Do You Collect Anything & Why?

I'm putting this thread in Conspiracy Research because I thought the habit of collecting could be remotely induced via mind control to preserve history since we're a throwaway society. The John Titor scenario comes to mind. Strange, that PA only has six threads about him with the most posts being twenty. In this link it shows the strange things celebrities collect. The one that stood out was Nicole Kidman collecting Judean Coins. My father collected penguin figurines because of a program he saw about how they endure the Antarctic winter.

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In his online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida. He said that he was assigned to a governmental time-travel project, and that as part of the project he was sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, which was needed to debug various legacy computer programs that existed in 2036 – a possible reference to the UNIX year 2038 problem.[3] The IBM 5100 runs the APL and/or BASIC programming languages, depending on the model.

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Posted by Inversion

I'm putting this thread in Conspiracy Research because I thought the habit of collecting could be remotely induced via mind control to preserve history since we're a throwaway society. The John Titor scenario comes to mind. Strange, that PA only has six threads about him with the most posts being twenty. In this link it shows the strange things celebrities collect. The one that stood out was Nicole Kidman collecting Judean Coins. My father collected penguin figurines because of a program he saw about how they endure the Antarctic winter.

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In his online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida. He said that he was assigned to a governmental time-travel project, and that as part of the project he was sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, which was needed to debug various legacy computer programs that existed in 2036 – a possible reference to the UNIX year 2038 problem.[3] The IBM 5100 runs the APL and/or BASIC programming languages, depending on the model.

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Easy first response, Inversion: what do you collect, and why?

I collect free stuff..
Materials: pallets, wood, metal, pipes, barrels, tools etc..
I am a total magpie.. I cant get over the amount of free stuff there is available in my world..
I am constantly building quality things from free stuff and I get dopamine hit rewards when I finally found just the right purpose for a bit of pply wood that I magpied a decade ago.
Being a beekeeper, even the smallest off cuts of wood can be turned into hive parts.
And the final destination for wood is always the wood burner.

So, very practical collecting on my part..

I move around a lot and I do not tend toward accumulating stuff (rather the reverse) BUT --- amongst the objects I do keep are what could be called a collection, as they came to me via either what I considered a very close personal friend, family, and/or departed loved one. The latter of which often being a person I aided in my caregiving work. I treasure these objects and feel they are portals linking these various people to me in this space.

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Posted by Johnnycomelately

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Posted by Inversion

I'm putting this thread in Conspiracy Research because I thought the habit of collecting could be remotely induced via mind control to preserve history since we're a throwaway society. The John Titor scenario comes to mind. Strange, that PA only has six threads about him with the most posts being twenty. In this link it shows the strange things celebrities collect. The one that stood out was Nicole Kidman collecting Judean Coins. My father collected penguin figurines because of a program he saw about how they endure the Antarctic winter.

wiki

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In his online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida. He said that he was assigned to a governmental time-travel project, and that as part of the project he was sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, which was needed to debug various legacy computer programs that existed in 2036 – a possible reference to the UNIX year 2038 problem.[3] The IBM 5100 runs the APL and/or BASIC programming languages, depending on the model.

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Easy first response, Inversion: what do you collect, and why?

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I collect bits of data which is something we all do. :)

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Posted by Casey Claar

I move around a lot and I do not tend toward accumulating stuff (rather the reverse) BUT --- amongst the objects I do keep are what could be called a collection, as they came to me via either what I considered a very close personal friend, family, and/or departed loved one. The latter of which often being a person I aided in my caregiving work. I treasure these objects and feel they are portals linking these various people to me in this space.

