Alligators Everywhere! Dream 20181007

I am on vacation in the deep south with my wife. We are traveling in Florida or perhaps somewhere around New Orleans. We have a big van that I think we can sleep in although sometimes it feels like we are with a larger family group. I am not sure if it is family from the area or people we traveled with.

We are at my wife's sister's house. I think it isn't one of her real sisters but seems like a composite. Or a niece. She has about three children, a  husband, and a little black poodle dog.

My deceased brother is also with us. My wife takes some family members somewhere, not sure where while me and my brother stay to watch fireworks, or some other event.

I notice through the kitchen door that leads to a body of water that there a many alligators maybe 100 feet away. My brother and I, we head out the front door to watch the event. I wonder if we brought our chairs with us because there isn't anywhere to sit.  Walking out to where other people are I see baby alligators everywhere with exaggerated golden teeth.

I go back into the house and look out the kitchen door and I see the alligators making a charge to the house. I see the black poodle outside and I start to open the door to let the dog out and the dog wants to go out but alligators are almost at the door.

I run out the front door and think about warning people because the kitchen is parallel to the front door. I look just past the car port and I lion is there and runs away as soon as I look.

And that is where I wake up more or less feeling fear, like a nightmare. It is about 8:00 AM and I just decide to get up.

The Cat-Eating Doll Dream 20180902

I am outside reading when a neighborhood cat approaches me. It is a very friendly orange cat and I start petting him.

For whatever reason I move inside only it is the basement of the house I grew up in. I am sitting with the cat in my lap, stroking it. Across from me is a little girl, or what I thought was a little girl at first. It was about three feet tall with curly blond hair but when I look into its eyes, it has plastic bulging eyes that look like a hypnotic wheel.

I turns out we are in some sort of contest. The doll asks me questions about the cat. Somehow this turns into I have to let the cat go and find a hiding place. If the doll finds the cat's hiding place, it gets to eat the cat. There is some sort of time limit but I do not remember what.

I protest, this sounds awful but somehow the doll gets me to relent. I put the cat down, realizing it isn't even my at and the cat has never been in this environment before. Regardless, the cat starts walking away and enters the laundry room.

The doll sits with a very creepy smile on its lips watching the cat disappear into the laundry room. After a while the doll and its entourage gets up and starts into the laundry room looking for the cat. I see the cat leave the laundry room and go into the kitchen which connects to the furnace room.

The doll and its group spends a lot of time in  the laundry room looking for the cat. I decide to go into the furnace room and try to rescue the cat when two other people show up. In the dream I know who they are and they are playing some sort of fantasy play and I am very, very annoyed with them because I think they will give the cat's hiding place away.

After a few minutes the cat comes out of the furnace room as if nothing is wrong. The doll and its group is still searching the laundry room. I scoop the cat up and walk past the laundry room hiding the cat as much as possible and head upstairs to let the cat free.

From the Pile Episode 2: Justice League International Annual #3 by Keith Griffen and J. M. DeMatteis

This week I picked DC Comics Justice League International(JLI) Annual #3 by Keith Griffen and J. M. DeMatteis. One reason I chose this title is I will probably be a little Marvel-centric for the next few videos and I wanted to throw a little love to the die-hard DC Fans.

And you have to be a die-hard DC fan for this one, at least the main story. Around the World with the JLI takes up 33 pages of this book and nearly nothing happens. The story opens on the beautiful Pacific island of Kooey Kooey Kooey where a character named Herb is trying to convince his chief to allow the JLI to have an embassy on their island as a way of keeping the Soviets and Americans from attempting to establish a base there because Kooey Kooey Kooey is strategically located. What its strategic importance is, we aren't told. We are only told we are somewhere in the South Pacific.

Herb is the uptight sort while the chief likes to make dumb jokes and tell Herb to lighten up. The chief thinks inviting the JLI to have a base on the island is a bad idea as it will attract super villains, aliens, inter-dimensional monsters, and reporters. Herb tries to assure the chief that the JLI are very busy and will probably only visit the island rarely.

The chief takes it under consideration and after a couple of pages, decides to send Herb to speak to the JLI and offer them an embassy on the island. Herb is suddenly, "Why me?! I don't want to leave the island, it's so nice here! I spent four excruciating years at Brooklyn University," and I'm sighing in frustration because we just spent 2 or 3 pages of Herb arguing for and then worrying the chief will turn his proposal down. Don't make a suggestion if you don't want to take the lead on it, or have someone in mind to take the lead on it!

Next we cut to the JLI headquarters where the JLI have been summoned to go on a tour of all the JLI's embassies in different countries around the world for reasons that are never completely explained. Blue Beetle isn't happy because he has a hot date. Booster Gold jibes him that it is with Beetle's Aunt Millie being allowed out of the home for the weekend. It isn't funny and as the book progresses nearly every member of the JLI makes an Aunt Millie joke that is just as unfunny.

The whole feel of the book is like that of a 1970s Saturday Morning Cartoon and I could practically hear the lame laugh track in my head as bad joke after bad joke is made. If I wasn't reading this book to make a video, I would probably have put it aside forever.

As you see in my video the cover looks really fun and it shows snapshots of JLI members having fun in different countries around the world. Guy Gardner was even shown on the cover even though he, Batman and somebody called Captain Atom are excused from the tour, although Captain Atom makes an appearance later in the story.

The whole story is about Herb trying to catch up with the JLI who are always one location ahead because, I guess in 1989 they had no means of communication.

The artwork is the only redeeming quality of this story, the faces are especially well drawn and convey emotions extremely well. But in the end it is 33 pages of bad jokes, anti-adventure, and unhappy characters.

The backup feature is called The Man I Never Was (also by Griffen and Demateis), on the other hand, is 8 pages of pure comic book joy. This is a story that features Martian Manhunter, aka J'onn J'onzz, who is seeking to avenge the death of his former partner and comes to Gotham to start pushing around low-level mob guys hoping to shake up the higher-ups in the organization because he believes his partner was killed for investigating the mob.  Martian Manhunter is soon joined by Batman because nobody beats up low-level hoodlums in Gotham without Batman's permission!

