DD Prepping

Hi Readers!

What a phenomenal Saturday it is, eh? Especially if you are the kind of person who leveraged the Bad Karma Day holiday this past Thursday into a four-day weekend. And if you are not that kind of person...my sympathies.

Since this blog theoretically (aka, "on paper") doubles as a music blog (as well as a recreational blog), I should probably talk about something musical. The first thing that comes to my mind is that this blog has been nominated for a 2025 Madison Area Music Association (MAMA) award AND a 2025 Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) award. No one actually knows why...but I suspect it is because, at a meta level, this blog is a frequent go to for musicians in need of self care and "mojo" (the mysterious ethereal force that gives musicians and the music they perform a supranatural quality - "a whole other level above supernatural..."). In fact, clinical studies have shown that after reading a few posts on this blog, musicians nearly triple their songwriting and live performance power. In reality though, a more pragmatic explanation is that I'm a licensed therapist and life coach, trained in Leisure Science and the Art of Rock Fu. So, this blog helps musicians "declutter" so that they can focus on making awesome rock-n-roll. But again...no one is really sure.

How will you be spending today? Leave a COMMENT below if you want to share. I'll be kicking off the day with some Rock Fu, in the form of a Peloton workout. Sometime this afternoon, Best Buy is delivering and installing a standalone freezer in our basement. The "on paper" reason for this is that my wife Deborah thinks the freezer in our refrigerator is too full and she wants to have an overflow freezer, so that the fridge freezer is less cluttered (again, with the decluttering...see what I mean?). In practice, however, I think we are passively Doomsday Prepping, for reasons beyond the scope of this post.

Well, I feel like that's enough free writing for today. If you've read this far, my sympathies. It's no secret that most of the posts on this blog are just stream of consciousness free association. But, if you're here, then I'm hopeful you got something out of the lengthy diatribe. This blog is one of the few remaining "old school" blogs, still honoring the written word, as opposed to all the audiovisual clutter out there on the Interwebs. Take care of yourselves!

Fin.

Keep Calm and Rock On

Hi Readers!

Happy Hedonism Hangover Day! That's the day after Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving). Most of you probably ate and drank way more than you had any right to yesterday, and you may be feeling the negative effects of that today. Some people also call it Black Friday, one of the massive corporate money grabs that happens a few times per year, usually around the major holidays observed by the dominant culture (and Black Friday is one of the biggest, tapping into the potent human emotions of guilt, shame, and anxiety to get you to buy things ahead of the upcoming major holidays of Christmas and Hanukah - typically things you don't need or that you will give away to others under the rubric of "promoting Peace on Earth" - a Peace which, oddly, never seems to arrive...).

I'll be the first to admit that I am not beneath taking a slice of that proverbial promotional pie. As many of you know, this blog is free for all to access and enjoy. But we have to financially underwrite it somehow, and we do so using the mechanism called affiliate marketing - whereby a few subtle-but-strategically-placed keyword links, when clicked upon, take you to a site (usually Amazon) where you can purchase something, from which a very tiny percentage of the purchase price goes to us (at no cost to you)!

I thought I'd use today's post to list and share a handful of THINGS that I have found mission critical for living my best life, in hopes that they help you live your best life too. All of these things are things that I can fully endorse, having used them firsthand myself.

A Mood Lamp. Sometimes called a Happy Lamp, these are lamps that give off an intense blue light that simulates daylight, triggering the pineal gland in your brain to dump neurotransmitters and hormones into your brain and bloodstream that "trick" your mind and body into believing it is summertime, even if it's not. As such, people (including me) use these to ameliorate Seasonal Affective Disorder, a common mental health issue in northern latitudes, often comprising symptoms of low mood, low energy, anhedonia, sadness/emptiness, irritability, loss of focus/concentration/memory, and more. If you've experienced it, you know. These lamps can also be used to artificially increase your brain's perception of the duration of daylight each day. Turned on in the early morning or early evening during the winter months, when it is dark outside, again tricks your brain into believing the availability of daylight is longer than it actually is, simulating summertime. I use my mood lamp every day. It sits on my desk and I have it on while I am seeing my marriage and family therapy clients. Be warned, if you use it too late at night, it can disrupt your diurnal rhythm, something akin to jet lag.

