new to greem 3 go back
IS and gnat got to know each other better and the closer they got the more they liked each other . . .they shared all the same values and loves ,love is it love is all there is, , ,,everythimg that is true . . .no misunderstanding .. .no lies..,this morning they popped a grin seed and went down to the lobby and did Tai Chi with the other people from the building , , it was good exercise and they were all in optimal health , , ,and at the optimal age . . .35
they spread out into a grid and began the tai chi by putting there hands together in prayer ,,taking a bow and saying "namaste" . .. . a Hindu word meaning we see God in each other .. . .the tai chi had many distinct moves....and it went quite smoothly ,,,, after the final move ,, they bowed to each other and said "namaste"
there were tables set up inside....they had breakfast together . ... it was a nice buffet ....everyone there was in a relationship .. .. there were just couples.... they sat .four people to a table ..
BT and YW were there , , , and the four of them sat together ......they made a pair of pairs . . ..they made small talk.. how is YW's cat Sunny .
YW>>he is so loving most of the time, but he .has such a mean streak . . .you have to be on your guard around him . . . I was sitting in my recliner and lowered my hand .....by the side .. immediately felt a paw and then a claw , , ,I pulled my hand up and screamed.. .later on the back of my hand.. there was a little red spot with a red dot in the middle where he tagged me . . .
BT>>I think he has a hunters instinct , , , , ,i tease him by moving my hand around and then freezing it,,,sunny watches intensely and freezes too , ,, I move a little and freeze..Sunny is right there and freezes too ,, , if I get too close he'll strike . . .
YW>>one possible solution is to wear him out with a toy he can attack , , ,work out his aggression . . . a toy thats got a stick and at the end a strip of cloth colored and 1inch by 2 feet .. .wave it around ...he'll go nuts . . ..i garanteeeee
the food was pretty good
they finished eating
BT>> why dont the four of us take a walk around the block....
everyone was agreeable so off they went,,, , , , ,
the sidewalk was ample and outside the building was an awning and under the awning were alot of bikes , , ,none were locked , ,
BT>> the weather here is so gorgeous...i like looking at the birds in the trees ,, , ,their joyful songs . . . the way that they can stick a landing , , ,if a human took control of that bird with the controls of an airplane a rudder, flaps,,joystick,,, reverse thrust ,,why ,he'd crash every time , , ,
crash and burn . .
another example of animal A++ness is the owl , , at night it can hear its prey in the woods and fly to it through dense forest . . .to get to it , , , it has a sixth sense of where its wingtips are in relation to where the branches are..dodging branches left and right ,, ,, and its wings have feathered feathers on the leading edge so they attack quietly . . .
gnat>> wow thats incredible . . .i dearly love birds , , , not just exotic ones but common birds lke the sparrow and the duck , , ,its great that some of these birds can cohabitate with humans . .. did you know that the owl has adapted to being nocturnal by evolving large eyeballs , ,to see better at night/dusk ,, , but it has lost the ability to turn their eyeballs and so to get a look at something it has to turn its head . . .
BT>>wow cats are also evolved to see in the dark ,,but they have smaller eyes so it uses a slit pupil
to let in more light in , , , ,lions have a physically bigger eueball so they have a round pupil and yellow eyes , , , but goats have a horizontal rectangular pupil , , i dont know why,,
gnat>> beats me .. . maybe something to do with panoramic vision,,,
suddenely they came across a store sign that was light beams reflected off the sidewalk...it read "space starts here"......
BT>> this place is a hoot,, lets go in ,,,,,,,and they did...
there was alot of merchandise related to space,,like plastic models of many spacecraft including the Mir space station and the lunar lander , , ,hundreds of them ,, ,,there was dehydrated space food and tang drink , , ,there were many wall posters and paintings , ,
there was abundant clothing and hats with nasa and other slogans ,, one t-shirt had an arrow pointing to the milky way galaxy with the words "you are here", ,,gnat felt happy , , he was happy. . .he closed his eyes and said thankyou tao tao .. ... he thought about Bhuddism being concerned with happiness and what a gentle religion that must be , , , he ended up buying a pair of blue socks with little pictures of lunar landers on it ..in different colors . .
back out on the street,,,gnat took IS's hand . ..they passed stores, a delis, a fruit stand and a tiny pizza by the slice storefront,,, a music store ....they rounded the corner and saw a group of white tables, chairs and umbrellas...taking up half the sidewalk..in the sun.....they sat down. . a waiter appeared with four glasses of carbonated water and a small bottle of lemon juice,,
waiter>> would you like a little late breakfast
or an early lunch .. what do you think??/shall I bring you a snack tray??
IS>>a snack tray ....I think that'll be fine...
YW>>I've heard that carbonated drinks are good for you .. ..
gnat>> how so
YW>>i dont know ... thats all the article said ...
IS>>its nice to know that something so enjoyable,, so delicious can be good for you..too..
they relaxed , , ,it was cool in the shade , , ,
a tiny bit of wind , , ,people were playing frisbee on the grass.
BR>> so IS what is your back storey????
IS>>well , ,i loved drawing , , graduated high school . . , ,got married got two degrees ..one in Sociology and one in Psychology .......had a daughter, , ,got a divorce,, , ,got a masters in Sociology..went to work at a mental health facilithy . .always had a great number of friends...bought a house .changed careers.... worked part time at a library ,, ,retired and back to painting , , ,oils for the most part , , all my painting is now done on my the sphone
BR>> and how did your style of painting evolve???, ,
IS>>I went thru various phases..i read up on the french/paris art scene ,,starting with the impressionst . . who got away from religious subjects and realistic portrayals ,,fell in love with vincent van gogh , , ,i'v seen some of his paintings up close ,, nothing like it ... .so now i do impressoinism...painting nature and light and color and all ... .another influence is zen painting . . .where man is part of nature...quiet ..
gnat>>what is your artistic inspiration here in Greem???
