We come in peace?

On Easter Sunday in two thousand and seven
I saw a silver disk hov’ring in the heavens.
It wobbled like a top, then fell like a feather,
hid behind a mountain, gone from sight forever.
I did not think much about it—that was before
one day in November of twenty twenty-four.
Suits testified in Congress of secret projects
to study unidentified flying objects.1
One of them called Immaculate Constellation
gathered photos, videos, and information
with infrared, thermal and visible sensors,
of shapes engaged in celestial adventures.2
Like metallic orbs that fly in a cubic form,
then break away in patterns far beyond the norm.
Or a giant saucer suddenly changing course
without the effect of an equally giant force.
Others are triangles, tic-tacs, and jellyfish
moving in ways our human tech can only wish.
There’s also a project that does craft retrieval,
finding technology not made by Earth-people.
And even campaigns to lie to society,
discredit the leaks, and bury truth quietly.3
This covert work is funded through a clever scam
called an Unacknowledged Special Access Program.4
The blowers of the whistles primary concern
was not that these were things the public could not learn,
but the government itself is kept in the dark.
Senators know barely more than a common shark.

Could these far out reports actually be legit
and worthy of earnest academic credit?
I figured that there’s only one way find out
what this cryptic phenomenon is all about.
So down I dug that that proverbial rabbit hole
to uncover the truth as my ultimate goal.
I have not got there. I won’t say I’m even close.
But I’ve found some stuff that has intrigued me the most:
interviews with generals, CIA reports,
tales of contactees, and videos galore.
Many are mere tailings, but some of them are gold;
whispering a story that truly should be told.
Now, how much of it is true, and how much less so
does require we use discerning minds to know.
So,
with a healthy dose of skepticism on deck
to keep our vivid imaginations in check,
and being aware of much information it lacks—
please—let us now consider the quote-unquote “facts.”

We are not alone in the cosmos—not a bit.
The universe teems with life, wholly full of it.
Non-human intelligences surround this sphere.
Hidden but ubiquitous is their presence here.5
And despite History Channel entertainment,
these observant aliens are indeed ancient.
Seems we were not discovered—they’ve always been here.
We may be a project that they have engineered.
They watch us closely to see what we will do.
The Earth’s a cage, and they are keepers of this zoo.6
They don’t interfere unless it is required,
because our sov’reignty is deeply desired.7
They will step in when we are being our least smart
like planning with big bombs to blow ourselves apart.8
(Humanity with nukes is a toddler with knives:
without mature intervention it won’t survive.)9
What they really want is for us to learn and grow,
and wake to our role in the universal show.
To see that we are immortal beings of light
and arise in our souls to a transcendent height.10
And a key revelation, if we will hear it:
There’s no divide ‘tween the physical and spirit.11
From big to small, a microbe to our blazing sun:
it’s all connected—because truly All is One.12

If so intrinsic’ly true, why is it hidden?
As if this knowledge is expressly forbidden.
Some say the elites lie to cling to their powers
and keep for themselves the wisdom that ought be ours.13
(Overlords subjugating the poor and naive?
Of all we’ve just heard, that’s the hardest to believe.)
And surely benign beings could make us aware
of the present reality that we all share.
Why don’t they come out from their ethereal shroud
and say simply “This is us,” in front of a crowd?14

Seems they would rather not run to the truth, but walk
in order to avoid ontological shock.
Like waking from a dream with the soft morning light,
versus klaxons blaring sure to confuse and fright.
Are the people of this planet really prepared
for alien contact to be plainly declared?
I think they think that we are just flat out racist.
They see how we treat diff’rent-shades-of-brown faces.
Why should they believe our hate and fear would allay,
when we see that their skin is green, or blue, or grey?
They want to be cosmic cousins in unity.
Not rulers, not gods, but equal community.15
In the end, contact comes down to our own free choice
to be a people who speak with an aligned voice.16
For there to be nothing but pure love in our heart,
and a mind for selfless acts that we may impart.17
Our chosen thoughts create our shared experience
and shape the cosmos, however mysterious.
We need not live in a world that resembles hell.
Heaven abounds when we believe that All is Well.18
So,
what does this all mean with regards to the E.T.?
It’s clear the question is not, “Do they come in peace?”
The question is “Do we?”19

And finally, this is my recitation of this poem from the first of three nights at the Ten Fold Physique festival:

Video by Jonathan MacDonald.

• I am performing in the play “ Wasteland: The Most Final and Ultimate Showdown” Friday, Saturday and Sunday this upcoming weekend, and the next! If you would like to watch a band of roving clowns clash against authoritarian mimes in an apocalyptic hellscape, than this is the show for you! If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, get your tix and come on down to worship the rediculous at the Church of Clown.

• Now on to this issues’s story…

  ---

When I was a freshman at Arizona State University I saw a flying saucer. The day was 2007 April 8; it was Easter Sunday. I had recently come back from an afternoon dinner with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Rit and some family friends. I was relaxing on my bed on the sixth floor of the Palo Verde East dormitory. As I casually peered out my northwest-facing window I noticed an object in the sky that looked like the profile of a passenger aircraft, which was heading either directly toward or away from my location. Given that my dorm was located less than five miles from a busy international airport, such a sight was not particularly unusual. But what was unusual was it did not change in apparent size as is expected of an object that was coming or going. I walked to the window to better see this mysterious shape.

The most prominent landmark in view of my window was a mountain that is creatively called “A Mountain.”1 It’s not a big mountain—about 500 meters at its base and rises about 100 meters above the surrounding land. This strange object I saw appeared roughly 10 degrees above A Mountain’s western ridge (the left side from my perspective). It was hovering there, motionless. After a short time (maybe 10 seconds), the object began to oscillate—like the bob of a pendulum swinging in a circle; or like a spinning top that wobbles as it winds down. At this point I would see that it had a circular underside. And it glinted in the sun like shiny metal. The shape looked like two shallow bowls sandwiched together with a dome on top.

My flabbers being completely gasted, I hurriedly searched my desk for my camera. I couldn’t immediately find it and not wanting to lose sight of whatever I was observing, I abandoned the search for a recording device and continued to watch. The object stopped its precession and then began to slowly move downward, but not straight down—it zig-zagged on the way. It looked like a leaf or a feather swinging back and forth on a gentle fall to the ground. After four or five of these swings, it descended below and behind the ridge of the mountain. I never saw it again. I looked at the clock as I thought it important to note the time: it was 4:45 pm.

After waiting some time (probably not very long) to see if it would emerge, I ran down the hall to my friends’ room where Bret, Charlie and Casey were playing video games. I announced, “Guys I saw a flying saucer!” My report was met with the assumption that this was some joke I was playing. Sure, I was known to say some silly things but I didn’t just make up wild stories without slathering on the sarcasm, so I was in disbelief at their disbelief. They asked if I could have seen a kite or some remote controlled airplane. But I assured them it wasn’t like a kite or plane of any kind I’d ever seen before. But without photographic evidence or any physical implications of the unidentified object there wasn’t much to do about it. I do remember seeing hikers on the mountain ridge at the time. I wish I had run over to and up the mountain and asked “Did you see that??” to everyone I encountered. It sure seemed like someone else must have seen something as they would have been much closer than me. I fully expected there would be reports of the incident on the news; but days and weeks later I didn’t hear a thing.

Now that I’m recounting this experience, I thought it’d be helpful to illustrate what I saw as best I can remember it. Here is the general shape of the object I saw:

It was not particularly close (at least half a mile away, as we’ll discuss later) and all I could see was the general form. I did not notice any seams, windows, antenna, lights nor other distinguishing features. It was all a consistent metal grey texture.

Below is a panorama I took looking out my dorm window during sunset some evening of my freshman year. The peak at the right side of the image is A Mountain.

This photo of A Mountain is also out my dorm window. It was not from the day in consideration, but the lighting conditions (sunny, late afternoon light from the southwest) match how I remember them to be. I overlaid the path that the object took roughly to scale as I remember it.

Determining the size of objects in the sky is difficult to do by eye. However, using the power of trigonometry, we can calculate its size if we know its distance and its apparent angular size in the field of view. For example, a fist at arm's length is about 10°, a finger 1° and the sun and moon both span about a half of a degree. I would say that the shiny disk I saw was roughly the size of the moon or maybe a bit smaller. So we’ll use 0.5° and maybe as small as 0.25°. But how far away was it? There is a well defined minimum bound on the distance as it could not have been closer than the mountain ridge it fell behind. This distance is about 800 meters. It could have been further, but by how much? If it had been much further away, I would have expected to see the effect of atmospheric distortion: low contrast due to haze, with a blue color cast. But I didn’t notice that distortion and had the impression that the object was just beyond the mountain. So, a reasonable upper bound for the distance might be 1200 meters, which would put it over top of Tempe Town Lake .

Because the distance to the object is much larger than the width of the object itself we can use this simple approximation for calculating the width:

width of object = distance • angular size (in radians)

So, plugging in our numbers we get a range of roughly 3.5 to over 10 meters for our flying saucer. For comparison’s sake, the small end of our estimate is equal to the wingspan of a great albatross (which are not native to the area as they typically prefer oceans to deserts). And on the bigger end is the length of a large killer whale (which also are not native as they prefer oceans to skies).