The great thing about this story for a not very long time DC fan such as myself is that this  gives the reader deep insght into J'onn J'onzz's character. I think all the stuff I've read with J'onn J'onzz is the post-Identity Crisis stories and the little bit he was in Injustice: Gods Among Us, and none of those stories really go into his character that much. Probably Brightest Day is the story I've read with the most character building for Martian Manhunter but I don't think I had any idea he worked as a cop for a few years. But the way Griffen and DeMatteis let you into J'onn J'onzz's head is by having him focus on Batman and all the trauma and Bruce Wayne experienced as a boy and while J'onn J'onzz is telling us about Batman we are learning about J'onn. It is really quite inspired story telling. I'm not sure what happened with the main feature but these eight pages and the cover art are worth the price of the whole book.

If you happen to pick this book up or remember it from back in the day, let me know what you think in the comments section down below. And please support this blog by visiting my YouTube channel Super Comic Fun Time! and liking and subscribing, and if you are planning on shopping at Amazon, please consider using my affiliate link here which links right to Amazon's Comic Books and Graphic Novels and shop from there.

You can even pick up a copy of Justice League International Annual #3 if you so desire. I do think the back up story is well worth the read if you can find it for a good price and not have to pay more in shipping than  the price of the book.

This book also looks like it will be a part of the upcoming Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 1 which is due out on October 17, 2017. Based on my reading of this Annual #3, I don't feel compelled to get this volume, but if you are a fan from this time or you know there are much better JLI stories than this, maybe there are a lot more gems scattered out throughout this omnibus. If you are a reader back from the day or a fan of this era of comics, let me know what you think because I really did like, no love the back up feature in this annual. Comment below or on my video, link up above.

Suddenly Moving Dream 20170930

I dream I am living in a very nice house with hardwood floors. I have dreamed this house before, entering it in winter in one dream. I do not know if I recorded that dream.

In this dream, I suddenly find myself moving and for whatever reason I am moving alone. Everything is on me to pack up the house. I call my mom wondering if she knows someone with a truck because I have to be out pretty quickly. This leads me to understand that there is some issue with money. I am moving to another state and I have to rent a moving truck which, in my mind, is going to be very expensive.

I also do not have any boxes or tissue paper for wrapping delicates. In the dream, I come across a few religious relics from my childhood that I feel like transferring to the new house. One is sort of a stained glass piece and the other is a holy candle. I don't feel much connection to my Catholic upbringing but these relics seem like okay things to take.

Then there are pieces of furniture, a lot of it is authentic furniture but this is a black walnut finished box that isn't very interesting looking and seems like it is artificial.

While I am packing I suddenly realize that I will be selling this house and where I am moving too, somewhere in Kentucky or Tennessee, the housing is about 1/3 of the price of this house. In my mind, my house is worth something like 330,000 and I will only need to use something like 100,000 to buy a new home.

But there is also time pressure and I feel myself going into a panic attack while I am packing.  This is when Scott Adams, the famous cartoonist and persuasion expert, arrives with my roommate who is a woman that isn't anyone I know but seems to be a composite of several women I have known over the course of my life.  Scott and this woman sit down in a window sill and they are eating ice cream and calmly and with a feeling of a sense of humor, watching me pack and panic.

I call out, not quite shouting, "I need some words of encouragement right now! I need to feel calm." And the woman and Scott Adams start intoning affirmations, "You are calm, Douglas." "Everything is working out in your favor, Douglas." While they are doing this, in the dream, I had been in a frenzy and the dream itself reflected this where everything was blurring but as they continue, I start to calm down.

I start to calm down a little bit and I notice them looking at my stuff, I ask them, "Is something wrong." And they make a statement like, "All of this stuff is yours, and when you got rid of a piece of furniture, you went to the store and bought a new one without even consulting your roommate."

I suddenly realize, I am moving and I didn't even think about my roommate and where she was going to live and that, in fact, she was my tenant, since I owned this house and I wondered how long she would need to live here while I moved and should I leave some furniture for her? There was also some thought of the religious relics, where they actually okay to take to the new house?

Then suddenly, everything seemed to resolve itself in an instant and as we three were realizing the resolution, I woke up, actually smiling, I think.

Since then I have been doing some work and I have been feeling a bit frenzied since then. I was just about to go and do my daily affirmations when I felt compelled to write out this dream first.

I'm just going to publish this right now without any proofreading because I feel that will capture most the spirit of the dream and when I look at this later today I will make any minor corrections and maybe add a picture or two. Especially if I come across anything that reminds me of the relics as that and Scott Adams' voice intoning affirmations are the things I remember most.

I also thought about dreams I had prior to moving into my current home. I had a whole series of dreams of coming home to my apartment, finding the door open and a bunch of stuff leading away from the door and I also had several dreams about moving into a new house.

So since I am working very hard on starting a marketing business right now, I am taking this dream as an omen that I am moving in the right direction.

I also realize I have Scott Adams' book in my Audible Library, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life and maybe I should move that up my playlist?

Since I'm mentioning Scott Adams, his new book Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter comes out October 31, 2017

Spoilers: The Mystery of Doctor Doom on Battleworld

The Mystery of Doctor Doom on Battleworld

When the Fantastic Four, well, in this case, Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, since Sue Richards nee Storm is pregnant at the time this story takes place and is left back on earth, first get to Battleworld it is revealed that they have witnessed Doctor Doom’s death and they don’t quite know what to make of his presence on Battleworld. One theory is that Doom is only a simulacra created from by the Beyond from the memories of Reed Richards, et al.

Within the books contained in the Battleworld Box Set, we do not learn of Doom’s fate until near the end of Secrete Wars II in Fantastic Four #288 entitled Full Circle.

Doctor Doom was in combat with a herald of Galactus called Terrax the Tamer. Terrax fuses Doom’s armor, rendering him immobile and then Terrax fights Galactus’ first herald, the Silver Surfer. That battle ends with both titans falling back to earth as a giant fireball that atomizes both Doom’s and Terrax’s bodies.

But Doom had already transferred his consciousness into that of innocent bystander, Norm McArthur. In issue 288, Doom has captured the Fantastic Four, which at this point consists of Reed, Sue, Johnny and the She-Hulk, who became a member of the FF when Ben Grimm stayed behind on Battleworld.

Doom is performing a magic ritual in order to call back his body which has been rendered into stardust but he finds he lacks sufficient power so he reaches out with his mind to find an even greater power to use when he summons the Beyonder. The Beyonder wants to kill Doom for Doom’s impertinence, this being very near the end of Secret Wars II and the Beyonder is pissed off. Reed talks him out if it pointing out that this is the point in time where the Beyonder plucked Doom from in order to set the events of Battleworld and that killing Doom now could have very negative consequences that the Beyonder may not even be able to survive being that he has made himself a part of the timeline.

