AMUSETHEMUSES

Life is cyclical, the rotation of the earth, the orbit around the sun, the seasons in a year. Astronomy and geology aside, our lives also follow a sort of order in the chaos. 💜@AMUSETHEMUSINGS MUSES: #chaostheory #doodling #norhymeorreason

A lot of times things happen seemingly without rhyme or reasons, as if just frantic neurons and electrons bouncing around. However these plot points contribute to the greater Chaos Theory, where “within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization.” Everything is not as haphazard and out of control as it seems. Things happen in patterns, in cycles, in seasons, in a system or process of some sort. So sit back, relax a little, accept the natural (dis-)order in things, observe the process, and take the chaos in stride. In a nihilistic grander scheme, there really is no need for reasons for the seasons. 💜@AMUSETHEMUSINGS MUSES: #chaostheory #doodling #selfsimilarity #norhymeorreason

“We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.” Our bodies are merely vessels. The water of life, carried in clay vessels of all shapes and sizes to quench the thirst. The breathe of life, transferred in blood vessels to spark the synapse, pump the heart, and oxygenate the lungs. The precious cargo, shipped in ocean vessels to deliver from the Muses to the masses. 💜@AMUSETHEMUSINGS MUSES: #ihearttriangles #ihearttriangles78 #geometriclovers #doodlingart #rightbrain #philosophy #frenchphilosopher: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Last year’s theme was “letting go.” Letting go of my stale comfortable life of 7 years, the well-paying job, the Nob Hill apartment, the city of San Francisco, relationships, and Mari Kondo’ing a crap ton of possessions. Then sadly letting go of my car and beloved scooter, Buddy. The theme still carries over, now in continuous waves of acquiring the new, then the cycle of letting go of the old. A consistent lesson to never hold onto anything too tightly. To do so, would be like trying to grasp and hold onto an ocean’s wave. 🌊 It doesn’t work that way. The ocean cannot be contained or controlled. Instead, learn to adapt with the environment, to use the energy and momentum of outside forces, learn the timing in catching a wave, in maintaining balance in staying afloat and riding the wave as far as possible. But don’t be discouraged when life knocks you off your feet with major wipe outs. You need to fall many times to finally learn to get the hang of it. Get back on the proverbial horse, or, the proverbial surfboard. Allow for rest and recovery time. Sit, wait, observe. Don’t drown in scarcity mindset, afraid there won’t be more. Many good waves will approach again. There will always be more. More jobs, more relationships, more roommates, more apartments, more cities. They’ll come in waves so there’s no point in clinging so tightly to any one of it. Like when the old roomies told me they were moving out, I wanted to cling for things to stay the same. But if things stayed the same, I wouldn’t have come up on an even better living situation: Revamped living room, one artsy roommate, and the other a good friend who cooks for me. Score! But letting go isn’t just for the exterior world. Been mulling over letting go from the inner world too. Let go of trying to control everything. The outcome. Let go of what typical society expects of us. Let go of inflated expectations. Entitlement. Ego. #TylerDurden says, “It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.” So let go. Be free. What you’re holding onto is holding you down, holding you back. Let go so you can grow, move forward, and receive even greater things than you can fathom. ❤️08/08/20

When it rains, it pours -like New York summer rain! 🌧 Prime example, last weekend when me and the #MadMate @enachmusic biked to #MadisonSquarePark to view the #Manhattanhenge where the sunset perfectly aligned between buildings if you looked down a particular street during a particular time of the year #ichigoichie. After the failed sighting from being too cloudy, we sat at the outdoor tables and chatted. Then out of nowhere it started to rain, but in a #NYminute of extreme weathers, it not only rained, it POURED! We ducked for cover under the porous awning of #ShakeShack, the droplets pelted down foreshadowing the hectic week I was to have. My week, filled with interviewing handfuls of prospective roomies, scrambling for replacing the dropped candidates, to pressing for application submissions, to hosting an apartment tour, and to pushing management to hurry and finalize the lease already. In the midst of all that flurry, a referral from my old boss dropped in which lead to my scrambling to perfect my resume, tailoring my cover letter, to finally cleaning up my portfolio for publishing, prepping for a group interview, a one-on-one interview, and comping my skillset to proposition my rate. Whew. But to hop on the #caketrend in internetlands that @notkaranshah showed me, my week concluded in an upward trajectory worthy of a celebratory cake. 🍰💁🏻‍♀️ Roommates finalized. New job not finalized but at least my resume was forced to be ready and it’s a relief to know the real estate industry is still thriving despite the Covid dent on the economy. O yeah - then on the family front for my parents’ 40th anniversary, we decided last minute for a big family Zoom party which I offered to make the slideshow for. Then while putting my phone on a much needed timeout so I could decompress and recharge, I got 8 missed calls from my mom to urgently tell me the Zoom meeting got moved up and I’ll have even less time to prepare the slide. So yup. #WhenItRainsItPours. 💦 @AMUSINGTHEMUSINGS 07/20/20 MUSES: #mondaymusings #madmates #madtales #anewyorkthing #anewyorkstory #newyorklife

