Technology has its place!

Super typhoon Megi 'biggest in 20 years'

I'm very impressed with technology. Obviously that is why I work with it every day. What I've seen as a trend over the past ten years is how much we as a global community want to become dependent upon it for EVERYTHING. This doesn't impress me. Five years ago I wanted technology in everything everywhere. I've more or less become a hypocrite because my stance on having technology used in everything has changed. My opinion has shifted to a level where now to automate everything is an awful choice. It has gotten to where I was beginning to resent what perverse way we as a race have used technology. To make it a crutch to distract us from living and to become a race of disconnected  beings. Until now. Like anything else there is balance in this grand scheme of life. Technology has benefited us and this article (above) is a prime example. Technology warned these people and instead of having hundreds possibly thousands of dead so far there has been one reported causality. Those numbers are a far cry from what these headlines would have read twenty even forty years ago. A hundred years ago I venture to guarantee the numbers would have been in the hundreds. So technology if anything has allowed us to save lives in adverse weather conditions which in my book is worthwhile and appropriate. On the opposite side its teens texting for the sake of texting because they don't know what else to do with themselves I say is damaging to our youth. There has to be that happy balanced healthy medium out there somewhere. I pray we all find it.

Rekindling of an old relationship.

                Rekindle of an old relationship?  No I’ve no plans on leaving my wife I’m very happy with her.  This is a story about something that is a part of me I’ve left behind because I had to. To put down my sword and make peace in the land of Jim ‘The Parent’. My artistic endeavors had to be put to the way side for the moment and I had to raise a child with special needs as well as a child heading quickly into ‘tweendom’. There are many hurdles in parenting as any parent out there would share with you and my full attention needed to be there rather than contemplating the conclusion to an artistic piece I’ve been unraveling for the past few weeks.

                This decision seemed clear to me until I met a woman raising 5 children and still managing to run a gallery and churn out workings in metal as well as painting every day. Granted this IS her full time job but still managing to raise five children on top of all that is amazing to me. This more or less told to my heart, sorry, man up, if she can do this you’ve no excuse to not do this part time. So I let go of my excuses and the past bad memories of my last showing and became willing to put myself out there yet again.

                Some might say big deal. Well it is a big deal to me because I came to this fork in the road many years ago as a career path. I was leaving college with a BFA with little hope of ever pursuing anything more than a JOB so I could do art in my spare time or taking a stab at it full time and hoping for the best. Problem at that time was I was asking my wife to spend the rest of her life with me. I asked myself did she REALLY want to be tied down to a tortured artist the rest of her days or someone with a 9-5 bringing home the bacon type of guy who wasn’t ready to go on a binge after the next critic ripped him a new one. The choice was clear then to do the ‘responsible thing’. So I thought. Lessons learned here are after twenty years of walking down a path that isn’t satisfying as far as careers go is to follow your career/souls path first because you’ll be helping yourself grow with the person you’d fallen in love with the rest of your days.

                It is you who has to wake up to that face in the mirror every day. You’ll keep asking yourself can I get through another day of lying to myself telling that face reflecting back you are truly happy and what you are doing and it makes a difference in this world?  Eventually you’ll wear down and become a wandering soulless shell of a person who missed an opportunity to take a shot at what might have been. So what does one do with that?

                If life has taught my spirit anything (or the other way around if you were to follow the teachings of NDW) you’d discover that God has you right where he wants you at all times. The choices were always yours to make of course but you end up where you should have been eventually and the soul wasn’t meant to wander aimlessly around being tortured all the time. You learn to let go of the pains of what might have been and learn to live for the moment of now and what you decide to do with it. As I have come to understand it I stop trying to entertain instead I sit back and look to be entertained by life. It’s a movie playing out before your eyes just sit back and enjoy the show. Yes occasionally you’ll have to do something and play your part in it but for the most of it I observe and am entertained by what I see. The key here is defining what entertains you and if it doesn’t move on to something else. In a world FULL of distractions there has to be a channel you’d like to stay on and watch somewhere.

                I was trying so hard to make it all happen around me. To micromanage every aspect I could get away with. That is where I fell apart inside as well as out. I constantly felt an itch I couldn’t scratch. This made for an uncomfortable life within my own self and probably made others believe I was out of my mind. I constantly felt as though nothing I did measured up.  So after years of this one might just say enough already I’ve tried it my own way now I’ll try it His way. There has to be a way to live day by day as He intended making the choices is my part in all of this but there has to be a way to live this mortal existence in peace. How? Then the answered arrived.

