Wrapped Beautifully

What You Can Use To Reflect How You Feel Or Want To Feel Inside

I'm not exactly sure why, but  I have always bought scarves  that seem to reflect how I feel or want to feel inside: happy, beautiful, vibrant, and special.    Certain ones seem to be so perfect year after year for those formal important things like job interviews or weddings.    But, I also like to wear particular scarves for fun, casual things, like apple picking in October or going to a surprise birthday party.  Wearing a scarf is uplifting for you and sometimes even for the people you are with!

It's not that different for me when it comes to music.  I listen to music that reflects how I feel or want to feel inside.  So what I like in music is pretty distinct and diverse.   I am crazy about:

• "Early" music from these periods:
• • Baroque (1600 - 1750), which  includes the work of these composers: Bach, Handel, and  Vivaldi
  • Classical (1750 - 1825) which includes the work of these composers:  Beethoven, Hayden and Mozart
  • Romantic (1825 - 1900) which includes the work of theses composers: Brahms, Chopin, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky
• Beautifully structured rock. There are too many groups to name.  But it starts with early 1960s material (like the Beatles) and even continues through today (Lady Gaga!) 

Music in particular is so powerful when it comes to being able to affect how you feel.  I can have the most draining day at work.  But on the way home, if I listen to a piece of music that is hopeful, energetic, and/or positive, I'm just about guaranteed to be heading in that direction by the time the song finishes.

My dad studied music at Boston University, both voice and instrument (clarinet). He taught music  in public schools to children for many years in Massachusetts and Maine.  Although I learned to play flute and piccolo in the 1970s (and here I am in this concert photo- the flautist in the striped shirt),  I have minimal skill.

My sister Sharon sings and directs choral music and teaches music to elementary school children at a private school in New Jersey.  She went to Westminster Choir College, has sung at Carnegie Hall a couple times and sounds like Jessye Norman. It's such a gift!  The next generation of children in my family could yield a couple musicians. 

And if not, we'll make sure they will know how to enjoy and use music as much as their parents do.

Waste Not Want Not Is A Very Green and Good Way To Be

The prevalent historical definition of Waste Not Want Not is “wise use of one's resources will keep one from poverty”.  I would like to propose an alternative green definition “waste not want (or need) less (going forward)”. 

 

I never was a fan of throwing out or tearing down anything for the sake of getting something new.  Something new isn’t always better.  A lot of times it isn’t as well made and there won’t be any sentimental value in it.  See what you think after reading this green article.

Do You Realize How Much Money Solar Panels On Your Roof Could Save You?

I know that it is good to be and go green, reduce our carbon footprint, etc.  What would make this goal really attractive to the masses and me?  Reduce some painful cost I’m currently absorbing right now, every month.  Make it obvious.  Give me a break even point that hits fast.

I researched photovoltaic (solar panel) technology recently and made a 5 point checklist to help me decide whether to get solar panels now or not.  It really makes it very clear how to proceed given a particular situation. 

If you score well,  you should seriously consider  getting solar panels for your roof right now!  Every month that goes by with you not using this technology will unnecessarily take a lot more money out of your pocket to pay for electricity.

Slowly but surely early adopters of creating solar energy at and for residential homes are increasing in numbers. A couple of years ago, my mom even had solar panels installed on her roof. Not only does this system generate all the electrical energy she'll ever need, it will generate a surplus she gets credit for!

I pay on average of $250 a month for electricity. When you consider that bill could go away entirely for many years, that is a small fortune!

I've identified five factors that indicate whether considering this now makes sense for you.

First, the cost of buying or leasing a new solar panel system for your roof is a significant factor. The good news is, the costs here are coming down, fast. There can also be special pricing for new regions or at certain times of the year. And with leasing now possible, with some of these companies, you may find you break even sooner going that way.

Second, the government rebate program(s) available to you when you'd be able to commit to a system can amount to a major chunk of the cost. My mother's total rebate was 70% of $40,000. But every year what is available in terms of rebates changes and it also depends on where you live.

