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Travel Ideas

Travel ideas described below include the following destinations: Western Europe | Caribbean Sea

Western Europe

• Paris, France - While in Paris, I enjoyed a music festival, called Fete de la Musique, with musicians from all over the world gathering in venues across Paris. By venues, I mean I saw everything from rappers with microphones on street corners to drum circles on the Seine riverside. It was a different kind of art that moved me there, though. I appreciated the historical significance of the art works at the Louvre, but I visited a lesser known museum called la Musee d’Orsay, and that is where I found my beloved impressionist paintings.
• Champery, Switzerland - Champery is the name of a ski village outside of Montreux, Switzerland. Montreux is known for its world-famous jazz festival. Champery is situated in the midst of the Alps, with towering mountainsides that dip into Lake Geneva. A gondola ride will take you as high as you can see until you disappear in the clouds, at which point you could ski to any of the neighboring countries. Or, you can trek along rocky cliffs, hike naked in the woods, skinny dip in crystal clear streams…
• Venice, Italy - In Venice, I saw a wedding proposal taking place and snapped a picture. That day, I thought I heard someone call my name. When I hesitated, I barely escaped getting killed by a car. In the morning, on a hot day, I dunked my face in the water beside the island, and a few hours later I learned that the water I just rinsed in is the home of hundreds of years worth of sewage; Venice has a foul history of dumping its dumps directly into the Mediterranean.
• Rothenberg, Germany - Rothenberg is a walled city that is almost fully intact as it was in the medieval times. I visited the Medieval Crime Museum, featuring authentic torture devices and measures of discipline. The chastity belts were among the most interesting to me. They were like metal panties with a tiny almond shape to pee and a small heart cutout for the other. I kept thinking how important it would have been to measure the heart shaped hole, because if it was an inch off, it would have meant no escape for the aimless turds. Places like Rothenberg present a shocking reality of the way life was for people living hundreds of years ago.
• London, England - In England, I enjoyed the castles, jewels, weapons, armor, and other such things I had never seen outside of a Disney cartoon. With the Londoners’ taste for the macabre, you hear a lot of gruesome stories of beheadings and such. I constantly wrestled with thoughts of pain, suffering and lack of freedom in medieval times. It helped me to rediscover the loveliness of the world we live in now, and my mission to see art everywhere and help others to see.