                You cannot entertain Me. I made all of this to entertain you. Be entertained and enjoy everything.

                So when that arrived I took it serious. I made a commitment to what I was meant to be and to remain entertained. To listen to and to be where He wants me to be on my mark for this grand play orchestrating in front of my eyes, and to speak the lines He wrote for me when they are meant to be heard.  To start a career in art and accept whatever comes my way and to always remember to use silence (can’t watch this movie if you are running your mouth) and watch what is unfolding before my eyes. The definition of peace is subjective to each soul out there. I choose this as my peace. My challenge to you is to define yours.

Life's warranty...

                What to buy into? That is entirely up to you. It is your life. You live it as you see fit and no one can tell you otherwise.  No one can tell you what to think. No one else has to wake up with your face but you so live your life no one else’s.

                The question is what can you think? What do you believe? What are you going to do that next moment? Do you just exist or do you live your life? Do you feel you’ve made the most of it? How often do you listen to that voice inside of you? Do you even care to think past what are you hungry for next meal? Do you feel like you are at a self help seminar yet?

                I’ve observed and have been reminded that folks don’t want to think about much. I called these folks cattle and got my head nearly chewed off by a close friend. Deservedly so by the way, but my point for saying that statement was simple. Why can’t folks think and really see what is around them? Do people feel that helpless to change anything in their lives? Do people really think that they have no power to do something different?

                What do I see so different from everyone else? Life, my friends. Why this existence, what is the reason for mortality, what is the reason for my soul existing inside this cocoon of a mortal shell? I recall asking these questions when I was lying in bed one night just past age 11 when I began reasoning out that the universe or space goes on for infinity. It scared the shit out of me! Why? Up until then my life was very linear. I went from point A to B relatively simple. I didn’t think much about it. I wake up, I get through school, have summers off, graduate either figure out a way to get to college or take a nine to five like my brothers. Get married someday have kids grow old at my job after raising the kids etc you get the picture. Then that freaking concept hits that space just keeps going. What? Like forever? Everything around me has a life expectancy? Planets, plutonium, even a sun, but space keeps going on? WTF? That blew my mind and frightens the shit out me. I can figure it goes to here, no, here, no how about up to here. ‘No Jim it isn’t linear.’ A voice looms in my head. ‘It is infinite just like your soul.’ Oh crap! At eleven what do you do with that?

                That is when I went on a life ‘walk about’. I ditched the crowd I ran with, stayed in my own ‘hundred acre wood’, and learned how life worked on my own terms and asked many questions for about five years. Got my own answers and questioned everything. Everything!  I spent the next ten years proving the answers worked and the next ten fine tuning them.

As I went through life all the new age, alternative wellness, unity light, whatever everyone wants to dub it today came into my life, and my wife will attest to it, I was thinking and living these concepts long before it came out into the media. I’m not tooting my horn I’m pointing out ANYONE can come up with their own answers if you just take some time and listen to that voice inside. Some call it a conscience, soul, even God. God gave us all a way to hear His word. We just choose to tune it out with a variety of technology, people, whatever.  Some just flat out run away from it. The inner truth is there and it is always right. You know when you are lying to yourself and this works the same for everyone no one is exempt! No one ever said doing what is going to help you was going to be the easy choice to make either. When you first start putting your life back together you have to make rough, challenging, difficult choices. The truth you find there is the truth that sets you free.

                That person you have to live with everyday, you know the one you wake up and look at in the mirror is the one who’ll benefit from you making the healthy choices. And when that person is happy you’ll find yourself smiling for no reason at all and that is not an awful thing to have in your life. What I’m saying here isn’t prophetic or even new. What I’m saying here is there is no magic bullet no magic pill or place to journey to or someone to hand your money to, to get what you already own. Yourself.  Make the time to get to know that person and ask yourself the questions I started out with and be willing to seek the answers if they require you to because the biggest question I’m still finding out today is why did my soul want to be here in this body on this planet etc? Why even bother?

                Take a moment and just realize to yourself what is inside you. Close your eyes and wonder at the thought you are having right at this moment.  Ask yourself why am I reading this? Why do I care? What am I going to do after I finish with this and why? The reasons may implore you to learn more about what thrills you or sends you on a journey to learn more about what the universe wants you to learn and do.  There isn’t any particular way you have to proceed or place you have to journey to and no one can do it for you. Get off your ass and you take the steps to finish this journey. The universe will lead you around by the nose if you let it and that is connecting to the source of what makes us tick as a mortal being. One piece of wisdom I do share with others is God has you right where He wants you at all times.