Third, the amount of southern exposure your home has is a huge factor. If you are on a north side of a hill, and your home has little or no southern exposure, this will probably not be something you can pursue now while at your current home. You may say, "Well, I have a field." The costs for a photovoltaic system that is stand-alone goes up exponentially, at least at this writing. This is not going to be financially feasible for you given what is currently available here and its cost.

Fourth, the contiguous amount of usable roof surface footage for the portion facing south is another factor. If you have dormers, it interrupts the continuity and will reduce your usable footage for the solar panels.

Fifth, the amount of daylight and sunny days your region gets annually on average is key. If you live in Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon, for example, the numbers may not work out for you based on where the technology and cost is at today.

I worked with both Solarcity and Sungevity this summer. Both are very professional and will work closely with you. With their help, you'll be able to answer each of these items. Note: They even work with existing satellite image data of your home (and roof) to be able to give very accurate preliminary estimates of what they'd think they'd be working with, given your specific situation.

There is one more thing to consider which is different from the 5 factors I've already covered. It has to do with your electrical consumption. Now, some of you may say, "Why are you bringing that up? Any excess you don't need you'd get credit for, etc. " How a credit is handled may be different depending on where you live. My mom, for example looses any credit she has accumulated at the end of the year. I'm told, however, some utilities in some parts of the country will actually cut you a check and pay you directly for the energy on a regular basis.

Also, even though I had a south facing house and roof, the usable surface area was not that significant. The system that could be installed on my roof could only accommodate about 30% of my electricity needs. My break-even point would be just 3 years. But, because I wasn't getting much of my bill paid for, I want to hold out for more efficient photovoltaic technology that has a smaller footprint. It's a calculated chance I'm taking. The technology may take 10 or 15 years to become available. Or, maybe it will be just 5 years! It was a 15 year lease I'd be locked into. I simply want to keep my options open for right now.

My situation does not mean that getting into solar panel technology isn't perfect timing for many of you! I know it is.

Feel Beautiful and Therefore Be Beautiful

Did you know that when you feel beautiful you become beautiful?  There are four  things that you need to do in order to make this work.  The first one is a surprise to a lot of people. It's finding and actively pursuing your passions. 

Passions are those things you have an extreme interest in.  They reflect your personality, your curiosities and what you can seemingly effortlessly get joy from. They can easily fill you up and sustain you when you are running on empty. They help bring out the best in you and help you to feel happy inside.  When you feel happy, physiologically, it triggers many wonderful things, including becoming more physically beautiful, on some level.  This  article covers each of the four things I've discovered which will show you how to feel beautiful and therefore be beautiful.

 

Simple Way To Understand Our National Debt and Budget Deficit

Overall, we've have had a very good quality of life in this country  for 6 to 7 decades now.  And, I think we all take this for granted to varying degrees.  If we don't address our national debt  effectively soon,  the wonderful quality of life we enjoy in this country will be lost.   If people can understand a few important concepts related to this crisis, I think we can begin to do what we are able to do so well in this country of ours, work together to address the underlying problems and heal the situation.

At the end of  December  2011, the Treasury Department spent $148 billion dollars of our tax revenue on our national debt.  And that was ONLY an interest payment! To put it in perspective, NASA cost $4 billion dollars.  The  Department of Education cost  $17 billion dollars.  And the Department of Transportation was $21 billion dollars.

Our national debt is 15.5 trillion dollars.   Our total revenue annually is only  2.57 trillion dollars. There is no word or phrase that begins to describe just how disgusting this situation is!   

Total government spending a year is 3.83 trillion dollars.  The difference between 3.83 and 2.57 trillion dollars is 1.27 trillion dollars.  So, on top of everything else, we have a budget deficit of 1.27 trillion dollars for the year!  

