This blog is a posting of my surface thoughts and musings, and some would say a brief reflection of what is inside my head at various times – and that, as they say… is that (my personal opinion). That said, I reserve the right to change my mind. This is not gospel. This is not social media and honestly, your opinion is just that – not my opinion. The reason that you won’t be able to comment reflects that last statement.
Why did I call my blog “Tao and Zen”? I was heavily into tai chi at the time and wanted to understand the Tao (also known as the Dao) more to help gain some more insight into Tai Chi. As I started down that path, I realized that I really didn’t need it and it was more about philosophy, point of views, and living your life. The Dao is very deep and is rife with contradiction at every turn – just like life. As you will read, like everything else – nothing is ever really black and white, there is a duality and contradiction with everything, and this really isn’t surface thoughts but insights on my feelings and what I really think about things.
My online nickname was Rat, and my pen name is Ratpuke7. My computer friends called me Rat. However, none of my actual friends call me Rat. This blog is semi-anonymous, and I make no references except for what pleases me, which may be good or bad, depending on my and your perspective (remember it’s my opinion). I always get asked a couple of basic questions. The answers are as follows: My nickname came from the cheesy, early AOL days and was my screen name. A friend of mine gave me some logic – that was: pick 2 weird words that were easy to remember, followed by the number 7. Why the number 7? It’s not an even number, it’s easy – one digit, and sounded random to me. Yes, my regular name was available, but I realized that there was some value in anonymity. Secondly, no, rats cannot puke so there really can be no ratpuke.
My goal was to be a fulltime artist when I retire. Ideally, I’ll start down that path and get that business up in about a year. (It was supposed to be 2 years because of the economy, but it’s back down to 1!) Currently, I’m researching and actively moving in that direction. At some point (slowly), I will link this blog up with my business, but for now – meh. I wanted to transition to a full-time artist when I retire from IT. It’s up to the creator and it’s based on my health when that happens. Update: I am working on my photography with a limited travel itinerary (shelved for the foreseeable future due to personal reasons) so instead, I am learning some of the nuts and bolts of my camera and the manipulation of graphics. On the camera side of things, I am going to start photographing and focusing on my Czech vase collection and post them in a linked gallery. I am also working on trying to learn acrylic and acrylic wash paintings. However, I am still actively involved in watercolor painting. Who can tell what the future holds?
All I know is what an old friend used to say (he was a large influence on me) :
“Inch by inch, life’s a cinch.
Yard by yard, life is hard…”
– Bill Waldner
Who am I to argue this sage advice? Yeah, I know he was probably quoting someone else. But who really knows who first said it?
That said – speaking of the arts, the things that motivate my creativity… I love colors … specifically colored glass – in all it’s forms and iterations. I love stained, mosaic, cut, blown, molded, formed, free formed, fused, painted, tumbled, art glass, and specifically Czechoslovakian Art Glass. I love the different design era’s – art nouveau, art deco, arts & crafts, I love the prairie style movement, I love the natural woods & natural colored materials – pine, oak, walnut, cherry, brass, bronze, copper, chrome, lead, tin, silver, lapis lazuli, amethyst, all things colored gem stones, onyx, butterflies, grasshoppers, marine fish, flowers, dragon flies, and I love anything that combines these things. If you know me, you’ll know that my home décor reflects most of these tastes. I also love modern, but not too ascetic. I’m kind of an eclectic guy. Somehow, in my mind, everything works together. I don’t know why; I can’t explain it. I love life drawing, painting, photography, huge sweeping landscapes, macro photography, black and whites, pastels – both standard and oil, pen and inks, watercolor on rough paper, oil on canvas, prints, watercolor and acrylics on Yupo, glass, paper, or canvas. I love organic objects. I enjoy and revel in the present.
What else drives me you ask? I am religious (comparatively) but I don’t believe in pushing my religious agenda on you. I believe God gave us the freedom to choose. My belief is that it will either save you or be your undoing. It’s really up to you. I am conservative by nature. That said, I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I typically don’t like social media; I think it’s an excuse to troll with anonymity and be the asshole you could never be in public. I did re-sign up for Twitter since Elon bought it and renamed it “X”. I finally did recover my original account. I had deleted my Facebook account because of basic trust and privacy issues, but then had to resurrect it because it was the only way I had to communicate with some groups – wtf? I refuse to put any pictures or comments on it though – I have more than enough here. I hate someone that would sell their own mother to make a buck, so I don’t completely trust Facebook to this day. That said, I believe in human nature, therapy, introspection, meditation and that we are all flawed and imperfect. I love to read and I really love to learn new things – it’s what drives me. I love to listen to music, any music, all music – It’s a huge part of my life and is kind of like the whip cream topping of life! I am becoming more tolerant of country music and enjoying it more. Also, I went and saw Garth Brooks in May 2022. That was a big thing for me.
If you’ve been following me, I started learning Dutch via Duolingo in 2020, but some world events had me switching to Polish (my peeps). After that, Swedish was my “go-to” language, and I blew by my Dutch and Polish scores. Recently, I’ve ditched Swedish, and I am on to Russian and even surpassed my Swedish scores. Russian has been like an old friend. I studied it in college. However, I’m considering going back to Dutch – as a country they seem to have gotten their head out of their proverbial arse. I do like checking out new languages. It’s interesting seeing what words are similar and how there are similarities in languages that I would have considered “different”.
While this past year, I have been enjoying the fruity IPA’s, specifically Bell’s “Hazy IPA” (rebranded as “Hazy Hearted IPA”). However, I find most IPAs are insanely bitter. Speaking of bitter (ha), I like to cook. Also, I like sweets. I did DNA testing in late 2015 via 23andme (RIP) and found out that the sweet or salty preferences were genetic. I love the arts, science, and math. I try to exercise weekly, when I can create time. Lately I have been on a diet and limiting my carbs to 150g. Biking in the mornings in general have been on the back burner. Two years ago, I got my new wheels (rims) put on by Richard’s bike shop and the tow hitch for the Subaru is on the back burner, so the rack is off and collecting dust in the garage – maybe next year. I am now on my 2nd iteration of the Garmin (Edge 530) and it’s also been shelved this year but have been religiously tracking my performance metrics with both Whoop and MyZone. My goal is to increase my recovery times and lower my resting heart rate to increase my fitness. My recovery – think HRV, has increased 300% on average, but since I haven’t had time to ride, my average resting heart rate hasn’t gone down much but is still a respectable 49.
If I had the extra time, I might like to study advanced type math again – mathematics being the language of science. I’ve studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geology in the past – majored in Physics (Materials Science) and Information Technology, with minors in math and chemistry – I have forgotten so much, it makes me sick if I think about it for very long. I think that the mental gymnastics are good for the mind. Again, this year I am going to try to get my telescope squared away for summer observing and I recently grabbed a solar filter for my SCT. I may post some astronomy pix if I can get out and get it set up. I like marine fish and corals except that I don’t have a tank set up now (I wish I did though – I envy the hell out of my bro for this).
I am finding out that while I like a crapload of things and since I find almost everything interesting, I am being forced to focus on what I want to get better at from a goal perspective. I just have to start thinking of my business and future. Also, as I read this main post from a phone the other day. it made me laugh at the scatterbrained, rambling scroll I created. Can you see the ADD at work? LOL!! Focus on exercise, cut carbs to 150g, listen to music whenever possible, when I have some free time – art, take photos when possible. I will need to rewrite and update this soon. I am I…am…fizzling…out…
-Rat