So in sales, the philosophy is to cast a big net, and from there, it’ll be funneled into actual conversions. It’s a numbers game, the more prospects you hit, the more sales you’ll get in the end. As some of you might know, I’m currently in the middle of the roommate funnel. I’ve casted my nets out on all the roommate apps, rental sites, and fb groups for my potential roommates. From those who respond, they’re funneled down to those who actually seem legit. Then of those, funneled down to those I like and matches my lifestyle. Then funneled down to a video interview. Then funneled to the finalists, the ones I vibed with best. (Video is important, it’s so surprising how different someone could be over text than in real life!) Then funneled to the ultimate tipping point of who really will commit and submit their application to the manager. If the application isn’t approved or the applicant backs out, then I’d have to start the whoooole funneling process all over from the top. Yay ha, how fun. But all in all, it’s been a learning experience. It’s always funny how people are such children who need to be shepherd into timely actions. I’ve carefully crafted my verbiage to guarantee deliverables and to safeguard myself. For example, first step is listing up front my desired deadline to make my selection by end of the weekend. That gets them motivated to send me a message right away. Funnel 2, send them the video and have them confirm they’re still interested. Funnel 3, scheduling an interview and putting the ball in their court to confirm they want to move forward. Funnel 4, placing a tight deadline for them to submit their application to management. Then tada! Either they back out or follow through. So far I’ve had one of each. And now back to putting the fun in funnel to fill the last vacant room. And although I say it sarcastically, I suppose in a way it’s all sort of fun. Its like hunting or fishing. And I got to talk to and meet new people, that’s generally always been fun for me. In the end, it’s also a good skill and reminder for later on for almost anything you want in life, just apply the funnel process. Anyway, wish me luck! 07/15/20

I have a new friend I met early this year who is quite on the logic-heavy side, and considers himself a pessimism. His asterisk to accompany that statement is he’s a *positive* pessimist. Meaning, he prepares for the worst (the second half of the quote to “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”) Because to be prepared for the worst means you’ll rarely be disappointed or left high and dry. Because if you’ve already imagined the most pessimistic outcomes, you’ll rarely need to reel yourself from a rude awakening. And if anything, expecting the worst outcomes will actually leave you feeling pleasantly surprised afterwards, positive even. And thus, positive pessimism. I had this thought about a month ago in May. Things had finally settled and nothing stressful needed to be tended to. But the thought crossed, reminding me memento mori, nothing lasts forever. And lo and behold, the roommate drops the news how the lease is actually up in a month and they don’t plan on renewing. Fuggg. My boat was rocked, but at least not too badly. I’d already gone though the moving process so many times this past year, so I know I could take this head on. Still a bitch, still stress-inducing, but definitely manageable and not too overly surprising. And so today happens to be my friend’s birthday. And with that, I toast to the reminder to stay fluid, “Be water, my friend.” Entertain the most pessimistic circumstances, only to feel positive about everything else around you. MUSES: #mondaymusing #mementomori #thistooshallpass

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (My Lord) I have a dream today. Martin Luther King, Jr (1963) MUSES: #blackouttuesday #socialjustice #onelove #martinlutherkingjr