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I can relate . I lived 18 years in squats and got evicted many times and in the end i possessed only what i could carry with me . It did seem that the less you own the easier it is because the things you own will start owning you .
I try to follow Solzhenitsyn´s advice - collect memories and knowledge because those things cant be taken from you (not totally true, dementia and etc can rob us from those also but i do think what the soul learns gets carried on). Collecting anything materialistic will hurt you in the end because we will lose it all when we die or when we get thrown to prison etc ...
I do envy people who have a luxury to collect fancy things like cars or guitars but in the end , when it is the end of them , it will hurt them alot to leave all this behind .
The less you own , the easier it is to move on when death arrives . The more you have the easier it might seem to live but all those possessions will also possess you , depends how attached you are to those things.

Why i love the works of Solzhenitsyn and the stories of Gulag - people will experience true freedom when they have lost everything and everyone and then there aint nothing more to lose (except your health) and the only thing you will have in those difficult circumstances are your memories and knowledge... And those things you can share with others without losing nothing while hopefully enriching other people who you encounter.

I collect stickers. The one criteria is that they must be free. The point was always that one day I would own a house and I would install a glass wall onto which I would stick all the stickers. I have quite a collection...but no house. I don't much care about them anymore because I will never own a house. But I still collect them out of habit.

In the last decade or so (am 66 now), something I have often wished I had collected were friends, or at least enduring contacts. I had always let everyone go. Now I work diligently to maintain the few that I have.

Letting things go, physical things or life situations, I still feel is OK, even wise. But holding fast now to the people who I enjoy conversing with, has been like a revelation. I inform this opinion by seeing the mistakes throughout my earlier life, that I have associated with poor communication skills.

Seems sharing interests, with love, is a good good thing.

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Posted by Inversion

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Posted by Johnnycomelately

Easy first response, Inversion: what do you collect, and why?

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I collect bits of data which is something we all do. :)

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Yup, Sir! I have quite enjoyed reading your “bits” of history, ideas, questions, and judgments.

When I was a kid, I collected stamps. I inherited a huge worldwide collection from my father that filled several thick albums. I quickly became fascinated, and it wasn't just a silly little hobby. I learned a huge amount about history and geography. I'd ask my Dad a ton of questions:

• Where's Bechuanaland? Where's Basutoland? Where's Tanganyika? Where's Zanzibar?
• Why are British stamps the only ones that don't have the name of the country on them?
• Why did the Gold Coast change its name to Ghana?
• Why is the English King's head on all the old Indian stamps?
• Why do the Russians spell USSR 'CCCP'?
• What does 'USSR' stand for anyway? (My Dad answered, "United States of Soviet Russia". But I looked it up in the encyclopedia and told him he was wrong.)

Etc etc etc. I had a great time, and was always poring over maps of Africa and Asia and looking up history in the very well-used encyclopedia that we had. :)

3years ago I found, in a thrift shop, salt and pepper shakers and jam containers (a few) that were pottery with rooster designs.

It was the fashion 20 some years ago I think. Then I found plates and bowls with the same design. Then I found hanging plates with roosters that matches. Then I found door stoppers that were roosters. Then I found a clock, more plates, salad bowls, tea kettles, frames and my last acquisition 2 weeks ago is a table cloth, all roosters, all in thrift stores.

My kitchen is a huge roosters area - I am restraining myself from the rest of the place and there are no more space for roosters in the kitchen.

The joke around when people start collecting: avoid roosters 🤣. And I live in the city, not in the country - so roosters are truly out of city peoples’ mind! Next will be a real live rooster in the garden 😂 but I think my neighbours will stop me.

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Posted by Johnnycomelately

In the last decade or so (am 66 now), something I have often wished I had collected were friends, or at least enduring contacts. I had always let everyone go. Now I work diligently to maintain the few that I have.

Letting things go, physical things or life situations, I still feel is OK, even wise. But holding fast now to the people who I enjoy conversing with, has been like a revelation. I inform this opinion by seeing the mistakes throughout my earlier life, that I have associated with poor communication skills.

Seems sharing interests, with love, is a good good thing.