Caribbean Sea

• San Juan, Puerto Rico - In San Juan, my friends and I swam in the ocean, riding waves barebellied, bodysurfing for hours under the moonlight. They were “incredible, shreddable waves.” The moon was a crescent shaped like a cup, and it looked exactly like the grinning Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. Then it disappeared. We swam for miles along the coast, and then walked miles back with nuts chafing from all the sand in our drawers.
• Virgin Islands - Islands in the Caribbean can be expensive, so you may have to be creative. For example, instead of paying $20 for a gondola ride to the top of a mountain, just climb the hillside – that type of thing is usually a perfectly reasonable option. I saw my first iguana on such a landscape. I could barely see it until a friend accidentally plunked it with a rock while trying to point it out, and the enormous lizard silhouette came plummeting down from the tree limb. It was a dinosaur for sure. At the top of one hill we climbed, we held conversations with parrots, and observed the nice, panoramic outline of the island with the ocean all around. The island was St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands, and St. John was swimming in the distance.
• Antigua - My friends and I refused to pay for anything we didn’t need, especially rides. Hiking on the streets on the way to the beach can be dangerous as hell, though. There are signs posted around every turn to remind people to drive on the correct side of the road, but there are lots of tourists and lots of accidents. On Antigua, most of the tourists from the boat we rode in on were getting hassled by some locals who wanted their money. But we longhaired visitors seemed to earn a little more respect. I felt like people thought we were like them, in some way. They accepted us, maybe just because we accepted them. One guy told us, “Hey, I understand. Not everybody has a lot of money.” We responded well to people like him, and he hooked us up with a ride to an absolute utopia, and also picked us up at the end of the day. It was the Beach of Eden. It was such a perfect beach that there were no words to describe its beauty or the feeling, so, we had to make words up. My friend called one particularly nice color “violetropolis.” The same friend also invented the word “splashkabeezy,” as in, “We’re about to get splashkabeezied.” There was one word I found that sufficiently described this beach on Antigua, and that word is “bliss.” Yes, I looked it up in the dictionary just to make sure, and it means, “great happiness, spiritual joy.” Bliss was in green-blue water, endless white sand, and deep-brown sun bakers. We joined a group of gals in the middle of the beach and sang a song a cappella with them.
• Gabby, a cabby, showed us about the local people on St. Lucia. He said, “We’re all right. That’s how the attitude is around here.” He introduced us to some things local people do for fun, as well as the local music, and the food. Kassava bread was a cookie-like meal; soft on the inside and dense on the outside. Later I found out that the basic ingredient is Kassava bread is the flour that comes from ground up manioc root. We tried cherry, ginger, and some others and they were tasty and inexpensive. Kassava bread was entirely different from the cassava melon, of course. Each cookie weighed 2-3 pounds, and one of them could probably feed a small family through a whole day. Gabby showed us about fresh cashews and the pear-like fruit that they grow from. We also tried “sweet sop,” a spiky green heart-shaped fruit, and delicious mangoes. Later, we made fresh mango rum drinks.
• Dominica is called the Nature Island of the Caribbean. The only thing more incredibly beautiful than the environment there is the experiences you can have while enjoying it. We swam down a crevasse, practically like a cave except you could see the opening 20-30 feet up. We had no idea what to expect, and the farther we swam, the more incredible it became. At one point, a dread locked man jumped right down the narrow crack from the top and landed perfectly in the water. At the end of a 20-minute swim, an awesome waterfall greeted us. It was almost too powerful to swim up to. Kyle swam so fast into it that he bonked his head on it, and then he and Jordan climbed straight up the waterfall. I couldn’t believe it. My friends yelled over the roar, “Cabe, you gotta check this out!” Past the first waterfall was a second waterfall, even more amazing than the first. Plus, we were able to jump off the first waterfall from above. Unbelievably, the best fest was still ahead of us. The next place we visited was a huge waterfall with a pool of water so clear that the only thing that distorted our underwater vision was a wave of ripples. It was like we were floating on air. We could see the fallen leaves so distinctly, red, green, and yellow. We swam through the waterfall to a cave on the other side, and we floated like jellyfish in the pool. I kept thinking…I could stay here for the rest of this life, and make a living somehow as an artist or carpenter. I learned the, “We’re all right,” attitude and lifestyle that was evident everywhere on the islands.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Political Ideas

Political Ideas

• Stand up for your rights, unless you’re left-handed, in which case you can stand up for your lefts.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Friends & Family Ideas

Friends & Family Ideas

• Immerse kids in French- and Spanish-language audio recordings, playing it in the background while they sleep, possibly. That way, they can hear the sounds and learn the rolls and articulations, entirely subliminally.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Recipe Ideas >> Recipe Ideas

Recipe Ideas

Flavorful Faves | Mexican Plates | Italian Dishes | Asian Cuisine | Breakfasts

Flavorful Faves

• Incredibly Edible Chili – Ingredients: 4 c black beans, 4 c diced tomatoes, splash of wine, cumin seeds, cilantro, chili powder, garlic. Instructions: (1) roast or toast the cumin seeds, if desired; (2) warm it altogether in a big pot; and (3) love it.
• Susanalana – Ingredients: 32 oz vegetable broth, 32 oz water, 2 bunches broccoli, 3 cloves garlic, 1 cup wild rice, 3 tablespoons coconut oil, sesame seeds, basil, ginger, crushed red pepper, onion powder. Instructions: (1) simmer the rice until softened in vegetable broth, water, and coconut oil; (2) add everything besides garnishes and simmer for 15; (3) allow to cool; and (4) top with crumbled tortilla chips and cheese, if desired.
• Butt Nut Soup – Ingredients: 1 butternut squash, 3 medium potatoes, 2 cubes vegetable bouillon, 4 c water, 2 tbsp olive oil, garlic, salt, basil, parsley. Instructions: (1) mix water, oil, vegetable stock, squash, and potatoes; (2) bring to boil; (3) stir in seasonings; (4) reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Makes 6 servings.
• Split-Pea Soup – Ingredients: 1 c peas, 3 c water, 2 tbsp olive oil, vegetables (carrots, celery, spinach, etc.), garlic, basil, ham if desired. Instructions: (1) cover peas with water; (2) heat oil and vegetables in a different pot; and (3) drain peas and add to the pot.
• Pajama Jambalaya – Ingredients: 2 c dry pinto beans, 2 c brown rice, cumin, oregano. Instructions: (1) bring beans to boil (in the morning) and leave on the stove to soak; (2) ten or twelve hours later, strain beans and add 2-3 times as much water as there are beans; (3) simmer; (4) roast cumin and then spice up the pot; (5) add rice and cook until rice is nice and soft.
• Lindsagna (Lindsay lasagna) – Ingredients: 1 lb. eggplant, 28oz stewed tomatoes, 15oz tomato sauce, 2 c black olives, 6oz tomato paste, 1lb mozzarella cheese, 16oz cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 16oz lasagna noodles, mushrooms, spinach, basil, garlic, oregano, parsley, pepper. Instructions: (1) bake ½” eggplant strips on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes on each side; (2) stir tomatoes, olives, and spices into a sauce pan; (3) simmer 30 minutes; (4) combine cottage cheese and eggs; (5) layer noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, then noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, and finally, mozzarella cheese; and (6) bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Mexican Plates

