Would love to see them toot, or even partner with, a puffed rice cereal maker and cross-promote making childhood goodness in the form of vegan rice krispie treats (with variations, of course).

Bravo to ALL the creativity - and counting - coming from CSD and my hometown, Chicago!

I've been lucky enough to have this on pizza slices from Vinnie's in Williamsburg, and samples at Boston's 2008 Veg Food Fair. And I must warn you - the ready to melt (your panties off) nacho Teese took Boston by storm with the cardboard tray of corn chips sliding under a hot cheese dispenser so common to movie theaters, sports bar, and otherwise 'round the country. Truly vegan porn if I've ever seen it.

Chicago is hot with O, O and now oh ya Teese :-)

On behalf of the great NYC metro, I ask CSD to get us Teese, or instructions for bringing into deeper into this market. EatUPers, friends, and others are standing by ready.

Then Saturday, leisurely, we’d make our way to Sacred Chow for brunch, meander about with an early eve sitdown at Lula’s, some show – music, theater, or even film, then wrap Saturday (proper or not) with Foodswings.

Sunday, we could hit ‘Since for lunch – late or not, and with LifeThyme leftovers on the living room floor, picnic-like.

I’m coming in
to see You
like never before
there is no appointment
for our meeting This Time
Self-elected am I
Being of our Universe
Unity of All, you might say
Or nothing at all

Regardless,
I am glad to meet you
Defeat is your aim
Mine is Beyond ALL This

Blessings.
Demetrius

*************
The Aquarius new moon begins Monday 26 January 2:54 am EST, and kicks off a Chinese New Year of Earth Ox.

With its beginning, let’s follow the advice of Jan Spiller and her book New Moon Astrology. In it, she discusses using a new moon's first 48 hours, in which we can manifest our plantings of greenery, desires, etc. with greater results; the first two hours add a particular potency to any plantings.

With new moon wishes, you are to
• PICK 2 to 10 (clumping by area/issue makes your wishes more potent than spreading them amidst all different/unrelated areas), then
• WRITE them down (on specific or meaningful paper), AND
• PLACE them in a personal spot such as on/in altars, under your pillow, etc.
As the saying goes, be caring in what you wish for, you just may receive it!

A FEW SUGGESTED WISHES
I want to easily find myself seeing myself as part of a community
I want to easily find myself open to attracting exciting, revitalizing experiences
I want to be aware of – and act on – good timing
I want all destructive rebellion totally lifted from me
I want to easily find myself open to considering alternative points of view

WISHFESTS Alert! (see very end of this note to learn more about wishfests)
Eileen’s wishfest runs from February 6 to March 13
Tony P’s wishfest runs from February 7 to March 13
Jessica I-B’s wishfest runs from February 13 to March 21
Ann Marie’s wishfest runs from February 18 to April 1
Demetrius’ wishfest runs from February 24 to April 4
Dustin’s wishfest runs from February 24 to April 8
Matty J's wishfest runs from March 11 to April 22
Joan’s wishfest runs from March 14 to April 19
Sarah L’s wishfest runs from March 14 to Apr 25
Deanna’s wishfest runs from March 19 to May 4

An Aquarius (new) moon favors:

INVENTIONS
+innovative ideas
+brilliance
+eccentricity
+understanding how things work

THE FUTURE
+new trends and unconventional approaches
+high technology
+long-range goals
+following your heart’s desire

HUMANITARIANISM
+seeking outcomes that are good for everyone involved
+identification with humankind
+interest in others
+operating from a larger worldview

REVELATIONS
+excitement
+unexpected results
+surprises
+revitalizing experiences
+freedom

THE BIG PICTURE
+objectivity
+seeking knowledge
+tools of divination (astrology, numerology, tarot, I Ching, etc.)
+humor
+manifesting dreams

FRIENDSHIP
+friends
+groups
+networking
+open, friendly approaches
+forthrightness
+giving and receiving platonic love

EXCESSIVE DETACHMENT
+cold aloofness
+fear of involvement
+erratic or shocking behavior
+inflexible opinions

RESTORING HEALTH
+ankles and calves
+circulation
+cramps and spasms
+varicose veins

and
*learning to become more aware of the wants and needs of others
*challenged with relaxing their strong willfulness and are learning to ‘go with the flow’
*challenged with an overactive ego and are learning to be more objective
*learning to participate in humanitarian causes
*learning to succeed in romance by first developing friendship
*learning to receive love
*learning to see the bigger picture

Because the moon cycles swiftly through all 12 zodiac signs in 29 (or so) days, it touches us ALL. As well, each moon cycle vibes (for) us in particular, sometimes peculiar, ways.

WISHFESTS
Once a year, we all can nudge the energies of our lives by working with our personal wish fest period. This period is when the Sun goes through your natal 11th house – the house of Aquarius/Uranus, where the unexpected, sudden and vibrational can happen in powerful ways.

This 'granddaddy power period' welcomes your wish making AT ANY TIME up to an advisable 40 wishes overall (made in at least two at a time). As with new moon wishes, it’s recommended you focus on several areas, rather than 40 distinct and unrelated ones to focus and harness energies available.