In the early 80s our national debt was about 3 trillion dollars.  We had about 250 million people in the country.  At the time, I calculated how much this would be per person. It was $12,000 per person. Now, we are at about 310 million people. It's now $50,000 per person.   And every year we don't balance the budget and/or don't pay down the principal on the national debt, that amount goes up, significantly.   Note that the national debt  is not allocated across people this way.  But, I think this view helps you to easily understand it.

I've been voting since the age of 18.  It is such a wonderful privilege.  Not everyone in the world is able to influence how their government is run.  Unfortunately, most of the candidates we can vote for today seem to care about their political power and wealth more than getting our precious country on a solid and healthy track. 

I think it's counterproductive to point fingers at who might be more to blame for how we got here. I also believe that each of us needs to take some responsibility for where we are right now.  What matters now is to address this effectively NOW.  If we don't, the price will be the quality of our future.

We need to take drastic action on a number of fronts.  Here's MY  six suggestions.

Note: This site contains the detail for a lot of the data I used here: 

http://www.federalbudget.com/

Got Cherokee?

It should be possible for Elizabeth Warren to prove her Cherokee ancentry.  The DNA technology available today can test for this.  Results are available in a matter of days. DNA Tribes is one of a few organizations I've heard of who can provide the testing.

Here are my six suggestions for how we might be able to fix our country and its politics:

Note: These thoughts are rough around the edges and need to be challenged and refined. I believe, however, it's this kind of creative thinking that can allow us to solve our incredibly serious problems.

First: Toss all Political Action Committees (PACs). Elected officials must fairly represent the wishes of all individuals not the wishes of only the very wealthy and corporations.

Second: Have term limits (only one) so we can avoid the problems that come into play with reelection campaigns. And limit all campaigns to a specific, very nominal yet appropriate budget which only the government supplies.

Third: Require federal fiscal budget to be balanced (via a constitutional amendment) every year. Want to understand our fiscal budget deficit better? Read this.

Fourth: Replace our overly complicated tax code with a simple flat tax. I think Ross Perot proposed 17%. And Forbes is doing the same now. It's fair for everyone.

Fifth: Because our annual spending is 3.83 trillion, there is no simple and easy solution for paying down this black hole of a national debt we have created for ourselves. Even if we were to throw a full 25% of our annual spending or upwards of 1 trillion dollars at this, annually it would take over 15 years to pay it off. And, I know that we are not in a position to do that, not even close. So, here is some really out of the box thinking, that needs more consideration and certainly constructive feedback from you!

Legalize marijuana. According to NOML (which has a site by the same name), Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in this country (alcohol and tobacco are ahead of it). Approx. 100 million Americans have used it at one time or another. Approx 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year. And approx. 14 million people use it regularly.

NOML also says marijuana is a lot less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. About 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. And over 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. Contrast this with marijuana which is considered to be nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose.

Business Week's web site has an article: Legalize Marijuana for Tax Revenue. It starts with "The entire U.S. should follow California's lead—introducing referendums to make marijuana legal, thereby putting the current criminal drug producers and sellers out of business and enabling government to collect tax on pot sold via legitimate channels."

Want to know more about our national debt? Read this.

Sixth: Have a viable plan to go back to the gold standard (or something similar). Printing and spending money that is only backed by gold (vs. nothing) will let us reestablish and maintain the integrity of the dollar.

We do not want to loose our international dollar standard. A number of sources believe that this is at risk now, because of our seemingly "out of control and irresponsible" printing of US dollars. It appears that if we loose this standard, we loose control we've been enjoying since the early 1970s. Here's more info on the international dollar standard. Loosing this could all by itself drastically and negatively affect our quality of life going forward.

 

Housecleaning Time Saver No. 1

We eliminated the attic in my 1930's cape and cathedraled the ceiling.  What was dark and dank is now bright and full of light.   There are now  exposed beams and a paddle fan where cob webs and darkness once loomed.