• Gazpacho – Ingredients: 8 really good fresh tomatoes (chopped), 2 cucumbers (chopped), 2 ripe avocados (cubed), 4 c tomato juice, 1 minced onion (food processor), 1/3 c olive oil, 1/3 c red wine vinegar, 1 chopped green pepper, 3 tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro, 3 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 tsp hot sauce or red chili pepper, salt & pepper to taste. Instructions: (1) blend or leave it chunky; and (2) serve garnished with your choice of tortilla chips, sour cream, and/or shredded cheese.
• Corn Bean Burritos – Ingredients: black beans, grits, tortillas. Instructions: (1) simmer beans until soft; (2) simmer grits until desired consistency; (3) mix beans and grits; (4) spoon mixture onto tortillas and roll into burritos; and (5) cook at 350 for 20 minutes.

Italian Dishes

• Pizza Dough – Ingredients: 1½ c warm water, 2 tsp active dry yeast, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1.5 tsp salt, less than 1 c whole wheat flour, 3.5 c traditional flour. Instructions: (1) mix ½ c warm water with yeast, and set aside for 10 minutes; (2) add remaining water, oil, salt and flour; (3) knead, and for a crisp, light dough, leave tacky; (4) put dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel, set aside until doubled in size (1 hour or longer); (5) knead, punch, toss, flip, flop, and flatten the dough on the floury pan; (6) cover the dough with a towel, let it rest for 15 minutes; and (7) add toppings. Cook at 500 degrees F.
• Bomba Bread – Ingredients: 1 package active dry yeast, 6 c all-purpose flour, extra virgin olive oil, 2 c warm water (110 degrees). Instructions: (1) soften yeast in warm water, about 5 minutes; (2) add ¼ cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3½ cups flour and beat until dough is stretchy and elastic; (3) stir in 2¼ c more flour; (4) knead by hand 10 minutes, adding flour as required to prevent sticking; (5) after kneading, cover dough with plastic wrap; (6) let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour, or let rise in refrigerator overnight; (7) punch dough down, divide dough into 5 equal pieces; (8) working with 1 portion of dough at a time, lightly knead to make a smooth ball, keeping remaining dough covered with plastic wrap; (9) use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a round 1/8” thick (11” diameter) pancake; (10) carefully put it on a 12-inch baking sheet; (11) bake 1 at a time, on the bottom rack of a 550-degree oven until golden all over and puffed, 4 to 6 minutes; and (12) brush with olive oil.

Asian Cuisine

• Thai This On for Thais – Ingredients: 8 oz fresh Chinese noodles, 1.5 tbsp sesame oil, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tsp minced ginger, 15 oz unsweetened coconut milk, 1-3 tsp red Thai curry paste, 2 tsp soy sauce, fresh basil and cilantro. Instructions: (1) boil noodles 2-3 minutes; (2) heat oil in skillet; (3) add garlic and ginger, and stir-fry over high heat; (4) add coconut milk, curry paste and soy sauce; (5) simmer until well blended for 3-4 minutes; (6) add noodles to sauce; and (7) garnish with basil leaves or whatever else you like.

