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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HalWhitewyrm" data-source="post: 2971410" data-attributes="member: 4046">Karma is simply the belief that actions have consequences, a fact that can hardly be denied. In Hinduism it applies to how one's actions this life will affect the next one, though in a more general context, the popular phrase "what goes around comes around" sums it up quite well. I'm Jewish, and as I said above, in Judaism this principle is known as Measure-for-Measure, and I have no doubt that it works, though I may not be able to be aware of when it takes effect. In any case, it is something that is out of my hands, so I try not to dwell on it.An Update:I went yesterday to drive around the area to see if I spotted anything, though to no avail. I also walked around the immediate area where it happened, looking around in trash cans, backs of pick-up trucks, little alleys, and in other such places where the bag could have been tossed, though, again, to no avail.Ironic enough, about 20 minutes after I had been searching, two patrol cars came to the street where my mother-in-law lives. I had a feeling they were looking for me in regards to the car, but I was only partly right; the reason was different. It seems someone had seen me walking around and called the cops to report a "suspicious male walking around the area." Where was this person the night before when they broke into my car? One of the cops who responded to the call was also the one who responded to my call the night before, so once he saw me, he put 2 and 2 together and left.I'm still kinda hoping that one day I'll get a call that my bag or some of its contents (mainly the journals) were found. It's in the back of my mind, but I'm moving on. Every so often I suddenly remember a particular entry from one of the journals (like this 10-page opus I wrote after going to The Hague, Holland and seeing Vermeer's "Girl With A Pearl Earring," which just bewitched me) and it hurts that I've now lost it, but overall it has subsided.And to take you up on the hijack:"Because otherwise my head would explode," is what my wife would say. I actually am still new to journaling, even though I've been doing it, on and off, for more than 10 years. It has been only in the last 6 years or so that I decided to do it more regularly, and even so there are huge gaps in my journals, sometimes a whole year long, because I just didn't do it. I journal religiously when I am traveling, though as the trip goes on, exhaustion takes its toll and I end up falling asleep without journaling. Since coming back from my trip in early July, I decided to continue what I had begun in Europe, and that's where I am today.For a long time I vacilated between journaling and not. Writing down your innermost thoughts in a place where they could be read by anyone takes a lot of guts and trust, both in yourself and in others. Some people so what I call "safe" journaling, where they stick to the facts of the day and never write anything that could be "incriminating," and I did this myself for years, but (while this is a perfectly valid way of journaling) to me this is not true journaling; you need to pour yourself onto the page/screen and not be afraid. The idea of journaling is to capture the image of You at that precise moment, whatever it may be. To use a sci-fi analogy, if your DNA is the seed from where your physical being could be reproduced, your journal(s) should be sufficient to recreate the intangible being that is You with all your idiosyncracies and quirks. At the end of the day, I do it so I can sort through all the thoughts in my head, and so that I can have a "conversation" and not be overwhelmed by what goes on in my mind.I try to do it at the end of the day, before bedtime, though I always carry my journal with me (hence why they were in the bag when it got stolen) because I will also write during the day if I have a chance.For someone who is starting, I would recommend trying to make at least one entry a day, and start with the factual method, just to get you going. Once you get comfortable pouring yourself onto the page, journal as much as you want, though always try to write each day. If you can't for X or Y, no big deal, but don't just discard it, because then it becomes hard to pick it up again.What I do enthusiastically support is to journal every time you travel. A Travel Journal becomes the best souvenir you could ever have, and it's the place where you can freeze your trip in time (of my two journals, I think I feel the loss more of my travel one because of this). I put in mine all my notes and thoughts and observations, as well as plane boarding passes, rail passes and train tickets, museum/attraction entrance stubs, postacards, receipts from stores where I bought mundane stuff like toothpaste or groceries, stickers, beer labels, etc.So, hope this helps you out, Fenris.</blockquote>

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