Nora Ephron is a celebrated film writer and her philosophy is “everything is copy”. (Copy as in writing.) Meaning, all your experiences, feelings, thoughts, joys, fears, pride, insecurities, successes, failures, love, or heartbreak, to churn it into copy. Write about it, turn and churn it into art. In the recent storytelling group I joined, the leader would frequently emphasize the same sentiment, that every day and every memory could be a story. The thing about that is there’s so much to keep up with since so many little occurrences happen in a day! I have so much material to work with, but I suppose it’s a good problem to have. As a creative, I suppose it’s better to be overflowing with muses than to be baron of any. Now, let me just configure a system to best channel all of everything into copy, and to turn everything into art! MUSES: #creativeprocess78 #thecreativeprocess

Sometimes you just have to get yourself to pull the trigger, to make the jump, to put yourself out there. Sometimes you have to act like you’ve traveled a far distance and do the things you planned on your trip because you know you only have such limited time in that city. It’s just, how right now I’ve had an idea on my to do list for the longest time but it’s been continually pushed back. I’m reminded of all the times I’ve gotten great shots that I’m proud of to this day, and they were all because I had gone out, forced myself out of my comfortable laziness zone, grabbed my camera, lugged my tripod, and made appointments with friends to photohunt a certain landmark. Initially my general state is that of a calm moderate energy, I’m not the kind to be bursting with an excess of energy just waiting to burn. I have limited energy in which I like to conserve. But let’s say the times I’ve flown to LA or NY for a quick trip, my pre-planned to do list would include getting some shots. Once I’ve actually arrived in the city though, I still really would prefer to stay indoors relax or do something more chill. To stay comfortable. But I force myself because cognitively I know I do want those certain shots as souvenirs and that I only have a few days to get ‘em. So it’s NOW or never. And I guess the issue now is because I live here in NY and these landmarks will forever be waiting for me this week, next month, next year. What fallacy. Gotta force myself to emerge out the comfort zone...to get into the habit of always being outside of the comfort zone. As that diagram points out, it’s where the magic happens. It’s kinda like the performer with initial resistance, but once on the stage, there will be a rush of adrenaline unmatched by another. Or like the resistance of a skydiver in the plane, but get over the fear to finally jump out will actually be the most exhilarating, fun, and memorable thing they’ve done in their life. Same-same but different with arting. Let’s do this. Use the force. It’s now or never. MUSE: #creativeprocess78

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Sometimes it helps to slow down first, to sharpen the saw. There’s a parable in Steven Covey’s book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” about sharpening your saw before cutting the tree down. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” —Abraham Lincoln An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Measure twice, cut once. MUSE: #creativeprocess78 05/14/20

The creative process is like giving birth, pushing through. Begins with the impregnation of an idea, incubating and growing the idea until the point of making it real, bringing it into the real world- in which the resistance is painful and will stretch you like no other- but you gotta push through in order to birth an idea into existence. MUSES: #creativeprocess78 #thecreativeprocess #mindset #beinganartist

Just do it. Sometimes it’s better to just do it than to overthink it. Less thinking. More doing. It’s in the doing where you’ll learn and grow from. Especially in art, if it’s visual, it’s a right-brain process. Not a left-brain process. You can’t preplan every single brushstroke for the entire canvas. It’s about yes, having a general idea of the literal bigger picture, but it’s also critically about taking that first brush stroke- to SEE it, then adjusting, adding on accordingly. MUSES: #creativeprocess78 #thecreativeprocess #justdoit

Jealousy will drive you mad. Know thyself. Love thyself. You are wholly and perfectly made. Don’t be hung up on trying to be what you’re not, on being something or someone else, on wishing you were taller, a baller, or shot caller. It would be like Sharpies loathing themselves and wishing they were thinner, sharper, bolder, brighter, or chiseled. But we look at these pens, markers, or highlighters and see they are made exactly as they are, with specific purpose and unique abilities. Start with where you are, who you are, with what cha got. Know thyself, love thyself, then give thyself. MUSES: #itsyouilike #itsyouilike78 #lovethyself78 #jealousywilldriveyoumad #selfacceptance #selflove