Breakfasts

• Lotus Eggs - Ingredients: 2 c raw unsoaked walnuts, 1 c pitted dates, 1 c fresh coconut, 8 tbsp carob powder. Instructions: (1) blend walnuts in a food processor; (2) spoon walnut butter into mixing bowl; (3) blend dates in a food processor; (4) add blended dates to walnut butter; (4) blend coconut in a food processor; (5) mix all ingredients by hand, including carob powder; (6) spoon into egg shapes and refrigerate.
• Strawberry Ruffie – Ingredients: 3 c fresh strawberries, 2 c water or milk, 1/2 c almonds, 1/4 c hemp protein, 2 tbsp carob nibs, agave nectar to sweeten. Instructions: (1) soak almonds overnight; and (2) blend as desired.
• Pear Ruffie - Ingredients: 3 cups fresh pears, 2 c water, 1/2 c pistachios, 1/4 c tahini, 2 tbsp flax seed meal. Instructions: (1) soak pistachios overnight; and (2) blend as desired.
• Originola Granola – Ingredients: 6 c oats, 2 c nuts (walnuts, slivered almonds, pecans) and seeds (flax, sunflower), 1 c wheat germ, ¾ c honey, ½ c canola oil, 1-2 c dried fruit. Instructions: (1) warm oil and honey; (2) mix dry ingredients except for fruit; (3) blend wet into dry except for fruit; (4) bake at 300, stirring every 10 minutes for 40-60 minutes; (5) let cool; and (6) add fruit.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Business Ideas

Business Ideas

• Masking company. A person could make a great living as a specialist in masking for paint jobs. Masking is one of the most time consuming steps in the painting process, and it is necessary in almost every paint job. In my experience as a house painter, the masking part of the job often required 30% or more of the total time, and it never seemed to be done correctly. If someone could sweep in and efficiently mask an interior room, it would drastically reduce the time required to complete the paint job. Masking is about the only clean part of the painting job, so a masking specialist would be able to avoid exposure to fumes. With all of the demand for spray-on interior and exterior painting, there must be a need for an organization or individual that specializes in laying out the masking tape.
• Publications editing company. Edit collegiate essays, marketing reports, etc.
• It is generally best to not to make a c-o-m-p-l-a-i-n-t without a p-l-a-n. It is best to have a p-l-a-n before making a c-o-m-p-l-a-i-n-t.
• Shish kebab stand, as opposed to a hot dog stand.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Art Ideas

Art Ideas

• Freepainting - Wow I just got home from my Image and Imagination class and folks I have to share a painting way that I’m exploding fireworks happy from: watercolors (natch-Joan’s pref) on wc paper. First get the whole paper real wet. then take one of your bigger brushes and load it with the first color you’re in the mood for, then splash that color on the wet paper. Go with more colors as you like, and if you get pools of watery color, tip the paper so they move around & spread some. I am so happy - I am not in charge of what happens anymore, and whooo! tonight when I looked at this one, there’s a huge bear for starters, maybe holding a fish in one paw, and turned sideways, the bear looks even huger, like ursa major in the sky, and the whole thing is roaring rich with life. And that’s only the start of the stuff this image is showing me - I have to hang with it, listen to it, smell it, and there’ll be more. Go for it! Shall I call it freepainting or paintingfree? (submitted by Joan Sheski on 10-7-08 at 12:45 AM)
• Write and illustrate children’s books, such as The Mindful Little Indian Lion, or something along those lions.
• Write to J-ello and tell them to create a J-ello mold in the shape of Bill Cosby. Or, of you are friends with Bill Cosby, ask him for permission to papier-mâché his face so you can make a cast. Or, carve his inside-out face into a piece of wood, linoleum, or something like that and dunk your J-ello in there to use it as a mold. It is of utmost importance that Bill Cosby have his own J-ello mold. I want to see that so so so so sooo bad.
• Create some awesome wrapping paper and wrap it around an empty box. The wrapping paper is the gift.
• Design pop-up greeting cards.
• Yes, words are art. Also, art can be words. Word art can take the shape of trees and such if, say, a poem is is written as a shape.
• Mobiles are hanging artworks most often seen in babies’ cribs for visual stimulation. Most mobiles have free-moving parts that go into motion with a touch of wind or hand. They are generally hung freely in space, with rods, wire, or string setup to balance and separate the segments. I’d like to create an abstract tree limb that hangs over an office room with bending branches and giant green leaves on the ends.
• Copperbleibens (might be spelled wrong) – Make this cartoon about two funny police officers, motorcycle cops, good-natured people who ride tandem (one behind the other) on a motorcycle. They live in a small town, and they are the only cops in the town. At least one of them sports a mustache at all times, and they wear highway patrol outfits. They are excellent and pathetic at the same time in their pursuits: solving crimes and disputes. The hairs that make up the one guy’s mustache can only be one-inch long – that’s the regulation or the police code, or it’s in the code book or whatever. When they meet each other, they say, “I see by your outfit that you are an officer,” and then the other guy says, “I see by your outfit that you’re an officer too.” A local 7-year-old boy thinks he’s a law enforcement officer too, and his parents are supportive of this. The boy writes tickets to people who park illegally, for example, and he wears a suit to school, because he wants to dress like an FBI agent. The boy is the son of Jerry Johnson in Lan Diego (town name). The boy rides his bike around town, and when he sees something he does not approve of he screams just like a police siren to pull people over – like the casual dog walker that doesn’t pick up the poops.
• Oldsters is another cartoon idea – about fantastic elderly people.
• Full Love Myself: A book about you by you.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Environmental Ideas