The Beyonder concurs, recreates Doom’s body for him, and then hurtles him back in time so the events of the first Secret War can transpire.

Afterward, the Beyonder leaves and Reed rushes everyone out of the Latverin embassy surmising that post-Secret Wars Doom may make an appearance at any moment.

This leads into the final issue of Secret Wars II.

Rare Lucid Dream

20160802 Dream

Conditions: Last night was a Leo new moon

After about an hour of sleep, my reflux woke me up a little after 11:30PM.

I was up for about another 30 minutes watching YouTube as some of my sleepiness had dispersed.

Finally I fell asleep.

I dream I am looking at flowers from a distance. It is like someone else is there with me and I am talking to them, or perhaps only talking to myself, when suddenly I become aware that I am dreaming.

I say something like, “OMG! I'm having a lucid dream! Okay, don't blow it, just relax, find your hands,” and I look down and see the back of a hand, it might have been my dream companion or it might have been my own hand, only much older, 20-30 years older.

Then I look forward again and the flowers are still there and then I look back at my hands but when I look up again, half the dreamscape is gone, sort of crystallized. I either see myself or another dream companion half-crystallized and I realize I am losing the dream so I say to myself, “Okay, I'm losing the dream, I'm going to come out of it.” And I woke up rather easily, no fear, but a great feeling of energy. I decided to leave the dream because I thought it might lead to sleep paralysis if I didn't come all the way out of the dream and then I would be afraid.

Prior to sleeping, I did notice some activity in my root and sacral chakras and I did my best to let the energy flow without spasming, but I did spasm somewhat.

I also think the reason I was seeing flowers, and I seemed to be seeing them from some sort of covered bridge, an old fashioned wooden bridge, because we had watched a show on Monet on Netflix on Raiders of the Lost Art. This also put in mind to want to see the mini-series about the impressionists from 2006 and when I was reviewing the dream in my mind prior to writing this, I came to the supposition that I may have been soul traveling to Monet's garden that had been restored and open to the public in the 1980s.

Spider-man Silver on Black

Okay, not that almost everything isn't a first for me at this point but this is a first on several levels.

Last week when I visited the art store and was going through their clearance paint, I came across a tube of silver and suddenly mind mind was awash in visions of silver on black paintings.

I think the first vision I had was for Daredevil sort of three images with Daredevil facing in three different directions.

Also Spider-Man was another idea.

After I painted the painting paper black, I got stuck in what to do.  Other than the superhero idea, I thought maybe just having a partial skyline like that I observed in Chicago.  So I painted it black on Tuesday night and then let it sit to dry but then I got stuck on what to attempt.

Luckily, I was reading a comic book series at the time called Secret War from my Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars Battleworld Box Set and this particular series had different heroes set against a mostly black background.  I pretty much had decided on either Daredevil or Spider-Man and in the end, the Spider-Man seemed like the best one to go with.

So this is also the first action scene I have drawn or painted.  In some ways, I'm happy with this painting.  I guess for my skill level, it is recognizable and the silver paint ended up being harder to work with than I anticipated.  It was a bit thicker than the other colors I had worked with, but since I was going with a simple design, I could paint over lines or too thick of lines with the black.

Here's the cover art that was the basis for this painting:

Ego is Skeleton #2

Ego Is Skeleton 2

Well, my second paiting is almost done.  Who knows, maybe it is done.  I don't quite feel it yet. Maybe I want to do something with that tree?  Maybe I do want to add something that resembles cobble stones on the red path?  Maybe I just want to touch up the parts where the canvas still comes through.

Oddly enough, I like it much better when I see it in the smaller size.  It is much closer to the vision I have in my head.

In this version, I like the road side much better and I like the arch much better.  I also like the figure much better. I felt I got the effect of a wraith-like being while giving it some substance and a little more character.

I am going to post my pictures from my last blogpost just so that people who want to see all of the pictures together will have a one-stop.

Ego is Skeleton 1

Original source photograph

Original Self-Portrait #11

My First Painting!

Ego Is Skeleton #1

The seed has been growing in me for a while.

My Self-Portrait 11 had been placed on a wall where I saw it more and my eye kept getting drawn to it.

An inner voice urged me to try something with the same image.  And then I went to see the Van Gogh's Bedrooms exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute last Wednesday and Thursday (March 9th & 10th 2016). And finally the breakthrough to try paints overcame me.

Yesterday, March 12, I stopped in the local Hobby Lobby while running the weekly errands and bought an acrylic paint set and some paper for painting.

I took the kit apart. Examined the paints. Watched a little bit of an introductory video and then just jumped in. I decided not to sketch out the design and as a result, it is lacking the otherworldly distortion I would have liked to capture more of.  I also would have liked to create more texture on either side of the path.  Other parts I am quite happy with.  Even though this is originally based on a photo and then on a drawing, I think it evokes something in my imagination that created a feedback loop.

Here are the original photo and drawing:

Basis for original drawing from March 2015

Self-Portrait 11 from March 2015

Figure It Out! A Great Drawing Book for the Fledgling Artist

Well, it's been several months since I have updated.  It has been a very hard few months as I had a protracted cold and work has been very hard in throwing up those petty little annoyances that make getting any meaningful work done.  I only did one or two drawings in the meantime, usually based on videos from a very good YouTube site called My Drawing Tutorial which has a variety of tutorials.

I also received a human figure manikin and a hand manikin for Christmas and I spent quite a few pages just drawing the figures in different poses just to let my mind build new neural pathways.  But I was not finding satisfaction in my progress.

It finally occurred to me to see what kind of drawing books our local Hobby Lobby has (I don't know why it takes so long to think of these things) and I found a great variety of books including one called Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People  which is the opening photo for this essay.

One of the reasons I decided to get this book and another one called Draw 50 Famous Cartoons: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Your Favorite Classic Cartoon Characters is so that when I felt like drawing but didn't have a major project of my own to satisfy my urge, I could have some ready suggestions at hand.

