Day 3: June 15th - Amsterdam

June 15, 2023

June 15th: Started the day off for breakfast with a friend of mine. Yeah, believe it or not I have a friend that lives in Amsterdam. Say hi to Tim Vandervliet. Pronounced "Vandervliet."

Tim met Wendy and I for breakfast at our hotel. Breakfast is included. Can't skip a meal. Tim is a breathing coach. He teaches what mints to use when your breath gets bad. Not really. He actually teaches different breathing techniques. And by breathing properly you can get more control over your stress response, maintain better focus, and improve your overall health. If you can control your breath, you control your life. Tim is awesome. He is working with my biz partner Brian Sachs on a new business. Check out https://www.timvandervliet.com/ and https://www.breathingforsuccess.com/

After breakfast Tim walked us over to the Van Gogh Museum.

Thanks Tim. Great seeing you.

It was a nice walk through the main parts of Amsterdam. But watch out of the Peace Bunny.

Peace Bunny Front...

Peace Bunny Back...

Peace Bunny's everywhere, a major blog hack.

I just started rhyming.

Trying to get my timing.

Need to blog a daily theme and I'm caught in between..

...my thoughts about Anne, maybe Van Gogh is the man?

Not sure where this goes. Do you like my morning clothes?

Today is very sunny; which leads us back to Peace Bunny. Fuck. I can't stop rhyming. Ok. Van Gogh. Here we go. STOP.

Chat GPT: Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist artist who lived from 1853 to 1890. He worked as an art dealer and a preacher before he decided to become an artist in his late twenties. He was influenced by the works of Rubens and Japanese prints. He struggled with his identity, direction, and mental health. He created many famous paintings, such as “The Potato Eaters” and “Starry Night”, but he was ridiculed by others and received little recognition during his lifetime. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 37 .

JeffGPT: Dude was a hard worker. Painted a portrait a day for 70+ days in a row during one span. Mental health got the best of him. The ear thing was after a fight with one of his friends. Seems like an extreme move, but Vinny wasn't well. Shot himself and still lived for two days after. Bad shot. Great artist. Small room.

How does someone cut their ear off? I also learned that after the ear incident, Vinny coined some famous expressions like "What?" "Can you repeat that?" And, his famous "Say it in my other ear."

Van Gogh did not get popular until after he died. He only sold one painting while living. His sister in law devoted her life to showcasing his art after her husband (Vinny's bro) also passed away. Crazy.

Just like Van Gogh, Anne's creativeness did not go viral until after her death. They shared that bittersweetness of unimaginable, post - life fame. I think Anne would have liked Vinny and maybe she could have helped him. Dear Kitty, I can't stop thinking about Anne. 26 months in that house with no place to go. What the fuck are we all complaining about?