Environmental Ideas

• In an advertisement somewhere, I saw the headline “The Whole World.” Then, the text read, “We can’t put it together. It is together.”
• Trees listen.
• In Switzerland, the lights turn off automatically when nobody is using them. They are on for five minutes, and then off until someone turns them back on. The Swiss also conserve water and every type of energy. The people are noticeably friendly both to other people as well as the environment. After 10:00 p.m., in Champery, a ski village, quiet hour requires everyone in the village to lower their voices. In the morning, the birds sing, and many men, in bright, colorful socks, rise early to enjoy early walks. Below Champery, at the foot of the Alps, is Lake Geneva, which is the source for the Evian bottled water company. Fresh, pure water, which a tiny smidgen of butt sweat - yes, I swam in it, and it was glorious!
• I saw a billboard that read, “We are one on this world.” That is wonderful to me.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Philosophical Ideas

Philosophical Ideas

• What color is a shadow? It is the color that it falls on, only darker.
• Buddha nature is the pleasantness of the presentness. Meditation is the best medication for the stressed.
• If it’s not worth doing well it’s not worth doing at all. If it’s not worth doing, well, it’s not worth doing at all.
• I think. Therefor I am, I think.
• Where your heart resides is where your treasure lies.
• If you ask me what’s on my mind, I don’t mind if you ask.
• The worst torture we put ourselves through is wanting what we can’t have. The best torture we put ourselves through is recognizing what we already have.
• God doesn’t hate anything.
• It’s not that the world revolves around any one person. It’s just that the one person is dizzy.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Fun Ideas

Fun Ideas

• Soft Frisbees are necessities for sunny outdoor events. A hard disc can really leave a bite if it hits someone in the neck!
• Make breadmen, like snowmen and women (snowomen) made out of bread. This saved me one time when I was babysitting a 3-year-old, Cody, who was throwing a fit out of boredom.
• Tape up a photo of leisurely activity on a business window. I have heard that a pornographic image works particularly well for this, but I wouldn’t know from personal experience. Or would I..?
• Push eject on a DVD player right in the middle of someone’s movie. It’s just a movie.
• Call the radio station and request a fun song. Call in and say, “I’d like to request the one that goes, ‘You can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind. Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance then they’re no friends of mine.’” By the way, that song is called “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.
• Party Idea - Asian theme with homemade fortune cookies.
• Gift Idea - life-sized cardboard cutout statue of Favio, Michael Bolton, or another pop sensation.
• Make a double-sided sign that says “Amen” and then bring it to church. If you go to church, you can imagine how funny this could be. If you don’t go to church, then you should maybe start so you can pull off this trick and take a photograph for Mud Puds.

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Home >> Creative Outlet >> Good Ideas >> Romantical Ideas

Romantical Ideas

• Byee is a good way to say goodbye – with a smileee:)
• Single? Call and talk to someone from the Personals section of the newspaper. Be kind though, because they are people in need, and you don’t want to hurt their feelings. One of the greatest couples I know, Johnny and Lisa, met when one of them posted an ad in the personal’s section and the other person responded.
• Design a treasure hunt, hiding creative clues that lead to some kind of treasure. See the movie, Amelie.
• Bring a camera on a date. If you’re a guy, you can show the girl a nice, flattering picture of herself on the date. Or, if you are really in love with photography, go on a date with just the camera, ask it to marry you, and if it says yes, then maybe you can honeymoon with it at your favorite mental health clinic.
• Sometimes a second woman can come into another woman’s life and help her to love her husband. A wonderful person, Joan, told me that she adored her husband’s boss. The guy had been trampled by women his entire life, beginning with his mother, and his bosses were all Dogzillas, from the sound of it. Then, finally, he found an amazing job with an incredible woman for a boss, and his wife was so grateful for her.
• Dare to be less defensive and more receptive. I myself need to be less defensive and more receptive
• The good thing about cold weather is that it makes people want to cuddle. It’s a constant search for coziness. And when you find that comfortable place . . . well, you know.

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