I just checked the weather records for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for that day. The reported weather condition was “mostly cloudy” nearly all day, including at 4:51 pm, just a few minutes after my sighting. I find this interesting because I always remembered the day being sunny and cloudless (similar to the photo of A Mountain we saw above). Clearly my recollection of the day is not perfect.

While the experience of observing this unidentified flying object (that’s UFO, for those hip to acronyms) was strange and striking, it didn’t have a strong influence on my life. Aside from my initial report to my friends, I rarely brought it up and I just thought of it as a miscellaneous curiosity. From time to time, I would remember seeing that silver disk, and wonder what it was. I figured it was likely some top-secret military project, or a misunderstood natural phenomena, or of course, it could have been aliens. Of either of those options, I always considered the last option to be the most cool, but least likely. However, my opinion in that regard has changed dramatically in the last six months.

I read the written testimony that some high level government officials and a journalist submitted to the United States Congress in 2023 and 2024. They described projects that have collected vast amounts of information regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena.2 They even mentioned the recovery of physical craft and “non-human” pilots. Unlike my Easter Sunday saucer sighting, the testimony of these whistleblowers did have a strong influence on the following months.

This influence has manifested in the form of a poem that I wrote about the aforementioned ASU UFO and some of the “facts” I discovered as I dug down the rabbit hole of secret projects, leaked documents, interviews with military officers, and tales of E.T. contactees. I would like to share this poem with you now—because that was original intention of this issue of Each Day, One More—but I won’t because the entire story above was intended to be a single introductory paragraph, yet now sprawls over four typed pages. So, for the sake of readability, I will just share the first four lines of my literary endeavor. I’ll publish the poem in its entirety in the next issue of EDOM to come soon. Anyway, the title of the poem is “We Come in Peace?” and begins:

I even had the honor of reciting this piece live at the Church of Clown in the Ten Fold Physique festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of last week! I will share a video of that recitation in the next issue of EDOM, as well.

Thank you for reading my strange story and curious to hear of any usual experiences you may have had…

The Walking for Vice President campaign—something that began nearly 8 years ago is coming to a close. It served as a framework for a wide range of my creative projects, but it has come time to wind it down to focus on some new beginnings and focuses for the Magical Office of Peace. Details will follow in future issues of EDOM.

Berkeley being begins

For close to the past four years, I lived in a warehouse space in East Oakland. I liked it a lot. It was spacious, was part of a good community (Dutch Boy Studios), and was industrially charming (one 11-foot-high window, tall wooden ceilings, a pair of clerestory windows, and an incredibly efficient whirly roof vent). But it had its drawbacks. It was loud (train tracks on 3 sides of the complex), not close to BART (well, extremely close to the tracks, much further to the station), and the immediate surrounding area could be rough at times. For example, some things I would encounter on my way to and from home—listed in descending frequency—were: stolen cars with wheels and battery looted, stolen cars with seats and entire engine removed, the blackened remains of stolen cars that had been looted and then set ablaze, and stolen cars still currently ablaze. I did not enjoy encountering those things.

Eventually my passion for a more peaceful place pressured me to pick a new spot. So I found one in South Berkeley. It’s on the third story of a twelve-unit complex. The front of the unit has a nice sunset view of downtown San Francisco. The bedroom looks out not only on the Berkeley hills and the campus bell tower, but also has a completely unobstructed view of the entrance to the bathroom of the gas station next door. Truly majestic.

The apartment interior is more than acceptable, and the prize jewel being the automatic dish washing machine in my kitchen. This is a feature I’ve never experienced in a Californian living space. Using it for the first time was such an ineffable experience, the only words that come close to describing it would be “mildly exhilarating.” This spot has also got some quirks: like light switches that are at lower than average height, outlets that are higher than average, and cabinet and closet doors with sub-5 mm clearance with the floor such that they are totally incompatible with mats or rugs in their opening-arc. And though the spot is quite a bit smaller than the warehouse, I still have room to have an area dedicated to photography.

The location is really why I’m here though. It’s much closer to BART (which makes ventures into SF more convenient) and it’s just two blocks away from the Great Garden of Produce that is Berkeley Bowl. Perhaps most importantly it’s a mere 15 minute walk to where I practice yoga. This is drastically different from the hour-long walk-BART-walk to practice from East Oakland, which was so long that it proved to be a great barrier against my regular yogic routine. But now, with that great barrier greatly lowered, I have returned to my beloved practice of sitting, bending, and twisting in a hot, humid room that’s brimming with breathing noises and sometimes smells like farts. It’s great to be back.

Thank you to Kendra, Juice and George Joseph for making the move happen with me! While moving out was quite easy (the warehouse had a literal loading dock), moving in was much less so as it required taking two flights of narrow stairs. Very grateful for your support!

• Welcome to the newest EDOM readers! Each Day, One More is a newsletter about the Walking for Vice President campaign, the '''peacewhere''' clothing line, and all things related to the Magical Office of Peace.

• Councils are back in session! After an unannounced break, Councils are returning to the normal 1st and 3rd Wednesday schedule.  The next Council will be Wednesday, the 19th of June at 15:00 PDT. (Councils are regular, open meetings about MOOP matters and the best place to offer your real-time input and feedback—which I greatly appreciate.)

personal update

It’s been almost three months since I wrote the last issue of EDOM. What gives? Well, I think largely the delay has been caused by some of my long-held perfectionism that hinders me from taking first steps—particularly in the realm of writing. But I was reading another newsletter—Untested by Rafal Pastuszak—and he linked to a short article suggesting to “half-ass” tasks. I took this as a sign to just write whatever I can write and have faith that it’ll be better than nothing at all. So here goes.

space suckers

Also on the personal side of things, Space Suckers from Outer Space ran for three beautiful nights at the Church of Clown! Space Suckers (as mentioned in EDOM 8), is a clown play directed by Dan Griffiths that parodies 1950’s sci-fi films. The 9-person cast (including myself) donned extremely-non-breathable, all-silver costumes to portray a training film of what not to do in space. We were blessed with a generous crowd filling the 40-person theater each night. Fortunately, video of all three nights does exist, and I will share it with your eyeballs when it is ready.

mom update

And lastly, readers of EDOM 4 might remember that my mother was stuck on the floor of her bathroom for three days after a fall nine months ago. She’s recovered quite a bit, but still reliant on a wheelchair for getting around. After visiting her last week, I can attest that while she’s often frustrated at her situation, she still has a healthy1 appetite for menthol cigarettes and caramel macchiatos.

'''peacewhere''' enters the temporal dimension

One of the reasons I love limiting tie-dye to a single dye (i.e. black), is that the final design/pattern only depends on how the item was folded (or tied) and where the dye is applied to the folded item. Even with the monochrome constraint there are still near infinite possibilities (even ignoring subtle differences in folding). In the making of over a hundred shirts / apparel for my personal collection and eventually for '''peacewhere'', I explored techniques that would yield unique and distinct designs. While this variation is delightful from an artistic sense, I wondered how precisely I could replicate a given design.

Peaces 1 through 5 of the '''pw''' line are the result of an experiment in repeatability. I made five shirts with the same tie and dye method to create a very standard single-armed spiral pattern. By making note of the orientation of the shirts before tying (i.e. twisting the shirt in a spiral), I was able to get the angle of the spiral-arm consistent across the five shirts. I was very pleased with the results:

This gave me an idea: if I could reliably control the final pattern of a shirt, I could make subtle changes to get a pattern to appear to move when looking at one shirt to the next. That is, I could make an animation where the frames were individual tie-dye t-shirts. So I tried it, and it worked.

Given that animation in traditional senses is a slow and often tedious process, I figured I would do myself a favor and keep things as simple as possible. I settled on four shirt-frames as the least amount I could get away with and still have the semblance of the illusion of movement.  I also chose a bold pattern with large areas of dyed-black and undyed-white as that would be forgiving in terms of physical inaccuracy.

I went with a chevron-like pattern created by alternating  bands of black and white, each 5 inches wide. From one shirt to the next, I moved the pattern up by 2.5” so that after two shirt-frames the pattern is revered (i.e. what was black is now white and vice-versa), and after two more shirt-frames the pattern would be the same as the first shirt-frame. Photographing these shirts and making it into a gif yields the final product. 

So hypnotic! I love the concept as it was a lot of fun, and offers much artistic space to explore. However, it is extraordinarily time consuming at more than an hour of labor per frame; so probably won’t do another shirt-imation for a while. And for those curious, Peace 41 was sold and I kept Peace 42 for myself, but Peaces 40 and 43 are still available!

Before I serve you the newsletter entrée, please take note of these Magical Office of Peace notices:

Council 13

• Councils are informally formal meetings where I present current efforts at the Magical Office of Peace and gather feedback. If you are sufficiently curious, and your schedule allows, I would love you join :)

• These meetings are on 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, hosted on Discord.

• The next Council (No. 13) is 3 April 2024 at 15:00 PDT / 18:00 EDT

Space Suckers date moved to end of May

• As mentioned in EDOM 8, I am in a sci-fi clown show called “Space Suckers from Outer Space,” along with several other EDOM readers!

• The dates for the show have moved. Space Suckers will now run Friday, 31 May through Sunday, 2 June at 20:00.

• The show is at Church of Clown in San Francisco, Calif. Tickets will be available soon.

