WeirdBlog.com

Justin & Rachel asked:


I know someone who once decided to replace all of the old windows in a house that itself was over 100 years old. He took out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) in order to finance the window replacement, and a contractor arrived on a Saturday to complete the job.

Does that sound strange to you? Of course not! When we need something today, especially a home remodel, we usually will borrow the money against our home, or pay for it with a credit card. That’s normal.

Of course, that’s not exactly how the story goes. See, this person is actually my grandfather. And instead of borrowing the money to replace the windows over the weekend, he saved enough money to replace 2 windows. When he had that, he called his contractor and had the work done. A few months later he had more money set aside and had a few more replaced.

Over the course of almost 1 year, my grandfather systematically saved money and paid cash for the work he needed to have done. Now, does that sound weird? Of course it does! You never hear about anyone in our culture doing anything that crazy.

But let me also ask you… how many millionaires do you know?

If you really want to become a millionaire, it is time you started to find out what millionaires do, and go about doing it. My grandfather has never financed a single purchase in his entire life. If he does not have cash, he can’t afford it, and thus does not buy it.

“I can keep up with the Jones’… it’s the payments I can’t keep up with.”

- Lawrence Losinski (my grandfather)

Tara Devlin asked:


What does it say about a culture whose media reports round the clock coverage of an entertainer who grew before our eyes from an adorable, talented child into a tragic caricature of a tortured artist?  For one thing, it says that culture needs a serious wake-up call about what it values as successful.

We are alive during a time in society that is the spiritual equivalent of the TV show “Supermarket Sweep.”  This was the old game show where contestants would have a limited time to run through a store stuffing purchases into their shopping carts, while menaced by monsters that stalked the isles.  The winner would be the contestant whose items would add up to the higher monetary value.  This premise may make for a fun 30-minute contest, but it isn’t a great model for a successful life.

While parents may tell their children that “happiness comes from within” or “it’s the thought that counts” when it comes to gift giving, the messages from our culture are mixed.  

We all like creature comforts, but there is a big difference between the pursuit of pleasure and the pursuit of happiness.   Happiness cannot be found in the ability to string together a never-ending list of pleasurable moments – it truly has to come from within.

The life and death of Michael Jackson speaks to this.  Here was a talented man who was rich enough to indulge all his whims and surround himself with innumerable objects of distraction, however bizarre or obscure.  Yet, all one has to do is look at his self-inflicted disfigured face to know that he was a man who self-esteem was seriously damaged.  

His penchant for plastic surgery speaks volumes about the pain he undoubtedly felt being in his own skin.  Of course, his money did buy him many willing accomplices to go along with a distorted plan that left his face looking like a puppet that was caught in a house fire.

Now we are treated to wall-to-wall media spectacle surrounding an emotionally ill, tragic entertainer’s death.  For days the coverage has dragged on and, not surprisingly, lacks any sense of true introspection that will actually add value to the conversation and move us forward as a culture.  Let me do my small part here and ask us to get some real value from the death of Michael Jackson by learning from the example that no amount of money can buy inner peace and happiness.  

This is a spiritual law of the universe.  When we try to find inner peace through outside validation, we add to our own suffering.  I actually had the opportunity to hear more evidence of this many years ago when I had the opportunity to listen to another extremely well-known celebrity speak candidly and openly about his personal life.  This man spoke of being in the depths of despair, sitting high up on a hotel window ledge, contemplating jumping to his death.  I remember thinking, “Man!  Here’s a guy with a fan club!”  Still the journey from the head to the heart is a long one and it is harder to put that knowledge into action – especially because so many people are suffering the same delusions.  So I spent many subsequent years still in pursuit of outside validation even though in my heart I knew I was on a quixotic adventure.

When analyzing the life and death of Michael Jackson we are confronted with more proof that we cannot accumulate enough things, or surround ourselves with enough sycophants to cure us if we suffer from spiritual sickness in our hearts.

Smart people learn from their own mistakes but wise people learn from the mistakes of others.  Let’s be wise people and not confuse pleasure with happiness.  The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime; and, departing, leave behind us, footprints in the sands of time.”  Michael Jackson leaves behind his footprints on American musical pop culture, but also gives us the opportunity to learn yet again that happiness is an inside job.  Let’s not waste our precious time devaluing our lives by pursing distractions to our own detriment, as all the money in the world cannot buy happiness or another day of life.

Thanks for reading.  Please visit me at Fandha.com – Don’t Go Into Your Mind Alone

Neoli Marcos asked:




In the mind of us humans, there is an intangible yet almost interchangeable border between dreams and reality. It is said that blessed are those who dream in color and great sensory detail, and especially blessed are those who vividly remember everything, or almost everything, from their dreams.

Others, however, may not be as fortunate. These people wake up clueless or confused, wanting to remember the night before but are helpless about it. Dreams are the doorways and trapdoors to our Unconscious. We don’t just dream just so we can have a leisurely adventure time during our sleep. We dream because it is our Unconscious mind’s turn to process everything we have experienced during our waking hours.

This is why dream interpretation is a very crucial act. By finding out the meanings of our dreams, we are doing ourselves a favor. We can’t help but make assumptions when it comes to “signs” in our dreams. From the olden days, dreams have been regarded as portents, as warning signs, as special messages, as promises of good things to come.

This desire to find meanings in our dreams is inherently in our culture. We are after all, meaning-makers. This is what separates us from other living things: the ability to make and derive meanings from everything. Honestly, have you ever met someone who has never read a single text from their horoscope, or even gotten curious about it? In their whole life? No one. We are forever curious, haunted, fascinated, and dependent on meanings and messages. Even something as trivial as a falling leaf or a passing cloud. This is called poetry. And what better fusion is there than dreams and poetry. The more complex our dreams, the more colorful are lives, we think.

Come to think of it, when was the first time you heard about dream interpretation and analysis? In fact, at an early age we were already exposed to this desire of knowing meanings in our dreams. Children are perhaps the most vivid and active dreamers. As children, we sleep at night and dream of lots of things, and the morning after we immediately ask our parents about these. Our parents will try their best to interpret our dreams as if they’re some kind of psychics. And eventually they will clear out our questions at some point.

What it is about the psychic realm, astrology, or even a basic tarot card reading that makes us treat them as such a basic, almost necessary, part of our daily lives? It’s their mystery and the act of finding their answers. Admit it: it’s peculiar trying to remember the world before them.

Consider this: you dream about loosing a tooth. Obviously, most people already know the meaning of this. Bad luck. But if you want to be sure and read it with your own eyes, you might search the Internet and find an appropriate dream interpretation for losing one’s tooth.

Here’s what you might find: “For one tooth to fall out, foretells disagreeable news; if two, it denotes unhappy states that the dreamer will be plunged into from no carelessness on his part. If three fall out, sickness and accidents of a very serious nature will follow.” Shock would be your first reaction. But, more importantly, your response should be to live carefully starting from that day. After all, we make our own good and bad luck.

Even though we are in a technology-driven world today where everything evolves fast, somehow from the inside of our body, we still have enough time for taking chances with a professional psychic. Whether we need an advice from love, career and life. Eventually their advices will neither make your lives better nor make it worse. It all depends on how you handle things and on how you apply them to your everyday life. Nonetheless, if you seek for the betterment of your life, it’s all up to you if you make it or not. You can’t force the fundamental meaning of life. It will all happen again in exactly the same way if you don’t learn from your mistakes. Dream interpretation does not offer happiness, nor instant change. Only enlightenment. In the end, it’s still up to you to take the right path.