jomo's corner

Evolver Boston... wandersings in text.

2010-06-28T07:24:00.004-04:00

A while back I decided to start coordinating with Evolver to bring Boston a regional Evolver event on a monthly basis. For a while this was great. I ‘rented’ space for a few hours on a donation basis at the local union/socialist/anarchist shared loft space. A few of the events drew 30-40 people, but then numbers started to drop after a while, now we get maybe 6 if we are lucky. After a while, I started to question what it was good for if not many people chose to show up for the events. I also questioned if the amount of money for transportation, parking, snacks and picking up the rest of the donation for the rental space was worth it. A recent estimate made it seem as if I was spending 40-60 dollars per event. The great people I met, the Burners, the artists, poets, writers, activists, college students, shamans, and creative neo-pagans have certainly enriched my life.

Always my efforts were tied to presenting ideas that could “turn on” (not necessarily sexually, but more in regards to activating life) someone through the ETHOS and content covered by Evolver… Joseph Campbell discusses my method best in “Fire in the Mind” when discussing his students and Sarah Lawrence where he would talk and present new ideas constantly and encourage excitement and exploration when he saw it. Realistically in an exoteric context, this may be as good as it gets…. Or maybe it could get better with multiple learning paths…. exploration and record keeping will fill this content area with good knowledge. Maybe this is why we want to call the events Spores, many attempts at expansion, until it spreads, unifies and expands, as is the case in Mycology.

The whole notion behind Evolver as I see it is to help bridge the gap between artist, spiritual and activist communities. It is similar to coalition building, but with no specific goals other than willing the transformation from scary society on a bullet train towards Armageddon, to a society based on principals of justice, enlightened self-interest, and evolution. The goal with Evolver for me was to help ideas incubate with people, so that they eventually would connect with the thing that they wanted to contribute to society. I could see that this happened some, and it was heartening, but something was lacking, and I’m not sure what that was.

At this point, I still have a strong calling to coordinate Evolver events, and will continue to put them together for a while. Brian George, a frequent contributor to Reality Sandwich (a website related to Evolver) has given me a number of ideas that should help grow the group over time. We are thinking about having a sort of brief open mic format where members can on a first come first serve basis speak on whatever subject is coming up for them at the time. This will take some adaptation on my part to help facilitate this shift, as our old format was quite different.

Themes I personally will be encouraging and design events around are philosophy, spirituality, environmentalism, transition movements, the fortean (Is the fortean the new theology or just a freak show?) and perhaps the Psychedelic (primarily as it related to Holotropic Breathwork). In the future I’ll expand to a sort of holistic vision, covering more optimal diets, yoga, energy work, and so much more. Its been a little longer than a year so far that Evolver Boston has been in effect… Lets see where it goes from here.

Peak Everything? Time for a transition

2010-06-13T22:12:00.007-04:00

The Earth is showing signs and our science giving us data that clearly indicates human survival on the earth necessitates that we (collective speak here) willingly impose limits on expansion/growth to allow others to have access to necessary resources in the future. Peak Everything (video) is now a reality, along with its good friend anthropogenic climate change. The global economy is based on never ending expansion, and due to peak oil, water (video), and resources, humanity is faced with tough and dire questions.

How do we go forward from this? I think re-localization through the model of Transition Towns is one of the most positive ideas that is being acted on around the world to make real change.

In the summer of 2009, I wanted to get some training on the model. I did some email magic and Tina Clarke (a long time activist) came to Boston to give a weekend workshop called 'Training for Transition'. Here I got to meet plenty of people who were also looking at this data, and wanted to take some sort of action. This workshop gave hope.

The model (oodles of details here) empowers local social movements from the bottom up. It is a permaculture based model for re-localization. People start small, and empower each other to do what they want to do on the very local scale. The closer to home the better. Great results have been had so far, and there are more transition initiatives happening every day.

Personally I haven't started or been involved with a movement yet, primarily based on not knowing where I want to reside. In the near future, I may get the ball rolling locally in New Hampshire, but maybe my efforts will exist more on the internet side (other than my gardening at home).

Tina Clarke and I are working to start a website titled Transition Together. It is named after project that is currently active in UK neighborhoods. The aim is to have people work in small clusters to become more resilient, self reliant and community oriented. This is achieved by sharing crops, gardening tools, and machinery. I have a bunch of media (podcast photos and videos) begging to get on the site, and soon it will be. If you are interested and have any questions on the project, feel free to ask.

Treehugger on Peak Everything

My Film Project.

