is a release. Inspiration is a gift, and the resulting project is a way we learn and improve.

As we employ new and different skills, I think it helps our minds to develop and expand. That is my experience anyway.

Funny how working with your hands is a different release than mental activities and efforts. For one thing you can see what you created with your hands. Mental growth is more difficult to assess unless it is something like learning a new language or a similar actual skill.

Hope your cabinet project is proceeding nicely. I currently have no construction projects in the works, but have some ideas in mind.

I'm happy to report cabbages, broccoli, collards, etc. weathered our week of freezing weather and look good. Covers are off and they are getting some light and lots of rain this week.

Hope all is well. Thanks for the OT!

This house has some interesting woodwork...and concrete.

The Bloomhouse seems to erupt or grow from the ground, leaving no straight lines. It was actually hand-sculpted over the course of a decade into a piece of residential art. It resembles a fantastic animal (a dog, rabbit, deer, duck, dragon) or even a mushroom but looks very little like a conventional house.

Architect Charles Harker began work in the early ‘70s using nature as inspiration and no blueprints or formal plans (the only permit required in unincorporated Travis County, Texas was for septic). His first step was to create the basic shape of the home in steel rebar which was coated in layers of polyurethane foam. Harker spent 9 months on site hand-sculpting the foam into intricate designs. The home was finished with layers of concrete stucco.

The interior has been described as “falling down the rabbit hole in “Alice in Wonderland—mesmerizing and psychedelic” and having the snug quality of a Hobbit tea party. Each room flows into the next and it’s hard to stay oriented with the multiple levels and endless shapes. The bedroom is an oversized conch shell that Harker hoped with replicate the acoustics of the ocean. The only door in the home is on the bathroom though even this room drifts outside with an exterior shower.

There are cubby holes and nooks everywhere, some are closets, And there is no elaborate system of tubes and orifices that make up a natural airflow for heating and cooling. Even the spiral staircase leading to the upstairs nook bedroom is part of the Venturi effect for natural air-conditioning.

Dalton Bloom, the original owner, never actually lived in the home, but when Dave Klaunch bought it in 2017 it was inhabited, but the pipes had calcified and there were problems with mold. Klaus immediately began restoring the home giving careful attention to all the minutiae, like the Cherry wood “ribs” that accentuate the curves and gave us the impression of being inside a whale's belly.

https://bloomhouse.live/

(36 min)

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See the video in article. Looks bad.

'Out of an Apocalyptic Movie’: San Diego Residents Describe Flood Escape

The San Diego region was overwhelmed by a surprisingly intense storm that flooded homes and turned roadways into rivers. Some residents wondered why they did not receive more warning.

I listened to a youtube lecture by a philosopher on Chinese thought and how it differs in emphasis from western thought, particularly in the area of argument. She contrasted the value argument from a content argument. She felt culturally the Chinese leaned toward content argument in which differences occurred within a single worldview or philosophical perspective, and emphasis or interpretation of a classic idea or value was different to different people. This often involved different interpretations of meaning or conduct ostensibly under the same socially important value.

In western thought she said the emphasis was on values or a value system, in which the belief in one, necessarily delegitimizes the other side's argument. This was not an exclusive difference between east and west but a trend. You could find both in both cultures, but on the respective sides one kind of argumentation tended to predominate the other.

In the course of the presentation she used Confucian value arguments as examples of her topic. As she developed the topic, she mentioned how the anti-traditional communist value argument prevailed during the cultural revolution in China and brought chaos. This of course is anathema to traditional Chinese thought particularly in the role of governance.

This finally brought her to the incorporation of the Confucian idea of moderate prosperity as it is called in the modernization of China and its incorporation into Chinese communist policy. One of the prerequisites necessarily is harmony in the form of order and stability to achieve economic advances for the society at large.

Moderately prosperous society

Moderately prosperous society or Xiaokang society (Chinese: 小康社会; pinyin: Xiǎokāng Shèhuì), is a Chinese term, originally of Confucianism, used to describe a society composed of a functional middle-class. In December 1979, Deng Xiaoping, then paramount leader of China, first proposed the idea of "Xiaokang" based on the "Four Modernizations".[

康 (kang) I was interested to find this character I didn't know which (ironically) is used frequently in the Korean expression- Geon kang ha se yo! (be/stay healthy) used when a friend or relative has been ill or had surgery and often said when taking leave of an elder. So kang in this Xiaokang society context in China means relative security or freedom from want of the basic necessities of a productive life.

Below is a link to a very interesting history of Confucianism bringing its influence up to the present. It's kind of long but if you have the time, it's worthwhile. A significant portion particularly the last half hour or so discusses the influence of Confucianism in contemporary Chinese society-

Confucius: The Sage Who Shaped The East

I hope I don't get put on some list for talking about Confucianism and China.

You can always find points to criticize, it's in our nature as westerners to delegitimize other cultural perspectives. Here's an example from one of the Wikipedia articles footnote references-

Meet "moderately prosperous" China

It's a few years old but it's typical of its genre.

Thanks QMS your topic made me feel free enough to talk about my "running thoughts."

(edit typo x2)

school closures, and voluntary evacuations from the heavy rains that will not stop until tomorrow.
The pounding rains and t-storms in Galveston and Houston began after we drove through them.
Glad we are not going anywhere or doing anything for the rest of the week.
I wish we could be as creative in stopping the oligarchy from taking everything we 99%ers hold near and dear. The most creative ideas and methods offered by the US is oligarchs and lobbyists.
Thanks for the OT, QMS. You are a wonderful friend that we are lucky to have.