Most of us are still living (and thinking) in two dimensions -- length and width.  But why limit yourself to just expanding into the horizon?
Something about using vertical space has suddenly become attractive to me. I'm not sure why. Yet its lure is virtually irresistible.

The idea first came to me trying to solve the dilemma of having enough space to house my art in process and my files. Having recently downsized my living space and then having someone else move into my space, where was this stuff to go? I'm all for clearing out the no-longer-useful stuff but what if you still are using it? Where can I keep it without having boxes everywhere?

Go into another dimension?

Hell, Yes!! Something on googleimages caught my eye while looking for an item entirely unrelated to furniture. I saw an ad for IKEA about space saving in a NY apartment. They were using vertical space. Perfect!

Having the general solution, does not always translate into the specific remedy immediately however. This takes some thought. I could raise my queen sized bed. But how high? And how do I build it when I'm sleeping in it each night? Simple enough solutions, I guess.

I have bookcases on the one side of the bed. What if I turned them sideways? Then I would simply have to figure out how to support the rest of the bed.

Still puzzling it out, so stay tuned.

Amazing links though on how people are solving space problems in their smaller (more eco-friendly) yet beautiful and functional spaces. Check them out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wBnMVwsFS8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPAsOpGrLA

If you (or I) were am alien assigned to the hind end of space - the Earth Surveillance Mission, what kind of reports woulud you send back?  Do you think the notes would be of a glowing nature?  
I doubt it too.

Zeta Reticuli (Greys) as pictured by an artist.

We like to think of ourselves as being at the top of our game as a society but it is very unlikely the aliens would think so. Advanced technology does not guarantee an advanced society yet in all liklihood, these aliens have a very different and a more advanced society than ours.  We, as a society, have grappled unsuccessfully with all of our major problems for the last hundred years.  This is due in part to greed on the part of some stakeholders.  We, as a species, act in an aggressive and openly hostile manner toward others on the planet and any species, which we feel does not serve us.  We allow food to go bad while there are those among us who go hungry.  We work, often unhappily, for others, rather than pursuing our dreams.  We allow ourselves to be driven by fear and anger, comparing ourselves with others and with the programming we receive through media.  We eat non-nutritious food, drink chemical laden water, and poison ourselves with alcohol, tobacco, caffeine or sugar, among other things. We abandon our young to others at a tender age and spend very little time with them.  We spend hours diverting ourselves from inconvenient truths, involving ourselves in things, which bring us no lasting benefit.  We spend and act as though we needed to leave nothing to our children. Increasingly, our leaders are taking more than their share of our tax money, while underrepresenting us and instead representing those who contribute more money to them.  We are destroying our own habitat.
Commander,
Today I observed a small child, who was fascinated with a pool of water at the park.  It had recently stopped raining and the child, wearing yellow footwear was stepping in the puddles and smiling.  His parent was communicating on her cellular device and only paying token attention to the youngster.  As she walked slowly around, her silken scarf had fallen onto the ground.  The child noticed and picked it up, offering it to his mother, who was too engrossed in her conversation to attend to him.  After waiting a moment he took the scarf back to the small pool of water and began to trail it into the water  At first he only dipped a small portion in but increasingly he dipped more, always looking back at his mother to see if she were watching.  At last he had it full in the water and the colours, which must not have been fast, were spreading from the scarf out into the pool.  The child was delighted and ran to his mother, who had just ended her conversation.  She reached for her scarf but not finding it looked around, only to see the child gesticulating and saying "Pretty!".  She flew into a rage, berating the child for getting her scarf all dirty and calling him a "bad boy".  The child was at first confused and then he began to cry.  The mother grabbed the boy up roughly and left the park, muttering insults and threats to the crying child.
I realize that I am only supposed to represent facts/observations in these reports, Commander, yet I feel compelled to make commentary here.  Before this mission, I could not understand why we had not disclosed our presence to the Earthlings.  Having seen first hand how cruel they can be even within their own tribes, I fully understand the reluctance of the Guardianship to proceed with public overtures to Earthlings.  They do not truly understand love or friendship for the most part.  There may be exceptions to this rule but they are not the majority.  We would be in grave danger of being destroyed if we were to officially make our presence known.  This is a most backward species.
Sincerely,
Ranu-El
Observer, Class I, Earth Observation Mission


It's not that there isn't perhaps life on other planets.  It's that, given the state of things, why would they come here and talk to us?

“Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.”
- NIKOLA TESLA     
How has our science succeeded in procuring the betterment of humanity?  Or are we only focused on the advancement of war technologies?  Or perhaps our focus is on technologies for distraction and amusement of the masses so that they will not watch what is happening to the planet for the enrichment of the very few?  

