Appreciation means to increase in value.
Value is often relative – mainly to situation, circumstance, and perception.
How much something (or someone) is worth is very subjective. How much compared to what? (more…)
Blog
“One man’s trash is often another man’s treasure.”
Waste is what is left over, seldom used, and usually discarded (rather than retained and re-purposed). What is wasted is lost.
In nature there is zero waste. Everything is used for something. Everything has a use and a purpose. Everything has value. Anything not used as food or raw material for something else is converted to and used as energy. Actually, everything that exists is energy.
Energy can not be created or destroyed – but it can and often does change form. (more…)
I only saw the last 35-minutes of the 2008 (professional American football) “Super Bowl”. As it turns out, that’s where most memorable action and drama took place. I haven’t really followed or cared about football since I played, started, and “lettered” as a Defensive End/Outside Linebacker in high school. Football was only one of several sports I played. My favorite sports at the time were probably a toss-up between basketball, track, and waterpolo. I haven’t kept up or even heard of some of the current professional teams now playing (football), let alone any of the players. But one football player made a very positive and lasting impression – and he wasn’t even in the game! (more…)
We live in a “throw away” culture – that wastes much of its precious resources – including people and their potential to contribute. As a society, we are HUGE “consumers”. We not only USE far more energy and manufactured/material goods, let alone food, than we “need” (especially in proportion to our population) but we also produce more unnecessary “waste” than EVER before! (more…)
The most basic definition of MONEY is whatever COMMODITY (be it a product, service, or information) that is perceived to have the most EXCHANGE VALUE for what we desire. Getting what we desire often requires trading, bartering, or otherwise exchanging something for something else (be it our time, attention, knowledge, labor, possessions, connections, future possibilities, or even lives). At various times and places, people have used (the exchange of) salt, shells, beads, cacao, food, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, animals, and even women as money. (more…)
The internet is now a major medium of exchange – where marketers are adept at offering things with perceived value in exchange for as much money as you will give them. The most common offer starts out as “free” – and yet can result in a lot of money changing ownership.
Most internet markers follow a well-established sequence of upsell and downsell offers. Knowing this structure is a way for them to get more money out of you. It can also be a way for you to get more out of them while hanging onto more of your money. (more…)
On each side of WATER are BANKS – which contain and control the flow, or CURRENT. What most people think of MONEY is actually (fiat) CURRENCY flowing from and controlled by (“financial”) CENTRAL BANKS. Unlike MONEY, neither CURRENT paper nor digital CURRENCY has ANY inherent VALUE – or “redeemable” backing by anything that does. Federal Reserve NOTES are NOT MONEY. They are instruments of DEBT. (more…)
Thinking, for ourselves, not just critically, but at all, is not quite dead, but it certainly does seem to be discouraged – especially regarding “security”. (more…)
Everyone has a “mission” – whether they know it or not.
A mission is a task (that you are “sent” to do). It is your “dharma” (and your “duty” to do it).
Everyone has a “life affirming mission” – to “spread light” in their own way. (more…)
You don’t have to be The Lone Ranger, wear a mask, or even ride a horse, to appreciate the value of SILVER. Silver has been used and valued around the world for thousands of years – and is becoming increasingly “dear”. “Rein” in whatever you can get hold of – before the price of silver starts to run away.
If SILVER is your “horse”, you should ride, ride, ride. (more…)
There is probably a “formula” for just about everything. Like finding a “silver bullet”, many people seem to seek a “secret” or “magic” formula – for something. (more…)
Cooperation almost always benefits everyone more than competition – especially since everything (and everyone) is ultimately (and sometimes intimately) connected (in one way or another). To be (or to “go it”) alone is often to be cut off and dis-connected. Independence is actually a MYTH – pretending to Make Yourself The Hero (and ignoring most of “All Your Relations”). (more…)
“Ownership” is over-rated – and so is money. Access, use, and control are MUCH more “valuable” and important. It is usually better to “own” very little – but be able to “access”, “manage”, “control”, or have actual, physical, or virtual (temporary or “permanent”) custody of whatever is needed or desired (through properly “structuring” business and personal affairs, agreements, and ideas about “ownership”).
There are MANY different ways people who do not “own” an “asset” (or “resource”) can still benefit from it. (more…)
All “ownership” is only temporary. It is also almost always never completely, nor even really, “owned”. Perhaps a better word (in addition to access, use, and control) might be (having) “custody”. (more…)
Debt and spending keep money in circulation. Taxes merely take from and prevent people from keeping all their money or other assets – rather than keeping anything in “circulation”. Although fiat currency (which has no inherent value) is simply printed, minted, or entered in an (electronic) accounting book (and thus is created “out of thin air”), “money” (as a means of exchange) comes NOT from banks or governments, but from businesses and other people (in exchange for time, labor, knowledge, connections, or possessions). (more…)
There is a lot of talk about what is “fair” today. Well, what is “fair”? (more…)
Creativity and innovation is not about adding more pieces – but connecting, uniting, and integrating until something new emerges (and functions better). (more…)
Do you mind – your own mind – and your own busyness? What about others? (more…)
Gold may be valuable to store – but gold is not a store of value. Gold does have intrinsic properties that make it valuable – but gold does not have intrinsic value. (more…)
An item need not actually be broken to no longer be usable. Often this is by design.
Apoptosis is the biological term for programmed cell death. It serves a positive purpose. Without it, cancer results (in uncontrolled and often unending growth and development – that ultimately results in the death of the entire person rather than the replacement of individual cells). (more…)
Your neighbor may be a millionaire – without you even knowing it. Many millionaires, and even billionaires, live a far more frugal life than most people imagine. By paying more attention and less money, they are often able to keep, invest, and appreciate more of their money (than other people – who may even “earn” or start out with more than they do). (more…)
Practice does not make perfect. Practice can, however, make many things “permanent”. It is often less important how long, or how often, something is practiced than just how, since HOW is WHAT is being reinforced (in practice as a habit). Mental rehearsal is often as, if not more, important than physical practice. (more…)
Often considered the “poor man’s gold”, silver has been climbing the investment and demand charts since its discovery thousands of years ago in Anatolia, now modern day Turkey. Silver’s unique properties make it ideal for thousands of applications found in every day life. (more…)
Time and money are often “measured” and “manipulated” but both are just “non-sense” ideas. Neither can be seen, heard, felt, smelt, tasted, or experienced in any other way with our physical senses – which is how we perceive and interact with the world outside of us. Ideas (and “memes”) may be “contagious” but mostly exist only within our minds and not outside of our imagination. (more…)