Thank you for noticing. Enjoy your main course.

a history of habits and a multitude of moods

For over three years I tracked my personal habits and mood on a daily basis in a spreadsheet. Today I am publishing these records.

I’m making them public because:

• it gives me a reason to analyze my habits and mood for my own enlightenment;

• it is a way for me to express my emotions, which have often been difficult for me to share with others;

• it offers an insight into my life that proves I am not perfect. You might think that’s very obvious, but I’m concerned not everyone is as keen as you are;

• it is a case study of a mental health journey;

• and it serves as an example or template that others might find useful for examining their own lives.

origins of the worksheet

In November 2020—back when I was Walking for (regular) President—I noticed I was often consumed by modern-day distractions while avoiding healthier activities. I thought that tracking my habits would help me actually do my habits—or at least the activities I wanted to do often enough to consider them habits. So I made a spreadsheet as a visual record and reminder of this mission. I called it the “Warrior Worksheet”.1

I started by tracking wether or not I meditated, practiced yoga, or worked out. Over time, I expanded the worksheet to include other routines and actions. Did I floss that day? Did I journal? Did write down something I was grateful for? I also kept track of things I didn’t do in an effort to curb habits I wanted to reduce, like watching youtube, reading reddit, or scrolling on my phone.

However, the most instructive item I tracked was not behavior, but mood. It turned out to tell a story of my mental health—or frequently, illness—that I might not have realized otherwise. Paired with the tracked habits, I saw how my behaviors did—or did not—relate to my feelings of joy, okay-ness, depression and thoughts of self-harm.

a peak at the sheet

You can take a look at the Warrior Worksheet here in real-time. But you can also see a snapshot below. You may notice there are quite a few columns. Almost 60 that I fill out these days, and 89 including things I don’t track anymore.

I have a binary way of counting my habits. For most of the columns I record either a “yes” or “no”. Yeses get colored dark grey and noes are colored light grey. A few other columns use numbers: a zero counts as no and anything greater than zero is a yes.2 Cells that are empty and white indicate where I did not make a record.

Without having much understanding of what each of the columns represent, we can can squint and look at darker patches and say “Stephen James was consistently doing some habits in those couple of weeks.” When we can see spotty areas, me might say “Those regions are consistent with when Stephen James was inconsistent.”

While the collective records of the Warrior Worksheet offers little meaning from a visual standpoint, fortunately they look clearer through a statistical lens.

quantifying of the qualitative

I used a number scale to rate my mood daily. As you might imagine, using self-reported numbers to describe my emotional state has its limitations in terms of encompassing the complexity of my human experience. However, that’s what I did because I figured it was better than nothing.

At first I decided to record my mood on a scale from 1 to 5, where larger numbers represent more positive state of mind. After less than a month, I was having days that I rated as “ones,” but then I had days that were even worse. So I expanded the scale to start at zero. Fortunately, I haven’t had to go into negative numbers.

The scale that I use looks like this:

5 - VERY GOOD: I feel incredible, ecstatic or elated. I might be on drugs.
4 - GOOD: I am quite happy.
3 - OK: I feel neither particularly good, nor bad.
2 - BAD: I feel depressed.
1 - VERY BAD: I am having feelings of deep depression with some suicidal thoughts.
0 - VERY VERY BAD: I am extremely despondent, and am having strong and frequent thoughts of suicide.

To account for changes in my disposition throughout the day, I record a 0 to 5 twice: once in the morning and once in the evening. Also, I make ratings in half-unit steps to account for the the granularity of in-between feelings.

Anyway, what does it look like if we plot the raw data of my mood over time?

Here, each bar represents a single mood record (of which there are two-per-day). While the plot is noisy, it’s clear that over the first 6 months of records there was a relatively high variation in my mood rating (high of 5, low of 0), while in the most recent six months the variation is a lot smaller (high of 4, low of 2). Why is that? I’ll discuss more later, but the short answer is psychotherapy and medication.

In an effort to reduce the noise and see overall trends, let’s look at a 7-day rolling average.3 (Though its important to note that the averaging diminishes the apparent range of my mood on any given day.) In this plot, I drew a line at a mood of “3” (i.e. “okay”) to better visualize when my disposition was (on average) above or below average.

The smoothing of the data reveals an interesting pattern in the first months of my records. Let’s zoom in and take a look at that:

There is regular up and down cycle with a period of around 16 to 21 days. I noticed this pattern within the first four cycles. I was very surprised to see it. The cycle didn’t correspond to anything that was happening in my life. It didn’t match a schedule I had, the frequency was too high to be related to the phase of the moon, and I had no indication that I was menstruating.

Noticing this pattern changed the way I thought about my mental health. Frequently when I was stewing in my melancholy, I would point to anything unfortunate in my life and say “That is why I feel so shitty.” But now I wondered, maybe I’m just ill-tempered because of some internal cycle and not because of an external cause. I suspected that my dips into depression were something that could be treated with medication.

caring for my mental health

Without detailing my mental health history, I’ll say I’ve had bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts over the course of two decades (since I was 16). For most of that time I did not share my feelings with friends or family, and did not consult with mental health professionals. I certainly did consider antidepressants.

The short story of why I was anti-antidepressants is that (1) I felt they would be a crutch I would depend on, (2) I felt I ought to defeat my depression via a disciplined lifestyle, and (3) I wanted to focus “natural” medicines like psychedelic mushrooms and ayahuasca.

My resistance to prescription medication softened because (1) I realized that walking with a crutch is better than hobbling in pain, (2) while I still think self-discipline will be a boon to my mental health, there’s no reason it has to be the only tool I use, and (3) while my experiences with psychedelic substances would improve my mood for days or weeks afterwards, they weren’t resulting in lasting long-term effects. Also, my therapist was taking SSRIs and she seemed to be pretty well-adjusted.

So in April 2021, I got a prescription for bupropion4 (also known as Wellbutrin). After more than two months with no effect, I stopped. The non-improvement confirmed my notion that anti-depressants weren’t going to help me. But I gave them another shot after some particularly bad days in August 2022. I began a course of fluoxetine (an SSRI marketed as Prozac), and it did have an effect.

Within the first two days I had a body feeling—a comfortable fullness in my chest, like a mild MDMA experience—that told me something was happening. That feeling eventually went away, but what came was a more pleasant frame of mind. About six weeks after starting the initial daily dose of 20 mg, we increased my dosage to 40 mg. I’ve been on that course for over a year. It has helped, and I have the data to prove it.

on the up and up

I think just by looking at the raw data of my mood or the 7-day average, it’s clear that my emotional condition has trended positively over these past 3 years. But I think we might as well crunch the numbers since we got numbers to crunch.

While in theory I’d love for every day to be a “5,” that level of elation is not sustainable nor practical in the long term. Really, I want things to be at least “okay” or better. So I calculated the fraction of mood ratings over the previous 30 days that were greater than or equal to a “3”:

While there were several periods where that fraction was less than 50% (meaning that the majority of the mood ratings in the previous 30 days were worse than okay), none of those periods occurred in the most recent 16 months. In fact, there were several points where the fraction was close to 100%. Not bad. Literally.

My improved emotional state is also visible when we look at the distribution of my mood ratings in the first, second, and third+ years of my records. The histograms below show how many days had a particular average mood.5

The distribution of moods in year 1 had a peak at a rating of “3.5,” with a long lower tail and short upper tail. Year after year, the distribution tightens, indicating a tempering of my mood swings. While the peak-mood shifted down and up, my average mood has been up and up:

• year 1: mood average of 2.7

• year 2: mood average of 2.8

• year 3+: mood average of 3.1

That’s great because feeling “okay” is defined as “3,” so not only have things improved, but—on average—things are better than okay. In fact, my emotional state got so good that I had a hard time finding things to complain about to my therapist.

Perhaps the most significant metric is how frequently I’ve had dangerously harmful thoughts. Generally, if I’m feeling kind of sour, I’ll record a rating of either 2.5 or 2. I only mark it down to a 1.5 if had any thoughts that things would be better if I wasn’t around.

So the number of ratings (of which there are two per day) that were between 0 and 1.5 inclusive are:

• year 1: 90 (12% of ratings)

• year 2: 40 (5% of ratings)

• year 3+: 6 (0.8% of ratings)

I’d say that’s pretty pretty good.

future analysis

We’ve focused mostly on just mood, and largely ignored the many habits I’ve tracked. This leaves some questioned to be begged: What habits are most strongly correlated with better moods? What habits are correlated with each other? Is there some delayed or cumulative nature to the relation between my daily habits and mood? What about the frequency of my therapy sessions?

Lastly, I’ll share a scatter plot that displays how many habits I did do on a day, and the average mood for that day.

It’s curiously liver-shaped. What it tells me is that if my mood is relatively high (like 3.5), then I might have done a lot or a little of my habits. But, if I did a lot of habits (e.g. 30+) then my mood was certainly higher than average. Certainly, while these two measures are dependent on each other, it does give me a sense of agency that I can make choices that will make me feel better.

conclusion

It’s been said by many a wisemun that to achieve peace among others, one must first begin with peace within oneself—something I agree with heartily. I certainly don’t always have inner peace (as the entire essay above evinces), but I’m at peace with that. By tracking my habits for these past three years, I see clearly that life is a rolling journey and for there to be ups, there must be downs. But that mindfulness of behavior—with statistical significance—leads me to a more peaceful self.