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Collecting friends is probably one of the best things we can collect . I lived first 18 years of my life in Estonia and other 18 in Spain . Made many friends in both of them and now when i moved back to Estonia there seems very few in here. If you dont see people for 18 years they move on and forget you and i also dont wish to bother them. Making new friends seems rather complicated the older you get .
Easy to lose them , hard to make them ...
Glad you pointed it out , reminds me to put some effort to not lose the few i still have ...

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Posted by Jaak

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Posted by Casey Claar

I move around a lot and I do not tend toward accumulating stuff (rather the reverse) BUT --- amongst the objects I do keep are what could be called a collection, as they came to me via either what I considered a very close personal friend, family, and/or departed loved one. The latter of which often being a person I aided in my caregiving work. I treasure these objects and feel they are portals linking these various people to me in this space.

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I can relate . I lived 18 years in squats and got evicted many times and in the end i possessed only what i could carry with me . It did seem that the less you own the easier it is because the things you own will start owning you .
I try to follow Solzhenitsyn´s advice - collect memories and knowledge because those things cant be taken from you (not totally true, dementia and etc can rob us from those also but i do think what the soul learns gets carried on). Collecting anything materialistic will hurt you in the end because we will lose it all when we die or when we get thrown to prison etc ...
I do envy people who have a luxury to collect fancy things like cars or guitars but in the end , when it is the end of them , it will hurt them alot to leave all this behind .
The less you own , the easier it is to move on when death arrives . The more you have the easier it might seem to live but all those possessions will also possess you , depends how attached you are to those things.

Why i love the works of Solzhenitsyn and the stories of Gulag - people will experience true freedom when they have lost everything and everyone and then there aint nothing more to lose (except your health) and the only thing you will have in those difficult circumstances are your memories and knowledge... And those things you can share with others without losing nothing while hopefully enriching other people who you encounter.

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Jaak that was well written and true.

Google AI

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Denzel Washington's quote, often associated with U-Haul, is a variation of the saying: "You'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse." It's a reminder that material possessions and worldly achievements cannot be taken into the afterlife. The quote emphasizes the importance of living a life of purpose and meaning, focusing on the impact one has on others rather than accumulating wealth or fame.

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Jaak- what you wrote is beautiful and true.:heart:

Inversion- this concept is really interesting. It could be remotely induced, but might it also be a specific expression of trauma response?
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When I was little, a man named B.H. Timmins Jr gave me an extraordinary rock and mineral collection that had been his, from his own father. It was my pride and joy until it was lost during a move overseas.

Since about 2005, my inclination was not to own or collect anything.  That year, I woke up one morning in Palm Beach with the urge to dispossess myself of all belongings save for a pair of jeans, some khakis and a few white tops. Everything had to be cotton plus one small suitcase and a pair of really sturdy natural material hiking shoes and no jewelry, or metal.

For some reason, there was a very specific idea of what to keep and go forward with, as though I would be traveling somewhere precise without having made any plans as such. It was like someone had told me what to do in my sleep...and therefore I should. But, I didn't exactly follow the impetus and it is almost impossible since then.

Intentionally:

trees and seeds- because they are under attack as much or more than all life right now in what seems like we are being steered toward an anti-carbon age. Also, because I love them and cannot stand living in areas without a healthy plant and tree ratio/presence

books and information- this has been an almost compulsive drive since I was 12. However, like Jaak and Casey Claar mention, it's almost impossible and completely nerve wracking to travel successfully with material possessions. Many boxes of prized books have been lost over the years, or sadly left with friends who had little regard for them.

old tech and historical cameras- I have a fascination with original microchips and the evolution of scientific things. There used to be a great shop near LANL called the Blackhole and there's another that has almost every kind of part imaginable in Orlando called Skycraft. It used to be better than it is now with old military ordnance and treasure finds, but it's still like walking into a candy shop :)

fulgurites- because I have a love/hate relationship with lightning and am utterly fascinated by its effects

world masks and tiny cultural artifacts- this, only if specific pieces speak to me, because I love archaeology and anthropology- I enjoy seeing what humanity is capable of creating and I like learning about all the spiritual associations and attachments through the ages.

different variations of religious texts

When staying in one place instead of traveling, it's comforting to have deep, colorful reminders of the past and other cultures surrounding...otherwise all of this, as is the case currently, lives a very lonely existence somewhere safe in storage.