                Disclaimer time! No if you do these things that I’ve discussed in this blog you’re life may or may not be great I cannot guarantee anything. I do not have a crystal ball that sees into your future nor do I give a rat’s behind how you so choose to live your life. I remind IT IS YOUR LIFE. You own it there is no money back guarantee for it, ask your maker. I pray or bless that you choose to live it in a way that brings you bliss and or happiness. If you are already doing all of this GREAT keep it up! Consider this a refresher.  It is a sad fact that due to lawyers I have to even think up a statement as silly as this.

                Lastly why am I saying this? Why bother? Because I refuse to believe that a mortal human being such as yourself cannot think any higher than past your last meal. You are not cattle.  My desire is to get people to just ask out loud the questions and respond to the overall bigger thing that is going on around us.  I do not believe you don’t care and cannot fathom why you don’t give a rat’s behind why you are here now.

I have been told there are few like me (some might be saying at this point thank God) and that my kind are practically alone in this world. Maybe that is true and maybe I am doomed that way. I do not know. I nearly gave up on humanity as a whole. I became so down trodden a few years back that I nearly threw up my hands up and said, “You know what fuck em’. If they want to be mindless cattle then be exactly that. Who am I to take your bliss of ignorance away from you.” Then something happened in my life that spun me around on my heel and made me speak out loud again. That is another story I’ll share another day. Until then think past what you see on the surface and ask the bigger questions because really all that mundane stuff you experience mostly throughout your day (as annoying and or as great as you may perceive it) isn’t the bigger picture.  The answers that show up because you asked the questions may change you in a way you never saw coming.

It’s about going green isn’t it…

Many out there think going green is a great thing. The President is talking about it as a course for the future. Some people think we’ve should have done this a long time ago. Personally I’m all for pursuing a non-harmful relationship with the world around us. Now there are those who subscribe to the philosophy of to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs. Even if it means spilling enough oil into the Gulf to ruin the ecosystem, economy, and even cultures and traditions to push mankind into realizing they need to get off of fossil fuels?

Ask yourself these questions. Wasn’t Obama talking up green technologies before he began campaigning? Wouldn’t the present conditions in the Gulf cultivate much of the green businesses to begin pushing their technologies out in the streets? Isn’t it convenient timing that the first time we see our President’s broadcast during this crisis since April he pitches going green again? Lastly who do you think will end up with the profits of going green and going away from fossil fuels? Isn’t it convenient that it is a foreign owned rig that goes up to disperse anger and ill will away from our own country, but this happens off the coast of our own country?

I’ll wager if you watched oil businesses spending and investing habits what you will see is their buying up all the green technology out there they can find. And if you follow money trails I’ll also wager you’ll see it going up the hill into our President’s pocket (not directly so we can easily find it, but it is there). I know serious accusations all based on no facts, but I say this, nothing happens without a reason and I’m loyal to my country not to the politicians. Which after seeing this happen leaves me with the feeling our government system has turned into a sick reality show that just shows off the worse in our human race. IF there is a higher moral to that story please someone shine the light for me.

I’m saying I’m all for cleaning this up and moving on but the levels of accountability must be met by both countries. Why does this have to come out of our own pockets (the little guy), which is really where most of the financial responsibility will fall? I’m sickened by the devastation this is causing the whole region and if anyone believes they are immune to any of this then you’re just lying to yourself. It will affect one and all in some negative way. We feel powerless to what is happening I’m sure but we must not hide our eyes to the truth of this situation and what it really means. Commercialism in disguise and another way to push a green bill through Office. Just so someone can line their pockets at the expense of all of us.

I’m upset and hurt by the fact we don’t have a check box for none of the above when it comes to voting. I’m fed up with the same type of people lying to me right through the camera doing whatever it takes to get voted in. Isn’t it frustrating you can’t say to yourself at the voting poll I don’t like any of the candidates. I want a new set. We vote none of the above they have to get a new pair of candidates in there and we keep kicking them out until they finally realize, “Shit we’ll just have to pick some average Joe’s (or Jane’s) to do the job but because they’ll just keep this up.” Government wasn’t meant to be a business. I’m sorry politician’s but it is truth. It should never be and you shouldn’t treat it as such.