You are wholly and perfectly made. Jealousy will drive you mad. Know thyself. Love thyself. Don’t be hung up on trying to be what you’re not, on being something or someone else, on wishing you were taller, a baller, or shot caller. It would be like Sharpies loathing themselves and wishing they were thinner, sharper, bolder, brighter, or chiseled. But we look at these pens, markers, or highlighters and see they are made exactly as they are, with specific purpose and unique abilities. Start with where you are, who you are, with what cha got. Know thyself, love thyself, then give thyself. MUSES: #itsyouilike #itsyouilike78 #lovethyself78 #jealousywilldriveyoumad #selfacceptance #selflove

It's you I like. The way you are right now. Down deep inside you, not the things that hide you. But it's you I like. Every part of you. Your skin, your eyes, your feelings. Whether old or new. I hope that you'll remember even when you're feeling blue. MUSES: #fredrogers #mrrogers #mrrogersneighborhood #itsyouilike #sharpie #postit #knowthyself78 #lovethyself78

I believe it’s really important to know yourself. Know what makes you tick, what fuels you, enrages you, drains you, excites you, or inspires you. It’s like having access your owner’s manual. Or a plant care guide. To know the watering frequency or sunlight preference. To know what carrot on a stick will get your ass moving. To know if you’re failure-adverse or success-driven. It’s important to know who you are and what you’ve been given, to know your potentials and limits. You could be a Ferrari but with an empty tank. To be present and be a routine tune up. To know appropriate self-care and maintenance, bespoke uniquely to you as unique as your DNA sequence. MUSES: #socrates #socratesquotes #sharpieart #sharpiedrawing #postitnotes #penmanship #calligraphy #typography #knowthyself78

What do you do when you’re out of inspiration, when you’re out of motivation? When your coffee buzz ran out, and what had you feeling on a high, now got you feeling high and dry? When you were feeling on top of the world at the top of the week, to now, feeling knocked down, tired, defeated. And you didn’t even get started yet! How are you so defeated even before you begin! I’ll tell you, it’s the ego, the projection of the future self acquiring what great accomplishment you so wish to attain, putting that much more pressure on yourself. It’s the entitlement in thinking you’re deserving of that which you have yet put zero effort into. It’s the comparison to others, seeing how far ahead they are in exactly the thing you want to be great at too and feeling discouraged you’re not there yet. It’s the fear of rejection, the fear of failure, the fear of the reality check. How was it that in the beginning of last week, you were feeling inspired, motivated, on top of the world, being on a high from your big fat pipe dream. As if the smoke from 4/20 dissipated to reveal itself as just that: smoke and mirrors, a trick on your mind. The sobering reality is you’re still on ground zero. Overwhelmed and discouraged because you want to be at the top of the mountain. You see others at the top. But everyone has started exactly where you were. Heck, if you had started three years ago, you would’ve been much further along. Just think of your future self 5, 10 years later looking back to saying you could’ve started now. Or even think of your future self 10 weeks or 6 months from now. The best time to start is always HERE & NOW. No matter how baby beginner and sucky you are. Suck it up. Suck up how sucky you are. And remember it’s about the journey anyway, enjoy the process! Focus on the present, put one foot after the other. And soon you’ll reach the end of the thousand mile journey. MUSES: #powerofnow78 #powerofnow #thepowerofnow

Be still in the power of NOW. I picked this book up ten years when #BordersBookstore was still a thing. To say it caused a paradigm shift would kind of be true. It was more like an initial puncture in the fabric of time in my mind, a concept fingering the tear to slowly rip the canvas wide open, to lift the veil so the third eye finally peeled at the true nature of our reality. The concept of time is that of a manmade one. There is no such thing as time, there is no future, there is no past. There is only NOW. The only Truth and reality is in the NOW. Yet we linger on so much of the past, simultaneously so paralyzed with overwhelming anxiety thinking of the future. Our minds are in the past and future so much, we are no longer living in the present. Key word: living. We might as well end the sentence there: we are no longer living, period. Because to live is to be fully present in the now. To observe all your sensations, thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. meditation to get to know yourself. Know thy self in order to express yourself. Start where you are, Use what you know. Journey of a thousand miles begins where you are. it’s only in the present where we can have control in @AMUSINGTHEMUSINGS MUSES: #thepowerofnow #eckharttolle #eckhart #eckharttollequotes #eckharttolleawakening #mindfulness #artistprocess #writingprocess #everythingiscopy #sparkingsynapse #powerofnow78