Within the first three pages of “Love Is Like This” by Nathan Deeter, you know you’re holding a work of paramount importance in your hand. This will show you the ways of love in the past, future, and present. It contains the love of sons and fathers, family, husband and wife, and it does so in the way that those kinds of love present themselves. It isn’t the “happily ever after,” but it also isn’t the doom and gloom. It presents the light and the dark of love, and if you let it, it will speak to your soul.
Continue readingMonthly Archives: August 2020
Disney Paper Parks Online Magic for You to Color
The Disney Parks Blog has been releasing Paper Parks during the quarantine. These templates are drawn by Disney artists. You can download them, print them, color them and then assemble them into your very own Disneyland. (Part 3 is Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.) For Disney fans, this is an amazing opportunity to build their own parks in real life. (Disney Magic Kingdoms allows them to build one in virtual life.)
Continue readingSit before You Go: A Russian Travel Tradition
The first time my wife and I traveled on a long trip together, our bags were packed by the door, we were ready to go, and I reached for the door handle. She grabbed my arm and led me to the couch. “Let’s sit.”
Continue readingTillamook’s Dream House and Other Considerations of Our Journey
Within the next 24 hours, we will begin our journey back to the U.S. This has been a long time coming. We originally applied for my wife’s green card in Sep. 2018. We had her interview in March of 2020, and we received her green card visa the day before the borders were shut here in Russia. We purchased tickets for July 24 and didn’t receive a refund but only airline credit – the privilege for that cost us $280 in website booking fees with another $280 due if we use the credit to book a flight. Our insurance also wasn’t refunded and was only good if we got sick or quarantined – not the entire country. Each weekend after that, we purchased tickets but made sure to get those that were refundable. Now comes the big flight and big move.
Continue readingBreathe in, Breathe out, Move on: Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett’s ballad “Breathe in, Breathe Out, Move on” (affiliate link) starts with him purchasing a watch from a crazy man. The watch always told the correct time because there were no numbers on its face, just the word “Now.” How this never became a product, I have no idea. There are watches that feature the word “now,” but they also have moving hands, which would defeat the purpose of Jimmy Buffett’s watch.
Continue readingSome Days, It’s Jimmy Buffett instead of Motivation
I’ve written this article, or a version of it, three times now. The other two versions were not quite positive enough to be motivational. Instead, they were trying to work through my own fears and frustrations. With coronavirus, politics, and stupid people, those anxieties are legion. Some days, there just isn’t anything for it, and those are the days that I turn to Jimmy Buffett.
Continue readingMickey Mouse Micro-Brick Build
I’ve had a couple of people ask for the directions to building the Mickey Mouse micro-brick figure. I have photographed them and put them in a gallery. I’m in the process of moving, and I’m not able to add them to the video. Hopefully these photos will work just as well. Let me know if you make use of them. Thanks!
Continue readingBottled Water Needs to Get ‘Tapped’ out
“Tapped” (affiliate link) exposes several of the problems that the bottled water industry is implicated in from dissembling and pollution to overwhelming corporate influence over government and the carcinogenic agents found in the bottles and leached into the water they hold.
Continue readingMoving, Stress, and Obligations Take the Wind out of My Sails
Life has caught up with me too fast, and with a 318-day streak on the line, I’m not sure where my next article is going to come from. I could pull up all of the movie reviews I did in 2012 and recycle them for this website. That, however, is neither very appealing or satisfying for anyone. Still, writing something like this post for the foreseeable future also seems a little problematic.
Continue readingExperiences Make the Best Collections: Collectors’ Corner
According to the research Mary Holm presents in her book “Rich Enough?” (affiliate link) experiences contribute more to people’s happiness than things. While there is an initial spike in happiness with a new thing, it quickly wears off as the thing is incorporated into life and loses its luster. When a new edition of the thing comes out, people become dissatisfied and unhappy with the edition they have. (Think iPhones or shoes where new editions are released every year just to keep sales up for the companies behind those products.) Experiences, on the other hand, allow one to savor the moment while being in it and then to relive those moments for future happiness.
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Penguinate! Positive Creativity 