A strange thing happened and I'm not sure what went down. Since I've just let this posting sit three quarters done. I posted this blog in its entirety went back to make a change right away of how something was worded and reposted it. However my last paragraph was gone. It was a great summation of what I was saying and I'm saddened it was gone. Of course I didn't save it to another digital file (which was highly uncharacteristic of me) or this paragraph would be moot. What happened? Possibly two things. I messed up and dropped my paragraph or Blogspot did some editing for me (which if that is the case see ya). So I'll try to hit the zone again and post it but it just won't be the same.

So what will I do? I won't sit around and bitching and whining about what is happening up on Capital Hill. I am not interested in creating more negative vibes out there because given the current status of things there's plenty enough of that. I'm not a couch potato politician who believes he can do better running this country. I will keep promoting none of the above because our current government needs change a clean-up of old thinking a major paradigm shift. We've proven now democrat or republican alike either will not do it just does not cut it anymore. As I've said before I'm a loyal Ohio resident, American citizen, human of Earth. I'll support my leaders because we voted them into office. I don't have to like them no one can make me do that, but we the voters have to be loyal to our decisions and should honor that. I'll buy our President's next big push of 'green' technology because I know I'll be supporting him in more than one way. The 'green' I'll be handing over will also be lining his pockets and funding his retirement.

To pad or not to tablet: It is a matter of form following function.

“Louis Sullivan's phrase "form (ever) follows function" became a battle-cry of Modernist architects after the 1930s.” (Wikipedia) Apple ever retained this motto after Jobs brought the company to its pinnacle of making computer technology appetizing to the eye. Whether it by hardware or by operating system. His followers rabid as they are (I was one of them so leave me be we did froth at the mouth so get over it) raised him financially up so he could be even more penchant with his design and proprietariness. This is when I dropped off the radar because the epiphany hit me. I’d have to have $3K expendable income every other year just keep up (hardware & version wise) with the updates his team rolled out. No thanks. I can’t justify that kind of behavior in my life and I couldn't help feeling like a consumer whore after it all said and done. I’ll take my chances elsewhere.

Time marched by and netbooks rolled out and I got on board with an EeePC from Asus. Loved the concept despised the limitations they rolled out with the first gen of a brilliant idea and the kicker was it was affordable! You nearly said after spending just a few hundred bucks so what if it dies after spilling a latte on it. Though for the record these were tough little devices. Something light and small I can carry around easy enough check online what I needed maybe respond to an email and then you close up shop. Obviously you do not want to do heavy work on it but there you were. Like any great idea it got perverse quickly and spread around too much and the price went up and up.

Thank God the idea stuck that the people wanted something they can carry about that was connected into the networks out there yet light enough not to weigh you down. Thus pads/tablets are in. Just when everyone also said, “Hey I want a lightweight operating system too. Not something that is going to take all my disk space up.” Android and Moblin launched. I’m eager to see how all of this plays out but on the horizon there still is Google OS as well. Don’t get me wrong the “traditional” flavors of OS’s out there are still there and ready to be used as well but let’s face the facts you have two choices to make. Buy the ‘it connects to EVERYTHING OS like Windows, Apple, (free) Linux’ (I went by market share) or get the free light weight it may only connect to most things and printing is going to be hard OS. Now I stretched that out because these are still under much evolutionary change and development and the goal is to be connected to everything eventually but they have to test the living crap out of it before just dumping it onto you. The end user. Free usually is like that but hey FREE hello?

I mentioned the words light weight and what I mean by that is not only size (physical space on your hard drive) I also mean it will lack things that aren’t core essential to run faster. The tendency I have witnessed many times over is you put the full blown version of anything onto a mobile device and it crawls to the point where you want to throw it at your IT person or the sales person who stuck you with it. Of course that is not a wise idea (I like the blood to stay inside my body). Thus the idea of a light weight operating system is born. You have to note if it has a hard disk drive the RPM’s are much slower than your desktop hard drive and the system has to run on a battery also so power isn’t consistent. These things coupled with the end user (you) go to every ad plastered gossip, news, picture, porn, sports related site out there and get tons of garbage temporary files downloaded onto your system (which I blame the OS not being intelligent enough to toss out when done!). Add a dash of a few corrupt essential files or malware and you got yourself a device you want to throw at someone. Voila`! Light weight helps with this because it has just the essentials and the engineering isn’t geared toward the ‘typical every stationary desk top user scenario’ situation it is geared toward a device being carried around and the “what do we do with these devices typically” scenario. This mentality carried through its entire design so what you ended up with is a smaller physical size (which my EeePC loves [4 Gig SSD hello!]) and just the essential stuff necessary to connect to EVERYTHING wireless and the ports to survive out there. USB, removable data cards, etc.