So, starting Sunday, which was March 6, 2016, I drew my first drawing from Figure It Out! which was a male human face:

And I thought it turned out pretty well.  Yesterday, Monday, I had a full day off of work and no other chores to do so  I was able to devote several hours to drawing and drew these:

One of the main lessons I am learning from this experience of teaching myself to draw is the expectation of perfectionism.  Now intellectually, I know I shouldn't be able to draw perfectly right out of the bat, to kill a metaphor, but emotionally it is much harder because as an American who went through the public school system, we are psychologically damaged so that we are constantly measuring ourselves against our classmates and this causes us to devalue both ourselves and the work we can produce.  I think this kills our imagination and puts us into a low-self-esteem mode that makes us more manageable to government bureaucracies that enjoy managing our lives.  And we've been taught through experience that we aren't very valuable anyway, so why not let some controlling sociopath control our lives for us?

The other thing I've learned is that drawing can be very hard on the beginner, even though I spent probably 5 hours at the drawing table yesterday, most of the time is spent on the initial step of getting the oval shape of the head right.  But I have decided this is okay as you see, I drew the same image twice, once where I couldn't get the shape of the head right, or at least, to my satisfaction, but I decided I would draw it once to completion and then draw it again and I was very pleased with how the second attempt turned out.

This morning I was having the same problem trying to draw a head facing to the left and in that case I left my misshapen oval and decided to do a blog post.

So there's the update!

Self Portrait Number 17

Well, it has been months since I have produced a self-portrait.  Over the summer I had a greater interest in drinking a beer while reading from my Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Battleworld Box Set after work, but as the end-of-day sunshine became impossible to capture and the  weather worsened I have taken refuge in my drawing table once more.

This picture is from a video I made back in October. I had been looking for another project to work with my water color pencils and this screen capture had the rays of sunlight at my head making it fun to try and capture.

After Self Portrait 16, I was anxious to work with color again but every attempt I made was unsatisfying.  I began to get frustrated with nearly everything I was trying to produce and eventually just took to doing the occasional practice drawing.

After the long summer break, I had enough time between drawings that I went back to using the drawing upside down technique for this project.  Much of the anxiety that presented itself after Self Portrait 16 had receded and I just started drawing as if I had never taken a break.

I think Self Portrait 17  took at least two months from start to finish which points out to me the need to record the start date just so I know my own progress.

I did get some wonderful new tools for my drawing for Christmas, a brand new drawing table.  A nice LED light that stretches across the table, some flesh tone pencils, a male form drawing manikin and a male hand manikin. So since Christmas I have been practicing action shots with the manikin.

Now that I am at the end of the year and have produced 17 self-portraits and a variety of practice sketches, I am very glad I started on this last year.  I still need a lot of practice but I have drawings that I have drawn.  The idea that I cannot draw has been vanquished, it is only to figure out how to sketch certain things or control the ratios and perspective of what I am attempting to draw.  I look at the world differently now.  When I look at a person or an object, my mind starts breaking the basic shapes down and I am constantly asking myself, 'How can I draw this? How can I bring out the color in this?" so that this has been one of the most successful New Years Resolution-type things I've ever attempted.

Harry Potter and the Fourth Chakra

Story opens in the town of the Riddle family years after the Riddles are all found dead.

There is a pub called the Hanging Man which is a reference to the 12^th card of the Major Arcana and can also refer to Odin hanging from the World Ash Tree in order to learn the meaning of all the runes.

While there were no snakes in The Prisoner of Azkaban, at least not that I recall, in the very first chapter a very large snake makes an appearance as an old man eavesdrops on Voldermort and Peter What's-his-name, the traitor who lived for 12 years as the Weasley's pet rat Scampers.

The snake tells Voldemort the old man is listening outside the door and Voldomort has Peter bring the old man in and then murders him.

Then Harry Potter wakes up with his scar hurting, he has just dreamed all of this.

Harry thinks of who he can talk to about his scar. He rejects Hermionie and Ron after imagining what their advice would be and decides to contact his godfather, Sirius Black who is still on the run.

Since the third chakra is all about the heart, we find Harry's home life improving somewhat because he has discovered Sirius and the Dreasly family, knowing that Harry has a relation to such a person thought to be a murderer, treats Harry better.

Again, just like in the preceding novels, Harry's home life imrpoves based on lies. Not that it matters so much because the Dreasly family has no desire to know the truth

For the first time in the series we see Ron becoming jealous of Harry after Harry's name comes flying out of the Goblet of Fire.

First task involves dragons and the acquisition of a golden egg

Second task deals with with water and mere-people

Third task involves finding a way through a hedge maze to claim a kind of cup.

When Harry and Cedric both clasp the cup, I am assuming the cup is a loving cup with a handle on each end, they are transported to the Riddle estate

Cedric is murdered right away.  Cedric means "kind and loved"

So the Tri Wizard trophy is  a loving cup one handle grabbed by Harry the other handle grabbed by Cedric

Cedric's murder strikes me as a human sacrifice, that Harry led Cedric to be sacrificed so that Harry could escape Voldemort. This point seems to be proven when Harry can't accept the winnings from the Tri Wizard winnings. It's blood money that Harry finally gives to the Weasly twins so they can start their joke shop. So the sacrifice of Cedric, of “Kind and Loved” is transformed or transmuted into a joke.

So, how is my thesis going? Do the Harry Potter books align with the main chakra system? So far they seem to but in this book, the heart is blown up, in a matter of speaking. Kindness and love are sacrificed.

The serpent makes a reappearance at the start of this novel as Voldemort's pet snake.

Just to recapitulate from memory, there is a boa constrictor Harry releases from the zoo in the first novel.

There is a basilisk in the second novel that lives in the Chamber of Secrets.

I don't recall a serpent in Azkaban.

And Voldemort's pet snake is introduced at the start of this novel.  Voldemort's pet snake is named Nagini and while looking for an image for this set of notes, I found that Nagini is Hindu for the female snake gods.  A naga or nagini is also a person in possession of the Kundalini, or serpent life force.

Harry Potter and the Third Chakra

Note: As a reminder, these are my notes on reading through the Harry Potter series.  Plenty of spelling errors are to be expected and all conclusions should be considered soft conclusion or speculations. In this case, there was about a week's break between finishing the reading of the book and concluding my notes.

Lots of wolf imagery in the book so far. Don't really know if this has anything to do with the third chakra at this point but...

Okay, so this story starts with Harry at home wanting to get a permission slip signed by his guardians so he can go into this town that only third year students with their parents or guardians can visit at Halloween.