I thought the home page of the shop needed a some sex appeal so I gave it my best with this photo. How’d I do?

If you click on “shop ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’’’1 you can taken to this grid of photos. I thought about adding another lustful shot of myself on here, but I figured there’s already a lot of nice things to look at and I didn’t want visitors to get overwhelmed.

Click on a shirt and you go here. There’s not too much information. Just the price, a note on where your funds will go, and the size of the shirt, and instructions on how to register the shirt. There’s also a link to the peace’s catalog entry.

The catalog entry has much more detailed notes in three categories: basic (what is it?), fabrication (how was it made?)2, and notes (what were the thoughts before and after fabrication). There’s also a link to “get it” which will take you back the peace’s pages on the shop.

Speaking of the peace’s shop page—on it is a drop down box that includes instructions on how to register your peace

What happens when you register your shirt? Your information populates a section at the top of that peace’s catalog entry:

That’s the basics of what the Magical Shop of Peace entails. Even if ‘‘‘pw’’’ isn’t your style, I really appreciate you as an audience. This (mostly arbitrary) deadline of 2 March to open to store had motivation oomph because I knew that your eyeballs had seen me say it. So thank you very much for reading about it!

Council 11 reminder

This is a reminder that the next council is this first Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at 15:00 pacific on the MOOP Discord server.

• grand opening for ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’: a sneak peak at the web store opening this Saturday

• a piece of the Peaces for Peace Pilgrim: learn about the charitable cause that ‘‘‘pw’’’ sales will support

• Space Suckers set to suck soon!: would you like to see me on stage? now you can!

• Council 11: the next MOOP council is Wednesday, 6 March 2024

grand opening for ‘’’peacewhere’’’

The time is nearly upon us! Peaces of ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ will finally be available for sale in the Magical Office of Peace’s online store. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the genuine pleasure of setting up the e-commerce store for the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ line. It’s been fun to customize the digital interface and imagine how users will interact with it, and what they might think when they first see it. While I wouldn’t say that the process has been difficult, there have been many, many tiny steps to get the site to look and behave how I want it to.  But, it’s satisfying to see the incremental improvements that took the web store from a generic template to something that feels on brand. Also, it’s given me appreciation for the good design of other  stores and an understanding of those that look  less-than-stellar. 

Now, even though only ‘‘‘pw’’’ items will be available in the online store initially, I am not calling it the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ store.  This is because I intended to have other items up there eventually: stickers, patches, pins and collectable artwork. All of which will be under the MOOP umbrella. So, as you might predict, the official shop for the Magical Office of Peace is known as the Magical Shop of Peace.

The shop is currently closed as I get some final touches done (like add in the newest Peaces, and fiddle with graphical details), but I will sneak you a peek:

On the physical side of things, I tied and dyed fourteen new shirts, bringing the total number of Peaces to thirty-three. And here’s a look at some of the newer ones:

So I invite you to stop by and browse the Magical Shop of Peace starting this Saturday!

‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ grand opening
shop.moop.earth
Saturday, 2 March 2024

a piece of the Peaces for Peace Pilgrim

While the primary purpose of  designing and selling the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ clothing line is to generate funds for the Magical Office of Peace, I thought that it would be fitting to share some of the profits from this (technically) commercial endeavor with a peace-centered charity. So, I decided to donate $5 for every Peace of ‘‘‘pw’’’ sold to the Friends of the Peace Pilgrim.

Peace Pilgrim was a woman who spent nearly three decades walking tens of thousands of miles across North America in the name of peace until her death in 1981. She had an epiphany and after 15 years of spiritual training, she decided that she would be a pilgrim, forever wandering the Earth until humanity had learned the way of peace. So in 1953, the 44 year-old Mildred Lisette Norman, gave up her material possessions and her name to take on a new identity: Peace Pilgrim—or less formally as just Peace. She walked from town to town, talking to anyone curious about the mysterious silver-haired lady with her moniker emblazoned on the front of her blue tunic.

On this journey, all she carried was a comb, a toothbrush, a pen, and paper. Equally amazing is what she didn’t carry. No bag, no money, no food, no water. You see, Peace was—in terms she would never have used to describe herself—a badass.  She would walk until given shelter—sometimes fifty miles—and fast until given food—sometimes days. She had faith that the universe would provide her everything she needed. 

What were her beliefs? How did she see the world? She would say she was not religious, but spiritual. She believed that union with God was life’s ultimate goal; and she cited that union as what gave her the energy and spirit for her pilgrimage.  She achieved that divine connection by “praying without ceasing,” where she thought of her life as a continuous sacred experience. With regards to peace, her philosophy was simple: the key to world without violence is first to create peace inside ourselves. To her is was obvious. That we cannot force peace on another, but we can set examples for others to follow. Ultimately, her message was simple:

As someone who likes to walk and has peace central to their life’s mission, it makes sense that I would draw inspiration from Peace’s life. Peace Pilgrim is not quite a household name (like MLK Jr. or Mother Theresa, for example), but her words, energy and passion deserve a wide audience. The Friends of Peace Pilgrim was formed by her actual friends after her death to continue to spread her word. In fact, if you request it, they will send you a copy of the book Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words free of charge. That’s how I got my copy. So I’m very happy that sales of ‘’’peacewhere’’ will help support continuing to share the story of Peace Pilgrim’s amazing life.

Space Suckers set to suck soon!

As many of you are well-aware, I have been taking theatrical clowning classes for over a year. Now I’m part of a clown show in the making. It’s called Space Suckers from Outer Space. It is a send up of 1950’s sci-fi movies. 

If you are in the area, I encourage you to come by and catch a show. (Even if you’re not in the area, I still encourage you to come by, but I understand if you can’t make it work.) I play Andrew, the Android: a cybernetic organism who joins the Star Force to forge his destiny in the universe—or at least to finally utilize his “fully functional” anatomy. We’re devising the show as we rehearse and it’s already a blast (at least for me). So I’m pretty sure the show will be good, but I can guarantee you that it will suck!

Space Suckers from Outer Space
Church of Clown
2400 Bayshore Blvd, San Francisco
Friday, 29 March & Saturday, 30 March
20:00 PDT

Council 11

Do you want to get a ‘’’peacewhere’’’ t-shirt for free? You can earn one for yourself by attending MOOP Council five times! The are already three mun who have earned their pick of any available peaces. And there are two others who are just one more attendance away from getting a their free ‘’’pw’’’ shirt.

MOOP Council 11
Wednesday, 6 March 2024
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST
on Discord

In this issue we have:

• peacing it together: an update on the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ web store

• a serendipitous sale: the story of the first ‘‘‘pw’’’ sale

• Council 9: the next Council will be held on Wednesday, 7 February, 2024

• how you can help: website feedback please!

peacing it together

Bit by bit, peace by peace, the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ webstore is coming together. First I had to actually make physical clothing items to line the official ‘‘‘pw’’’ closet1. We’re now at nineteen peaces of ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’! One peace has been sold (as alluded to in EDOM 6, and expounded upon below), and I gave four peaces as Christmas gifts to my now tie-dye-clad  family.

And behold, there’s an online catalog! You can see a picture of each peace next to its number, size, and associated information. Peaces that are for sale have a white background, and peaces that have mun associated with them (aka “peace patrons”*) are on a black background. 

www.moop.earth/pw/catalog

Now, if you click/tap on a shirt in the catalog, you go to a page just about that particular peace. It’s got extra pictures, and has standard  info you would expect for a garment, like size and material. It’s also got (or will get—the template is still under construction) some info that helps tell the story of how that peace came to be. It will include the date it was made/dyed/modified (aka the “fab date”), the “SESH” number which connects a peace with its fabrication-siblings2, and the artist who made the peace (in all cases so far it’s me).

I think of the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ catalog as a wall of honor for supporters of the Magical Office of Peace. When somemun buys a peace of  ‘‘‘pw’’’, they are honored with their name (digitally) etched in a (digital) brick. The brick is the individual web page for that peace that they just got. Also on this page I plan to include a “peace message.” If they would like, the peace patron may make a brief (one to two sentences of ordinary length) message of a peaceful nature directed to the entirety of humunkind. Also also included are notes made by the MOOP (i.e., me), the date patronage was assumed, and any money exchanged.

One of the points of recording this info on the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ wall is to create a personal experience that is more than a transaction. When I sell a peace of  ‘‘‘pw’’’, I want to create a personal bond with the patron. While I don’t expect to make intimate, lasting friends with everyone who buys a shirt, I do want to at least know their name. I’m also hoping that peace patrons might find connection to each other. 

Now that we have the catalog, the next step is to make a digital storefront so the peaces are actually buy-able online. I tried using the service that hosts the moop.earth website (Webflow), with the hopes that I could make the catalog and the shop one single digital database. But I wasn’t able to make it work like I wanted, so instead I’m going to host the catalog—which will contain info on all ‘‘‘pw’’’ items—where it is now, and will host the shop—which will just be peaces that are for sale—on a separate platform (i.e. Shopify). The shop is not yet complete, but I’m hopeful it’ll work out just fine.