Now, dust settles on the beams and the paddle fan.   So, periodically, they need to be cleaned. I really don't want to have to drag a huge ladder into the house for this.  You can buy a telescoping paddle fan cleaner.  And, it does loosen any caked on dirt that may have collected on the paddle fan.  But it really doesn't eliminate the dust (in fact, the dust it loosens mostly gets flung into the air instead of being captured by the paddle fan brush bristles :   ).  

Now, the new Swiffer 360 duster  is a wonderful thing indeed.  And although there is a telescoping feature, it can't  be extended enough to reach my beams and paddle fan.  So, I just decided to get out the good old duct tape and fasten the Swiffer 360 to the end of the paddle fan cleaner (which reaches these high places). 

Lough and behold, this little solution let me clean both my paddle fan and beams fully inside of 10 minutes without throwing the dust into the air, but capturing it in the swiffer fabric (I did go through a few of these.... it had been quite a while since this cleaning was last done   :      ).

So for those of you with paddle fans &/or exposed beams, "Try it, you'll like it!"

 

Can Facebook Be Cliquey?

I was a bit of a loner in my youth.  I had no desire to run to one specific huddle of girls at school recess.  Oh, the poor girls who got caught up in that.  If they were ever ostracized, it was devastating for them. I didn't fully realize at the time, I was witnessing cliques in action and how hurtful they can be.   Here's my ezinearticles.com article on this. 

My Annual Post Christmas and January Activities

Let's face it, after Christmas is over, we can feel a little down.  Two things I can do in January really help me get over it.  And, they are things I learned from my former husband.  Yes, sweet, lovely things can come out of unions that don't last a lifetime!  

The first activity is creating Christmas present tags out of the Christmas cards received.    Even if you don't feel you have any artistic ability, you can absolutely do this.  It takes no time at all and it's quite fun. 

The first thing I do is survey all the cards.  Of course the ones with family pictures get put into a different pile (they replace last year's pictures that are posted in a collage in the office). 

There are ones that don't have a lot of interesting things going on.  Sometimes the colors, textures and patterns let them become nice tags.  Or,  they just aren't interesting enough and aren't used at all.    And then you have the cards that have a lot going on.  It's typically some kind of winter or Christmas scene.  And with these, you can often get multiple tags out of one card!

The key is to center on the central object if you have one (like a wreath, santa, horse drawn sleigh, etc) and figure out beforehand where will the back side of the tag come from.  It's ideal when it can be above or to the left of the central object for a tag.   Here, the fold will be just above or to the left of the central object.  If you are worried about your centering and cutting straight lines ability, just use a ruler and a pencil with an eraser to get your centering correct and lines straight.

It's not that you can't make a tag when the back needs to be to the right or bottom of the central object, its just that it wouldn't open in a standard way.  If I really love the tag, I will allow this, or maybe even make a tag out of two card sections by doing some cutting and pasting. Of course, if the tag is just a neat design or texture, you don't have this problem (you will be able to have it open with the fold on the left or top).

The percentage of cards that end up being usable from year to year varies a lot.  This adds to the fun!  When next Christmas comes, and you can use them as tags on presents, you'll see that they can really make wonderful accents for your gifts, especially when you match up the tag with the wrap and ribbon. Note that this is a fun activity to do on your own or even with children (just make sure you use the safe/blunt scissors).

The second activity is especially wonderful on a snowy or very cold day when you are relegated to the house.   It has to do with developing a very special ability that you probably thought you are either blessed with it or you aren't.  It's drawing.  I told Peter when we were just dating how much I  loved to draw.  But I only took one art class and that was in high school.  Although I got As, I thought that I didn't have much natural ability.  I was sad and disappointed about this particularly because I knew both my mother and great grandmother had a fair amount of artistic ability, and both drew and painted some very beautiful things.  

The next thing  I knew, we were on a field trip to an art store. Drawing paper, pencils and erasers were bought, as well as the most wonderful book there is on drawing.   It will show ANYONE how to draw and how to draw well.  It's called Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain.