There is a news story about an escaped convict named Sirius Black, Sirius is the dog star. Black could refer to Saturn as black is usually used as a symbol for Saturn, the Dark Side, in most movies, like Revenge of the Jedi where Luke is clearly moving toward the dark side of the force.

Some fat aunt who also hates Harry is coming for a visit, if Harry behaves and backs up his uncle's story about the school Harry is attending, the uncle promises to sign the permission slip

Things go very bad as the fat aunt gets drunk and insults Harry's parents and Harry uses magic to causer to to fill up like a balloon

Harry figures he is going to be expelled from Hogwarts for using magic again and he runs away from home. While he is out on his own, he sees a big dog or wolf. He wonders if he has imagined this and feels in danger. Just then a bus for stranded wizards turns up.

Harry takes the bus to London

Harry find the minister of magic is already in London waiting for him. Harry doesn't understand why he isn't being expelled since it is the second time he has used magic while on vacation. The minister tells him not to worry about it.

Harry stays in a part of London that is magic friendly and eventually Ron and Herminie show up. Ron's rat, Scampers, I think, is finally given some book time and a orange cat is introduced as Herminie's new pet. The cat and rat immediately strain Ron's and Herminie's friendship.

On the train to Hogwarts, the children ride in a car with the new teacher of defense against the black arts, Professor Lupin, Lupin obviously refers to wolfs as Lupin is Lupine without the 'e.' It occurred to me if Hogwarts spent any time on teaching English etymology, half the mysteries in the book would be instantly solved just by the characters knowing what their own names mean.

While on the train, a Dementor attacks Harry for no apparent reason. The Dementor represents fear itself which finally brings us to one of the functions of the third chakra, the elimination of fear. Professor Lupin sends the Dementor off with a spell taht produces bright light, which again, third chakra, let you inner sun burn the cloud of fear from your inner sky.

Later this point is made implicitly when Harry and Lupin are having tea. Harry felt that Lupin things Harry is weak because in the Defesne class, Lupin doesn't give Harry a shot with the bogart, which is a being that presents itself as a person's greatest fear. Lupin assumes Voldemort will be Harry's greatest fear and doesn't want to freak the other students out but Harry tell Lupin that he was thinking of a Dementor. This impresses Lupin because it suggests Harry's true fear is a fear of fear itself.

Keeping up with the pet theme, one of the girls from the Huff & Puff house has a rabbit that is killed by a fox. This is part of a premonition the prophecy teacher gives to her class.

Oh yes, the prophecy teacher is introduced. Again, I don't know if this is related specifically to the third chakra but perhaps as we move up the chakras we come closer to being able to use premonition and intuition.

During the quidich match with Raven Claw, Harry is on his new broom, a Firebolt, which is the best of the best and even the game commentator cannot keep from talking about the merits of the new broom over giving play by play of the game, then there is a descriptive sentence about Harry catching a glimps of gold just before he is attacked by Dementors again. This time, Harry grabs his wand and casts a spell he has been practicing that shoots a bright silver-white light at the fear eaters. The gold is the color of the third, or solar plexus chakra. The silver-white light is the silver cord that shoots out from the solar plexus when one soul travels or astral projects but I have never considered it may be used defensively, whether by some external spiritual darkness or the inner sadness and depression most of use subject ourselves to.

In the previous quidich game against Huff and Puff, it was a stark contrast to the one descibed above: It was stormy. Harry was full of doubt. The entire team was upset that Slithering had begged out of the match due to Malfoy's alleged broken arm. And then just as Harry is reaching for the little gold ball that will end the match, the Dementors show up and, attracted by Harry's personal pain, they attack or feed off of him. He falls off his broom and his Nimbus 2000 blown into the wamping willow and is smashed to pieces which is why Harry needs a new broom. It was in between these two matches that a mysterious benefactor sends Harry the Firebolt and Professor Lupin teachers Harry the Petrolis spell that repels the Dementors and Harry also learns why they are attracted to him.

So the main point I want to drive home here, in relation to the third chakra, it is the confrontation and banishment of fear

After Harry captures the little gold ball, he is congratulated by Lupin on his mastery of the petrolous spell but then it is revealed that the Dementors were fake, they were Malfoy and his two cronies attempting to psych Harry out but instead the fear they wished to project was projected back on them.

Also, I think the appearances are made much of in the Raven Claw match. The sports commentator keeps talking about the benefits of the Firebolt broom and then there are the fake dementors.

I found the end of this book to be anti-climatic in spite of the time travel them. Yes, there is a time travel theme. I am not sure if that relates to the third chakra in any way but that would be an area of further study.

The thing about the time travel them in this book is it doesn't change anything. Hermione (finally looked up the spelling) has been using time travel throughout the book in order to take twice as many classes with the blessing of Professor McGonagall, I would point out here that her name is Minerva McGonagall so her initials would be MM, 1313. MM is also Roman for 2000. 1313 is also BB. Again, what any of this means is an issue for further study.

So, what happens as the climax is Harry and Hermione attempt to rescue Hagrid's Hippogriff. To the movie's credit, this is fleshed out much better in the movie than the book, but the Hippogriff is going to be put down as a dangerous magical creature because it has attact Malfoy. Harry had approached the Hippogriff in the respectful way and was able to befriend it. Malfoy thinks this means the Hippogriff isn't dangerous because he considers Harry a coward for fainting in the presence of the Dementors and the Hippogriff attacks Malfoy injuring his arm. So right here you have the whole lesson of courage and false courage.

Another big theme of this book is shape-shifting. Lupin is a werewolf and there is nothing he can do about this, he was bitten and so every full moon Dumbledoor has arraigned a place for Lupin to confine himself to so he doesn't hurt anyone. This makes Lupin feel isolated but he makes friends with Harry's father, James, Sirisu Black, and Peter Pettigrew.

In order to make Lupin feel less alone, the three other friends become shapeshifters also.

James turns into the stag

Sirius, of course, turns into a big black dog

Peter turns into a rat, again obvious in the last name Pettigrew, grew small.

One the night that the Hippogriff is to be executed, Harry, and Hermione run into Serious and Lupin. Lupin hasn't taken his potion which allows him to keep his sense of humanity while turned into a wolf and turns visciouls.

Scampers is revealed to be Peter.

Sirius is revealed to be innocent.

