The I-Ching foretells Kiri and Stephanie's trip to Casadega to see a psychic

9: Approach of Spring

Spring is approaching. Good times ahead seem inevitable; there is vitality in the air. This is a most auspicious time. Like a snake emerging from hibernation, negative forces are only just beginning to stir, and can be effectively controlled. This is a time of hopeful progress, and must be used to best advantage. When approaching good fortune, conscientious work pays great dividends. A clear road lies ahead. In the spring, seeds that have been lying dormant are ready to bloom.

Act now, for at some point this ripe opportunity for advancement will be challenged. No spring lasts forever. It’s always wise to stay alert and note the changing signs of the times. In doing so, preparing for less abundant times is a noble and fruitful effort. Make the most of it.

MOVING LINES

Line 2

When you are offered a good opportunity, prospects for success are very favorable. This is a good time to take strong, valiant action. When a person possesses inner strength and self-confidence, the future need not be a concern, for everything will move in a positive direction.

Line 4

An open-minded approach brings success. Organizations that value performance over superficial qualities advance much more quickly than those that take a complacent, cliquey attitude. Avoid prejudices against those of different backgrounds. When complacency creeps into your personal life, radical action may be necessary to change the prevailing mood.

Line 5

The greatest leaders reveal their true power by attracting people of excellent ability, and by allowing key associates the freedom to exercise their own judgment. The person able to give power to those who can effectively exercise it, gains much more power in return.

BECOMES IN THE FUTURE

63: After Completion

It is a fine irony that after completion of a project or great enterprise, there is still much left to do. Completion is merely a pause in the cycle of creation and decay, a momentary still point for the swinging pendulum of life. Though completion does imply a period of restful pause — one that usually has been well earned — it is not an actual ending, but a uniquely harmonious flat spot in the constancy of change and movement.

The image of After Completion is that of a kettle of water boiling over a fire. When the forces are balanced, the water boils properly; but if the pot is too full and boils over, it puts out the fire. On the other hand, if the fire is too hot for too long, it can evaporate all the water. In maintaining the equilibrium that follows the completion of an arduous task, forces at work in the situation must be monitored carefully to ensure that a proper balance is maintained.

After Completion is also the time for fine-tuning, for refinements and embellishments of what has already been accomplished.

Even if we enjoy a rewarding situation at the moment, the laws of the natural world dictate that influence and success must eventually decline. Don’t let current good fortune prompt careless or relaxed attitudes. Whatever is successful or already established needs to be carefully maintained, without trying to expand it now. What is incomplete, on the other hand, should be brought to fruition without delay.

Take satisfaction upon completion, enjoy a sense of fulfillment, but do not dwell on endings.

Made some 2nd level 5th ed D&D characters for a game

N Human, Cleric 2, Acolyte

Str 15, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 9

AC: 16 (20 with shield), Speed: 30, HP: 21

Languages: Common, +3

Warhammer and Shield: +5 to hit, 1d8+5 / Two Handed Warhammer: +5 to hit, 1d10+5

Proficiency: all armor, shields, simple weapons, save: wis, save: cha, religion, persuasion, insight

Other: Life Domain: +2+spell level to healing, Channel Divinity: Preserve Life (divide 10 hp healing to those 30 feet around you)

0-level 3/rest

Guidance, Sacred Flame, Light

1-level 3/rest

Guiding Bolt, Command, Bless, Cure Wounds (Domain)

Bless: 3 targets gets +1d4 to attack and saving throws. Duration: concentration up to 1 minute.

Command: One word command vs Wisdom saving throw

*Cure Wounds: Touch heals 1d8+3 (+3 domain)

Guidance: 1 target gets +1d4 once to ability check. Duration: concentration up to 1 minute.

*Guiding Bolt: +5 to hit, 4d6 radiant damage and next attack against target gains advantage

Light: 20 feet, 1 hour

*Sacred Flame: 1d8 radiant damage vs Dex

Equipment: Holy symbol (gift given to you when you entered the priesthood), prayer book, 5 sticks of incense, vestments, common clothes, belt pouch with 15 gp, warhammer 1d8/1d10, chain shirt 13+dex, light crossbow 20 bolts 1d8 two handed, priest’s pack, shield +2

holy symbol

Trait: I quote (or misquote) sacred texts and proverbs in almost every situation.

Ideal: Aspiration. I seek to prove myself worthy of my god’s favor by matching my actions against his or her teachings.

Bond: I seek to preserve a sacred text that my enemies consider heretical and seek to destroy.

Flaw: My piety sometimes leads me to blindly trust those that profess faith in my god.

