Mappy September!
The New Vegas Sphere / How to Lucid Dream / Silent Meditation Retreat / AI is joking / Month Of Sticky Situations / Samsara movie / Back to Health Basics / Unreasonable Hospitality / CTRL+SHIFT+V
New on MappyEverAfter: How to Lucid Dream
From the Archive: What it’s like at a Silent Meditation Retreat?
AI Shenanigans: Wit in the Machine - The Comedy Upgrade
Experiment: A Month Of Sticky Situations or Multitasking Gone Wild
Travel: Samsara
Health: Back to Basics
Money: Can you get a Business Credit Card without owning a business?
Read: Will Guidara's Unreasonable Hospitality
Mental Hack: Paste without Formatting
Just because: A Vegas Icon in the Making - The (mega) Sphere
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There is one in this letter - if you apply for any Chase Ink card through my link, I’ll get 40.000 points for the first 5 of you (you get the same sign-up bonus as the current public offer). That’s $400 worth of statement credit, but I’d much more likely use it to book an international flight or a few nights at a hotel.
New on MappyEverAfter.com - How To Lucid Dream
Lucid Dreaming 101: The what, why, and how to of lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreams aren't just an upgraded version of a regular dream. It's when you're dreaming, and suddenly, a light bulb goes off in your head, and you realize, "Hey, I'm in a dream!" This magical moment gives you the superpower to steer the dream's course. It's a mind-bending adventure where the boundaries between real life and imagination blur. In fact, it often feels more vivid and alive than your average day in the real world. And when I wake up from one of these wild rides, I'm left scratching my head, wondering what on earth "reality" even means anymore.
From the Archive - What it’s like at a 10-day silent meditation retreat?
Did you know you can take a meditation retreat for free (donations of time or money are appreciated but not required)? And that being silent is not the difficult part of a silent retreat? Have a read here: MappyEverAfter.com/silent-meditation-retreat-what-it-is-and-why-do-it/
AI Shenanigans - Wit in the Machine: The Comedy Upgrade!
So I asked ChatGPT AI for some jokes and, lo and behold, a machine made me chuckle. That’s a milestone.
Me:
Please tell me 5 witty, intelligent jokes that are completely original, created today, by you.
ChatGPT:
Sure thing! Here are 5 original jokes fresh off the virtual comedy press:
1. I'm reading a book on anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down!
2. Parallel lines have so much in common. It's a shame they'll never meet.
3. I was going to tell a time-traveling joke, but you guys didn't like it.
4. I asked my dog if he wanted to hear a construction joke, but he said he was already "woofed" out.
5. I couldn't figure out how to put my seatbelt on. Then it "clicked"!
And then I was shopping for an airbed (for my little “experiment” below). I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the difference between two similar air mattresses, no matter how deep into the Google abys I dove. So I thought of asking ChatGPT instead.
And this is ChatGPT’s reply:
Well, let's dive into the inflatable world of airbeds! 🛏️ The main difference between the INTEX Dura-Beam Standard Prestige Air Mattress and the INTEX Dura-Beam Standard Downy Air Mattress lies in their names. Just kidding! 😄
The Prestige version is a bit fancier. It usually comes with a built-in electric pump for easy inflation and deflation, and it might be a bit more durable with its "Dura-Beam" construction. It's like the luxury sedan of air mattresses.
On the other hand, the Downy version is a bit more basic. It might not have all the bells and whistles of the Prestige, but it'll still get the job done when it comes to providing a comfy place to crash for the night. It's more like the trusty old station wagon of air mattresses.
So, it really comes down to your preferences and how much you want to splurge on your inflatable sleeping experience. 🌟
Isn’t that pretty brilliant (and slightly scary)?
Experiment: A Month Of Sticky Situations or Multitasking Gone Wild
While Mark was off spending some much-needed time with his brother in California, I found myself knee-deep in a different kind of adventure. You see, I had the brilliant idea that I could singlehandedly get our house ready for new renters while simultaneously co-running a big volunteer project for the wonderful MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). The former turned into a DIY nightmare, but the latter proved to be intoxicatingly (no pun intended) fun.
Our terrible renter, let’s call her Angie (because that’s her name), in an effort to spare us the hassle of filling nail holes, used glue so liberally that the house looked like it had been hit by a sticky tornado. Walls, windows, counters, and bathrooms were covered in glue of an industrial strength that resisted even tar remover mixed with tons of elbow grease. I’m not going to dwell on the stains, holes, and breaks to doors, carpets, walls, and cabinets that needed to be repaired. I ended up sleeping on an inflatable mattress amidst a sea of tools, paints, and tarps. My diet consisted mainly of sandwiches (thank you, Instacart), and I barely managed a semi-solid 6-7 hours of sleep each night.
I couldn't have done it without the hubby swooping in to save the day just in the nick of time with his parallel determination and endless supply of iced coffee. I slept for 12 hours the day we finally finished the house. And the next day, I started on this newsletter.