Nothing goes right and Harry and Hermione end in the infirmary and Sirius is being held in a tower waiting to be taken back back to Azkaban, which itself is a prision of time, I think. A and Z are the first and last letters of the English alphabet and I believe this to be a reference to Alpha and Omega, the Greek alphabet. Ba and Ka are Egyptian words that reference different aspects of the human soul so that could make AzKaBan Hell that contains the soul for all time. It's probably a hypercube.

Dumbldore knows Hermione has been using a time travel device and he advises her a Harry that “three turns should do it” Three again for the third chakra, and this takes Harry and Hermione back three hours where they rescue the Hippogriff and use it to free Sirius from the tower.

And from there the book just sort of ends. Nothing is really resolved. Sirius has to remain on the run. Harry has to spend the summer with the Dreazleys once again. I think there is one more confrontation with Malfoy but everything after the rescue of Sirius doesn't remain in my memory.

I would say that Harry learns to master his courage in this book. The Dementors can now be neutralized with the Patronus spell. Patronus comes from Patron and when Harry rescues himself from the Dementors the spell takes the form of the stage so at first Harry concludes it was his father but it turned out to be him. Harry has become a man over the course of this story which fits in with his being 13. In many cultures 13 is the age a child becomes and adult.

Me, as an Artist

As I continue on my journey, teaching myself to draw and use color, I have come to realize what a true study and discipline art actually is and is meant to be. I am constantly thinking back to art class in grade school and how the discipline of art wasn't really emphasized. It was giving kids colors and a task but either you could draw or you couldn't. You were either good at art or you simply had to tolerate it until you could go on to study real subjects in high school.

I remember in the second or third grade we had an art teacher who went off on a rant at the end of a class when were were tasked with drawing Santa Clause. The teacher may have emphasized that she wanted action in the drawing but didn't really explain what she wanted very well. The thing I remember most about trying to draw this Santa Clause is being stuck on the nose.

Drawing a nose was a big issue for me in my early years of school. Whenever I had to draw a face I would feel my nose and I felt my nostrils and nose formed a sort of soft letter “m” but when ever I tried to represent this, the nose always ended up looking like a pig nose. This was so frustrating to me and I didn't understand I was attempting to represent the most 3-D part of the face on a 2-D plane, and I understood nothing about shading, I doubt I ever heard the word and if I did I certainly didn't understand it.

So, when the teacher was going off on her rant about how all of the Santas were looking static, I was still stuck on the disappointment of having drawn yet another pig nose when the teacher stopped at my desk and held my drawing up as an example of, at least, an attempt to put some action into the drawing because my Santa looked like he was taking a step forward.

Well, this was because I also had trouble drawing symmetrically and I drew one boot in black marker that was smaller than the other boot so it looked like was taking a step forward to my teacher, whereas to me, it just looked like I couldn't draw two sides of a human body that looked the same and I actually felt worse because I was being praised for something I didn't intend to do. And plus, my Santa had a pig nose!

But the good thing about this incident is it had enough of an emotional implication that the memory has stuck with me and while I was reflecting upon this memory, that as incompetent as my drawings at that age were, I was attempting real art. I was attempting to represent a human nose as it was. I studied my own nose and I looked at the noses of my classmate and even though I couldn't not competently reproduce what I was seeing, I was striving.

Had an adult been able to explain this much to me and cleared up some other misconceptions I had picked up on kindergarten (the teacher had said that people had skeletons and we had to draw them not as Popsicle people but we had to include the skeleton, I thought I had to start drawing by drawing a skeleton first, then I drew the skin and then I drew the cloths and while it sounds funny now, I was very stressed out over this as it didn't make any sense to me) then maybe I could have gotten over that hurdle and started drawing a long time ago.

But these are the things we go through in this live. I don't think they are to be regretted. Yes, I would love if I could have been drawing sooner but I recognize that this is life and we are all going at our own pace and if it took me to 50 to make it past this block, well, at least I made it past that block in this lifetime. What else is there to do in life? Nearly everything, and perhaps everything that the culture or society or that very small group that festers within governments and universities that decide for us that which is important as you mastering yourself, overcoming those hurdles and pains that the culture makers have laid inside you in order to make you a more easily controllable citizen.

As you exercise your own discipline to study what you are in this life to study, as you become more of an artist in and of your self, the threat of would-be culture creators diminishes and you become more you without the drawbacks of egotism and narcissism, which are traps laid by the culture creators to keep us more keepable.

When I first started drawing, I was loath to label myself as an artist but through the process of observation, disciplined study, and self-discipline, I have earned that title. I am an artist. Regardless of the scale or skill level, what I produce is art.  If it touches other people, that would be awesome, if I am the only audience that can appreciate my art right now, that just as valuable.  We don't all start out equally nor do we all finish equally but we all have an equal chance of making something that is unique to who we are.  And that is the only equality there can be.

Harry Potter and the Second Chakra

Here are my nearly unedited notes on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and how it might relate to the second chakra which is also called the sacral chakra:

As the story opens, Harry's home life has improved but it is based on a lie.

Harry is no longer living under the staircase but his owl is kept caged up so he cannot communicate with his friends.

A strange elf appears to Harry begging him not to return to Hogwarts because there is a plot against him. The elf wants Harry kept safe because he credits Harry with defeating Voldermort and believes if Harry is killed Voldemort will return and so orchestrates Harry's second imprisonment within the Dweasly house as his uncle puts bars on the windows and imprisons Harry in a bedroom only letting him out twice a day to use the bathroom and feeding him through a cat flap.

Harry's friends use a flying car to bust Harry out, the car may represent the Chariot from the Tarot deck.

The flying car or chariot has to be sued again because the elf keeps Harry and Ron from boarding the train to Hogwarts. Of course, Mrs McGonagle later points out that the boys could have sent an owl with a message to let the staff know that they were stranded but considering the elf had already withheld mail from Harry's friends so Ron and Harry taking the Chariot again may have been their only option of getting to Hogwarts.

The chariot becomes entangled in the Whomping Willow.

The chariot comes back later in the book, it has become wild but still recognizes Ron as its master, it ends up saving both Ron and Harry from giant spiders

The braggart character only cares about worldly publicity and attention. All of his stories are true but it is other people who have accomplished them. He puts a memory charm on them so they cannot remember.

Harry finds Tom Riddle's diary which is blank. After accidentally exposing ink to all his books he notices Riddle's diary absorbs the ink. The diary ends up containing a memory of the last time the Chamber of Secrets has been open. But it is a deceiving memory.