Honestly, it is remarkable how quickly this book gets you to develop skill here.  If you have any interest at all in this, you have to get this book!  You will be so thrilled and amazed with what you will be able to do. 

Here is the first drawing I made (as I was reading the book).

 

My biggest challenge now is not learning how to draw, but giving myself permission to take the time to learn and practice.    I always seem to have other priorities that "must" be taken care of first.  Otherwise I feel guilty for indulging.   Take a look at the dates of the drawings. Years can go by before I draw again!

 

But, as with riding a bike, once you develop some skill here, you have it for life!

Get out there and draw!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does Your Life Reflect Your Core Values?

I have been a self-help junkie for the better part of 30 years.   We had very little money when I was growing up.  So, we had to resort to low-cost, resourceful solutions to whatever we were working on for school, 4-H, neighborhood kid projects, etc. 

I was at the local public library so much to do various kinds of "kid" research that, Mrs. Bennett, the librarian put me to work on the card catalog and putting books away in their proper place, when she was backed up with returns.  It shouldn't be a surprise that I discovered encyclopedias at the library.  I grew to love them so much, that although we had no money whatsoever, mom bought us a complete World Book Encyclopedia set followed by Encyclopedia Britannica a few years later.  These were expensive.  They took years for mom to pay off.  But they were great to have.

This was in the 1970s when there weren't any computers of any kind at home. Only Fortune 100 companies had multi-million dollar computers for  their back-end accounting systems, if they were lucky.   We were so fortunate to have reliable information at our finger tips at home.  It allowed you to start learning about whatever you were curious about as soon as you were ready to!

Of course in high school and college, there were a lot of books you had to read.  At some point in my mid to late twenties, I started to read books on the things that interested me independent of work and school.  They included  alternative remedies for degenerative conditions, dressage (a form of horseback riding), flower and vegetable gardening, and also matters of life, heart and soul. And it was in this last area that a lot of reading, pondering and discussion has occurred over many years. 

In my career, I ended up specializing in and being a consultant for software engineering effectiveness and efficiency, at a number of these Fortune 100 companies.  I realized over time that work organization, planning and execution concepts that are often foreign to these big boys, are commonly foreign to individuals as well. Just substitute life for work. 

A picture is worth a thousand words.  So, a one of a kind graphical model and corresponding set of tools began to emerge in my mind and on paper for how a person could adequately pursue having their life actually reflect what they really care about.  It doesn't matter who you are.  When you step back and deliberately do this, things change.  It might be barely noticeable at first.  And over some time, it's often dramatic.

Bottom line, your life will have more moments of happiness and joy!  And, this is simply the result of you  taking control, where it is possible to, and making continual tweaks to your plan and priorities based on new information coming in. Yes, certain things at certain times are out of your control.  But there are areas and things that can be changed.  And this will affect your life in very positive ways!

This material is brand new and is now available as printables (downloadable PDFs) via Etsy:

https://tinyurl.com/y9gtk97t

 

COVID19 Testing Incomplete & Misleading If Don't Use One of These Techniques

Covid19 testing is incomplete and misleading if we are not (1) getting a baseline of a complete population or (2) taking true random samples of populations whether those are at the state or region/county level.  

When you consider what President Trump and the state governors are planning in terms of how the states will open up using three phases, its crucial that they are working with valid data about what a given state or parts of it are dealing with at a given point in time.  Either you take a full baseline of a given population (everyone in that population) or you take true random samples (which let you characterize the population somewhat accurately). And, it would be best to know these 4 things:  (1) who has not had it, and of those with it, (2) is it active or (3) inactive now?  And, (4) did they have symptoms when it was active? 

I just put these numbers together for New England and NY and NJ.

