Solitaire's the Only Game in Town ... and it's in the Cards?

Skeptiko Podcast #489:
Dan Shukis, Cosmic Keys Podcast

So just what is "the game" guys?

And wasn't Jesus a carpenter, too?

Solitaire?-)

I used to listen to 'The Cosmic Keys' podcast until just before Scarlet left when it was starting to go all 'Red Ice' and now 'Skeptiko' seems to be heading that way, too.

Good luck going down that rabbit hole Alex.

Dreamland Podcast:
Why Evil Matters?

And may the Force be with you?

My Photo of an Orb ... Spider?

Yesterday morning when taking pictures of fungi on the tree stumps in my backyard, which I wrote about in this post -

Did All Mushrooms Come from Out of Space?

I almost ran face first into an orb-weaving spider.

They kind of look like a face-hugger from the 'Alien' movies when you see them hanging in their web centimetres from your face, like in the photo above.

I didn't know much about these spiders, so after my close encounter I looked them up on the web, pardon the pun:-)

They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forest.

"Orb" can in English mean "circular", hence the English name of the group.

The building of a web is an engineering feat, begun when the spider floats a line on the wind to another surface. 

My spider floats a line to my clothesline:-)

The spider secures the line and then drops another line from the center, making a "Y".

The rest of the scaffolding follows with many radii of non-sticky silk being constructed before a final spiral of sticky capture silk.

Oddly enough, this spider built its web right over the spot I had burnt my "hell money" the day before -

Ladybug Symbolism?

I then got curious as to what orb-weaving spiders were meant to symbolize and looked that up on the world wide web, as well -

"Each of us, in the center of our ‘webs’ are the drivers of our own lives and must take self-responsibility for what we weave within our world. 

Each thought, each word, each action creates a golden web like ripple that not only creates the tapestry of our life experience, but also weaves the field of the collective web of life.

The Golden Orb-Weaver teaches us to stay centered no matter what the world may throw in our webs and to look for the ‘golden strands of opportunity’ in times of turbulence.

A spider's body from the side is shaped like the figure ‘8’ (and also a spider has 8 legs) which expresses to us that there is no limitation to our webs, it is our own personal beliefs and mental constructs which create our own self-imposed boundaries.

From the Golden Orb-Weavers feminine essence we can learn from her graceful presence to embrace patience, the power to creatively solve any problem and how to resiliently create golden strands of opportunity in our lives during times of pain, struggle and loss."

Animal Spirit: Golden Orb-Weaver

I guess there could be a message in all that for me somewhere, especially with the number 8 figuring in that "spirit animal" message, as the photo I have of us brothers is on the steps of #8 at the house my Nan died in on my late father's birthday of the 8th of April:-)

The Nature of the Secrets of a Celtic Mystic?

Life is Beaches, Songs and Popcorn ... and Then ... The End?

If you have read Allison DuBois's book 'Don't Kiss Them Good-bye' then you would have read in chapter 12 about how important seeing the movie 'Beaches' was to Allison and her teenage friend Domini.

Allison's friend Domini died at the young age of 31 from cancer, leaving behind a daughter.

And if you have read Allison's books you would see how popular music plays an important emotional role in the lives of many.

Some songs even being seen as signs from the dead to the living.

What I learned from reading Allison's books was that we all have personal stories that we are trying to make sense of while we are living, and Allison is no different than any of us in the land of the living.

She to is trying to make sense of her personal story as she goes on living.

Every Story is Part Myth No Matter How True People Want You to BeLIEve it is?

The Crow Feather and the Willie Nelson Record?

The last record my late father ever played

It has 'Wings Beneath My Wings' on it as well:-)

I have a small record collection, but I rarely play the vinyl stored in my bookcase, because I prefer CDs instead of fiddling with records and record players.

As I wrote about in this recent post -

Less Is Now?

I've been doing a de-clutter of my bookcases to see what I feel like passing on to some others out there.

I used to have a fairly large record collection in the 80s, but started getting rid of them when I replaced them with a CD version if I still liked the old record.

I gave some of those records to my parents when I was into CDs.

And when dad passed away in 2016 my mother asked us kids if we wanted to take any of dad's records, otherwise she was going to give them away, as she didn't play records anymore.

I took back the records I had given them and didn't realize at the time that one of those records was the soundtrack to 'Beaches' which I had probably bought for my wife more than me, when that record was in the charts when we had seen the movie at the cinema.

Ironically the song that I'm sick of hearing played at people's funerals, 'The Wind Beneath My Wings' is on both the 'Beaches' and Willie Nelson records I have in my bookcase. 

