VeganD

Amazon.com: Exist: The Tony Rich Project: Music

September's pleathora of music is fun, curious and making me wonder what was the blockage that we're now getting it all at once. (Jupiter retrograde is my guess.)

At any rate, I continue to find EXIST satisfying AND growing on me the most. Could describe him as two parts his former boss Babyface and one part Seal. Rhythm & Soul gone 70s and Southern with an ethereal connection blended in. Was bummed he ditched the industry so quickly, especially with his strong start in songwriting and debut disc.

Alas, he's back and worth the wait. Easily a B+ disc, I expected to call it A or A- once I've let it sink in fully during October.

More on the new musics (that keep coming!) as Autumn rolls on.

Posted by VeganD at 11:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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Dr. Pachuari and friends,

Each week, we eat about 20 meals. When that is the case, one of those meals would be about 5% of our diet.
What if we in the US, and even worldwide, made one of these meals even greener?
Eating vegetarian if we're omnivores, vegan if we're vegetarian and raw if we're vegan.
And what if we chose to do this weekly? Let's set the data reports aside and begin to find out how great would the benefits be!

As World Veg*n Awareness Month begins Wednesday, I encourage you in joining friends to schedule and share greener than usual meals.

I ask this favor on behalf of You, your health, our planet and our connectedness.
And I appreciate your listening to this request, and hearing my message.

To encourage us in this habit, I'll blog about it weekly or so: http://vegand.net/blog/5_favor/

Peace and progress,
Demetrius Bagley
Organizer, NYC Vegan EatUP
http://vegan.meetup.com/27

PLEASE FORWARD APPROPRIATELY

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As requested, a few helpful practices as finances get/are tight I've found over the last few seasons

*Leave credit AND debit cards at home. Follow the plan, nay impulse. (For groceries, I sometimes take the debit with a specific list of items, and guessed prices so the total is not a surprise...)

*Get more cash less times, yet as needed AND pre-determined

*Plan ahead what cash you'll need for the day (or week even), checking with your calendar, etc. Many menus can be pulled up online, or a review of it sharing a sense of how spendy a joint is(n't)

*Put monthly/periodic bills on (a free) auto-pay system; use that extra time to watch a dvd, sleep, call a college pal, or stare at the wall!

**Plot out meals & groceries (& dining out) weekly. Then prepare lunches, snacks, etc. at home maybe one evening for the week; take them to work. It's better for your wealth AND health!

**Pick fewer items and/or dollars for entertainment and extras; the yields will be better and more meaningful

***Make coffee at home/work, choose a nice bean, sugar, (veg!) creamer, flavor, etc. - much cheaper than Scarbucks, and more eco ;-)

Budgeting, and planning specific purchases, payments, etc. makes a BIG difference to it all. Funny how I like this type of planning/plotting too ;-)

Posted by VeganD at 07:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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Considering what shifts to make so I'm eating (and cooking) more whole foods this Autumn + thereafter. Want this to yield cheaper grocery bills and less trash! When I first went vegan in 1994, I recall only needing to take trash out twice a week. And I believe it was largely compost items. Am I getting too many take out items? Hmmm, not so much post-perm job. Am I getting lots of convenience foods? Um, yes. And am I getting primarily produce as I did then? Fair amount, though believe not as much. Think it was 50% or more vegies and fruit. Oh, I recall getting bread without plastics from Great Harvest Bread Co. (in Lincoln Park as I recall, wonder if they're still there/what that place's rent is now), and using containers for bulk products - which was much of my non-produce. Juice was in glass. Hmmm, ya, let's chew on this and shift the dial to Better. Action item: +Identify quality bulk pasta, grains & beans grocery store(s) +Find easy to/from fresh tofu store, where I can use non-plastic containers or at least my own +Identify the like for tempeh and seitan

Posted by VeganD at 04:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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Attending James Wanless talk at EastWest last night. INCREDIBLE!

He was totally vibing, wearing a his purple sheen shirt, limber, often moving body. Mentioned map, and other Sag concepts quite a bit. Guessing he may be Aquarius with Sag Rising. Definitely has some fire connections in his life, if not chart.

He discussed the origins of the deck, his involvement with tarot prior to, and wanting a visually contemporary deck. He intentionally restructured it beyond monarchies, and renamed cards as appropriate. The minor arcana connect to the major by number, e.g. VI card will have some colors, images, etc. connecting to all four '6' cards.

While creating the major arcana especially, life events often reflected a lot of themes within. Recommended creating a tarot deck for (a) artists wanting to build a (big) body of work, and (b) a curious spiritual journey. The card's back is DNA from a different perspective, as if it's a mandala. (Found it in some 80s article - Time or Newsweek, I believe he said.)

He's heard his Voyager deck called the Psychology Tarot, and is happy with that.

A few ideas he shared that linger:
*Intentional Synchronicity
*Interpret the cards as You will
*Choose Your Own Story in life
*Pulling a tarot card daily AND taking action on that (with respect to one's life journey)
*Advocates creating your own spreads/style of reading

While signing my set's introduction card, he mentioned - not too casually I felt - my reading more tarot. Uncertain if that was a nudge for his deck, my perceived age, or what.

Action items:
+I'm switching my daily pulls to the Voyager deck with this Libra new moon, likely Autumn's remainder
+I'm being more forward about promoting my astrology business AND tarot reading
+I'm considering what action(s) my one-card reading calls for, and doing those better and better. (I pulled Reflection.)

James mentioned finding his podcast on iTunes: Intuition Into Action - which I heard as wonderful wordplay. He pushed us to hear the meaning of feeling it first (Intuition), then action from there/that (Into Action). Funny enough, I somehow thought it was a one-shot deal; he's on Episode 52!

Demos: Mostly women (80+% ), lots of black people - about one-third. Approx. 40 people

Question: Why so many black people (not all women, incidentally!)?

Posted by VeganD at 11:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

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