As you can see, the percentage of people tested in each of these states ranges from only .9 % (NM) to 2.8% (NY and RI).  In all cases, we are running essentially blind.  How is that?  Well, in all cases, the data being used is  not a full baseline and its not random samples.  So, for example, MA has not tested 98% of its residents.  And the 2% that it has tested is mostly the symptomatic people.  We believe at this point in time that a fair to significant percentage of folks who are asymptomatic are actually carriers! They are NOT being accurately reflected in these numbers.  If there was a full baseline of tests or valid random samples, they could be.

We know that we don't have the testing capacity in place to take full baselines of populations right now, in highly populated states at least.  So, we must take valid random sample baselines. I have not heard that any state has done that (at least yet) even the states with much lower populations. If this is not done, our economic openings will be both poorly and invalidly planned and therefore executed and set backs (delays in opening a region or state)  will likely be rampant. 

 

 

If You Feel Beautiful You Will Be Beautiful

As a woman,  I have learned over time there are certain things that truly help you feel beautiful.  I have also learned that when you feel beautiful, you really are beautiful (from the inside out and therefore, the outside in).

There are so many things that can affect how you feel about yourself.  For me, there are very specific areas that contribute to my overall sense of well-being and beauty.

Me as a young woman riding my horse in a parade

I almost look at these things as Feel Beautiful account deposits.  The more of these you have and are actively working on, the better you feel about yourself, the more beautiful you feel, and the better able you are to cope with whatever life dishes out to you:

1. 1). Finding an actively pursuing your passions on a regular basis.  You may be surprised at just how helpful this is.  It is a major mistake in life to not actively pursue your passions.  Passions are essentially things you have an extreme interest in.   Passions show your humanity.  They reflect your personality, your curiosities and what you can seemingly effortlessly get joy from. They can easily fill you up and sustain you when you are running on empty. They help bring out the best in you.  They help you to be regularly happy, and to feel beautiful, somehow.
   
   It’s interesting. Isn’t it?  Discovering and spending quality time on your passions affects you very deeply and positively.  Every fiber of your being benefits from it.  Don’t loose sight of this.  It’s one of those elusive “silver bullets”. 
   
   Passions vary from person to person and can change in intensity through an individual’s life. Some of my passions are:
   
   
   1. Balanchine-style ballet choreography
   2. Flowers and gardening
   3. Horses/dressage
   4. Music- including Beethoven, highly structured (classical) rock & ballads
   5. Rare scene and artistic photography
   6. Sailing
   7. Tennis
   8. Timelessly beautiful clothing
   9. Travel (especially to European cities, mountains, coast lines and islands)
   10. Vintage sports cars (that have amazing lines and handle phenomenally well)
       
       If you can only pursue one passion  in a given week, even if it’s for just ONE HOUR, you are doing OK.  Don’t beat yourself up.  There will be times and seasons where you will be able to spend multiple hours and even days on this and other passions.    Just make sure you do a little bit every week when times are tough.  It will be your lifeline. 
       
       

2). Being very proactive about being and staying physically and emotionally healthy and in top condition (when possible).  Believe me ladies, I understand the challenges here.  I don’t, however, care what you feel you have stacked against you.  The reality is, if you are gentle and patient with yourself and make this a priority, you will feel beautiful from it.  Some of this gets harder the older you get.  Some of it gets easier. You just need to be continuously adjusting your approach and managing your morale. This will change (and drastically improve) your life including cause you to feel beautiful.

3). Being spiritually on a path to find the truth for why we are here and what the hope is for us for what we accomplish while here.  There is such a wide spectrum for how individuals respond to this one. Ever since I can remember I have been very curious about this subject.   I do have specific, evolving, beliefs, which I’d like to think that with every passing year align more fully with the truth.  They have come from the continuous study and challenging of information that has been made available to me in a variety of forms. If there is a genuine message to us for why we are here and it includes a specific hope for what we might accomplish while here, I do not want to be ignorant of it.

4). Operating the principles learned via number 3. This, like everything else here is, of course, a personal choice.  I will say, I personally feel more peace and joy in my life when and as I do this.  Let me add, baby steps here are huge.

That's it!  Give it a go.  It works, honest!