In related news, the MOOP now has its own bank account. I just made the first purchase on its debit card: ten white t-shirts. Hooray.

www.moop.earth/peacewhere/catalog

a serendipitous sale

In Each Day, One More issue 6, I alluded to a serendipitous sale of the first peace of ‘’’peacewhere’’’. For those of you trembling in anticipation for the last five weeks will now be relieved of your dramatic tension, as I will tell the story now.

On the 17th of December, I did not do laundry. I had some time in the evening to do it, but with unusual decisiveness, I decided that laundry was the kind of activity that would be best done tomorrow. I don’t remember what I did instead, but presumably it was more interesting than washing clothes. And so the world turned, the sun rose and the phenomenon previously understood as the comfortably distant “tomorrow” had morphed into an unrecognizable, responsibility-laden monstrosity called “today”. 

So I did laundry. On my way to the machines, not thirty seconds from stepping outside my door, I met two people: Jenny and Richard. About five minutes later, Jenny and I were in embrace with tears in our eyes.

They were sitting outside a neighbor’s unit. As I walked past, they said they liked my shirt. As odds would have it (and the odds were very good) I happened to be wearing a black and white tie-dye t-shirt. Considering that some of the items stuffed into my giant ikea bag were also black and white tie-dye t-shirts I had recently dyed, I thought it poignant to mention that I had shirts for sale. They erupted in enthusiasm—peppering me with questions of how much the shirts cost, how to buy them, and what the website was. I was shocked, but delighted by the  inquisitive frenzy. We managed to figure out that Jenny could get me money through venmo, and I could get her a shirt from my apartment thirty seconds away. As I am a firm believer in formality, I cut some cardstock and hand wrote an official certificate of authenticity with her name, the date, my signature and a MOOP stamp. I gave it to her along with Peace 3. And that was the first sale.

What made the sale serendipitous—beyond its surprise—was how the three of us crystallized our connection so quickly. After we figured out the details of the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ exchange, Jenny and Richard told me that they were grieving a friend’s recent death. Without my prompting, they beamed an emotional spirit like a firehose of joy and pain. Quite fortunately,  I felt completely at ease to receive and hold their spirit without spilling a drop. Neither under- nor over-, I was perfectly whelmed. I think it was Richard who first mentioned serendipity. They felt like meeting me at this specific point in their lives was a sign for good things. It wasn't until days later that I realized it had been serendipitous for me too: I wanted ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ to be about personal connection, and that’s exactly what happened for the first sale. It’s hard to imagine a better story to start with.  

Council 9

Come join the next council! Councils are online, open meetings where we discuss MOOP matters.

 In the next Council we will go over the plan to sell ‘‘‘pw’’’ in person. We’ll also take our first look at the MOOP’s shiny new bank account. And I’ll propose a new conversation-based format for the Councils. 

Wednesday, 7 February 2024
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST

hosted on the MOOP Discord server

how you can help me out

Hey! Thanks for reading this newsletter. I sure do appreciate your attention. It helps knowing that you care.

Another way you can help me out is visit the MOOP homepage and the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ catalog and let me know how it looks.  I designed both for both desktop and mobile, and I would love to know your user experience like?

Thank you!

- Stephen James

In a few days, I’m off to visit Momma Kranz and the family for Christmas on Oahu. Sadly, snow is not forecasted. Anyway, you will read the next EDOM issue in the new year

‘’’peacewhere‘’’ fledges

The  ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’  project is a clothing line featuring tie-dye t-shirts and (eventually) stylish accessories. Proceeds from  ‘‘‘pw’’’  item sales will fund the Magical Office of Peace so that it may pursue its mission of planetary peace. When ‘’’pw’’’  was announced in EDOM 5, the title was  ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ takes flight. Upon reflection, a better title would have been ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ hatches.” We’re still not ready to leave the nest, but fortunately we’re one feather closer to our first flight: the webstore is now (mostly) open. Let us go on a digital shopping adventure starting at the moop.earth homepage.

There’s only one thing to click on (which we will imagine ourselves doing momentarily), but note that in the future there will be links to w4vp.com, Each Day, One More, Akron’s Got Heart and other projects walked by the MOOP. So for now, we’ll check out this quote-on-quote-on-quote  ‘’’peacewhere’’’ thing. 

So we’ve entered the  ‘’’pw’’’store  and,  wow, the colors changed from black-on-white to white-on-black. Talk about variety! There’s a title, a tagline, an extremely brief explanation of what  ‘’’pw’’’  is, and the assertion that every item has a number on it. What’s not included is an explanation as to why that assertion is important. But we will assume it must be very exciting.

When we scroll down our eyes indulge in the glory of the collection itself. We see a picture of each item on a grey card. On the card is a big and bold number, a garment size, a price, and a button that says “deets”

If we explore the deets of   ‘‘‘pw’’’ 5,  we are taken to a page all about that shirt. We have a big shirt picture, two smaller and enlarge-able pics of the labels, a brief description, the date the shirt was made, the initials of who made it, and a set of four-letter codes paired with a number. While it is currently extremely obscure, these code-numbers contain information about how the shirt was folded, tied, dyed and processed. Also on the page there’s a button that reads “get it.” Hypnotized by the spiral patterns, our inhibitions dissolve and we press the button.

Immediately upon the button press, a self-proclaimed cart appears. With it brings the vision of material acquisition and the associated neurochemical delights. However, upon clicking “checkout” a horrible message informs us that we may proceed no further. And disappointingly, our shopping journey must end without that sweet, sweet post-purchase dopamine hit. Such is life.

Once I set up the payment processor we can proceed. Until then, let us ask ourselves 

what’s the point of  “‘peacewhere’” ?

The point of  ‘‘‘pw’’’ is, as mentioned  above, to generate profits to support the generally un-profitable MOOP projects, such as Walking for Vice President. In this effort, it is important that we ensure that the means justify the ends. Imagine that the  ‘‘‘pw’’’ store was an alluring, but fraudulent scheme that would entice you with the promise of stylish garments only to mail you notes that say “you smell bad” after securing payment. Sure, it may successfully raise funds for a good end, but in this case utilizing fraud was not itself a peaceful means. 

So how can our clothing line be peaceful? A few ideas come to mind. We can avoid the temptation to use manipulative marketing tactics by acknowledging that the items for sale—while very nice—are not things that we need and won’t solve our existential problems. We can be transparent with the cost of goods, the labor involved and where profits go. We can give credit to the artists that inspired us. And we can present our processes so that others may learn from our work.

We will focus on that last point. What would happen if we publish detailed instructions to replicate our core product?  Our hypothesis is that giving up our secret sauce will result in stronger connections with customers and the established industry. And that the benefits from these peaceful connections will far outweigh what the business might suffer from competition with adversarial agents. Sharing knowledge will be a cornerstone of ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’.

Before all that, of course, is to sell a single shirt. 

Between writing the previous sentence yesterday—which I meant to be the final sentence of the article—and publishing today, we sold our first shirt. I will tell the story of this serendipitous first sale tomorrow at Council 8.

2023 at-a-glance

As it is the season for wrap-ups and summaries1, I thought it fitting to make a list of some major events in my life, the W4VP campaign and the MOOP.

• (Jan-Feb) w4vp.com got updated with the Library (my reading list) and the Slap art collection.

• (16 Mar) The first Council was held. 

• (6 May) I published Fortune Report 1, which is a 45-page report on my financial habits for 2021 and 2023.

• (July - Oct) I worked with GaeaStar as a process engineer consultant.

• (18 July) Each Day, One More was revived as a digital newsletter. Four more issues followed.

• (30 Aug) I enjoyed my first solo backpacking trip in Yosemite

• (Oct) Helped my mom recover from a fall

• (throughout  the year) I was blessed with insights from wise teachers at the Church of Clown

I’m looking forward to setting ambitious goals for 2024 and the joy of your company in the pursuit!

MOOP Councils: a reintroduction

The Magical Office of Peace Councils are online meetings where MOOP matters are discussed. Hosted on Discord, they last around 45 minutes. I give a presentation about new developments and I ask for ideas, feedback and help making connections. Participation is appreciated but not expected (feel free to lurk). Late arrivals and early departures are welcome. Please come! 

Councils are now held regularly on first and third Wednesdays at 15:00 PST with some exceptions—namely the next Council (C8) which will be tomorrow (a third Tuesday). Council 9 will return to schedule on Wednesday, 3 January 2024.

If you’d like to be a part of Council but the time or day don’t work for you, let me know! I’d love to find a way to include you. :) Also, they are recorded, and you can listen to Councils past in the archives—that is, once I make the archives.

Council 7 Review

Council 7 took place on 6 Dec 2023. Attendees were Jonathan, Jordan, Brad, Rob and myself. We focused primarily on the idea behind  ‘’’peacewhere’’’ —it is “slow fashion”—and the fundamentals of the process— dying, labeling, cataloging, and selling. Then we took our first look at the webstore. I shared an estimate on material costs, labor and price points. I got some feedback on reducing operational costs and that I should talk to Rob’s uncle. We also considered if there might be a better name for the Councils. I.e., does that word imply greater organization than is actually happening? Responses were generally indifferent, so the MOOP Councils will remain MOOP Councils. MOOP Labs was the leading alternative. To end our meeting, I shared an update about my mother who’s recovered from her fall a bit, but still needs mobility assistance. 

