surfing the universe

20201218F Day 353: Residential Real Estate in Austin

20201218F-1735-AustinTX

check-in: Today has been a cold and cloudy day and I’m feeling a bit gloomy. But, birthday celebrations continue with a friend coming over to celebrate December birthdays, and so I’m looking forward to some socializing. I just saw that Austin hit the magic ’50’ number on 7-day average hospital admissions and so Austin may soon be moving to “Level 5”. I’m grateful that Austin is currently not a COVID-19 hotspot. However, I just heard from a friend who has a house full of COVID-19 roommates who caught COVID-19 after traveling to Houston and Dallas. This is why reducing non-essential travel does slow down the spread of the disease. In the future, we will use wildfire and fire-break analogies to help people understand the spread of infectious diseases.

Speaking of hot, the Austin real estate market has been hot and is getting hotter with the stories of technology companies leaving California and moving to Texas. One of my neighbors is moving and I’m about to put an offer on his condo. My hope is that it will move me closer to the universe in which I live in community. I have hopes of either having my family or friends living there

20201217h Day 352: Happy 75th Birthday Dr. V!

20201218F-0545-AustinTX

check-in: I’m feeling disappointed for not writing yesterday. I’m annoyed that there seems to be a tiny splinter in the tip of my left index finger that I can’t get out. I’m proud, though, of the wooden screen doors that I hung which led to the apparent splinter. I’m still feeling both sad and excited for the two sets of universes identified by whether my beloved visits me next week or not.

75th Birthday Frittata – spinach, kale, mushrooms, chicken feta sausage, onions, sweet potatoes, feta

Yesterday was my Aunt’s birthday. It was on her birthday a few years ago that I published Surfing the Multiverse. One of the ideas she shared with me was about holding the tension of the opposites until a third emerges. I use this idea daily in my own universe surfing.

20201216W Day 351: Believe in Magic and the Power of Dance

20201216W-0545-AustinTX

check-in: I made it to Barton Springs yesterday. A man and a woman were, separately, doing yoga on the south lawn. There was one other person on the south lawn and about 30 people on the north side or swimming. I felt blessed to live in a city that has such a wonderful, natural swimming hole. I got a little sun before it turned too chilly as the sun moved lower in the sky and the wind picked up. The woman doing yoga was playing some music and I danced to her music in the sun. As I type this now, I’m feeling a connection between the dancing yesterday in the sun and dancing outside at a campout under the moon. It was at this campout that some magic happened and I have been trying to use magic the last few days to increase the odds of being in a universe in which my beloved and I are together soon. Speaking of magic and dancing …

A few months ago, I was camping with some friends who all enjoy dancing. My DJ friend came up to me an hour before we were planning to dance and asked for my help.

“Can you take a look at my computer?”, he said. “It was working fine and then the screen went black. When I tried to restart it, it got stuck with the spinning rainbow disc.”

“Sure”, I replied with confidence. I then use my phone to search online for ways to fix the computer. There were about four different suggestions and I tried them all once or twice before telling my DJ friend that he should come up with a backup solution because his computer likely had some kind of hardware failure. I continued to try fixing his computer with no luck until it was time for the dance to start.

At the beginning of the dance, my DJ friend told the group the bad news of his computer breaking and how I had tried everything to fix it. I then had a thought and interrupted him.

“Well, there is one thing that I haven’t tried. I haven’t tried Magic! I know a lot of the people here believe in and practice magic. The problem with the computer is it isn’t booting up – it gets stuck. So, if everyone can imagine and focus an intension of the computer booting up fine using your own magical gifts, then we will have tried everything.”

I expected a few seconds of silence. Instead, the group of 8 or so people all intensely practiced some magic for probably a minute. I thanked everyone and the dance begin, with the DJ using his phone. As the music played, I rebooted the computer again and took it out onto the dance floor. I danced with the computer as it rebooted and imagined it rebooting successfully. The progress bar made it to the place where it normally stops and stopped again. I spoke to the computer and gave it some more encouragement. I thought I saw the progress bar move further. I believed the magic was working! I continued to look at the progress bar and saw it moving ever so slightly – almost imperceptibly. Once it made it through the “rough patch”, it continued along until the end and I saw a background picture of the DJ’s family.

“Look! The magic is working!”, I exclaimed to everyone as they cheered and danced. I then took the computer over to the DJ table and left it for a while. The mouse was stuck, but the mac finder was now visible. Slowly, the computer came back to life and by the next song, the DJ was able to switch over from his phone to his computer.

I felt proud of myself for asking the group to perform magic to fix the computer.

As I told this story to others over the next few days, I formed an hypothesis to explain how we were able to use magic to fix the computer. The hypothesis is that magic can only work to do things that, when done, can be explained by means other than magic. For instance, in this case, it could be true that the magic had nothing to do with the computer booting correctly. Instead, perhaps it was overheated and when it cooled down, whatever hardware problem was causing it to stall was no longer present. Or maybe all the various things I tried to fix it just needed “one more reboot”. If there were no non-magical explanation, then the magic would not be able to do anything. Therefore, magic by this definition can never be proven to exists.

So, believe in magic and use it in your life. Just make sure you can visualize how the universe can achieve your magical intention in a non-magical way.