So, while I may not have conducted any formal experiments, this month was certainly a nearly failed experiment in overachievement. (I'm saying “nearly", but the jury is still out. Yes, we did find lovely new tenants, but the volunteering project is still going on and we don't know yet how this newsletter is going to turn out, do we, other than the fact that I’m sending Mappy Monday on a Tuesday, haha)
Travel: Watching Samsara
Thanks to the "experiment" mentioned above, I've barely left the house or made any travel plans this month. The only way I've managed to satisfy (or fool) my wanderlust was by finally watching the mesmerizing 2011 documentary "Samsara."
In case you mysteriously missed it as I did even though it's been around for 12 years, Samsara is a stunning visual poem that takes you on a journey through 25 countries without a single word, serving up intense and thought-provoking scenes that are artfully balanced by moments of sheer beauty, and intimate glimpses into the human experience, accompanied by a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack.
It definitely stays with you long after the credits roll.
Good news, you can watch it for free on Tubi
Health - Back to Basics
At the very bottom of all the roles and ambitions you have in life, you are, first and foremost, an animal.
To take care of this animal, you need to eat, sleep, play, fuck, and rear your young. All else is secondary.
Maslow said it a bit more succinctly in 1943:
Later he added a point to the top of the pyramid:
Transcendence: Going beyond yourself to help others and contribute to a greater cause. It's the cherry on top of the pyramid cake.
Money - Can You Get a Business Credit Card Without a Business?
Yes. In the US, you can get a business credit card without owning a business. My favorite are Chase Ink cards - there are a few different ones and I’ve had them all at some point. The sign-up bonus is generous (after meeting the minimum spending requirement) and you can either use the bonus as a statement credit or to book travel.
Whether you are a freelancer, sell things on the internet, or are just thinking of starting a side hustle, you can apply for a business card.
In the application, use your name as the business name, your social security number as your tax number, “sole proprietor” as your business structure, the income you expect to generate, and “0” as the number of employees.
Always check the annual fees and minimum spending required to get the sign-up bonus, both tend to be higher for business cards (but so are the bonuses and perks). I wrote about some excellent, $0 annual-fee Chase business cards in Mappy May.
Read - Unreasonable Hospitality
This book threw a wrench into my housework plans (refer to my "Experiment" earlier). On one hand, I felt the urge to take shortcuts and rush through the turnover between renters. On the other hand, as I painstakingly scraped glue off the walls, I found myself engrossed in Will Guidara's tales (audiobook, read by the author) of Eleven Madison Park. In the span of 11 years, he miraculously turned a struggling two-star brasserie into the crown jewel of the culinary universe, named the #1 Best Restaurant in the World.
How did Guidara pull this off? By a complete disregard for the norm, building genuine partnerships between everyone involved, and providing unreasonable hospitality that's over-the-top thoughtful, unforgettable, and unique, to both the patrons and the employees.
So instead of shortcuts, we met our potential renters, listened to their needs and ideas, picked new flooring together, installed a new fan in their teenage daughter’s room, had lovely custom house keys made, painted the bottoms of banisters and low shelves even though the only person that will ever see them is their little one, and left them with a welcome card and a big box of Belgian chocolates.
“There are people who like to receive gifts and there are people who like to give gifts. I always try to hire the people who like to give gifts, but let’s be clear, they’re both just as selfish. Because the ones that give gifts, the gift that they get is the reaction from the people that they’re giving to.”
-Will Guidara
Mental Hack - Paste Without Formatting
This is more of a simple tool than a mental hack, but it will save you a lot of annoyance in case you don’t know it. I was hesitant to put it in here (surely I’m the only one ignorant of this) but then I told my sister and she enthusiastically wrote it down. So, empowered by her excitement, I present to you:
If you’re using CTRL+C to copy a piece of text and then paste it using CTRL+V, it also pastes the original formatting.
So if the text you want to copy looks like this:
it will paste like this into an email:
But, if you use CTRL+SHIFT+V (or whatever the Apple equivalent is), it loses the original formatting and pastes as normal text:
Just Because - A Vegas Icon in the Making: The Sphere
The future's here, it's just not evenly distributed. It's all in Vegas, baby!
You can see The Sphere (the largest one on Earth) from the most unexpected places. We were sitting on the balcony of the café at Springs Preserve, a sustainability-inspired botanical garden, and there it was, in the distance. A huge, yellow, winking smiley face. A futuristic planet. Then a googly eyeball. You can't escape it. And neither do you want to, it’s stunning.
It opens in a few days with a U2 concert. For now, have a look at the mind-blowing tech and effort that went into this 2.3-billion-dollar spectacle:
So there you have it. You have to forgive me, I’m going to pass out now. And if I manage to wake up in my dream, I’ll find a bed and go to sleep all over again.
Hope you too had a September to remember!
Be Mappy,
Mags
