Fun Cat Video - An Engineer's Explanation of Cats

I came across this at Can't Keep Quiet while I was surfing Blog Explosion this morning and had to share. I love cats and this is a fun video.

Out of Body Flying

Here's a question I got in the email today: Sometimes this frightens me but I quite literally feel like I am flying. I would like to cultivate this ability, but have no clue how to do it. Any suggestions?

And, my answer: Baring any inner-ear disorder I'm assuming you mean flying while you are lying down, meditating or asleep. These episodes are called OBE's. Out of Body Experiencies. Here's an easy way to have one:

It might take a few times to practice or, since it seems like you're already halfway there it might happen the first time for you.

When you are quiet and in a place where you will not be disturbed, with the lights off and in the darkness lay back in a reclining chair, on a sofa or even on your bed. Now, imagine, with your eyes closed that you are moving the toes on your foot. But, don't move them. Just in your mind pretend that you are wiggling your toes. Stop and be quiet again.

Now your foot. Move it in your mind's eye, but don't actually move it. Now, your whole leg. Move it just a centimeter in your mind's eye. But, don't actually, physically move it.

Now, in your mind's eye swing your leg off of the bed, or the chair or the sofa. Let it swing down and touch the floor if you are near enough. But, don't really move it.

Now, bring the other foot down and swing up so you are now sitting up on the sofa, the chair or your bed. Except, you're really still lying down. But, in your mind's eye you have swung your legs around and are sitting up.

Open your eyes in your mind's eye (keep your physical eyes shut) and look at the familiar room around you. Get up and begin walking to the other end of your place. Walk down the hallway. Or, walk into the kitchen. You are safe. This is your place. Everybody is asleep or gone and you aren't going to be bothered by anybody. It is quiet. It is safe and you are only walking around your own place.

Next step is to open the front door.

Walk through the front door to the outside. If you live in an apartment building you're going to need to navigate the steps and then go to the outside, but somehow you want to, still in your mind's eye, move to the outside.

Next step is to take off. Just jump up and fly. Circle around your place. Stay low enough to the ground that you can see the street lights, the sidewalks and the streets. It's your neighborhood. You know where you are. You aren't going to get lost.

Now, look behind you. Do you see a sort of silvery cord that is attaching your flying around astral body to where your physical body still lies on the sofa? See, you're not going to get lost.

Have fun. Fly around some more. Practice zooming and zipping and soaring. When you are done just return to your body. Generally it happens pretty quick. You just think about it and Booop, you've back in body again.

No way can you get separated from yourself. No way can you get lost so don't let anybody scare you. I even took a trip from where we are in California to my sister's kitchen in Washington state in the blink of an eye. Pretty terrific and what a way to save on air fare!

Have fun.

For more info read Robert Monroe, "Journeys Out of the Body "

Thanks for writing and happy traveling.

The Real Blogger Status

I can't believe it! This is fabulous. I have been having problems for months with the powers that be behind Blogger and "View Blog". It kept pointing back to the old blogspot address and not to where TheSpiritMovedMe.com lives now. Every time I fiddled with the template or posted something new and wanted to have a look I'd have to open a new window and click on my bookmark for the site. It was really getting frustrating. I posted the question to the Blogger Help Group and would occasionally go back to see if anybody had an answer for me because Blogger sure didn't. In fact, I don't think they want to talk to people anymore. But, I just fixed it and it wasn't that bad at all. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! The Real Blogger Status solved all.

The Full House Cafe

I’ve got the day off today! To do something special we went out to breakfast right around the corner to The Full House Cafe. It’s at 3719 Macarthur Blvd in Oakland, CA.


They serve breakfast and lunch. Our breakfast was fabulous. I had the special of the day omelet which was 2 eggs, asparagus, grilled onions and jack cheese. DeeDude had a bacon and blue cheese frittata. We both had a side order of oven fried potatoes and whole wheat toast. Neither one of us could finish our meals there was so much to eat.


Interestingly, it was the guides who had suggested before we left to go to the restaurant that I bring my little change purse with me. Luckily, I didn’t argue with them but just scooped it out of my purse and loaded in the usual driver’s license and debit card.

Normally, I don’t carry around much cash. If it’s $5 that’s a lot for me, but lately when I go grocery shopping I’ve been getting $10 over the amount of purchase and have just been tucking it into the change purse. Lucky thing I’ve been doing that because when we went to pay they told DeeDude that they couldn’t accept our debit card. I pulled out what money I had, but it was $20 and our bill was $23. DeeDude took off for the bank leaving me at our table. Right then I realized there was a tiny zippered part in the change purse, zipped it open and found another $15. Voila…I knocked on the window as he was heading off for the bank to get him to come back in and we settled with our waitress…also, left her a $5 tip.