2010-03-18T13:47:00.001-04:00

Starting April 7th, I am making my way across the country to document permaculture sites, and people doing transition town work across the country.
The two spots I hope to visit at this point are CRMPI in Colorado, and The EcoVillage Training Center in Tennessee. The folks in Boulder who are doing transition work are heavily active in transition, so if time permits, I will visit with them and document their work.
For the film I am planning to showcase American permaculture leaders, their gardens, and their thoughts on the state of permaculture in 2010. It is also a primary objective to take footage of mature or maturing permaculture gardens.
The reason for putting this film together is to show that permaculture is exciting and works in our modern world. In order for permaculture to become more mainstream, videos and various types of media need to pervade the mindscape of mass culture. Making films is one positive way to do this.
I am very excited for this project to get rolling! More news when I have some.

White room blog

2010-02-22T01:37:00.001-05:00

So, its been launched. I have a snowboard blog over at www.whiteroomblog.com that turns out to be awesome and hilarious. Steve and I seem to fill it up now and again with good photos and great videos of our friends hucking funny snowboard tricks. More soon, check the site.

places America can still innovate in the world.

2009-11-09T18:51:00.002-05:00

Outside of the internet / IT sector that is.... Some people I follow, like Mr. Pinchbeck suggest that agriculture, water reclamation, energy (including renewables), and health are the areas where Americans can still innovate and pioneer new ground.

These things allow us to imaging a few possibilities for working towards a more sustainable future, if that is something you choose to do. These things can be approached from a for profit, close source, open source, not for profit etc.

Aloe Vera Gel for Teeth (via Dr Weil's blog)

2009-10-29T16:20:00.001-04:00

Aloe vera gel can soothe burned skin, take the itch out of bug bites and help treat rashes from poisonous plants. It also appears to be good for your teeth. A study published in the May/June 2009 issue of General Dentistry found that aloe vera gel worked as well as regular toothpaste to clean teeth and eliminate cavity-causing bacteria. What’s more, the study showed that the gel isn't as hard on the teeth as abrasive toothpastes so may be better for folks with sensitive teeth or gums. However, one of the authors of the study warned that not all aloe vera gel will work - you need the kind that contains the stabilized gel located in the center of the aloe vera plant and that hasn’t been treated with excessive heat or filtered during manufacturing. One of the study authors notes that such processing destroys or reduces the effects of some essential enzymes and polysaccharides. To find a good aloe vera tooth gel, the researchers suggested checking with the International Aloe Science Council to review the products that have received its seal of quality.

link to original article

next steps

2009-10-28T17:39:00.003-04:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about what is next for me. My current living situation is ending soon, which I'm grateful for. The last year has been lived in a state of high activity mixed with mucho limbo. It wasn't really going anywhere, and seemed like I was just existing from one perspective.

From another angle, I have been helpful to the evolver movement, breathwork in Boston and a few other things along the way. With all of these things stacked up, it does make me feel as if I had some trajectory. What else could I be involved with to make my creative output more meaningful.

So as for things that may be next. I'm thinking a few options. I tend towards hedonism to start... so I'm thinking Park City Utah wouldn't be a bad place to explore that. Explore the snow and Evolver / Transition town people in that region. Then I'm considering doing web design and various sorts of IT consulting for a while while there.

After that... maybe hook up with the transition town folks on a more committed basis? They have an intensive training program in the UK and I think that may be a great thing to attend in the Spring. This would be one of the more committing things I could do in regards to working towards making a good dent in pressing enviro issues.

Overall seems like a good path to me... I stand to lose some health insurance, but picking this up on my own may not be too bad.... This is my blogger acct turning into live journal...

peace

http://evolver.net
http://transitionus.org

Beer me

2009-09-25T08:45:00.002-04:00

So I made beer recently. Use some brown ale malt extract and some Munton's dark malt dme.
Cascade hops, and some assorted grains we found lying around.
Here are some pics. Beer is in the second stage of fermentation now in a different container than the first carboy. We'll bottle next week, hopefully tuesday, and have beer ready in 2-4 weeks after that.
Quite excited... what next.

Malt

DME

Cascade Hops Pellets

Wort

Jack

2009-09-22T09:47:00.001-04:00

Hold together, Jack, pass through everything, and everything is one dream,
one appearance, one flash, one sad eye, one crystal lucid mystery, one word-
Hold still, man, regain your love of life and go down from this mountain and
simply be-be-be the infinite fertilities of the mind of infinity, make no
comments, complaints, criticisms, appraisals, avowals, sayings, shooting
stars of thought, just flow, flow, be you all, be you what it is, it is only
what it always is- Hope is a word like a snow-drift- This is the Great
Knowing, this is the Awakening, this is Voidness- so shut up, live, travel,
adventure, bless and don't be sorry- Prunes, prune eat your prunes- And you
have been forever, and will be forever, and all the worrisome smashings of
your foot on innocent cupboard doors is only the Void pretending to be a man
pretending not to know the Void." Kerouac

Bonnaroo recap - woooooooooo!