Enter the iPad. As we all know and as far as I'm aware of still suffering from the economy took a crap. There is Apple still pushing the next addictive consumer grade product because like Midas everything Jobs is touching is turning to gold on the market despite the fact that people are losing employment, homes, life savings. So listening as he does to what ‘the people want’ then sticking and ‘i’ on it we now have the next super device that fits all the above requirements and since their core OS really is just a beefed up version of UNIX. There won’t be a problem with making this the next thing you “have” to have or you could just do what every other “price-sensitive” (Curtis Franklin Jr.) Apple user does and wait for them to go dirt cheap on eBay and buy it up then. Long in short they hit the shelves first and did extremely well. Why not there wasn’t anyone else out there? That in itself is amazing despite a shitty economic crisis people still wanted to spend what no extra money they had on an ‘i’ something to have in their home. Way to go Steve! I doubt other makers would have had the same ability to pull that off I sincerely mean that.

Then this article rolls out announcing the release of Asus’s EeePC Pad. I’m thrilled let me tell you! Competitive hardware specs and good weight and size. Did they copy the hell out of you know who HELL yes they did. They had to! To answer the question with your title of the article Curtis yes they can! Will they be better? Hell no Curtis! They are shipping with a stripped down embedded version of Windows hello? Look at prices though. Well priced and it is almost as if they know their OS won’t compete and will probably suck and that’s why it is lower. Sad part is they say the licensing is why it is so high in price. So high? So if you didn’t have to deal with Windows licensing you wouldn’t have it priced at $450 for the 12” model of this device? It would be even lower? Hmmmm…

So here is the article:

PCWorld Article by Curtis Franklin Jr.

Here is the quote I’m blogging about:

“Apple's competitors are betting that a rich hardware feature set and (possible) lower price will attract users who see the potential in an ultra-portable tablet but aren't ready to join the Apple universe. The iPhone has shown that, while Apple can make a market that includes rivals, the Cupertino tech giant will keep most of the market for itself, leaving competitors to pick up the price-sensitive or Apple-averse for themselves.”

Mr. Franklin Jr. the ‘price sensitive’ or ‘Apple-averse’ folks out there you are discussing about are people who recognize inside of a reeling economy that money is best spent wisely. Those who are Apple-averse are possibly those who enjoyed Apple for a time but soon realized that to keep up with how much money Apple demanded was simply ludicrous. Look around Mr. Franklin EVERYONE would love an operating system that ran smoothly and securely. Unfortunately it was Gates who got to the first position with that and we got one out of two, maybe. If anything we can thank Microsoft for giving us the contrast to see that an operating system that ran like Apple’s OS is better but it doesn’t have to be Apple’s product. It helps us in our patiently waiting for a ‘real product’ to roll out that does not behave like Windows nor be proprietary like MacOS nor deal with the bash command line headaches that free Linux serves up. When that one developer rolls out something that just has it all and kicks major ass in reviews I’m there. Until then with this economy don’t be surprised if I’m thinking with wallet first, security second, and ease of use last.

My issue with all of this is in a reeling economy one can only wonder how badly they all want to get into our wallets. Pretty badly? Yes, but the operating system is a lot of engineering and they deserve something back for all of that time. How much profit is enough? How much do you stick your hands into the end users pocket to cover what was spent in development? How long do you think Steve people will put up with you plastering an ‘i’ on anything and calling it a gem of Louis Sullivan’s architectural philosophy? Has it run its course yet? Listen man I appreciate what you and Woz came up with all those years ago. Eventually in my opinion the perfect graphic designer’s wet dream of a digital tool, but I cannot endorse handing over time and time again all that money. In short, ridiculous. What’s next the iToaster, iToilet, iBroom? It makes sense to be compensated for your work YES but squeezing 8K percent profit every time you hear the register go cha-ching is compounding the problems out there. The part that frightens me most is the cattle keep going out there to buy it because you say so. Ironic, how in the 1984 ad you’ve become that which you were demonstrating against. Is that capitalism coming full circle for you? You’ve changed a world of computing give yourself a pat on the back, you’ve secured a company’s future that was in a nose dive be thrilled, now think ahead on how to unify a race. You have the means. Look in your own back yard.