CN High Elf, Wizard 2, Sage (Professor)

Str 8, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 12, Cha 10

AC: 14 (17 with Mage Armor), Speed: 30, HP: 14

Languages: Common, Elvish, +3

Staff: +1 to hit, 1d6-1 / Two Handed Staff: +1 to hit, 1d8-1

Proficiency: perception, longsword, shortsword, shortbow, longbow, daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows, Save: Intelligence, Save: Wisdom, Arcana, History, Investigation, Insight

Other: darkvision 60, advantage vs charmed, immune vs sleep magic, meditate 4 hours instead of sleep 8, know 1 cantrip, Spell Recovery (Short Rest to regain 1 spell), Arcane Tradition (cheaper to learn Evocation)

Equipment: quarterstaff 1d6/1d8, component pouch, scholar’s pack, spellbook, ink, quill, small knife, a letter from a dead collegue with a question you have yet to answer, common clothes, belt pouch containing 10 gp

0-level, 3/rest

Fire Bolt, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand (known)

1-level, 3/rest

Charm Person, Sleep, Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Disguise Self

Charm Person: Vs Wis (gains advantage if in combat vs caster’s party), 1 hour

Disguise Self: Investigation vs DC 13, 1 hour

*Fire Bolt: +6 to hit, 1d10 fire, 120 range

*Mage Armor: AC 13+Dex, 8 hours

Mage Hand: 30 feet, 10 pounds, 1 minute

*Magic Missile: 3 darts, 1d4+1, 120 feet

Prestidigitation: 1 hour

*Sleep:  Roll 5d8 to produce number of hit points possible to induce sleep.  Choose target 90 feet away.  Starting with lowest hit points within 20 feet of target, characters fall asleep until hit points are used up.  1 minute.

Trait: I . . . speak . . . slowly . . . when talking . . . to idiots, . . . which . . . almost . . . everyone . . . is . . . compared . . . to me.

Ideal: No Limits. Nothing should fetter the infinite possibility inherent in all existence.

Bond: I have an ancient text that holds terrible secrets that must not fall into the wrong hands.

Flaw: Most people scream and run when they see a demon. I stop and take notes on its anatomy.

LN Mountain Dwarf, Fighter 2, Noble

Str: 20 Dex: 8 Con: 18 Int: 10 Wis: 12 Cha: 14

AC: 14 (18 with shield), Speed: 25, HP: 24

Languages: Common, Dwarvish, +1

Two Handed Greatsword: +7 to hit, 2d6+5 (reroll 1s and 2s on damage)

Handaxe and Shield: +7 to hit, 1d6+5 / Thrown Handaxe: +7 to hit, 1d6+5

Proficiency: brewer’s tools, all armor, all simple weapons, all martial weapons, Save: Str, Save: Con, Perception, Intimidation, Game: Darts

Other: darkvision 60 ft, advantage vs poison, resistance vs poison, Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting (reroll all 1s and 2s on all damage rolls with two handed weapons), Second Wind 1/rest (bonus action: heal 1d10+2 hp), Action Surge 1/rest (additional action)

Equipment: chain mail 13+dex, greatsword 2d6, shield +2, two handaxes 1d6, explorer’s pack, fine clothes, signet ring, scroll of pedigree, purse with 25 gp

Trait: If you do me an injury, I will crush you, ruin your name, and salt your fields

Ideal: Responsibility. It is my duty to respect the authority of those above me, just as those below me must respect mine.

Bond: I am in love with the heir of a family that my family despises.

Flaw: By my words and actions, I often bring shame to my family.

LG Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue 2, Criminal (Smuggler)

Str 8, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 17

AC: 18, Speed: 25, HP 15

Languages: Common, Halfling

Rapier +7 to hit, 1d8+7 / Dagger (Melee or Thrown) +7 to hit, 1d4+7 / Shortbow +7 to hit, 1d6+7

Proficiency: simple weapons, hand crossbows, light armor, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, thieves’ tools, Save: Dexterity, Save: Intelligence, Stealth (Doubled: Expertise), Acrobatics, Perception, Deception (Doubled: Expertise), Athletics, Investigation, Game: Darts

Other: reroll 1s on d20s, advantage vs fear, move through any space occupied by creatures medium or larger, can hide behind a creature medium or larger, Sneak Attack +1d6, Thieves’ Cant Language, Cunning Action (bonus action to dash, disengage, or hide)

Equipment: Rapier 1d8 finesse, Shortbow 20 arrows 1d6, burglar’s pack, leather armor 11+dx, two daggers 1d4, thieves’ tools, crowbar, dark hooded clothes, belt pouch with 15 gp

Trait: I always have a plan for what to do when things go wrong.

Ideal: Redemption. There’s a spark of good in everyone.

Bond: My ill-gotten gains go to support my family.

Flaw: I turn tail and run when things look bad.