2009-06-23T11:34:00.001-04:00

Super fun trip to Bonaroo. I was so tired for a week after this trip, that I even had to go home sick once for fear of actually getting sick.
Incredible venue, and I'll certainly do it again. The best part was really seeing how happy everyone was to be around others who were into the music, shopping, drinking, learning about eco-stuff, and just overall having a good time.

Triumph the insult comic dog really did his thing well there. Love him, lol. He was trolling the porta potties when I saw him trolling around. So funny.

Sleep deprivation was really how the trip went for me, drank 2 beers the whole time which seem kind of lame to me, but there was no way I could have pulled off what I did while drinking/partying. Stayed up till 4am after only like 3 hrs of sleep the night before and 2-4 hours of sleep the following night. Really beat the shit out of myself that way, but the shows + awesome acts were worth it.

Highlights included coheed and cambria, mars volta, wailing souls, random freakshows, bare feet, minimal sunburn, and the spontaneous art that poped up everywhere.

Disapointments included: Bruce Sprinsteen and MGMT (especially bummed that they didn't meet my expectations). MGMT was actually the primary reason I wanted to go.

Phish was good, but the Fenway (Boston) set I got to see was so much better that it didn't really seem to compare.

I'm certainly going to return, but I'll tie it into a rock climbing trip and a longer vacation next time. Maybe I'll hook up with some existing "CAMP" to make the experience cooler/weirder.

Only time will tell.

Bonnaroo line up list.

2009-06-23T11:31:00.001-04:00

Wailing Souls
Bon Iver
Booker T
Of Montreal
Wilco
David Grisman Quintet
The Mars Volta
Bruce Springsteen
Lovell Sisters
Everest
MGMT
Moe
Decemberists
Citizen Cope
Erika Badu
Andrew Bird
Mearle Haggard
Coheed and Cambria
Neko Case
PHISH
Yea Sayers

Bonnaroo 2009 - Dreddy Pharo Jazz flute dance

2009-06-17T11:51:00.002-04:00

Loved these guys. Great stuff.

intro to permaculture

2009-05-19T22:22:00.001-04:00

So, I'm leading a group meeting tomorrow on Permaculture, and I needed to catch up on what it is and why it is important. This is for the up and coming Evolver Boston group, that I'm helping to get rolling in the area.

One of the co-founders of it is Bill Mollison, I did a youtube search for him and found tons of stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=bill+mollison&aq=f

Some of the other videos I watched complemented the wikipedia article nicely.

Temperate Permaculture Strategies - Pt1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ0r_yklrDI

What is permaculture - 8 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0H7V6dDi8&NR=1
Urban/suburban permaculture, informative - 5 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3_RbgtDnQE

Hope you find permaculture as interesting as I do. These are forest garden systems that you can leave alone for multiple months in a row... fantastic stuff.

2009-05-11T08:52:00.001-04:00

I want to start you all off with pics of flowers, and remember to come back to the flowers after you see the pics. I'll post a youtube clip of the mess below the flowers. Hope you come out ok on the other side!

Peace.

Picasa

Podcasting

2009-05-05T16:48:00.001-04:00

Podcasting is a funny thing. To me, it seems to be one of the most crucial media outlets we have today. It may not be as popular as twitter and other social media outlets, but it does allow for newly generated content to be distributed in new and interesting ways.
Its an incredibly democratizing factor for media at a time when the world needs it the most.

Why I podcast, is something I've been trying to figure out for a while now. At first, I think it was to get a chance to talk to people in the occult world, and try to figure out what the hell they were talking about. My education was oriented towards western philosophy and eastern mysticism/philosophy. Coming into this western world of magic and alchemy, I was pretty confused and wanted to figure it out. The second part, was to try to meet people in the real world doing the work, and connect with them on a few levels that I wasn't connecting with my friends on. Education and connection, I suppose were my primary goals. Offering this content to the general public seems to me to be a necessary side effect of my desire to connect with authors and semi prolific personalities in the field.

Goals... Its funny that I haven't thought formally of a goal for my show until over a year into it. Recently when I was interviewed for the Occult of Personality podcast, I came up with "getting people to challenge their belief systems" as an answer. This is cliche but acceptable, if I really mean it. Not sure if I do, but it seems like a worth goal.

In the next few weeks, I'll try to come up with some sort of answer for myself on why I podcast and goals I have for the show.

looks like dishwashers are greener than hand washing overall.