You have one of the easiest to use, secure, operating systems out there. The world is computing like it or not. They are all jacked in somehow some way. I challenge you create a light version and give it away. Have it work on AMD / Intel alike. Call it iLite OS or some ‘i’ derivative I’m sure your team will have a good name to throw on it. Get the world on it and if they choose to have all the bells and whistles they can toss their money onto the full blown version. Can you hear it Steve? “If you build it they will come.” When you see how the world changes on it you’ll then understand the positive power you truly have. Money is just a thing. We are the source. You sensed it when your adoring fans backed you at every MacExpo. When you have the source behind you the world unifies and listens.

A Mother Earth Smack Down?

I was surfing through my Facebook page and I’m sure one day in the future this will date me as to a time frame when this blog happened but there we are in the digital age. Anyway I saw this posting from a colleague “2012: A Time for Change trailer” and watched it. I was going through the ramification of emotions that this film is supposed to touch and the guilt trip this is supposed to inspire on all of us that we had better start realizing that the damage we are doing to the Earth will undo us overall. It is true by the way we need to connect and communicate our intentions better to Mother Earth or she’ll spank the living shit out of us and rightfully so. So there is my position on all of that in case anyone was wondering. However after seeing the trailer going through the gamut of ‘what can I do to help and change things’ and it hits me. What would it take to turn ALL of us around in our seriousness of this? I’m not someone who is a motivationalist by trade and I’m certainly not a tree hugging activist nor would I want to be any of the above. I’m not made of that stuff. The only thing I’m ultra passionate about is my wife, family, and my artistic endeavors. But I also like to think so I decided to throw some thoughts at this and this is my take on that genre in all forms (film, radio, articles, etc.).

Those who want to see this change happen need have a couple of factors occur. First and foremost this change must occur globally. EVERYONE has to be on board. Native indigenous folks almost don’t count because the ones that are at one with nature and living with and off the land who ‘get it’. These folks have no need for technology so they won’t be an issue. Every country that has converted over to 20^th century technology at the turn of that century needs to be on board with this thinking. No exclusions. Now this comes with a couple of questions that have to be answered I’m not qualified to handle. Who will create these guidelines to live by and enforce them? If so how? Now if killing people is involved to enforce this personally I think the enforcing country is missing the point of all of that for ‘the betterment of mankind thing’.

The next thing we have to accept is responsibility for what we’ve done. It is a huge emotional undertaking. We’d have to take a good long look at ourselves and say yes we’ve been trashing Mother Earth by utilizing a means that make our daily lives easier at the expense of ruining the Earth we live with. When acceptance of this is taken into the heart and soul only then action can be taken to its fullest completion. This acceptance forces us to the next level of commitment to make these changes.

The last part to take on is making the decision. Making that decision to look at how much do we pollute the world around us with our consumer habits. What we use, how we use it, what do we do with it when we toss it out. The list goes on. We’d have to look and scrutinize these things we have come to accept and embrace. Personally I love air conditioning and plumbing. These are great inventions that have made my life very comfortable. Seriously though look at we’ve done to the world as a result of utilizing these two things. Please, I’ll trust if you are reading this you can look up on the internet the effects of all the components of these two industrial innovations and how unsafe disposal is to the environment. That’s just two! Let your mind wander on how many more there are and what they are doing to the landfills we dump them into and the chain reactions to the environment that are taking place every day. We’d have to agree that we’d have to pick apart the very things we have strived to create to make this ‘civilized’ society more comfy. At first glance I get all itchy inside at the very idea of being without these things however let’s take a more serious approach to these practical things. We are at a peak in our civilization where we can begin right now putting our resourceful race to the task. We can find, discover, and create ways around some of these things without leaving a footprint that squashes Mother Earth. We can invent safe ways to accommodate this drastic change without hurting the environment. I believe we all know what prevents us from doing so. The all mighty currency we all pray fall prey to every day we wake up and go out hunting for. That piece of paper that allows us to buy more power to destroy the Earth under our feet every day. I find it disturbing that we can’t seem to face this eight hundred pound gorilla that is sitting on our coffee table staring us right in the face. It is because of money that we don’t change this decision. We’ve made up in our minds to just let the next guy in line deal with it and maybe some time someone down the road of time with come up with the solution. I’m saying the means is there the will to change it isn’t. If the habitants of this planet put their wallets away and quit doing ventriloquist acts with them saying they don’t have the money to make this kind of change we’d get further ahead in acceptance of the responsibility to the problem.