Cognitive Decline

Grandma had it.  Dad had it.  Brother and I have the crazy that preceded it for them.  Cognitive decline is in the future.  Just swiping this space to write down a few tips for myself to weave into my lifestyle to combat it.

1.  Eat fatty fish; get omega 3s - salmon, mackerel, anchovies, herring, lake trout, albacore especially.  I take fish oil supplements every day and eat salmon once every other week.  Could eat more fish, but still doing ok.

2.  Drink a lot of coffee - 3-5 cups a day reduces chances of dementia and Alzheimer's by 65%.  3-5 cups of coffee per day to be drank before 2pm?!  Ugh.  Still... 65% is a lot.  And I like coffee.  It's just that I'm also drinking tea.  It's the anti-oxidants I need.  I don't know.

3.  Walk - Walking a few times each week increases the volume of the hippocampus 2% per year.  In older adults it typically shrinks 1-2% per year.  40 minutes 3 times a week?  That's already my weight loss plan.  Keep the heart rate low to burn fat.

4.  Learn a new language - I'm probably fine here.  The study was for bilingual adults who had English as a first language, which I am.  And my constant inching towards polyglotism has got to help.

5.  Meditate - I am not the sit still and do nothing type, but I wanted to learn to meditate.  The answer came when reading on Taoism and mindfulness how sitting and meditating was the first step and then you move to an advanced sitting and also meditate while you do things.  I've been practicing the latter and I've gotten pretty good at it.  Driving, watching cartoons with Hunter, laying in bed, slicing vegetables, cleaning, teaching... I've figured out how to use those activities to meditate for three or four minutes at a time.  Of course, since I'm supposed to get a daily session of 30-40 minutes, maybe I'm getting bumpkiss.

6.  Keep the mind active - Puzzles and challenges and stuff.  Advanced reading.  That's just how I chill so I'm good there.

The Answer

What is the coolest thing I can take to a party?

The Cult of Science

Pics below from a book on religion with a list of warning signs.  I can't help but notice how many of these "warning signs your religion is a cult" apply more to science than any standard religion.  I'm not saying science is a cult.  I'm just saying it fits this definition of a cult very well.

Taboo Topics:  Eugenics, human cloning, stem cells, administrative costs, education, rigor, standards, publications, peer review procedures, genetic engineering

Secrets:  We know cancer can't actually be cured, what percentage of revenue goes towards actual research, the weight of our standards has fluctuated, we don't know much at all, our answers are guesses (and we're prepared to correct them, but we will present them as fact until then, not guesses)

Spiritual Clones:  You've reached the higher level so now you wear this ceremonial robe... err... lab coat/glasses/gloves/leather elbowed jacket, everyone has to conform to this belief structure, these are the laws of the universe and no matter how often our understanding and definitions of them change we got it right this and you must use them, everyone take these prerequisites then these courses and get yourself published in these magazines

Groupthink:  There is no other explanation than science.  If anything happened, it was because of science.  If we can't explain it, we will guess and then research it and find how science caused it, changing our guess as we go.

The Elect:  There is no room for superstitious nonsense in science.  "If I can't measure it, it doesn't exist!" - people who actually know very little about science

No Graduates:  Well, plenty of graduate students.  Heh... But you never leave the scientific community because you've finished the dogma.  You teach or you write or your research science and you just keep doing that until you retire from everything or you die.

Assembly Lines:  All the same classwork, all the same tests, all the same standards, all the same white coats

Loyalty Tests:  Well, unpaid internships that go on for years aside, I think the fact that science actually literally tests loyalty as a quantity qualifies it here. (Milgram Experiment, famously)

Duplicity:  You can't have a study without duplicity.  One of those cancer patients is going to get saline instead of medicine.

Unifocal Understanding:  from the text "a single world-view is used to explain anything and everything; alternate explanations are verboten. For example, if you have diarrhea it's 'Guru's Grace.' If it stops, it's also Guru's Grace.  And if you get constipated, it is still Guru's Grace."  That's just silly.  Guru's Grace!  Science explains all of tha... oh wait...

Humorlessness:  Can't say science doesn't have a sense of humor.  It certainly has some sacred cows that you aren't allowed to make fun of, but on the whole scientists are fun people.

Book Burning Party!

Is it weird that I can throw out books?  It's weird, isn't it?  Most people that seem me do it gasp in horror.  When I ask them about it, they really can't justify it.  It just FEELS bad.  Nazis burned them.  Books are sacred.  Knowledge is power.  Etc.

Harper Publishing and Amazon are fighting right now over something like this.  Harper summed up both of their positions while trying to just sum up Amazons.

They said the problem is that Amazon views books as just another commodity.  So they were saying that their position are that books are not just another commodity.  They're special.