Unintentionally:

construction material- big men bring things to facilitate construction and leave them all over the property instead of neatly organized. Little me cannot possibly lift or move much of it, so there it sits. It's great to have and build future projects with, it just happens to be in a state of chaos that I cannot stand... having metal, wood and mechanical construction debris remain unorganized is kind of a post-apocalyptic-looking nightmare.  My partner seems to be in heaven with it, though. Wish we were closer, Meatsuit, you could have it all!!

apparently cars- this is because my other half is an engineering minded tinkerer and every vehicle that is deemed impossible to maintain or fix- he wants to prove it can be done and modified on top of that. Then he gifts successful incarnations of them to me...very sweet of him, except, I am a none-to-one-car type person who babies and drives to the very last leg. I even name and grow attached to my vehicles seeing no point in trade or upgrade until they absolutely can no longer journey onward.

animals- because we won't turn away any creatures in need and somehow someone gave every desperate, abused or sick dog, cat, horse, bird and goat our number. Very thankfully on one hand- so they can be helped, regrettably on the other- it's a lot to contend with. I just wish there were more families and people willing and financially able to adopt, instead of looking the other direction, or contributing to a heartless, throwaway society!
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We helped police with an animal hoarding case a few years ago and as we were working to film and account for what had taken place and how many animals were involved, it occurred to me there was a pattern that I had noticed in other hoarding situations. I wondered if there was an unconventional reason for what we were looking at. Either the person responsible was highly intelligent and had a protracted trauma response to childhood abuse which may have involved animals, thereby wishing to save every living being they encountered, or  they could possibly be an abductee (also responding from a subconscious trauma state) who was accounting for the life around them in an uncontrollably driven way to contain and preserve it without it being synchronous to the needs of the creatures. 

Turns out the individual was a PhD who had traveled and lived around the world, and ironically had spiritual guides leading many of their actions. There was indeed an unusual past. They also fit a certain physical appearance profile that I had previously questioned. They didn't know why they were saving animals, just that they had to. There wasn't a sympathy or compassion stance, nor a sentimental connection to those beings like one might think, it was a drive to do what was perceived as important to do. The disconnect was that the drive to collect beings had progressed way beyond any logical tenability and was to the animals' detriment, not benefit.   Without the empathic connection, they couldn't see the state of things. Despite being highly intelligent, there was a gap between the inclination to "save" and its translation to the physical so the suffering that was caused, instead of averted, was completely invisible to this person.

I really became incredulous of the cause in hoarding and extreme collecting scenarios after that because they have so many commonalities that are discussed and theorized but not really accounted for in mainstream psychology. Figured there was probably a drive to collect for both that might be induced by something traumatic which was beyond comprehension so that it superseded their ability to see the reality of their actions and environment. The blindspot, and the nature of the collected item, might represent something distinct they experienced, but didn't want to see in their past.

I am conscious from my own background of the draw to correct what is perceived as wrong from childhood and that many ills in individuals and society are from an induced trauma, or a programmed state which we either don't recognize or cannot remember: broadscale trauma- like what happened after 9/11 and during the more recent covid enforcements, to government tyranny in certain countries, educational manipulation during childhood, or even a worldwide abduction phenomenon which all might mean we unknowingly perpetuate the state of amnesia in one another through our social constructs and interactions, OR more targeted and localized induced traumas to the population, which would include insidious mind control methods to keep us unaware of the cause of our own imbalances and habits, and which lead to our past seeking expression and acknowledgment through glitches, ie: repetitive behaviors, repetitive speech patterns or words, and collecting certain items.

For Jaak and everyone. Peace.