Think of it this way. Take money out of everything. Just remove it out of your mind. Transactions, paychecks, credit, take it all out of the equation. What kind of world would you see? What kind of world would you create without it? Would defending the right to clean up everything seem different to you? Would you think twice about it? There is no currency just people showing up for the day doing stuff because well they want something to do that moves the human race forward. There is plenty in the stores you get what you need and decide to not be glutinous because you want to be healthy in your decisions because you want to be a better person. Everyone will want to do their bit to move the human race forward.

Interesting story? Fiction? I don’t know. I like to believe that the human race is capable. I really want to believe that people on this planet really don’t want to rub themselves out over a piece of little paper they decided together to put value on. I hope people start to see that ignoring this will hurt us in the end and continuing on this path will catch up to us one day. How catastrophic will it have to be? How many will have to die before leaders take it serious?

One of the three conversational taboos.

I was witness to a dialogue yesterday that made this soul not so happy. Through a vein of thought I saw someone I love dearly get judged and somewhat stereotyped. It wasn’t a pretty sight. I found myself lowering my resonating energy level. Down, down, down my oscillating vibrational level went till I noticed “I was sinking to their level”. This startled me and vexed me because I’m forced to ask that age old question as to why did this get to me? Then it struck because this was one of the taboo topics my friend. You never discuss religion. It never ends pretty. Unless you end it on its premise, love. However this one did not.

It ended on a quote. My age old trump card I pull when I have someone on the receiving end thrashing out at me with quotations from the good book. I’m always a big fan of ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ It reminds the person on the other side of the conversation. You know what I sense you are letting pride stand in your way of your thinking. Allowing yourself to be the judge of this conversation and really can we take a moment here and remind ourselves of Who really is in charge? I dislike using it but those of Christian faith adhered themselves to it and even those who choose to believe Jesus was if anything a profound teacher have to respect it. So when someone gets up onto their pulpit and starts casting out quotations and shoving their finger at me because I didn’t measure up to their faith and belief and forbid I say it their lifestyle give up. Right there. Go back to your church and start confessing your sins and add it to the list. Bless yourself and I with forgiveness because it doesn’t wash and may we never tread on that ground conversationally again because we have our own beliefs here. My favorite response when of course they sense I’m correct and try to back out or down play what has happened is when I ask “Go back through every encounter we’ve ever had. When have I ever crossed this line with you? When have I measured your life by your faith? Never. Why? Because I know how important your love is for your faith and it is just something you never mess with. Why do it to another?” I’m not made of that stuff nor should another. My friends haven’t we learned anything from what history does have to offer. You can’t force another to any religion it has been tried (Inquisition ring a bell) and we know how it always ends. Bloody.

So I gave that quote to another so the conversation could end on what was dished out to begin with. Was it right? Don’t know that isn’t for me to decide or judge. I do know this. This person won’t make that same mistake again with my friend for I believe he got the message and took it to heart. To live in fear isn’t rewarding to the soul and one would want to cease that as soon as possible. He’ll beg his Lord for forgiveness for being so prideful that I’m sure of. Now will he learn anything from that? That is the question isn’t it. Anger is much like a virus. Starts out with a contact spreads throughout the body replicating for strength as soon as it can with only one goal in sight hostile takeover. The only path it leads to is resentment if not treated immediately. The cure: unconditional love. Love the person you’re pissed at. Love them for they are your equal no matter what. They are made of the same stuff you are. They are the same as you and they have the same capacity you do for love. Give someone love freely and they have no choice to break down eventually and give it back. Anger is always weaker than love. You can’t stay angry. Try it. You can however love unconditionally twenty four seven look at your children and say it isn’t so. So the only cure for this resentment is unconditional love. It is truly the most powerful force in the universe.