Council Gifts

Another thing we discussed are Council gifts. The gifts started as a way for me to share my gratitude for attendees’ time and energy. It started after Council 1 when I let the first attendees (Jonah, Brad & Tim) select a unique Slap art piece from my collection. (the Slaps will be a future EDOM topic.) Gifts for additional attendees included  a patch, lapel pin and—for 5 attendances—a ‘’’peacewhere’’’ t-shirt of their choosing. I love giving the gifts so I will continue doing so. And this is the new schedule(*):

1st attendance: hand-written thank you note that is signed, dated and stamped
3rd: a Magical Flag of Piece embroidered patch (2” x 3”)
5th: a Slap art piece of your selection
7th: a ‘’’peacewhere’’’ t-shirt of your selection

For your attendance to be counted, you must at the very least identify yourself at the Council. Nothing else is required. You just being you and showing up is more than enough :)

Council 8

Tomorrow at Council 8 we will go over the first-sale story mentioned above, as well as projections for MOOP operations in 2024. I will invite attendees to answer a question: How do you bring/share/make peace in your life? The goal is to have a  discussion about how we define peace on large scales (ending wars) and on scales in our local domain (befriending a neighbor, or forgiving a family member). 

Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, 19 December 2023
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST
MOOP Discord server

peace & love,
Stephen James

As you have likely noticed, the format of this issue has changed. The first issue was a printed newsletter and EDOM 2, 3 & 4 were sent as a bcc’d email. But moving forward we’re going to try out Substack. It’s a way to send out newsletters via email and also have them posted as a blog for historical record. Here’s the website. Please let me know your experience!

Thank you for the encouraging feedback and I hope the stories below will satisfy your yearning desire for logistical updates, process outlines and mild clarifications.

moop.earth is live!

As I have mentioned in previous EDOMs and Councils, the goal of the Magical Office of Peace is to bring eternal peace to planet Earth for all munkind. Simple enough. But I do think achieving planetary peace requires some structure. And fortunately, the MOOP is now official!

When did the Magical Office of Peace become official? Well, from a legal standpoint registering it as a business with the county (which happened a couple of months ago) seems like a reasonable mark. But earlier than that (though involving fewer signatures, stamps and fees) the MOOP had another sign of officialness: a sign. On 9 October 2021, I used a soldering iron to burn in lettering into a piece of scrap wood2. I wiped it with tung oil and glued magnets on the back. I stuck it on the door of the MOOP headquarters—which happens to be the same as the door to my apartment—and it has been there since.

But a new level of officiality is upon us! The MOOP now has a website: moop.earth. Now, I’m sure you’re probably so busy that you won’t have time to visit the site. So to save you the trouble I will use words to describe it it for your now. There is a white background with black text. In a large serif font are the words “Magical Office of Peace.” Below is another line of text, “Earth location.” This text line is half as tall as the first line and is stylized in all caps with large spacing between the letters. The two lines of text are separated by a one pixel black horizontal rule at fifty percent opacity. Above the text is a circular emblem3 with eight-fold radial symmetry. And that’s what’s on the page.

(You know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but by my count, it only took me about a hundred—just sayin’.)

The site will expand to be the place to find all MOOP related projects including Walking for Vice President and this very newsletter. Also it will be the home of the new project ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’, as described below.

‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ takes flight

Sometime in 2019—this is back when I was Walking for (regular) President—I felt that in order to pursue a political office there was one thing I would have to buy, find or build myself: a stunning sense of fashion.

Now, I needed to be economical because—as it is widely known and well-documented—lookin’ good ain’t cheap. My solution was to minimize colors so I could maximize styles. By my math, two was the smallest integer greater than one4 and which two colors were obvious: black & white. They’re available in virtually all items/cuts/styles/sizes of clothing. You can wear the colors to a wedding, to a funeral and everywhere in between. Also, no other color pair has greater contrast—without relying in fluorescence. So bee and dubs it was.

Initially, my daily wear was a black baseball cap, a plain white t-shirt, and black jeans. While it was indeed a simple outfit, sadly it was not turning heads. Then in mid 2020 I had a thought: tie-dye. Yes, a white shirt with patterned black dye would certainly be an interesting upgrade! Where did this idea to tie-dye come from? I don’t know, but I was to find out much later that I was not alone in choosing this as a pandemic hobby.

After I made the first ten t-shirts, I was wearing them nearly every day. What I loved about tie-dye was that I could have a consistent look, but still have day-to-day variations in the patterns. I was pleased to receive shirt compliments and the occasional offer to buy a shirt. For years, I didn’t want to sell them. They were labors of love and in the end my appetite to consume black & white tie-dye shirts was greater than my ability to produce them. So there were never any left to sell. But things have changed!

Lately I’ve been thinking about the long-term support of the Magical Office of Peace and decided to raise funds for the Magical Treasury of Peace (which is owned and operated by the MOOP). And so, since there exists a non-zero demand for B&W tie-dye items, I decided that making and selling these items is an obvious MOOP fundraiser.

As a proof of concept, I made the first six items in what I am calling the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ collection. Each item in the collection was tied, dyed and washed. Brand labels were sewn on and included the serial number of the shirt. Then shirts were photographed individually. Lastly, a record in the ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ log book is created that includes the serial number, the date the shirt was made, and other identifying information.

The point of the number labels is so the provenance of each item can be tracked. When I sell an item, I will record who bought it and for how much in the spreadsheet. So that way, by just checking the label you can get a sense of the item’s history. Also, it offers a way to verify authenticity: compare the number with the official photo. It would be difficult to reproduce a pattern exactly.

The initial idea is to sell them locally. Oakland’s Lake Merritt5 seems like a great place where I could hawk the ‘‘‘where’’’. I would like to also offer them through an online store, which is in the works.

You might be wondering about the name ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’. It came to me the other Sunday (19 Nov). What could a clothing wear line oriented about peace be called? “Peace Wear,” of course. Wouldn’t you believe it, there’s already an online shop with that name. Then I found the fairly obvious path of wear > ware > where. I liked the sound of Peace Where. And with a bit more thinking I came to a tag line: “Let us make peace wherever we may be.” Now about the styling of the word: making it all lowercase just felt right. And the three single-quotes before and after the word is just a little decoration. I think of them as tiny little wings on a wide bird.

If you would like to buy an authentic ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ tie-dye shirt and/or jacket you can be first in line if you attend Council 7 next week.

If you would like to earn an authentic ‘‘‘peacewhere’’’ without spending a single dollar, you can learn how if you attend Council 7 next week.

Council 7 next week

Previously called W4VP Councils, the Magical Office of Peace Councils are hour-long online gatherings where MOOP business is discussed. Usually, it’s a bit of a show and tell with space made for feedback, questions and discussions.

The Councils are the best way to get a look behind the scenes and previews of upcoming projects. When you share your thoughts and feelings it makes a great contribution to this project of peace. I know your schedule might now allow it, but if other times / days work for you, please let me know.

Council 7
Wednesday, 6 December 2023
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST

As always, meeting is hosted on the MOOP Discord server. Drop in and out as you need.

peace + love,
Stephen James

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

It’s been quite a while since EDOM issue 3—four months! So today’s news buffet is heartier than usual and includes the following dishes for you to chew on:

• Council 7: Now scheduled for Wednesday, 6 Dec 2023.

• Mom down!: Momma Kranz suffers a fall and ends up in the hospital. SJ flies out to help.

• Birthday in Yosemite: SJ takes a train to Yosemite Valley and backpacks solo for four nights.

• Cal & Cra’s first client: SJ concludes his part-time contract as a process engineer

• Other news: News about other things: website updates and newly processed paperwork

Council 7

You are all invited to join me for Council 7! We will discuss a new branding idea for a tie-dye clothing line to help fund the Magical Office of Peace (and in turn W4VP). Your feedback will be greatly appreciated :) 

Council 7
Wednesday, 6 December 2023
15:00 PST / 18:00 EST

As always, meeting is hosted on Discord

Mom down!

In the late morning of Tuesday, 10 October, I was at the GaeaStar office (see “Cal & Cra’s first client” below) when I got a call from my sister. Mom had fallen in the bathroom and was on the ground for three days (!!!) before the cleaning staff found her. She was being taken to the hospital. I let my colleagues know about my family emergency, dashed off to home, scheduled cat care for Hubert, and bought a ticket to Oahu where my mother and sister live.

I flew out the next morning and arrived on the island in the afternoon.  A cab brought me to the home of my sister, brother-in-law and nephew in Kaneohe. Quite inconveniently, they were away  in Disneyland when mom went down, but I encouraged them to enjoy their final few days of vacation. I drove my sister’s car to the hospital and found my mom banged up and bruised pretty bad—that is, from the fall and not from me driving into the hospital—but she was conscious and aware. She was recovering from severe dehydration and suffering from a lot of pain in her back and left side. Over the next couple of days after an MRI and other tests, the doctors were confident that she hadn’t broken bones. They ordered her a week of in-patient physical therapy. However, that therapy has yet to happen. 

According to her case worker, her insurance (Aetna) is notoriously difficult to work with. Also, my mother can be a notoriously difficult patient which gave reason for therapists to reject her. After six days in the hospital she was discharged. But with no PT providers to take her, I brought her back to her apartment. On our way home, she was adamant that I get her three things: two bottles of extra-strength tylenol, ZzzQuil, and diapers.