Over beck and yon,
narrow are the many ways
from pain to freedom.



https://youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI[/url]

I am not a collector by nature, although I don't have anything against it - except when people start spending a lot of money just for the sake of completing.

As a young child, I was given an old stamp album, which I still have, that included some fascinating stuff. I was particularly impressed by the 1920s German stamps from the hyperinflation era, that had been crudely rubber-stamped with new prices of many millions of marks. Other than that, I can remember collecting coins from a garage (for buying petrol) that built into something like the England football team - you had to buy a card to put the coins into, and I did complete that.

Popular and official culture in the 1960s and 70s in Britain seemed actively to encourage children to make collections - collecting was regarded as A Good Thing in some way and it didn't much matter what was being collected: cards, coins, pressed leaves, autographs, rare birds' eggs (!), dead butterflies.... That idea had been around for many decades. You can see in in children's books of that era.

But that seems to have faded since the 1980s and is almost gone nowadays.

Nowadays, I've several shelves of books by or about JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and "The Inklings" - but I buy them to read and consult, so I don't think it is a real "collection".

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Posted by Bruce G Charlton

Other than that, I can remember collecting coins from a garage (for buying petrol) that built into something like the England football team - you had to buy a card to put the coins into, and I did complete that.

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Yes, me too. It will have been 1970/71 as I recall.

For my part I don't collect anything. In fact I recently donated hundreds of books to the local RSPCA which had accumulated and just taken up space. They could have been considered a collection I suppose, whilst on the shelves.
As for friends. I have only one (and even then I only see her twice a year). The rest either passed away or drifted out of my life through various circumstances. I wish I had more, but as Jaak said it's harder to make them the older one gets...

Sometimes, I think of Bill as a collector of us...like hearts, like minds :heart:

I have Soviet iron coins, as well as a series of books of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which are only kept in schools. This is my collection.

https://star-knigi.msk.ru/upload/ibl...3fce667e14.jpg
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen...26b/scale_1200

When I was at school, I wrote essays. And Soviet encyclopedias helped me a lot. Thanks to them, I prepared well, I didn't have a computer then, these books gave me a lot of information. I keep Soviet money as a memory.

Sometimes things come that start you making a collection. My most favorite has been crystals and stones. I have collected mostly in the 80s but more were found in later years as well. Quartz, Tourmaline, Lapis Lazuli, calcite, Fluorite, amethyst, citrine, rose quartz, tiger eye, blood stone, etc.
I love them all. I have a beautiful, handmade Botswana basket I found in a gift shop many years ago which I use to carry a lot of my small pieces. I was surprised many years later to see how much the African basket design is so similar to the Hopi and Native American hand woven baskets.

In recent years I collected a few rock salt lamps, easy to find in thrift shops and they come with a night light, so I have one lamp in almost every room in the house.

I also like embroidery threads so I have a collection of cotton and Persian wool threads and embroidery linen, supplies like needles and hoops as well. The good thing is they don’t take up much space so they’re easy to pack. And of course a small collection of embroidery books which I like for reference and designs.

Several years ago I started collecting white milk glass pieces, it is fun finding pieces at estate sales, but when we moved I donated most of it and just kept a few favorite pieces.

They’re like tiny time capsules from different places and times. My grandma started it, and I just picked up where she left off. Also, those rare coins Nicole Kidman collects sound cool-I’d love to know more about why she chose Judean coins.

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Posted by Ernie Nemeth

I collect stickers. The one criteria is that they must be free. The point was always that one day I would own a house and I would install a glass wall onto which I would stick all the stickers. I have quite a collection...but no house. I don't much care about them anymore because I will never own a house. But I still collect them out of habit.

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Ernie - Maybe you could find an old glass coffee table at a thrift shop or something, and jazz it up with all your stickers?
That could look really sharp!

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Posted by Flash

3years ago I found, in a thrift shop, salt and pepper shakers and jam containers (a few) that were pottery with rooster designs.