It wouldn’t have mattered that he had to make a trip to the bank. The bank is just down the street a bit, but it saved a bit of bother and that’s where being psychic helped to smooth it all out this morning. Plus, we had a really nice breakfast.

Now, I’m off to shop. I just need to be at the dentist’s today at 2:30 to get my teeth cleaned.

Learning From Martha Stewart

I could learn something from Martha Stewart. I’ve been taping her shows on our DVR and my time to watch them is on Sundays. In the show I watched this morning she and a staff member prepared some really interesting and yummy looking oven baked pork chops. I enjoyed seeing them use Panko breadcrumbs because I’ve been sort of clueless about that particular product and how they prepared them for use by tossing with a couple of teaspoons of oil and then toasting in the oven. I don’t remember the particulars about the recipe, but then, they posted it on their blog and it’s also in their latest edition of the Martha Stewart Everyday Cooking magazine.

The other thing that really interested me is that it was all really upbeat. If anybody has room to complain I’d think it would be Martha, but she’s got manners like my mother tried to teach me and that is to not let them see you cry. I mean, I’m not exactly a Martha watcher, so I can’t say that I’m glued to the media for any little mention of her, but she did spend time in prison. And, from all I’ve seen she has re-entered public life pretty well. So, I do admire her for that.

What brought this up are all the thrown away blog entries I’ve made over the last few weeks. I’ll write and write and it’s all crap. It’s mostly me complaining and whining and I suppose if you can’t give yourself room to bitch and moan you’re not being fair to yourself. But, I had real misgivings about posting it all online. Not that anybody closely involved would be reading any of it. They’re just not really interested and over the years I’ve come to feel pretty confident that my cover wouldn’t be blown because of that. It’s just that it didn’t feel right to do it. And, then I looked at my statistics yesterday. I'd like to see an increase in my return traffic at all my sites. So, my mind has been running along those lines and it occurred to me this morning that I may have been complaining too much of late.

Nobody likes to listen to somebody complain a lot. So, it’s the new me. Ta Da!

Here’s something else I picked up from watching the show. I was really impressed at the variety included on the show. It wasn’t all interviewing. It was helping. It was addressing issues that are common and constantly with us. Like how to shop for the best use of your money. And, another interesting thing was how to attend to everyday and sometimes emergency first aid for our animals. The bit about calming the cats by putting a clamp on the back of their neck that mimics a mother cat picking up a baby kitten. The kitten could be wiggling all over the place but the minute the mother cat picks her up by the scruff of her neck the kitten goes limp. It's sort of like the Vulcan death grip Spock used to use on the bad guys on Star Trek. I thought any binder clip we had in the house would be too tight, so I went and found a little plastic clothes pin and tested it out on Shelby. It didn’t bother her a bit. She just lay there quietly. So, I’ll remember that tip the next time we have to give a pill to one of the cats. Also, blowing on their snout the second you push the pill down their throat makes them lick their nose and Bob’s your uncle…they’ve swallowed the pill.

Anyway, I think with variety, with an upbeat approach and a desire to help other people I could make my own blogs and website better. And, although that wasn’t the content of her show it’s what I really learned today from Martha Stewart.

Dennis and Pauline

Here's a picture of Dennis and me shortly after we were married in 1976. Long, long time ago. Still married, too.

Shelby

I worked on Shelby's picture in Xara today. She's such a photogenic subject.

Sunday Stuff

Well, that was interesting. I started out with a blog entry to post either to this site or the other one and it kept getting longer and longer. It had gotten to be 3 pages long and I figured that was way too long to put on a blog. So, instead, I used it for a new page at Talking to Spirit. It’s been a long time since I created a from scratch, brand new page there and I feel really good about. The theme was what to do when crappy stuff starts happening in your life. How you really do have control over it and what to do to get some answers. So, if you are in any way interested you can visit my new Help Yourself page.

Otherwise, how’s life treating me? Well, I’m gradually making my way through the Ballykissangel series. I’m ready for season 6, the last year they taped the show. There are only 2 dvds in that season with 2 shows a piece on them. What an absolutely terrific show. Over the years I’d see a show here or there on the PBS stations, but I’d never watched the entire thing. We belong to Netflix and I found out I could watch the first two seasons from my computer, in the on-demand mode. The other seasons I’m renting from NetFlix. For $9 a month we get an unlimited number of dvd’s that we can have providing we only get one at a time. When you’re done you put it into their red mailer and pop it into a mailbox. The turn around time is usually a couple of days. The nearest Netflix facility is in San Jose, not that very far away from us.

Anyway, if you’re interested, “Ballykissangel” is a television show that takes place in Ireland in the village of Ballykissangel. It’s about a group of folks in the village and begins with their new priest arriving in town. There’s the lady who runs the pub and all the folks who drink there. There is love, there is conflict, these are just really interesting stories. I’m looking forward to watching the end of the show.