A Wishfest is specific to one's personal astrological chart, repeating annually with slight variation of hours. I welcome inquiries to find out when your Wishfest is; to do that, I need one's birth date, time, and place.

Strong sugars seem to activate it moreso. And I get a sense of pleasure vs. dread from this gut feeling. Now I'm wondering what it is that is coming (through).

I'm hearing myself say 'wow' then BIG laughter with eyes getting a bit bigger.

This started Sunday, and at least one other friend commented on it. Is the world about to change further pre-election?

September's pleathora of music is fun, curious and making me wonder what was the blockage that we're now getting it all at once. (Jupiter retrograde is my guess.)

At any rate, I continue to find EXIST satisfying AND growing on me the most. Could describe him as two parts his former boss Babyface and one part Seal. Rhythm & Soul gone 70s and Southern with an ethereal connection blended in. Was bummed he ditched the industry so quickly, especially with his strong start in songwriting and debut disc.

Alas, he's back and worth the wait. Easily a B+ disc, I expected to call it A or A- once I've let it sink in fully during October.

More on the new musics (that keep coming!) as Autumn rolls on.

Each week, we eat about 20 meals. When that is the case, one of those meals would be about 5% of our diet.
What if we in the US, and even worldwide, made one of these meals even greener?
Eating vegetarian if we're omnivores, vegan if we're vegetarian and raw if we're vegan.
And what if we chose to do this weekly? Let's set the data reports aside and begin to find out how great would the benefits be!

As World Veg*n Awareness Month begins Wednesday, I encourage you in joining friends to schedule and share greener than usual meals.

I ask this favor on behalf of You, your health, our planet and our connectedness.
And I appreciate your listening to this request, and hearing my message.

To encourage us in this habit, I'll blog about it weekly or so: http://vegand.net/blog/5_favor/

Peace and progress,
Demetrius Bagley
Organizer, NYC Vegan EatUP
http://vegan.meetup.com/27

PLEASE FORWARD APPROPRIATELY

*Leave credit AND debit cards at home. Follow the plan, nay impulse. (For groceries, I sometimes take the debit with a specific list of items, and guessed prices so the total is not a surprise...)

*Get more cash less times, yet as needed AND pre-determined

*Plan ahead what cash you'll need for the day (or week even), checking with your calendar, etc. Many menus can be pulled up online, or a review of it sharing a sense of how spendy a joint is(n't)

*Put monthly/periodic bills on (a free) auto-pay system; use that extra time to watch a dvd, sleep, call a college pal, or stare at the wall!

**Plot out meals & groceries (& dining out) weekly. Then prepare lunches, snacks, etc. at home maybe one evening for the week; take them to work. It's better for your wealth AND health!

**Pick fewer items and/or dollars for entertainment and extras; the yields will be better and more meaningful

***Make coffee at home/work, choose a nice bean, sugar, (veg!) creamer, flavor, etc. - much cheaper than Scarbucks, and more eco ;-)

Budgeting, and planning specific purchases, payments, etc. makes a BIG difference to it all. Funny how I like this type of planning/plotting too ;-)

He was totally vibing, wearing a his purple sheen shirt, limber, often moving body. Mentioned map, and other Sag concepts quite a bit. Guessing he may be Aquarius with Sag Rising. Definitely has some fire connections in his life, if not chart.

He discussed the origins of the deck, his involvement with tarot prior to, and wanting a visually contemporary deck. He intentionally restructured it beyond monarchies, and renamed cards as appropriate. The minor arcana connect to the major by number, e.g. VI card will have some colors, images, etc. connecting to all four '6' cards.

While creating the major arcana especially, life events often reflected a lot of themes within. Recommended creating a tarot deck for (a) artists wanting to build a (big) body of work, and (b) a curious spiritual journey. The card's back is DNA from a different perspective, as if it's a mandala. (Found it in some 80s article - Time or Newsweek, I believe he said.)

He's heard his Voyager deck called the Psychology Tarot, and is happy with that.

A few ideas he shared that linger:
*Intentional Synchronicity
*Interpret the cards as You will
*Choose Your Own Story in life
*Pulling a tarot card daily AND taking action on that (with respect to one's life journey)
*Advocates creating your own spreads/style of reading

While signing my set's introduction card, he mentioned - not too casually I felt - my reading more tarot. Uncertain if that was a nudge for his deck, my perceived age, or what.

Action items:
+I'm switching my daily pulls to the Voyager deck with this Libra new moon, likely Autumn's remainder
+I'm being more forward about promoting my astrology business AND tarot reading
+I'm considering what action(s) my one-card reading calls for, and doing those better and better. (I pulled Reflection.)

James mentioned finding his podcast on iTunes: Intuition Into Action - which I heard as wonderful wordplay. He pushed us to hear the meaning of feeling it first (Intuition), then action from there/that (Into Action). Funny enough, I somehow thought it was a one-shot deal; he's on Episode 52!

Demos: Mostly women (80+% ), lots of black people - about one-third. Approx. 40 people

Question: Why so many black people (not all women, incidentally!)?