Bailey) A Treatise on Cosmic Fire another attempt to explain “spiritual finance.”
And before that we had investment advice from the prophets like chasing out money-changers and “As yee reap” kind of counsel.
So everything in life is about Exchange – business model – quid pro quo – a balance – the Tao – the Way – and even the old man upstairs…depending on your frame of reference.
So I suppose the underneath of it all is my personal exploration in Life to extract the “Rule Sets” from all of these sources and come down to the common set which makes it possible for us each to live better lives.
I’m not too sure how many humans have ever lived, but you and I are not the first. And those who have gone before us have already left a trail, littered with gems of reason. And in many ways, the collection of the spiritual coins does seem to assist in collecting the nominal (coin of the realm stuff) without also getting the karmic “dirt” on us that a financial-only collection process brings with it as a concurrent effect.
So that’s what UrbanSurvival is all about, Robb. It’s a collection of stories, events, theories, discussions not just about living a little better than average while here, but also “getting out of Life” with as many little gems as we can carry between our ears.
Elaine and I talk now and then about whether the purpose of life is to build a collection of memories, or just a “retempering of the soul” (essence energy) that doesn’t have specific memories, but which is purified by our efforts if we’re true at heart. Or whether we take the last breath with corruption and a higher tarnish than what we were bone with. Bound to be one of those metrics.
I forget which religion it is, but one of the (hundreds) I’ve studies argues that our ultimate purpose is to do a better job of reflecting a higher power. And so the self-polishing, is to me, the most important thing. At its core, though, it’s at least transactional, if not financial.
Compassion, without getting trapped. Adventure, without getting stupid. Money, without falling to dishonesty. Love to whatever excess you can. Except for love, a kind of test of whether you can run a “fair trade” operation. Many people can’t, sorry to say…
One question going into this Anti-Aging conference in May is whether any particular religion has a longer life expectancy…that’d be interesting to inquire about.
Around the Ranch
And on that note, off to deal with a couple of subscriber access issues and then go work on home improvement projects. Peoplenomics this weekend deal with Modular Manufacturing (and we’re not talking homes) and how Robotics may drive a Great Divide between people who are money oriented, versus those who see higher finance in play – like the values of humans and human endeavors. The Hoods and the Robins, as it were.
Mark the Mechanic called to report a low cylinder pressure problem that cropped up in annual for the Beechcrate. So the $650 annual inspection just became a $2,500 inspection…but such is life. It’s like going to the doctor’s office and having tests run…and then they call with the lab results.
In the great scheme of things, money going around is what feeds the world. And so our spending will ensure someone else will make a car payment and have enough left over for a cheeseburger. And a house payment. And a down payment on a Caribbean cruise. And a……
Everything’s a business model, above and below. Be circumspect – yet brave. Or at least turn off the security system.
Write when you get rich…and in what Realm is up to you.
George george@ure.net
