*tim boucher says

On the heels of my most recent feature-length article into the history of trade, gambling, games and divination, I have been spending a great deal of time focusing on these subjects in both a philosophical and extremely concrete way. I recently won an auction on eBay for a pound (LB) of “foreign coins”, for the cost of $0.99 USD (plus a flat $6.00 USPS shipping charge). Though I’ve yet to total all the coins’ approximate value, I can tell that I came out on top in the transaction from a sheer numbers perspective – though the time and effort it would take to actually physically exchange each incremental amount originating from a different money system (some now defunct) would not be worth my while.

This past week, Rob Breszny’s Capricorn prediction reads, in part: “Take what you really need, Capricorn, but don’t take what you just sort of want. That’s my advice to you. Haggle with life, yes, but insist only on the specific essentials and forgo irrelevant goodies.”

Getting down the essentials and haggling for what’s rightfully mine has been a major focus these past few weeks and seems to be setting a tone for the year. Since last we spoke on the topic, I have whittled down seven years of archived writing on this website from 7,597 pieces to a fighting weight of 1,995. Through that process, for no reason or according to no pattern that I can yet discern, my average unique daily visits on this site has nearly doubled, from 3,800 people a day to over 7,300. I eliminated a lot of fluff – things that seemed important at the time while I was sorting through various things out-loud, but which need not be dwelt on or clinged to moving forward. I made sure to hold onto my dreams though, and was delighted to go back and read glimpses into my unconscious which had been buried for years.

One dream I wanted to add to the record happened this morning. I don’t remember all the details anymore – as is so often the case – but I was at some kind of outdoor market stall. It was night, but it was not the night we experience in this world. There pervaded a kind of blueish light clinging to things, having a presence almost its own which indicates to me some other realm – perhaps the land of the dead. From this stall, I purchased a small amount of goods from, I believe, three gypsy women. I handed them a five, expecting three dollars in return. Except, the change they tried to give me was obviously incorrect. That is, the paper money they had was stitched, taped and pasted together from other bits of currency: Frankenstein bills. I refused to take it, handing it back to them, reiterating how much they owed me. They tried again and again, with different configurations of these ersatz bills, I all the while refusing until I awoke.

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• Psycholagny: The “Psychic” Orgasm
• Last night’s dreams