It was the fashion 20 some years ago I think. Then I found plates and bowls with the same design. Then I found hanging plates with roosters that matches. Then I found door stoppers that were roosters. Then I found a clock, more plates, salad bowls, tea kettles, frames and my last acquisition 2 weeks ago is a table cloth, all roosters, all in thrift stores.

My kitchen is a huge roosters area - I am restraining myself from the rest of the place and there are no more space for roosters in the kitchen.

The joke around when people start collecting: avoid roosters 🤣. And I live in the city, not in the country - so roosters are truly out of city peoples’ mind! Next will be a real live rooster in the garden 😂 but I think my neighbours will stop me.

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Beware Flash!
Once the folks around you notice that you have roosters, you will receive rooster gifts for every occasion forevermore. haha
"Hmmm - what would Flash like for a (fill in the occasion) gift?"
"Oh yes - she loves roosters! We simply must find her something with a rooster theme..."
You will fast become innundated with the critters.

Like Bill, I used to collect stamps and yes, I learned so much about languages, country names, geography while sorting them. They used to sell large bags of cancelled stamps from around the world, and they were great fun to go through.

Now my home looks a bit like a wild whimsied museum of crazy curios. Nothing official, just intriguing objects that I stumble upon and put on the walls or shelves for a while. I am also quick to give them away to anyone who seems drawn to one of them. Like a Mr. Peanut figurine, or an old Ringo Star doll, or a glass pyramid, or a ?unknown? intriguing object.

Sometimes, when the clutter gets too much, I put some small things in a little gift bag, and with a note - "A gift for you to keep or pass on. Enjoy!" And I secretly leave it in a park for the perfect soul to stumble upon. Just maybe it will bring a small smile to a fellow traveler.

Oh - another funny story about those coin books. I had them too, as a kid, and tried to fill all the slots with pennies of each year.
One year, I went to a yard sale, and someone had several book there like I used to have. They were marked to sell for 25cents each. But when I looked inside, they were already filled with about 50 pennies or so. I let my kids buy them up, as 25cents for 50 pennies seemed like a pretty good deal.

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Posted by Sue (Ayt)

Sometimes, when the clutter gets too much, I put some small things in a little gift bag, and with a note - "A gift for you to keep or pass on. Enjoy!" And I secretly leave it in a park for the perfect soul to stumble upon. Just maybe it will bring a small smile to a fellow traveler.

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What a lovely gesture :cat:

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Posted by Sue (Ayt)

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Posted by Ernie Nemeth

I collect stickers. The one criteria is that they must be free. The point was always that one day I would own a house and I would install a glass wall onto which I would stick all the stickers. I have quite a collection...but no house. I don't much care about them anymore because I will never own a house. But I still collect them out of habit.

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Ernie - Maybe you could find an old glass coffee table at a thrift shop or something, and jazz it up with all your stickers?
That could look really sharp!

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I've been thinking about making a room divider to hide the cat's litter box. I could make it out of clear plastic panels, to which I could affix those stickers of mine...

David Wynn Miller claims Post Masters control the world. British Commonwealth mail belongs to the royal family and not the citizens. Stamps have a one-time use, and coins could be in circulation for a very long time passing through many hands. Those that collect the two things may have had served the Post Masters in a past incarnation and it's a latent interest. I think it's possible thought forms could be imbued into coins and paper money. This was described by Preston Nichols in his book. There was an episode of Stargate SG1 called Citizen Joe where a man purchased an engraved stone at a garage sale that gave him hallucinations.

Montauk: The Alien Connection by Stewart Swerdlow edited by Peter Moon

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P176. The USPS is a front for a British bank.

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Tim Cohen

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King Charles is the head of all Masons, and he prevented an end to the Ukrainian war because it'll lead to WWIII.

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The Music of Time

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P49. He explained how to put thought forms in music.

P138. Music is thought form. Authors will encode thought forms into music without being aware of it. He believes our entire reality was created via the Montauk Project.