Most of the records I have in my bookcase I have decided to hold onto for now, except a Charlie Musselwhite harmonica record and the 'Beaches' soundtrack.

I noticed on Wikipedia that the 'Beaches' soundtrack was released 3 days after I got married:-)

In hindsight my "soulmate" turned out to be my "brick" more than the "wind beneath my wings".

Don't get me wrong, the 'Beaches' soundtrack has a lot of good songs on them, but none that I want to hear until it's time for me to go:-) 
And while I enjoyed reading Allison's books they won't be going back onto my shelves and are heading to a secondhand bookstore near you maybe?

Who knows?

God and life work in mysterious ways don't you know?-)

Anyway, if I don't get rid of some stuff, I'll soon need a bigger boat.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, merrily merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream ...and a nightmare:-)

Life is just like a movie and an old Country & Western song at times it seems.

Spooked: Room 324?

I stumbled across this podcast called 'Spooked' and listened to an episode called 'Iconic' where film producer Daniel Noah recalls staying in the Stanley Hotel and playing with a Ouija board and becoming less of a skeptic in things that go bump in the night after he checked out of the hotel.

Elijah Wood, Michael St. Michaels, Daniel Noah, 
Jim Hosking, and Josh C. Waller

The Stanley Hotel - The Story Of Room 217/237, Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick and 'The Shining'?

Those Conspiracy Guys and the Ouija Board

I don't own the mini-Ouija board
anymore, not that I ever used it

Should I Use a Ouija Board: Yes or No?

Did All Mushrooms Come from Out of Space?

I listened to the 'Skeptiko' podcast featuring Niles Heckman this morning and heard him say the psilocybin mushrooms are thought to have come from out of space in some drug cultures, and I wondered if all mushrooms and fungi did?

Fungi growing on a tree stump in my backyard

And what about the edible drug-free mushrooms I put in my pasta?

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures?

A Finite or Infinite Path?

UPDATE: March 10th, 2021

New species of mushrooms could
 be sprouting in backyards?

Wild Mushrooming?

The 'Avid Reader' bookstore even sent me an e-mail yesterday featuring that 'Wild Mushrooming' book above.

I might buy it when I get rid of a few books that I'm reading now, as I don't have mushroom in my bookcases at the moment for more books:-)

Evolve with Pete Evans, Graham Hancoc‪k‬?

I can't believe that I would be promoting a Pete Evans podcast show on this blog, but I was lying in bed last night and I grabbed my iPad and searched Apple podcasts for any recent podcasts that Graham Hancock had been on in the last year or two.

There wasn't many, but top of the list was an episode of Pete Evans' 'Evolve' podcast which Graham was on.

Evolve with Pete Evan‪s Podcast:
Graham Hancoc‪k

Now, Pete is a fervent anti-vaxer and I am a pro-vaxer (but I'm not one to push it down people's throats), so on that point we are chalk and cheese.

But I am a big Graham Hancock fan, so we are on the same page there I guess, and the 'Evolve' podcast with Graham was a cracker.

Evans Almighty?

I think I need a glass of wine now:-)

The X-Files/Contagion/2020: WHO Writes This Stuff?-)

Pete even had a podcast episode with my mate Guy Lawrence, which surprised me.

Evolve with Pete Evans Podcast:
 Guy Lawrence : Heart Connection

Unfortunately, there was only 28 mins of that podcast with Guy for free and I ain't paying to hear the rest, sorry Pete.

Human/Animal Communication and Listening to My Own PiGS? (Part 2)

That reminds me that I still have Graham Hancock's fictional book 'War God' to finish reading.

500 Year Cycles?

Graham Hancock's Brisbane Talk (2014)

I couldn't help thinking that Graham Hancock in that 'Evolve' podcast of Pete Evans' seems to hold the same pessimism as 'Neuromancer' author William Gibson expresses in one of the more recent podcasts I heard him on in this recent post I wrote after finally reading his book -

Neuromancer, Coming to a Secondhand Bookstore Near You?

We're All Just Skeletons Trapped in Meat Prisons?

I also stumbled across a promising new podcast called 'UnchartedX' podcast with an episode featuring Graham Hancock, which also has a You Tube channel, so it might be best to view these podcasts rather than listen over at Apple Podcasts.

The Brisbane Lions beat the Gold Coast Suns

And with Graham talking about the Sphinx originally being a lion facing east to greet the rising sun, I thought it was ironic that my AFL hometown team the Brisbane Lions beat the Gold Coast Suns convincingly this afternoon:-)