The big bad monster of the Chamber of Secrets is a giant snake called a Basilisk. The Basilisk is a sort of Egyptian deity-monster that could cause death with a single glance but in our study of the chakra systems, it is also the Kundalini serpent making its way up the spinal column. Interestingly, an indirect glance in the novel causes people to become petrified like the gorgon Medusa is said ot have done to her victims and also interestingly the thing that stops enlightenment, the Kundalini serpent from making it to the crown is a calcified pineal gland.

Why Matthew McConaughey Might Really Be Santa Clause

So, I watched a video earlier today, 25 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Christmas, which you can click on below.

When I got to points 20 and 21(which the video should be set to start at those points, my contribution to the ADHD generation) my ears perked up as I honestly didn't know that Santa had 31 hours, due to time zones and whatnot to make his trip, but when the video got to point 21, I had an epiphany!!! You see at point 21, Jordy, the guy who made the video (be sure to give it a like), says that Santa's sleigh would have to travel at 4.7 million miles per second in order to traverse the globe in 31 hours. Which, is physically impossible, probably.

But here's the thing, I just saw Interstellar, last year's Christopher Nolan science fiction epic starring Matthew McConaughey. So in the movie, Matthew McConaughey enters a particular kind of black hole, one that it is possible to survive entering either because of science or movie, either way, when Matthew McConaughey enters the black hole, he ends up in a hyper-cube or tesseract. Now a tesseract is to a cube what a cube is to a square, it's a cube with an added dimension and in Interstellar, the tesseract gives Matthew McConaughey access to his daughter's bookcase at different periods of time, or more accurately, at all times at once.

In the movie, Matthew McConaughey uses this ability to communicate with his daughter and tries to communicate to her not to let him go into space, which attempting to communicate this is exactly what gets Matthew McConaughey to go into space in the first place. Eventually, Matthew McConaughey figures out that it is pointless to try and change his personal past and attempts to get his daughter a message at a different point on her timeline, one that isn't part of Matthew McConaughey's personal past.

So, the point of all these spoilers for a movie you really should have seen by now if you were going to, and would have if you had listened to the man in your bookcase, is that Santa Clause delivers presents via a hyper-cube!!! You see, the story of Santa Clause riding in a magic sleigh drawn by 8 tiny reindeer is actually a reference to the 8 cubical cells that that make up a tesseract so that Santa Clause doesn't have to go any miles per hour in order to deliver presents everywhere on Christmas Eve. He only has to enter the hyper-cube and deliver all of the presents to everyone everywhere in, probably under a minute. And he probably only had to do it one time for all time because time is meaningless in the hyper-cube!

And here's the thing about chimneys and Santa: They are only a doorway just like a bookcase is is a doorway, just like a book is a doorway. And who is the god of doorways? The ancient Roman god, Janus, for whom January is named. He is also the god of beginnings and endings and he is generally depicted as having two faces, one watchings the past and one looking toward the future but this god is the hyper-cube and the only way the ancient Romans had of wrapping their minds around the concept was a two dimensional representation of time.

So, therefore, Matthew McConaughey is Santa Clause! Or, at least, stands as good a chance of being Santa Clause as anybody else.

So, Q to the E to the D.

Harry Potter and the first Chakra

Currently reading the Harry Potter series for the first time.  For a long while I suspected there may be some relation to the seven books in the series and the seven chakras of the human energy system so here are my unedited notes from my first read through of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  And when I say unedited, I mean unedited.  I will fix names and such when I have a chance. Or not.  Maybe I will just use these musings in other ways:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Root Chakra

Harry becomes homeless

Harry is poor, or thinks he is

Harry is forced to live at the fringe of the Dreazley home having to live under the stairs, below the bottom

After Harry learns who he is, suddenly he has a vault full of money.

After getting Hogwarts, Harry proceeds to break rules that should get him kicked out of Hogwarts. First, after Neville is injured after misflying his broom and drops his Forget-Me-Not charm taht is swiped by Malfoy who is also breaking the rules and promises to put it high in a tree, Harry takes off after him. But instead of being kicked out, because Mrs Monicle sees him make an impressive catch, she gets him on the Squibbage team.

Later that night, after Malfoy challenges Harry to a wizard duel, Harry breaks the curfew rule and brings Ron, Herminie, and Nevillie along with him. Not only do they break curfew and wander the halls of Hogwarts after midnight, they break a further rule and end up in the forbidden corridor.

One of the reasons I was not attracted to Harry Potter right from the start is because I know there is no such thing as a “sorcerer's stone” and that what the title is referring to is the fabled Philosopher's Stone.

I honestly do not understand why Americans are fine with having things dumbed down for them. First Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone insults my intelligence and secondly it wounds my pride as an American.

I think most Americans are just as capable of understanding the concept and history of the Philosopher's Stone as any given European and so it makes no sense to me to talk down to a population, unless you want that population to stew in its own ignorance. But how does promoting someone else's ignorance help anything?

The same thing happened with Pan's Labyrinth which I think was a 2008 movie Guillermo Del Toro. I was very excited to see this film but as the movie went one I became increasingly disturbed by a lack of Pan. Why was it called Pan's Labyrinth when it was Faun who controlled the labyrinth? Listening to the commentary track, Del Toro said it was because the producers didn't think Americans knew who or what a faun was, but you know what? We can look it up.

This may be part of the lesson of the first chakra: Don't believe what your education system tells you. Suss it out for yourself! Risk getting kicked out of school. The school is there to serve you, not you it.

The Place of the Skull 44 88

Shocking information or synchronicity.

I am literally shaking as I write this down.

I watched a video this morning on an old pagan rite I had never heard of called Liberalia.  The video was a decode by YouTuber EnterThe5t4rz decoding the 44th episode of Inspector Gadget.

Inspector Gadget wasn't a show I had ever seen too much of as I had outgrown most of my interest in Saturday morning cartoons at this time although the few episodes I did see seemed more entertaining than most children's fare.

I did remember Inspector Gadget's battle cry which was Go! Go! Gadget! and then usually he would create a gadget out of his body.  I realized that GGG = 777 and I conveyed this to EnterThe5t4rz who responded back and asked me if I had noticed the skulls in Gadget's eyes when he is falling over a waterfall, which I had missed.