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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...G?format=1000w

The only thing that I "collected" were tickets from all concerts I was...

There is no place here to write all the bands,musicians...been in Europe was a paradise for me in that aspect...in Argentina was rare,because too far...( naturally all good Argentinos that nobody here knows about)

Big festivals in Summer with many differences bands/music styles for example:

Rolling stones,Miles Davis,Prince, Iggy Pop,Metallica,Perl jam, Faith no More,Goldfrapp,Gotan Project,Rage against the Machine,Cipres Hill,Danzig,Garbage,Type O Negative,Muse, and many many others...

For example: Stone Temple Pilots :thumbsup:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1666451

I collected a few things through the years, Coca Cola items being the biggest offender, and as said above, as soon as people learn that you collect it, you become buried in it. My story was no exception...

Our ideas of "Collecting" were very different, I was gifted a very nice vintage rounded top Coca Cola vending machine, (In amazing condition) when I started collecting... But my friends? They gifted me anything and everything with the logo on it. We have a 1967 Chevelle being restored at the moment, and BOTH will eventually reside in the garage together with some other hot rod memoribilia, and a few of the cooler Coca Cola signs I have, the rest is all going to be sold off at that point... And I can't wait. I will get my dining room back!

I have learned to appreciate not having to spend my time dealing with "Stuff" versus just being free to do what I want when I want. It will free up a lot of time to live, versus dusting, moving stuff around for a new look, etc... I still have some things I must hang onto, so I don't have to keep buying it if I want to participate, such as holiday deco, etc.. But aside from that? I have been paring down now for years.. And it feels nice.

I always collected music, vinyl, but not aggressively, but over the years it became quite a collection, punk, post-punk, jazz, African, blue-grass, experimental and later loads of hip hop.... I moved from Holland to Indonesia in '96 and I got married (in Holland) in 2001. I needed money bad so I sold almost all my vinyl back then....

Then around 2002 I bought a record from a Sundanese (West Javanese) singer, Titim Fatimah, and that record just blew me away, couldn't believe it and she still blows me away when I listen to her. She was HUGE in the late 50's, 60's and 70's, highest paid artist in Indonesia in the 60's, Indonesia's first President, Sukarno, if he had foreign guests he would have her come to the Presidential Palace in Bogor and perform. She opened up the way for female artists in ways that are just amazing....

Anyway... I started asking people about her and I found out that nowadays, she's very much forgotten... I was doing a blog about Indonesian hip hop and I was still producing music for various artists here, I put out some albums myself too, there's some very insane stories there but that's maybe for later.... I started losing my interest in hip hop, didn't like what it was becoming and through learning about Titim Fatimah I started getting more and more into Indonesian music, especially traditional music and I started buying cassettes, and vinyl which, back then, was still dirt cheap, nobody was buying vinyl here and I started blogging about all the stuff I was finding, including links so you could download all these cassettes and lp's, for free.... In the beginning the sellers weren't very happy with me giving music away for free but a strange thing started to happen. More and more people started buying vinyl and cassettes and there was a direct correlation with what I was doing.... Back then my blog would get around 50.000 visitors a month, nowadays, yes. I'm still doing it, I get anywhere between 150 to 200.000 visitors a month. I started a youtube channel, there it's around 50.000 visitors every 48 hours....

Unfortunately, I don't make any money with it, you can't monetize other peoples music, not with the blog, not with the youtube channel.... I now have one of the biggest collections of Sundanese traditional music in the world. I often work with local artists, usually very old, forgotten artists who were huge in the 70's and 80's. I often work on stuff, research, mostly for a University in Pittsburgh in the USA where they have a gamelan program, and lots, lots more stuff....