The 4 Agreements (book). Shared with me by a mental health counselor I was seeing years ago, this book has proven a resilient, relevant, and extraordinarily pragmatic spiritual guide. I don't have much more to say about it, other than its tenets (the four actual Agreements) collectively cover the management of a significant number of the hassles and BS nonsense life throws at you.

How Not to Die (book). While The 4 Agreements is a great reference guide for improving mental and spiritual wellness, How Not to Die (by Dr. Michael Greger) is a must have screed for improving your physical (and to some extent also mental) health. The good doctor does extensive research on the peer reviewed scientific literature on the role of nutrition in human health. He shares a lot of this info FOR FREE on his website nutritionfacts.org. But he has also compiled all the best bits into this great book, How Not to Die.

I'm gonna pause it there for today, mainly because I have to pee, but also because I have to get a-crackin' on today's action packed agenda: a Peloton workout (to burn off a fraction of the calories I consumed yesterday), practicing rock-n-roll songs (ahead of GUPPY EFFECT duo band practice on Sunday), booking airplane flights for my parents (so they can visit my sister in Colorado for Christmas), and possibly making my infamous vegan curry, if time permits.

I wish you all a wonderful day and I hope that you have a fulfilling and enjoyable weekend. Try to fast from social and mainstream media if you can. I know you can't, but try...you will really notice the improvement in your Zen if you do.

Fin.

Happy Bad Karma Day

Hi Readers!

I hope you all have a Happy Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving), if you celebrate it. Although many people don't like to hear or acknowledge it, I am not known for ignoring the elephant in the proverbial room. Fact: There is a lot of historical trauma, suffering, and oppression embedded in ("baked into") this American holiday. It's rooted in colonialism and racism.

That doesn't mean you can't have a happy Bad Karma Day. In fact, you should intentionally do so. It's really the only way to practice forgiveness, honor the oppressed, and heal the cultural wounds symbolized and recognized by/on this day. That being said, one way to honor the oppressed and heal the cultural wounds (and be happy) is to choose not to engage in the oppression and suffering of sentient beings...like turkeys (Oh, yeah...I am really in the sh!t now!). I encourage you to intentionally go vegan for the holiday, knowing full well that the culinary conventions of this day are potent and most people won't be able to rise above them. This is not weakness, don't get me wrong. It's just that tradition is a potent emotional driver for a lot of people, and we all know from Psychology 101 that the emotional brain overrides the rational brain just about every time the two come into conflict. Plus, most Americans have been acculturated since birth to accept the notion that slaughtering millions of birds on one specific Thursday of every year is totally fine and normal...maybe even patriotic(?). It's weird though, no?

If you choose to accept my challenge and go vegan today, be warned...this may free your mind and the side effects of that can be profound (it untethers you from blindly accepting cultural norms and narratives, which can be mentally and emotionally destabilizing, especially if your entire identity is defined by external social cues - in which case your ego completely evaporates and your consciousness "disappears"). But it also liberates your conscience. Once freed, that genie is difficult, if not impossible, to return to its bottle. You join the ranks of the unconventional and non-comforming. That can be scary.

Here are some tips, if you want to accept the karmic rewards of going vegan, if just for the day. You can still completely stuff yourself on plant based foods (which tend to be lower in calories, on average). You can cook a plant based roast, such as the Gardein vegan Turk'y Roast. Consider making a vegan side or main dish, like this African Sweet Potato Peanut Stew (which I will, in fact, be bringing to my family's Bad Karma Day celebrations today).

I'm not going to entertain counterfactuals like "I could never go vegan" or "I need meat in my diet." You do you. I'm just saying, good karma comes to those who detoxify and disentangle themselves from bad karmic forces, of which today's holiday is definitely one. I said what I said and I'll own that.

In other news, today is in many ways no different than any other day as far as self care and positivity. In about five minutes, I'll get my Peloton workout out of the way, then move on to prepping some Bad Karma Day food, comprising: aforementioned sweet potato stew, apple pies, vegan roasts, and mashed potatoes (using vegan butter and oat milk). I already knocked off my DuoLingo Spanish lesson and moved the three bags of water softener salt to the basement (putting two of them into the softener salt basin). These may seem like mundane and commonplace things not worthy of mention. Counterpoint: In Buddhism, enlightenment comes through intention and mindfulness in simple daily activities. Choose to be hyperaware today.

Blessings from the (secular) Church of BWJ!

Fin.