IS>>Greem covers alot of ground , , , the city has its parks and boulivards and with very little traffic , , ,and just the people make a fantastic subject , , , ,if you go down to the village by the waterfront ,,South Greem ,, you can stay at one of the many apartments , , ,and soak up the local culture and the festivals , ,,
there is a festival every weekend .. .. they have great beaches sometimes with big waves , , ,so there is surfing and boogie boarding ,the water is nice and warm, ,and the sun and the wind .. painting on the sphone . . .its very convenient , , ,
gnat >>talking about impressionist paintings - - I remember...one summer,, going to Biltmore mansion in North Carolina the biggest private house in the US . . .,,on the third floor was the private collection of George Vanderbilt II. a collection of objects de art. .one of his many paintings was by Claude Monet the founder of impressionism.. .. a seascape .. a beach with a cliff on the left . some beached boats . .. .it had a spotlight on it and the colors purple and pink sparkled , they just glowed and the beach had actual sand mixed in with the paint . . . .quite a scene .. . .
gnat googled Biltmore .. .. ... and made notes . . ..
the Biltmore is Americas largert home . ..built by George Vanderbilt II starting in 1889, , ,on 8000 acres in the blue ridge mountains of North Carolina ,, ,it took 6 years to build and employed an army of craftmen .. .. it has 250 rooms , , it cost 180 million in todays market, , ,,
George Vanderbilt II ,was not alone when it came to houses, ,the family wealth covered his other brothers and sisters building luxurious summer houses in Newport, Rhode Island.., the gold coast of Long Island, and Hyde Park ..and Fifth Avenue
his dad Cornelious Vanderbilt, was a robber baron . . .which is a term first applied in 1870 by muckrakers and others as a social criticism pointing to certain wealthy, powerful , opportunistic, exploitative, and unethical American business men in the 19th century. who gained prominense in the Gilded Age ,the robber barons tried to use the politicians for their own benefit . . .they had unfetttered consumption and destruction of natural resources, wage slavery, acquiring their competitiors to make a monopoly. .. which they then used to control the market . . .
they hired lobbyistst to work on their behalf to gain corporate subsides and tax relief..their politcal might grew and grew , , ,politicians grew weary of advantage seeking lobbyests .progressives complained that the robber barons lived in opulent luxury while their workers barely survived , , ,after a decade of political domination ..changes started to curb their influence , , ,in 1890 they passed the Sherman Anti-trust act and unions started to appear , , ,and they installed a graduated income tax . .the barons lasted to the end of the 1920's
Cornelious Vanderbilt's initial success was in shipping and railroads .. it .says he was worth $200 milliion ,, and the US population was 100 million,,,thats 2$ per person ,, ,not alot , , what really contributed to the fortune was the lack of income tax which soon happened , , ,also playing the game ,monopoly,, the railroads are the most boring properties , , ,in vanderlits younger days ,, , he was a socialist and said that no man should ever have more than $20000 .. . .
he seemed to have amassed his fortune honestly.. the problem was using politcal power to hang onto the money and to amass more , , ,so the question is ....should anyone on Earth ever be allowed to control assets in excess of lets say , , ,$10 million , ,, 1% of a Billion , ,
1/Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get to heaven
1B./putting way too many dollars into too few hands can be inflationary.. blame them for inflation
2/money is a zero sum game .. .every dollar a rich man gets ,, a poor person loses a dollar
3/power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely , , ,
4/they can buy assets like houses in bulk,, they can corner the market and drive the price up to where the first time house buyer cant afford a house the ameican dream of an affordable house is no more..
5/they can use their money to furnish themselves with the means to survive an apocalypse... so they can survive in style ,its fun ...its a game.., ,thus increasing the chance for an apocalypse to happen
6/they set aside a certain percentage of their money to buy political influence ,,using dark money allowed by the scotus and then buying the scotus itself . . a corrupt right wing court policeing itself . . . ?? i dont think so ////
gnat>> "do you mind , ,, i see a frisbee game and I want to join them " which he did..
waiter>> here you are , ,, ,,a bowl of grapes,blueberries, sliced strawberries, cherries and some finger sandwhiches .. '
YW>>oh I just love these little sandwiches , , ,,and the grapes look divine .
BT>>careful about your diet YW.... ...you need to have a caloric deficit daily . .say the body needs 2000 calories a day ,, ,,then you eat 1700 calories , , every day, , ,no exceptions
IS>>easyier said than done , , ,i've been trying to lose 5 pounds for forever , , ,|
BT>>Jesus could care less about money . . . . .'render unto Caeser the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are Gods' .......how about that for being a hippie . . . . . also there was the dude asking for temple money and jesus arranged to pay it by taking a coin from a fishes mouth ... also jesus didnt give a fig about money and had all the money handled by judas . . . .so Jesus could totally focus on his mission . . .
they watched gnat play frisbee , , ,his accuracy was sporatic , , ,sometimes he threw well , , , right into the arms of his fellow players , ,but just as often as not he'd throw the frisbee into the dirt to either the left or right. . .. thats why the game was sooo much fun , , the constant hope and search for the perfect throw , , ,like in golf the perfect swing , , like in football the search for the perfect spiral throw , , , or in tennis to serve an ace , , ,,,something very hard to master, and fun to try for. just out of reach.....entertaining
the morning wore on , , ,soon gnat and IS were back at their apartment , , ,gnat made his way into the main room opened up his sphone and started writing where he had left off..IS started a painting of gnat throwing the frisbee . . .