20201215T Day 350: Financial Market Predictions for 2021

20201215T-0637-AustinTX

Check-in: I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and it took me an hour to fall back to sleep. I was then got an hour of deep sleep before being awoken by a 6am alarm. I’ve now had some coffee – I’m still surrounded by universes in which I start my day with caffeinated coffee. Using a plastic filter holder, I filtered the freshly ground coffee into a mixture of half-n-half, cacao powder, and coconut oil. I spoke with my beloved yesterday and she is still feeling anxious about coming to Austin. She is highly sensitive to multiverse energies and her anxiety leads me to believe that the next few months will be chaotic as the northern hemisphere experiences moves through a surge of COVID-19 cases that will overwhelm many hospitals. I feel she will come in a week and stay for two.

The year 2021 will see value stocks outperform growth stock. Low debt value stocks will outperform high debt value stocks. Silver will outperform Platinum and Platinum will outperform Gold. Bitcoin will outperform Etherium and Etherium will outperform Silver. Both residential and commercial real estate will drop in real value but currency devaluation and low interest rates will keep prices from falling. Residential will outperform commercial real estate. Short-term bonds will outperform longer-term bonds.

These predictions are based on the current state of the financial market which has appearances of financial bubbles in various areas of the market, such as the bond market, popular index ETFs, celebrity stocks, speculative small cap stocks, and even most fiat currencies.

Using these predictions, and assuming that they will most likely be wrong, then a diversified financial portfolio might be weighted in the following order:

Bitcoin
Etherium
Silver
Platinum
Gold
Low debt value stocks
High debt value stocks
Growth stocks
Residential real estate
Commercial real estate
Cash
Short-term bonds
Long-term bonds
SP500
Celebrity stocks
Speculative small-cap stocks

I’m not a strong believe in crypto-currencies, but until these are outlawed by governments then the major ones will likely continue to outperform the “old school” stores of value silver and gold. There are universes nearby in which governments add Bitcoin to their reserves instead of outlawing crypto-currencies. It is these universes that cause Bitcoin and Etherium to top the list above.

20201214M Day 349: BIRDY Authentic Relating Relationship Game

20201214M-1111-AustinTX

Check-in: I’m missing my beloved and wondering if I will see her in a week. A cold front blew in last night. I woke up from a dream at 2am and went outside to look for meteors. I saw a long cloud or vapor trail across the sky but no meteors. I had homemade cherry pie for breakfast with my Aunt and my friend K. Her daughter made it before leaving for CA. Music playing this morning has been the beautiful piano music of Ludovico Einaudi followed by an ecstatic dance set (1/17/19) by DJ Hamid. K and I are going to do virtual yoga in an hour – I’m looking forward to stretching my body.

BIRDY is an authentic relating (AR) game based on a relationship exercise I learned from a friend. I learned it as BIRD, and then added Y. BIRD is an acronym that stands for Boundaries, Intensions, Requests, and Desires.

AR Games are structured communication exercises, about 10-25 minutes in length, that are often led by a facilitator who establishes a safe container for the exercises. To establish a container, participants agree to certain agreements, such as confidentiality upon request, respect yourself and others, lean into your edge, and be present. The guided exercises/games can either be played as a full group or in pairs, triads, quads, etc.

Whether you are on a first date, in a fresh relationship, or have been in a relationship for decades, BIRDY can help you build a deeper and more authentic relationship with someone. I have only played BIRDY in a pair group, but it could be played in groups of three or more. For simplicity, I will describe the game play for a pair of two players, Austen (he/him) and Blair (she/her).

Austen goes first and shares with Blair a boundary, intension, request, or desire. There is no need to go in BIRD order. It is best to pick whatever is alive in the moment.
Blair replies by repeating back Austen’s boundary, intension, request, or desire as close as possible using the sentence stem “I hear you have a …”. Blair then continues her reply with the sentence stem “Hearing that, I feel …” and shares a particular feeling she is having and/or describes any physical changes she senses in her body.
Austen then replies with the sentence stem “Hearing that, I feel …” and shares a particular feeling he is having and/or describes any physical changes he senses in his body.
Switch players and now Blair shares with Austen a boundary, intension, request, or desire. Continue going back and forth until any pre-established game time is up or for a particular number of rounds. It’s a good challenge to play long enough for each player to have a chance to share at least one of each boundary, intension, request, and desire.
As an option, the sharer can add a “why” to their share. This is for the Y in BIRDY.

Here’s an example of play:

Austen: My Intension is to date you and explore a romantic relationship with you. This is because I find you attractive and understand that you are, like me, looking for a partner to settle down with and start a family.

Blair: I hear that you want to date me and explore a romantic relationship with me because you find me attractive and we are both looking for a partner to start a family with. Hearing that, I feel a bit of tightness in my chest and throat, and feel a mix of anxiousness and excitement.

Austen: Hearing that, I feel curious and optimistic.

Blair: My Intension is to get to know you slowly and be open to either friendship or romance. This is because I have recently ended a two-year relationship and am wanting some time to digest that relationship before getting into a new one.

Austen: I hear that you want to get to know me slowly and are open to either friendship or partnership. You have recently ended a two-year relationship and want some time before beginning a new one. Hearing that, I feel empathy, compassion, happiness, and relief.

Blair: Hearing that, I feel curious and understood.

Austen: I have a Desire to put on some music and dance with you in the living room. This is because I enjoy dancing and am feeling playful now.

…