So is there a happy ending to this story? Yes. Love is felt on this side of the river. This encampment is ready to forgive and love unconditionally. This side has been ready to love from the very beginning and will do so tomorrow because that is the next step in our evolution as creations of our higher power. Our creator did not make us so we could attack one another. I just cannot bring myself to believe that was His divine purpose. (My disclaimer for this paragraph is: This is solely my opinion and like assholes well you get the picture.) I really do believe He wants us to have a very serious relationship with Him and I am willing to do so solely to fulfill His purpose for my existence. Nothing more. Everything else that happens, like this blog, is a treat or a sweet candy to enjoy along the way. I’ll enjoy it, smile, and think joyful thoughts until I figure out what to do next.

Coal and Climate Change

There are a few links that point out Utah's coal addiction rising to 90% of it electrical productions being the result of using coal to power the state. That burning this fossil fuel is changing the weather climate we have and the upcoming predictions look bleak etc. Well there is much debunking going on out there concerning the numbers and the fact there isn't enough proof that doing this will actually change the weather at all.

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/02/house-resolution-passed-in-utah-climate-change-a-conspiracy/

I have no vested feelings on that matter. If Mother Earth itself finally sees us as the virus and strikes us out of existence tomorrow I accept the consequences. We really didn't have her well being in mind when we "humans" discovered the damage we were doing and still didn't try our best to change our ways due to the all mighty dollar outranking our thinking. No, save a buck but damn our existence anyhow mentality rightfully sentenced ourselves to that 'supposed' fate. I'm no different than my neighbor. I didn't go after legislation and I didn’t try to change and develop protocols for researching a different way to heat and cool ourselves. So I deserve the same fate as my neighbor. If I can't get off my ass and do something to change this world for the better than if Mother Nature wants to kick my sorry ass off the planet then so be it.

That is not what I wanted to point out though. What I really wanted to bring to light is even if the teeter totter goes this way or that way in damaging weather and climate that is not what should be moving folks in the direction of getting away from fossil fuel power plants. Look at what comes out of those exhaust stacks. By products, chemicals, residues, anything that can be said that should not be inside your body. That should be the motivation for finding a different safe power source. The number, if it is accurate, is ninety percent for the state of Utah that consume coal fuel. THAT is alarming as all get out and needs to be examined seriously along with every other state that can say that. We are technically advanced as a country and I demand we step aside from "Blackwater" monies being wasted and put that kind of money where our mouth is in making another energy source that is safe happen. Not 'clean coal'. Coal no making how you shine it won't be clean get over that and move on. There is still a toxic remainder no matter how you tinker with it and that is just silly. By all means keep the plants cut mining way the hell down and save them as a means for emergency situations only. But 90 percent dependency is never safe and the effect on the air we breathe is nothing short of a death sentence. Of course it isn't immediate it is long term and let's get past the eight hundred pound gorilla on the coffee table and call it like it is long term late life whatever cancer. The stuff stays in the body twiddles its way into cell mutation later in life. You can't tell me breathing that stuff is not toxic and they've proven scientifically that what comes out that stack your body can't get rid of by means of an evacuation or immune system. You can’t urinate or defecate it all out and the immune system is not going to take care of it. So why continue to use a means to power this nation that isn't safe when we have other means if not "great leads" on alternative means to do this. Oh that, yes, the all mighty dollar. We did create our own golden calf and it is the dollar. We pray for (to) it, we adore it, we kill for it. We strike our enemies down in the name of it why not expose it for it is. The blasphemeric dollar.

Why let that get into the way of preserving our race and its future generations. We obviously haven't learned a thing from the past look at our present economy. Part of the Roman Empire's downfall was due to economic greed. They adorned their money so much they would stretch themselves how far to get more of it. They let it drive their decisions and let their own citizens starve in the streets to get more of it. The Romans poisoned themselves with lead piping etc. So here we are on the brink of much of the same and we have all become okay with smoke stacks in Utah pluming with toxicity floating its way east and settling its particles in my lungs here in Ohio. What a country. Stop thinking with the wallets and start thinking towards how to protect those that live inside this country and hey why stop there? Do you really think Canada appreciates us dumping our high altitude ash over into their neck of the woods as well? Eh?

Do the right thing. Move away from stuff that catches afire and start moving toward permanently recycling energy that reproduces itself. Self sustaining power research is not a bad thing as long as it has no toxic end result to any life. There has to be a way to make that kind of technology work for us and imagine if used in a non profiteering way how it could make the human race advance itself to a higher consciousness that helps Mother Nature. We would be in a position to do so many other things in life we could not fathom the extent of our abilities. My advice, leave the golden calf we've created behind and look towards expanding our race to the highest level possible. Believe me the rest of the globe will follow a great role model.