Ok, my thoughts?  And if you are one of the 4 people who read this blog, you must (for some reason) want to know my thoughts.  You certainly aren't reading for my sake because you (except my wife) haven't made it clear who you are or that you're reading.  The numbers could even been fuzzy numbers from Google and not real.

Anyway, my thoughts?  Books are just another commodity.

Once upon a time, books WERE sacred.  Certainly when books had to be transcribed by hand by monks and a library was a status symbol as much as a repository of information.  Books were still sacred when we used printing presses and whatever came after printing presses all the way up until there were a handful of publishing houses and some vanity press, books were still pretty sacred.  There was lots of books, but there was not an overabundance of them.  Libraries called for donations because there weren't enough.  Having books in your house meant that you spent a chunk of money and time building a library.  It was a status symbol of intellectualism instead of wealth though.  You'd wade through used bookstores to find some forgotten tome and while it was not current, its information was still relevant.

Then things got... fast.

No one is going to say that The Complete Dummies Guide to Windows 3.1 is sacred.  But they still won't toss it.

No one is going to say that a 2013 first draft Musings of My Heart filled with typos by Joey Artschool printed with a print-on-demand service is sacred.  But they still won't toss it.

No one is going to say that their high school Economics textbook is sacred.  But yada yada.

I got over this a long time ago.

3,500 books are published every day in America.  Not printed.  Published.  And that doesn't include all the e-books, which are even easier to publish.

Where do you THINK they all are if no one is throwing them away?  They're hidden away around the country, passed around until they're so out of date they get to someone who tosses them.

I say bring back book burnings!

lol... That's how I want to be quoted... geez...

Ok, I've established that I think it's ok to toss books, but what happens to them?  They end up in the garbage pile.  They're biodegradable for the most part and don't last long, relative to things like plastic (which might be part of the cover).  Well, if you take away the mystique protecting books from the trash, you are left with a stack of paper.  Throwing out the cover and recycling the paper is a good way to go.

But imagine, for a second, a book burning party.  A bonfire party where you bring books that you would throw out.  They're reams of paper so they burn great and cleanly (tossing the cover if it has plastic).  I don't think the binding glue is particularly bad, but I can't swear to that.  It's all very taboo, so that's fun.  It's all very Nazi, which is not so fun.  But imagine what will ACTUALLY happen at one of these before the fire starts.

You've brought your books and you met Jim there, who has his books to burn.  Great conversation start.  Everyone's a little embarrassed they own something like How To Train Your Millipede.  They don't even know how they got it.

You: "Yeah, someone got me this book on whittling.  Like when am I ever going to whittle?"

Jim: "Whittling?  I've always wanted to whittle.  Can I trade you Kevin Costner's autobiography for it?"

So you trade your book on whittling that you were going to burn to someone who is going to save it from the fire and actually give it a home.   You take Kevin Costner's autobiography because it doesn't matter what it was.  All burns the same.  But you are now walking around with a new book in your hands.  That old mystique creeps back into your head.  Knowledge is power.  Books are sacred.  You don't know that this one isn't sacred because you haven't looked at it.  You open it up and glance over it for a second.

So now from two books that were going to be thrown out or burned, you've got one that's going to be read and one that's been given a chance to be read.

What ultimately ends up in the fire are serious wastes of paper.  And yet, someone might still spot Chicken Soup for the Butt and snatch it out of the pile.

I'm telling you.  Book burning parties should be a thing.  It'd be like a book swap with a ticking clock and the only books that would be burned are books that should really be disposed of anyway.

Image-attachment

I was reading about image-attachments in Buddhism where we don't perceive our true self because of these ideas of who we are/were/should be/etc. How we should just accept who we are. But I don't like that. The idea is that there's no need for improvement because any flaw is imaginary. I can get behind the idea that when I look at others they are flawless, but I always will believe that I can be better. I want to move in a direction. Simply being is unadventurous and adventures make me happy. Buddhism would say that the adventures are an imaginary happiness and I only have unhappiness to overcome because of the attachments in my life. I'm not sure about that.

Anyway, I thought I would define the image-attachment of who I should be in order to be able to stand back and look at it and see if I'm wrong to keep this attachment.

Image-attachment of who I should be

Good posture

Freshly cut hair

No unibrow

Clear skin

Freshly shaved

No jowls

Muscular left shoulder without noticeable disability

More tattoos

Flat stomach

Smooth feet

No light sensitivity

Kinder speaking

Controlled emotions

Modest

Few belongings

Comfortable clothes

Ride motorcycle more

More time for adventures

Lots of teaching certifications

Actively expanding business

Taking others’ territories

Loved by employees

Large circle of close friends