2009-02-09T11:49:00.001-05:00

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/built-in-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing-which-greener.php?page=2

SAAB FAIL

2009-02-02T12:31:00.000-05:00

The SAAB failed inspection because of a broken headlight. I bought a new car instead of sticking with this one. There were a few other things that needed to be repaired. It was going to cost alot.

I'm going to send the guy in the painting to take care of him.

Beer photo from NYE

2009-01-14T18:00:00.001-05:00

Check this out. Really cool MACRO photo of my home brew called Sherpa Pale Ale. Look at the head on it. Click it for high res.

Advanced Enochian Magick

2009-01-07T09:26:00.001-05:00

Last night I ran a great interview with Frater W.I.T. who is a thelemic magician with a long history. He just released his second book, Advanced Enochian Magick, and during the interview we speak about his book, group work, history of enochian magick, and dispell some of the myths surrounding it. This should be up in a week or so on my podcast site. www.occultsentinel.com

Wordpress comments issues

2009-01-04T17:05:00.001-05:00

On one of my wordpress blogs, I ran into an issue where there were 4000 plus comments that were all spam, and I couldn't get rid of them due to time constraints. I had this issue for months. Then I finally loaded the builtin spam filter, and when I tried to run it, it crashed because it couldn't handle that much spam. Weeks went by and finally last night while watching Cloverfield, I realized that I knew how to use myPhpAdmin, a mySQL administrative tool. We learned all about mySQL in college. So after figuring out which DB mapped to which blog, I then browsed the comments and found the stash of 4000 spam comments.

The sql browser enabled me to set the view to 1000 or more entries at a time, so I chose 1000 and began deleting everything after post 50. I killed them all but 500 and let the spam filter do the rest.

RIP SPAM.

I may do a tutorial with screenshots eventually because I can't be the first person to have this problem.

if your looking to do some freelance writing to get some extra money

2008-12-24T14:05:00.001-05:00

Check out these links. They look pretty solid.

http://danaprince.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-do-you-do-when-writing-work-well.html

http://danaprince.blogspot.com/2008/11/3-ways-to-make-money-with-ehow.html

http://residualincomeweb.com/ehowebook.html

http://www.bukisa.com/join

http://mashable.com/2008/11/04/bukisa/

4000

2008-12-05T21:45:00.001-05:00

Just reached 4000 downloads on my podcast!

10 super weird foods

2008-12-03T13:50:00.001-05:00

http://listverse.com/food/another-10-fascinating-food-facts/

SHERPA pale ale - homebrew or Alchemy in homebrew

2008-11-29T17:08:00.004-05:00

I've had the chance to taste the fruits of my labor tonight. It is good. I'm not so sure it is a pale ale, but maybe a brown ale. IMO it could have used more hops, and this is my fault for not going crazy with them. The cracked grains certainly make an appearance in the flavor as well.

So overall it is good and should get some people right and roudy next weekend.

Check out these glorious pics of "SHERPA pale ale" beer. (coming soon)

My podcast + SHERPA

2008-11-29T10:29:00.003-05:00

I'm up to 3889 downloads on my podcast, with a few Sherpa downloads mixed in. This is pretty huge. Beats out 1000 by a long shot. I have a few more guests lined up in the near future, so who knows what the end result will be.

www.occultsentinel.com

Malkuth - My first experience with Enochian magick

2008-11-25T17:31:00.001-05:00

On 10/28 I attended an Enochian class at the Knights Templar Oasis (OTO) in Salem, MA.

Before the class I had a meal and a stout at a local restaurant. Then I drank a red bull very quickly before getting to the class so I would stay awake. I hid the red bull when I entered the temple, because I thought they would get nervous about my heart blowing up, then I realized I could play it off as if I was a hardcore soft drink drinker, and this would work as a cover if they confronted me. This is one expression of my paranoia. :O)

Two guys ran the class, and did a pretty good job. It was fun to get together with 13 people to do a group working with the Enochian aethers. The class leaders explained that their original plan to skry all the elemental aspects of all the aethers, but that this would take a decade. So the plan now is to skry all of the aspects of the spheres on the tree of life on the lowest of the Enochian aethers, TEX. This is something that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, about ten months if there is a class once a month.

This was an interesting thought, as I previously thought that Kaballah and the enochian system did not have anything to do with each other. The class leaders explained that many commentators on the kaballah suggest that the tree of life can be used as a classification system
for just about anything. This appears to be the case after thinking about it further. No mention was made of other groups who had done this in the past. If there were, it would be interesting to compare the results of this series of classes to other classes.

