Unota

I like it better when my family uses the nickname 'Bear.' I don't know why or when that started.

I'm so sleepy lately. I've been staying up too late studying. I keep snoozing on my feet. zzzzzzzzzz

It's kind of funny to think about, but when I was little, my grandfather would take lots of trips around the world, (He married a woman from the Philippines, that he met on one of his trips.) but they were mostly to China, and he had all sorts of interesting knick knacks he brought back that I was fascinated by. He got angry when I'd touch them. I now recognize that the vintage chest he kept in his drawer with the little glass balls inside were qigong meditation balls. He would get mad when I touched any of his things, because, I think I remember him telling me they were very old antiques. I am now certain that he was a daoist. It did not stop him from being a very cruel person. He beat children, and he had a lot of money, that he quite literally died before he would ever use to help his family. All of these knick knacks are long gone, probably sold in an estate sale when he died. He died a 'suspicious' death, his spine broke in a way that could have only been done externally, or through some terrible accident, but there was nothing around to have caused it. I never really heard about if it was investigated or not, the police didn't seem to care. Well..There you go! some fun lore for you today.

Did you know royalty used to use narwhal's horns to 'detect' poison? They thought their horns were magical horns from unicorns, and could detect poison with magic. During the Dutch tulip mania, some thought throwing ash on the tulips would trigger them to break through some sort of alchemical process, before knowing that it was triggered by a virus.

I have vision changes when I meditate, but I can not say that this is not connected to my tendency towards visual auras as I am prone to migraines. I have experienced something similar sometimes when I wake up from a deep sleep, as if that part of my brain has yet to switch back on. The thought alone that the same is happening when I meditate, awake, is fascinating enough.

I know that I can control my body heat circulation during qigong, but the only thing that truly means is increased activity or some sort. Maybe it is just my circulation. That is still fascinating to me.

I also don't think that any sort of spiritual practice could ever be only a 'placebo' effect, no more than physical exercise could be. Everything you do, or lack thereof, has an impact. If you kick a rock, it moves. If you don't, it doesn't. Breathing techniques have greatly improved my lung function. Slow, deliberate movements, while controlling breathing, and stilling the mind to focus on this, imagine how many muscles and micro-muscles that you generally do not use, are being exercised when you do this.

I am so active now, that I worry about things like athlete's injuries. I have a better outlook on life, too, being able to separate myself from modern western ideologies that are built up around supporting a mechanical system that is built off the backs of others, rather than the individual.

I wanted to learn how to live, and to love life, and what better way to do that, than to be curious about, to connect with practices that people have done for thousands of years? If only to understand what has kept us going.

Getting off of my private soap box in my activity feed now. Byeeee~

Today!! Has been!! Awful!!! -33 windchill! I was fighting to keep a fire going all day! My house has been in the 50s. I am tired. I am exhausted! I go out to get firewood, and I come inside and it is still cold. There is no place to warm myself. My core temperature is far lower than normal. It is forecast to be like this for the rest of the week! Every moment of my day is spent trying to keep the fire going. It feels like I am in an apocalypse movie. What a nightmare!!!

Here, I am popping in to share this as a little gift.

I by chance heard 'Everything Stays' by Rebecca Sugar again today, for the first time in a long time, and it really struck a chord with me. So I decided to do it again, (at least some of it, I didn't do the whole song) but put my own heart into it instead. I recorded it. And I wanted to share it with you.

I hope that 2024 is good to all of you. I hope you are good to yourself. I love you!

What a fantastic world we live in, that I can lift weights and watch soap operas at the same time!

Oh boy. After years of foraging, I have finally done something incredibly stupid. I mistook a very close look-a-like for something I was familiar with and knew to grow in a certain area. It wasn't until after I finished a cup of tea that I realized that something was off.

I went back and looked closer at the plant and it dawned on me what I did. I called poison control for some advice, and he told me that my body will probably expel it naturally (in the form of a severe stomach bug.) How sick I will get will also vary depending on the level of toxicity in the plant.

I grew too comfortable with something I have done for years and made a mistake. Play taps for me, as I sink with my ship. Doot dooot

Hopefully there is a lesson I will learn from this. I will try to be more careful in the future.

This has been driving me nuts. Okay, maybe that is a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it's something I've noticed. I keep getting mocked for the most basic of things.

I got made fun of by somebody for reading Edgar Allan Poe stories. I got made fun of for carrying around a bag with some physical things that have some of the same purposes as my apps, because my phone is cheap and unreliable with a low charge.

I got reprimanded by a family member for favoring fans over an AC unit. He insisted that a box fan uses more electricity than an AC, and when I showed him evidence that it doesn't, he made fun of me for researching it, (and also still did not believe me.)

I got made fun of for using reusable cups and plates instead of one-use garbage, and for favoring my own grown food over takeout.

For reading books? For using a bag of things over apps on my phone? For trying to conserve electricity, and trying not to be wasteful? For eating healthier foods? Since when did things like this deviate enough from the norm, that they even warrant mockery?

Have people gone crazy?