Nowadays, you can almost not find these cassettes anymore and forget about vinyl, it just isn't there anymore, and when you do find stuff it's insanely expensive, all bought up by foreigners and a few of the super rich local elite kids who then sell it on the internet for ridiculous prices... 20 Years ago sellers would ask me, why are you buying all this sampah (garbage)?, now these same sellers, the few that are still active are frantically trying to find it, black gold is what they call vinyl :)

But I miss those old days, going to Jakarta, Jalan Surabaya, Surabaya Street where there is an antique market, opening boxes that hadn't been open in God knows how many years, going back to Bandung by train, covered in sooth and dust with bags full of tapes and vinyl.....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9we5Zskh5u8

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hp0rZe7OcwM

Thank you for posting about what you are involved in, and your effort to collect and preserve the beautiful music and culture from Indonesia.. I closed my eyes to listen and was absolutely transported by Emi Nurhayati and Titim Fatimah. Yours is truly an example of appreciating and preserving the past... how great that the university in Pittsburgh has a Gamelan program!

My family moved to southeast Asia in 1995, and so much I can remember being just the same as you describe- it was an incredible time...I remember the thrill and excitement of discovering all the unique intricacies and beautiful ways of the people, music and smells, the sounds of traditional song, finding dusty treasures under the counters and in back of the antique markets from decades gone by... nobody seemed to recognize the importance and value of their own history at that time. It is sad to see things changing so quickly and to think that such cultural gems could ever be lost. I am grateful you are preserving a portion of them and continuing to share online :heart:

Thank you Victoria :) The gamelan program in Pittsburgh is all because of musicologist Professor Andrew Weintraub who has been coming here since the early 80's and he knows everybody, really everybody, always interviewing old artists. He's now in Sumatera doing research for a book about Lekra which was an organisation for artists, musicians, painters, poets etc. back in the 50's and the 60's. They had some ties with the Indonesian Communist Party back then and most of them were either slaughtered or imprisoned for decades during the terrible purge in '65.... Andrew and me have been friends for many years. He asked me, some 10 years ago or so if there was any artist that I wanted to meet, and after thinking about it I said, I would love to meet with Gugum Gumbira. He, Gugum, developed the jaipong genre and all the dances that go with it and it's a genre that I really, really love, it's a lot wilder then the music that I posted above... So I met Gugum and I became friends with him, learned so much from him. He passed away in 2020....

There's a HUGE interest among the younger generations here in older music now but not much for traditional music although in the last 10 years or so it has been picking up a bit. I sometimes go to wayang puppet shows, amazing music and these shows usually start around 8 at night and stop around 4 in the morning and they are very popular.... I also go to the trance dance shows where dancers get possessed by spirits, also very popular and they can get wild, and I mean WILD :) 3 Or 4 times a year right in front of my house :) There's always a big spiritual part in traditional music. People think that Indonesia is mostly Islamic, and it is, but in many places it is very much interwoven with the old traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism and the older religion, we call it Wiwitan here, they call it Kejawen in Central and East Java....

I'm quite passionate about it :) One of my dreams is to see a live show from a singer called Itih S. from Indramayu, her voice is amazing and this is Tayuban music, another form of trance music:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=w5tA_mMUKf0

As far as jaipong goes.... Music and the dance by my friend Gugum Gumbira:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3aEWmmbaCKU

:)

Wonderful!! 😃 you are immersed in such colorful and rich culture there, in combination with your own! I have been listening to the music and letting Youtube recommend more while learnin:handshake:g the history of Wiwitan. Beautiful to contemplate. Also I have enjoyed reading about Professor Weintraub, the music program at Pitt and Gugum Gumbira- what an incredible thing to directly learn from and be friends with him. :stars: I hope you will get to see Itih S. She has a distinctly melodic voice and her music is fun to dance to! Thank you so much for sharing these and for literally living your passion!


To the nature of what you share and this thread, my grandmother used to collect Javanese puppets. So many lively and vividly painted characters. She created an entire room to look like a theatre for them. They were something my cousins and I all loved as children. I'm sure we have photos somewhere...if I can find them, I will post.