I| had a natural proclivity for science when I was younger but always felt that scientists became pawns of the military and not wanting that kind of karma, I refused that avenue for my life.  It has since come to light that science, like many other disciplines is a very rigidly controlled discipline.  Free energy machines are gobbled up by the military lest they see the light of day and people become free of the heavy yoke of paying for their energy.  
Nikola Tesla found that energy was freely available and wanted his discovery to better the lives of all  He is not mentioned in the history books.  But Thomas Edison is.  He helped George Westinghouse grid and hook up electricity to a paying system - that is one where we pay and they get the benefits of our money for receiving energy, which Tesla's invention would have seen us have for free.  Both Tesla and Edison were later awarded the Nobel Prize.  Neither accepted.  Tesla at the time no doubt had seen the corruption and as his autobiography states was revolted by the corruption and greed which took inventions he would have offered to mankind and made them benefit a select few.  And Edison - A guilty consionce perhaps?  
One wonders how anyone with a conscience could be a scientist anymore.  How did Einstein sleep at night after realizing that it was his discoveries which had as a consequence all the carnage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?  He was a pacifist.  Yet look what happened as a result of his invention.  One could rationalize that if it were not him it would have been someone else  Yet the above quote by Tesla still rings in my ears and I am grateful that as a teenager I had the wisdom to forgo science as an option.  Like everyone, I have made my share of mistakes in this life but my inventions have killed no one.  And had I pursued science - I might not be able to say that.
This does not mean that scientists would ever intentionally set out to do this.  No doubt the discovery of something like high fructose corn syrup was not meant for anything sinister.  Yet it is not able to be metabolized by the human liver (it turns to ethanol when digested) and it is destructive to the body.  Did the person who discovered it foresee that some companies would put it into food and drink and feed it to the people?  Are they responsible for what the end result is?  Yes, like all of us, they are responsible for their actions and the reactions of their actions - the ripple from the stone they threw into the lake, if you will.  
As a society, we do not seem to understand the scope of what we do.  We seem to be as a society,without the ability to see the outcome - the future result- of our actions.  Like a teenager, without the total frontal lobe development, we blunder along without even bothering to think what each new development might mean to future generations.  It is almost as though we think it will be their problem and not ours.  
What if we are wrong?
This short-term gain is all that matters viewpoint, I believe, comes from our belief that we only live once.  It is a Western peculiarity to believe this.  And there is growing evidence that it is a faulty belief.  Let us for sake of argument, enter into a mindset that would allow for the idea that reincarnation is real and operating in the world, now what does it look like to pollute and /or to waste resources?  When it is you (in another body) that will have to come back and clean up or live through the toxicity you yourself created for others,  would there be more motivation to find alternate ways of doing things?  
It takes just a small shift to see why we need to seriously consider what we are going to do with that product before we buy it.  Will it add to our quality of life?  And if not, why are we buying it?
There are scientists who are breaking with the establishment and seeking a better way.  These people deserve kudos.  Academia does not take kindly to  those who do not tow the party line.  So they are brave indeed.  There is hope that we may yet get to Tesla's quote being the norm for invention  Maybe not today, or tomorrow but we may yet get there.

In honour of Thanksgiving - despite the daftness of only giving thanks one day of the year for the harvest we enjoy so freely here in the west - I am gifting this poem.
I find it regrettable that so many get hijacked by the fear-mongering tactics of the media with regard to this e-bola thing.  Fear puts you in the vibration where sickness can assail you.  Stay out of fear.  Don't let it rest in your mind and don't go around stirring up fear in others.  Get enough sleep.  Meditate and keep your vibration high (gratitude, love, joy, peace) and not low (fear, worry, anger, sadness) and eat NO or very little processed food.  If you think your immune system is sluggish due to not looking after yourself properly - take Beta Glucans (like echiniciae but better) Vitamins C, D, B12 and minerals, especially zinc.  Beta Glucans is what the U.S. stocks for their crack troops and at every nuclear power station in case of an outbreak by the way.  Eat food as fresh as you possiblouty can - everyone can eat fresh sprouts.  Don't forget, even the plague had survivors!  If it is what they say, be prepared.  If it isn't, you won't have wasted time worrying about it.  
Anyway my conversations with those who are "trapped in the matrix" and accepting the suggestions put forth by the media and the medical professions (who, driven by big Pharma stand to make billions off the sales if there is an outbreak) gave rise to this poem.

The Phoenix

We near the end of a graceless age.
Delusion abounds as many rage,
While others, apathetic, trace 
The outline of the human race,
As we've been taught.
It is for naught.

For, if we really want to look, we see.  
And the overwhelming reality is why we,
The many, choose delusion,
Rather than abide in fear, anger, oonfusion.

It is easy to get lost 
In their dire outlook, yet the cost
Is the usual:  Your honour, joy, and sanity
The wager:  Evolution of humanity.

There are forces that wish that we,
The many, perish quickly,
As they know about the coming change
Which will disrupt their reign and rearrange
The world as we know it


Yet before that change takes place
They fear coming face to face 
With the truth they thought they could misplace
Lies have been told
Lies that are new and lies that are old
Lies that have corrupted these people's souls
Making their hearts hard and cold

Leaving us yearning for another way
Tired of just getting through the day
The Phoenix legend begins to play
In my mind and  a better way 
Like an allegory is forming...

Mythical creature long-lived, now dying.
From the ashes something is trying 
To be born.
 
Like the Phoenix we can see
That this unjust, sick society
Teeters on the brink of doom
Just as in the gathering gloom
New modalities of life show through.

Transcendance of this buy-and-sell,
Dog-eat-dog living hell,
Where precious people are treated as commodities
Not given a full share in Nature's bounty
It has been usurped by those whose duty
It is to care for our well-being

The coming change will take us away
Away to the place the heart knows well.
Where shining light abides
And darkness cannot hide
Where equality is truth and beauty lifts the spirit inside


There crystal clarity wisdom leads
Colours only seen in dreams
Flow from the ashes of the known
And paint vivid joy in our new home

Fear not!  Despite all appearance
And reports of frightening happenstance
 We are on our way to that home!
Know that!  Take heart! You are not alone.