The first night was rough. Getting Mom to bed was ok: with my assistance she stood up from her wheelchair, took a few steps and sat on the bed. But that relatively small movement caused her a large amount of pain. After she settled in, I made a bed on the floor of the living room with a surprisingly comfortable futon mattress borrowed from my sister. After a few hours of sleep I awoke to my mom’s cries. Laying on her back was now agonizing, and she lacked the strength to roll onto her side. Even these ordinary reconfigurations made her shake in pain. At that moment, my first thought was “I need to get Mom to the hospital.” Then I remembered that we were just their twelve hours ago and they told us to go home. Clearly we needed some help.

My mom’s retirement community has an in-house nursing provider, and when I spoke with them in the morning, they were able to staff twenty-four hour care starting that afternoon. The nurses took my mom to the bathroom, changed her diaper and tried (and occasionally succeeded) to get my mom to eat and drink. We did that for three days. By then it was clear that it was not necessary to have a nurse sit and watch my mom watch her iPad before falling asleep. So now a nurse checked in every couple hours, and I would take care of Mom’s necessities when I was around, which was most of the time. Things were running smoothly enough, but we needed a longer term solution for her care.

When my sister was back from the mainland, we looked into “care homes” which are residential homes staffed by nurses that serve up to five patients. More economical than a private nurse, and more personal than a large facility, it seemed like a good option for Mom. With the help of a placement agency we found a home that felt caring, was easy to visit and most importantly, allowed my mother to smoke. 

My mom enjoys a cigarette. And by “a” cigarette I mean two or three. Immediately after returning to her apartment from the hospital, we grabbed a box of smokes and lighter and rolled out onto the lanai (Hawaiian patio) for the first of many cigarette breaks over the next couple of weeks. It was usually three or four breaks a day.

 We eventually got a rhythm going: sit up from bed, stand up, turn, sit down in wheelchair, roll to the bathroom, roll to the lanai, come back in, sit on comfy chair and watch Star Trek (TNG, DS9, VOY), another bathroom break, back to bed. There were a few days where we felt good enough to take excursions up and down the halls and around the grounds of the facility. We had fun, well, at least I did. From time to time, I was able to get her to give up a smile and even some laughs. Already clown classes have paid off.

The move to the care home was easy—physically. Emotionally, it was trying for my mom. Momma Kranz was still feeling unsettled from the last move eight years ago. After her stroke in 2015, we did what we thought was best: my sister and I sold her house in Akron, Ohio and moved her to Hawaii to live near my sister. When we got her into Mom’s new apartment, she let us know that she “will be moving out soon.” That plan never materialized, but it founded the notion that there was no point to settling in. It was sad to watch over the years: Her walls were bare, while a box of photos still in the packaging from the last move sat untouched in the closet. But on the bright side, she was already packed.

Mom sat beside me on the drive over to her new home. Before we left the parking lot we had our first panic: we forgot her iPad in her apartment. An iPad-less life was unfathomable, but fortunately my sister was able to launch a rescue operation immediately. About half way into the 30 minute drive, another concern erupts: will they have a bed in her room? I convinced Mom that the manager with 30 years of experience has indeed got that covered. Because they had two rooms open, we made a last minute room-switch. Then disaster struck. The new room had a problem: there was no bed in it. Which, as you will remember, I had assured Mom that there would be. Demonstrating excellent problem solving capabilities, the nurses were able to devise and execute a plan to wheel the bed from the other room into this room. It was a harrowing 45 or more seconds before we were blessed with resolution. If you think that this day couldn’t have gotten more exciting, you better think again, my friend. Imagine this: Mom’s in her new room, on a bed that exists, and with her iPad in hand when a monstrous obstacle appears: the wifi isn’t working. I type in the password multiple times. It just spins, never connects. Internet search results are not relevant. I can’t find other settings to adjust. It’s been ten agonizing minutes and we are nowhere closer to streaming Stargate SG-1 on Netflix. Then, when the light of hope was fast fading, a divine inspiration strikes: turn it off and then on again. So I reset the router… and it worked. And at that moment, a very small portion of the world was saved.

Two days after the move and three weeks after I arrived, I flew back home. It had been a wild enough ride, and I appreciated how I had been able to surf my emotional waves with hints of grace. Sure, I got wet, but I managed to not wipeout. Also I took note of this role reversal of my mom and I after thirty-six years. Now I answered her cries in the night, I convinced her to eat another bite of veggies, and I changed her diaper. This reverse maturity of old age felt poetic. Also, I saw in myself a capability and willingness to give her the love she needed, even though it was the kind of love she did not often show me (or anyone else). 

While my mom is still having a tough time at least her health is stable for now.. There were many people instrumental in achieving that stability so I’m glad to say thank you: doctors & nurses at Straub Hospital for helping my mom at her weakest; Mary for fighting the insurance battle; Eugene and Miki for the all-hours check ins and care; Brent for helping us find Eva; Eva for taking in my mom; the Ivy Hawaii Kai staff for kind assistance; Cindy for short term cat care; very deeply Lauren & Normal for sharing in the Mom-care journey by carrying her on when I’m not around (which is most of the time), and of course Caleb for the chess matches and letting me crash in his room. thanks :)

Birthday in Yosemitay

My thirty-sixth August 30 birthday was two weeks away and I realized I did not have a plan. But I made one: a solo backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park. I successfully acquired a camping stove, bear canister, and a sundry collection of dried foods. I unsuccessfully tried to acquire a new camera. Then—this should be no surprise to you—I created a spreadsheet to track the mass of every item in my backpack (about 20 kg total).  Lastly, I got train tickets from BART to Merced, Cal., and bus tickets on YARTS (Yosemite’s bus system) to take me into Yosemite Valley. With the backpack and gear I already had (including an older, but perfectly functional camera), it came together pretty good.

Day 1: The bus arrived in the Valley in the mid afternoon. At the Wilderness Center I picked up a permit and map, and received a Park Ranger’s advice on where to camp on the first night (advice review: 5/5 I would have spent the first night searching wearily and blindly on a steep mountain side. Instead I slept on flat, soft ground near a creek). To describe the first day’s hike in a word: up. There were tiny bits of down, even some sideways, but most of it was up. After what felt like 1000 miles of climbing (the map says it’s closer to 2), I made it to the top of Yosemite Falls with very little, but non-zero amount of energy. After an extremely anticlimactic encounter with a bear, I drew inspiration and made myself barefoot so I could ford a shallow creek to find the aforementioned soft-ground campsite.

Day 2: After an oatmeal breakfast and a photoshoot with a lizard, I doubled back and headed the way I would have gone if I had ignored Ranger wisdom. I made my way to  North Dome which was more in the up direction, but considerably less up than yesterday’s hike. Then in the hot afternoon sun I made it  up, over and then past (but not to) Indian Rock (I was tired) and down to a gorgeous, hidden campsite by the turn in Snow Creek. I camped here for two nights. 

Day 3: R&R day. Leaving most of my pack weight at camp, I leisured to Porcupine Flat. I ventured off trail to check out huge boulders dappled in the midday shadows. They are a great spot for lunches and meditations. Back at camp, the uneasy peace with the dozen or so yellow jackets held for a second night. They did not attack but they were extremely curious about my food and the interior of my tent. 

Day 4: I packed up and kept on along Snow Creek on the way to Mirror Lake. I stopped for a photoshoot to take a selfie at a creek waterfall. Just past the bridge over the creek, I set up camp at the first site I could find. I packed for another day hike and went away from the lake to Olmsted Point. Unlike Days 1, 2 & 3,  today was cool and mostly cloudy. The trail meandered through grassy meadows, mulchy forests, stacks of rock and lots of leafy greens. I found very few people and one jaw-dropping view (I think it was of Cloud’s Rest). After making my way back from (almost) Olmstead Pt., I found my tent blown over (no stakes). A kind neighbor did weigh down my bag that could have fled in the wind. For my last night’s dinner, I made chili a second time (dinners for Days 1,2 and 3 were polenta and butter, chili pt 1, and couscous.)

Day 5: My last day in Yosemitay was quite the opposite of Day 1: cloudy, light rain, cool, and almost entirely downhill. Like all the other days, it was filled with plenty of gratitude and reflection. After hopping down rock after rock after rock, I made it into the valley at Mirror Lake as rain drizzled over and past, over and past. The human-dense valley floor was a little shocking for my recently wild self. I sat down at the YARTS bus stop and at the very last of my sardines, almonds and whatever other snack I had left. I was surprised, but proud of having packed just enough food. After an hour of watching many valley visitors come and go, the bus came and I went.

I’m so grateful to have made the trek and I’m looking forward to being back soon. See the email attachment for photos!

Cal & Cra’s first client

Earlier in 2023, I established Caliper & Crayon as a “creative scientific consulting” company as a way to combine my varied skills and to grant me the flexibility (and, of course, the funds) to support the missions of the Magical Office of Peace and Walking for Vice President. On the “caliper” side, I was marketing my skills in designing experiments, establishing protocols and writing documentation. On the “crayon” side I emphasized visual design and cultivating an empathic workplace. Well, I wasn’t even half way through building a business website when a former colleague reached out to me asking if I was available for hire.