But since 5t4rz brought up the skulls it brought up the memory that Winneconne Wisconsin which I remember meaning something like Place of the Skull but before responding I wanted to double check the meaning and I ended up on the Wikipedia page where I was stunned, floored, overwhelmed to see that Winneconne is located at 44 degrees North and 88 degrees West. 

Other things that occurred to me about Gadget while I was writing this, he has two companions, Penney and a dog.  I don't remember the dogs name, I only remember Penney's name because 5t4rz mentioned it in his video but the dog can represent Sirius, the Dog Star and most revered symbol in Freemasonry but the dog also acts as the little white dog in the Fool card.  The dog that attempts to warn the fool he is about to go over a cliff.  Since the fool is caught up in his own thoughts, he doesn't heed the dog's warning and falls over the abyss but the dog, being loyal to it's master, accompanies him becoming a sort of conscience for the fool as he proceeds on his journey.

As the morning proceeded, 44's keep turning up.  I just want to get this up so I can share it with EnterThe5t4rz and put more work into it later if I need to.

Here is the video:

Here is a link to the Winneconne Wisconsin Wikepedia page (oh! Look at that: WWW)

Two Dreams Belated

20151025 Dreams

Swimming with Dolphins

I dream I am in some sort of suspense movie, there is some McGuffin some bad guy is after and one by one we are being cornered by his lackeys

[note: resuming after about a week]

When my character is cornered, I don't have whatever McGuffin the bad guy wants and I find myself knocked out. When I come to, I am on a yacht with some of the other people kidnapped and we look out and we are in the middle of the ocean and dolphins are swimming all around us.

I exchange glances with some of my compatriots, one a lovely woman, and the next thing we are all in the water swimming with the dolphins. I am a little worried because I keep thinking I am seeing sharks but they always turn out to be carved debris the dolphins have dreged up.

20151026 Dream

The Long Swim Home

I am recording this about a week after I had it. I haven't really dreamed, that I remember, since this dream.

I think I am a kid. It is confusing, at times I seem to be a kid and at other times I seem to be a very immature adult.

We are at a party, I remember wanting to go home, which is Madison in the dream. I text a great aunt and uncle of mine who have been long deceased. I don't know why I am texting them but I ask them for stuff and they seem to respond either materially or with advice.

In the dream I am in love with this girl and I want to take her out on a date so I text this aunt and uncle. I don't hear back from them. In the dream, the phone is older, pre-iPhone type razor phone with fireworks as the wallpaper. I don't hear back immediately so I proceed to head to the beach. Now I am a child of about 8 or maybe 6, I have a lot of childish boy energy and even though I feel older than the other kids when we are playing in the sand I am still one of them.

I climb a dune and the city of Madison can be seen, the entire skyline and there is so much blue because of some atmospheric condition. I laugh like a child and say, 'Look! Madison is Blue!'

I want to go home but the adult with us isn't ready yet so I prepare to swim. In the dream, we kids swim all the time from the shore to Madison, but it is quite a distance. Before going into the water I am putting my cell phone in a plastic bag and I have gotten a text back from my aunt and uncle: NOT YOUR MOTHER! Is all it says.

As I have finished recording this dream, I feel a sigh of release from deep inside, as if everything has been on hold until I've finally recorded this.

Dream of Art Fair and Balloon Ride

20151024 Dream

Me and my fiance are going to some sort of neighborhood art walk of some kind. Driving there is weird and the sequence repeats at least once. I'm driving and looking for parking, we come to a place where the road is blocked off for the art fair. I make a left turn up this hill that describes an arc around a big grassy knoll. We park and my fiance has to go and talk to someone else right away and so leaves me on my own. The parking sequence then repeats only this time there was rain and as I try to drive up the hill around the knoll the car slides to the bottom of the hill and gravity is off, the car is like a bumper car in a reduced gravity environment.

So I am on my own and I am walking toward an info table and the lady tells me there is an unannounced group that is about to perform just across the street. Well, I am the only person in this area, other than the information woman, and she is talking to someone on the phone trying to let them know where the performance is going to be. She ends up putting a Richard Nixon mask on the street the nose pointing the way.

I walk across the street and there is an alleyway where a bleachers has been erected. I see some props on the stage, one is a highly stylized vampire coffin and I can see an actor inside preparing and there are other props like this with people getting ready.

I ascend the bleachers and head for the middle of middle of the bleachers and I see two women who are performers walking down from the top row of seats. I'm a little worried they are going to bore me by talking about social justice stuff, I get this impression from the stage props although now I do not know what triggered this, and one woman asks me my name and then asks me about my brother.

I start telling everything about my self and how my brother's death affected me and I feel weird doing it, like I am giving too much information. She asks me about money and I explain I inherited some money and bought a house with it. The other woman seems judgmental about it, like “how can you have money and a house when there are so many problems in the world” while the other woman is not judgmental at all.

My fiance arrives and I ask her if it isn't incredible that this is going on, how we lucked into seeing this performance but she goes on a tear about how, in announcing the show, the organizers where splattering all over everybody. I don't see it that way, but I do wonder if they sent out a psychic message and because I was already close to the stage there was no need to hit me with it.

My fiance ascends from my lower left to above my right shoulder as the actors take the stage and the bleachers are transformed into a basket for a hot air balloon as we start to rise up into the air.

As we are flying were are not very high up yet and I can see houses in a neighborhood. We are gaining height but there was on roof that is scraped by the bottom of the basket. As I look down, I think I am looking at the roof to my house which is later confirmed because there are a pair of shoes in the back yard and the dream fills me in I was doing something to freshen the shoes and I had changed my shoes before coming to the art fair. There is a man sitting on my right and I exclaim to him that we have just gone over my house and I would have tidied up the back yard a bit if I knew we would be flying over. He says something to to effect that I shouldn't worry about it.

The balloon describes an arc and we are in an open field at the edge of the neighborhood. The man on my right directs my attention to an evergreen tree at the edge of a field and a road and there is a man standing inside the tree poking his hand out waving at us. It is a very white hand and then other actors appear on either side of the tree and start singing a song but we are too high up to hear them properly and I think about how amateurish the show is but, on the other hand, I am getting a free balloon ride.

Then I begin to wonder how they turned the bleachers into a balloon basket and how, since I was sitting in the middle of the middle of the bleachers, I ended up with such a good view at the edge of the basket. I feel bad for the people in the row behind me because I don't think they can see anything and they might not even be aware we are in a hot air balloon.