Bill was working with a startup called GaeaStar that was looking to fill a ceramics process engineer role. GaeaStar aims to replace disposable paper and plastic cups with a ceramic alternative (see EDOM 3: “Personal updates” for more). While I could not commit to a full time role, I did join the team for 2-3 days a week. And in early November, my fourth-month contract concluded.

I’m happy to report I was able to help set up a workshop and lab for processing sustainable ceramic drinking vessels. I got to research and play with spray glazing, firing kilns, and measuring the rheology of non-flowing fluids. My final contribution to the team was to create a safety training course for the kilns and workshop. On my last day, I gave a presentation, administered two 10-question quizzes, and collected the signatures of the trainees. I’m even happier to report that I expect to stay friends with several of my fellow team members. 

Other news

• The Magical Office of Peace is now, as of 14 September 2023, officially registered as a business in Alameda County, California. Next step: a bank account!

• W4VP.com is in the process of getting a more robust redesign of its overall structure. See www.w4vp.com/fortune to see how other pages will look. Let me know what you think!

Thank you for reading EDOM 4

- SJK

PERSONAL UPDATES FROM SJK

The past few weeks have been pleasantly exhausting. My ideal bedtime of several hours before midnight has been challenged by nightly theatre classes that end several hours before midnight. Although I'm sleepier than usual, I am grateful for the opportunity to have done a 5-night clown intensive with Dan Grifftiths and a 5-night mime intensive with Steve Chips at the Church of Clown in San Francisco. Dan and Steve are excellent teachers of their crafts. The intensives were beautiful deep dives into physical and emotional communication. I have two more intensives to get through: devising (this week) and improvisation (next week). 

Last week I took on new part-time paid work. For 1 to 2 days a week for at least the next 6 to 12 weeks, I will be a process engineer consultant at GaeaStar. GaeaStar is a startup that makes disposable ceramic cups as a more ecological and higher-end alternative to consumer plastic and paper cups. In this role I am responsible for setting up a ceramics processing lab, writing operating protocols and ensuring safety compliance. I have the pleasure of reporting to Bill Buel, who I worked with two and a half years ago at Origin (a 3D printing startup). I'm also excited to work with a new colleague, Brogan, who is my counterpart on the engineering team. I took on this work for three reasons: (1) I admire the project's goal of waste reduction, and I am fascinated by the technical challenges of manufacturing ceramics; (2) since leaving employment two and a half years ago, I have struggled to establish and adhere to a regular schedule for myself (in fact this is something I mentioned in "NEW JOB: NO JOB" in EDOM 1) and I felt that part time work might help me be more disciplined with my time; and (3) I don't mind getting paid. 

Council 6 now scheduled

Council 6 is now scheduled in two weeks from last Thursday. As always, please drop in and out as you need, but we will be starting promptly. Council is an hour long.

Council 6
Thursday, 10 August 2023
15:00 (PDT)

that's 3 PM

hosted on Discord: https://discord.gg/rQkWEGKwBr

Council 5 review

Council 5 was attended by Jonathan, Brad, Rob, Matt, Jack and myself. Items we discussed were:

- project prioritizations: I listed about 10 projects related to W4VP that I'm working on (e.g. in-person and online outreach, fundraising, documentation, et al) and asked the Council which they felt would be the wisest to focus. Jonathan and others suggested that I build out more story and context on the w4vp.com website so that when I do reach out to gain attention, I have a place to bring new followers to where they can learn everything that they'll want to learn. Also Matt put forward that videos are likely the best way for me to convey a lot of the information I want to share.

- gifts for Council attendance: Since the first Council, I have mailed thank you notes, and sent gifts of flag patches and self-made art to mun1 who have shown up at one or more Councils. The gifts are a way for me to say thank you for your time, attention and energy. Also, I really enjoy sending physical objects through the mail and imagining the experience of the recipient receiving it. I announced that for the first 12 mun to attend a total of 5 Councils I will make them a tie-dye t-shirt in a design of their choosing. I appreciated Rob's and Matt's comments on how they like that the gifts are things that are personal to me and "authentic," and not generic swag.

- Decide My Day: I thought it would be interesting to offer the Council the opportunity to choose how I spend one of my days. So I said that I will spend a day doing or working on any proposal that is approved by the Council. The proposal could be anything (though idealing related to Walking for Vice President). I gave examples of volunteering, learning a skill, studying a subject or working on a specific project. Rob and Matt suggested that I attend some official local government meeting like the city council. No other proposals were made and the Council unanimously voted to approve. I loved this idea because it seems like it would be a good place to make connections and in some ways, an obvious thing to do. The first meetings that came to mind were those held by the AC Transit Board of Directors meeting and Oakland's Library Advisory Commision—I've attended both previously and both address things I care deeply about: public transportation and libraries. Due to my evening theater classes and the holiday schedule the next meetings I could attend for ACT and LAC are in the second half of September. I'm sure I can find some other municipal meeting sooner, but either of those are orgs are ones I would like to be more involved in. So, I will not be able to complete the proposal by Council 6 as I said I would in Council 5. But I do still intend to do it sooner than later and I want to make sure that we make note of that.

- office hours: I announced that I will hold a trial run of "office hours" for anymun to consult me about anything they'd like. I want to show my gratitude for you readers of this newsletter and for all who come to Council by holding space for me to offer you my attention, because you have given me yours. The first session will be Wednesday, 2 August 2023 at 11:00 to noon PDT on Discord. It'll be first come, first serve. As I wait, I'll be working on an activity that can be interrupted with little disruption (such as sewing). In the very likely event that no one shows up at all, I think I might still be glad I've taken the time to be available.

Attached are the slides from Council 5 for reference.

W4vp Council 5

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peace & love,
Stephen James (SJ)

EDOM goes digital

Each Day, One More is a newsletter written by me, Stephen James Kranz, that reports on events and progress related to the Walking for Vice President campaign. You'll notice this is EDOM number 2, but what about the first one? I published EDOM 1 in June 2021 as a 4-page printed newsletter.  The lead was my story of deciding to run for president, then slowing down to walking for president, then the transition to walking for VP. I also wrote about moving to Fruitvale, quitting my job, taking on a new (old) name, and the provenance of the newsletter's title.

While I am very proud of EDOM's inaugural issue and loved making it, producing a printed newsletter took a bit more time than I wanted and it didn't seem like the best way of communicating this project. So after more than two years, I have decided to bring back the newsletter in digital form, which you are reading right now. Thank you for being the first to read this new iteration of EDOM, which will almost certainly have another issue in less than two years time.

Council 5 scheduled next Thursday

The next installment of the W4VP official meetings, known as the Councils, is scheduled for Thursday of next week. 

Council 5

Thursday, 27 July 2023

3:00 PM (PDT)

hosted on Discord: https://discord.gg/rQkWEGKwBr

Council 4 review

Council 4 was the smallest Council to date in terms of attendance: it was myself and third time Council attendee, Brad. In this council: 

- we went over a brief history of my name going from Stephen to Steve to Stephen James (plus a few other lesser used monikers)

- we reviewed the latest draft (v3) of a video intended for the homepage of w4vp.com. This new draft is much shorter (1.5 minutes) than previous versions (3 and 7 minutes). A major concern was that the persona I play in the video was too different from my normal self, and how this could be confusing for people who are new to the campaign. Some takeaways were that I can be a more "real" in the video while still being funny and engaging; while a shorter video is better than one that drags on, explaining the overarching purpose of W4VP and associated projects needs more context; this context could come in the form of text on the website or as additional "satellite" videos.

- we discussed a "decentralized autonomous organization" called Nouns. This DAO uses the sale of NFT artwork to fund a treasury that is governed by holders of the NFT. I was interested in the Nouns project because of some similarities to our nascent Magical Government of Peace project. Namely, using artwork to fund a treasury and having participants form a novel governmental body. 

- we ended our meeting with a brief discussion on what Brad thought/felt about the phrase "We are God." I use the phrase as a way to bridge eastern philosophical thought that the universe is all connected and Judeo-Christian philosophy of a special creator.

Thank you to those of you who informed me of your regrets about missing Council 4. I appreciate the gesture! Whether you are able or not to attend future Councils, I am grateful for your support and interest. :)

peace & love,

Stephen James (SJ)

Each Day, One More was conceived as a way to keep friends and family up to date on my personal life and progress in Walking for Vice President.

The first issue was published on 2 June 2021 as a 4-page printed newsletter. I loved designing print layout and being able to hand someone physical literature. Also, not existing in an electronic format made it feel a bit more grassroots. However, the layout was an extra step and so was mailing it out. Given that it was difficult enough to sit down and write the copy, it meant that issue two was taking a lot longer than expected: two years later and it still wasn’t done.

Yielding to practicality, I decided that I would publish a smaller newsletter more frequently, and that I would use a medium that is employed by pretty much everyone: e-mail.

On 18 June 2023, EDOM 2 was emailed out to a BCC’d list of fifteen now-well-informed mun. Less than two months later EDOM 3 was already out. Already twelve times faster! Not bad. I sent out EDOM 4 today before writing this article.

I am going to try using Substack (i.e. what you are reading right now) to post new issues of EDOM and to manage the email list. And for the sake of historical record, I will post previously published EDOM. So below is a PDF of the first issue of Each Day, One More.

Edom 001 D4 Single Page

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