We skipped over introducing ourselves and cut right to instruction after wine was passed around. The wine seemed pretty funny to me, especially because of the danger
that some people suspect they are in when they start to practice enochian magick. When I was offered wine, I said, no thanks, I drank before I came. This got a small laugh from a few people. One lady said I was already 'fortified' if I drank before I came.

The event started with a banishing ritual I had not seen before. It was certainly a thelemic ritual as those were the god names used.

We began a chant together as a group. It lasted for about 4 minutes. The person leading the class recited the call, we stopped chanting, he recited it again. The chant used was designed by Lon Milo Duquette and published in his new book Enochian Vision Magick.

At this point we began to skry. For those who may not know, the simplest and most basic method for this is to close one’s eyes and use that dark surface to see if anything manifests.

For the first couple minutes I had no visuals, but I had some other sensations.

Momentarily I was fairly sure that nothing was going to happen, and that I was putting hope and energy in the wrong direction. This was soon appeared to be a naïve perspective. The first sensation I had was a pressure sensation on the front of my body. It was fairly large in terms of surface area, but the pressure was mild. The sensation or feeling I noticed in regards to the pressure was one of pregnant void, or what appeared to be a highly energetic void. After this, my focus was lost, and I had to come back to this sensation and to the skrying surface. In my visual range, I saw lots of lights moving in rhythmic patterns, and I thought some one was playing a joke on me with a flashlight, but I opened my eyes and nothing was there. Colors continued to move around as if it was some sort of psychedelic experience. This was quite interesting, and I'm not sure what this means. One observations was that the colors were not like a 60s type bright color moving, but more of a dark one. The colors I remember were black red and yellow. A slight pressure on my third eye began to come into my attention. The pressure seemed to increase slightly the more I focused on skrying visually. This was interesting, as I have had this sensation a number of times while in meditative states.

After the skrying was finished, we recorded our observations in journals. This took a few minutesl, and we began to share. Some of the people's visions in the room were far more vivid than mine. I suspect this may be because they are more open, or that they are more advanced in an initiatory sense. Some visions had similarities, others didn't. Two people had visions like mine that were very abstract. One vision was about 90% similar to mine. No one reported the same body sensations.

Overall, a very good experience, and I will be going back for more, and learning the Enochian System on my own.

The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations

2008-09-08T16:07:00.001-04:00

http://mkaku.org/home/?page_id=246
I read this great article recently titled "The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations" by Dr. Michio Kaku. It had a very interesting perspective on advanced physics, based on the possibilities + limitations known to modern physics.

Power and engineering seem to be the things that define where this hypothesis goes.

Some of the interesting points classify types of advanced civilizations.
How to explore the Galaxy.
How soon it could be. If we avoid extinction, we should reach advanced status within a few hundred years.

All these things together made for some very interesting reading.

Riopelle

2008-09-08T14:36:00.002-04:00

Here is a cool artist I discovered in Quebec City recently.
His name is Jean Paul Riopelle, he died in 2002.

Here are some links to his art.

http://www.mnba.qc.ca/Contenu.aspx?page=1694&langue=en
http://www.worldvisitguide.com/oeuvre/O0026388.html
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/riopelle_jean_paul.html
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?CID=6548454EEE314E48B939BC14AECB6408&PPID=1&c=c&search=57730&parentpath=0-1013-956&startat=/GetThumb.asp
http://www.bluetravelguide.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000089083.html
http://www.irmabianchi.it/downloads/Porro/Riopelle.jpg

Furries are back again

2008-07-27T19:31:00.000-04:00

I haven't spoken to anyone about Furries lately. One of my friends sent me a great Youtube video tonight and then for some reason I found a ton of videos on Youtube related to furries.

Great stuff. Gives you some insight into who the man behind the mask is some times.

This machine kills fascists

2008-07-23T07:46:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite bands is Anti-Flag. They have a song called this machine kills fascists. Apparently, they got it from Woodie Guthrie.

aspartame

2008-07-21T11:20:00.002-04:00

After reading a newsletter from a health activist website, I got the following few links. I have never been a fan of these sweeteners. They always kind of put me in an unsettled state, then I looked into it and found out that the Bush crime family + Dick Cheney had his fingers in making these kinds of substances Legal + profitable.

Here is the blurb that I read that made me interested in new health risks related to these artificial sweeteners that are known neurotoxins.

"To date, there have only been around 385 human cases identified worldwide (if those identifications are trustworthy, of course), with only 243 (avian flu)deaths. To put the absurdity of this effort into perspective, Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), which researchers believe is heavily associated with aspartame consumption, is a leading cause of death which, according to the CDC, for example, killed 460,000 Americans in 1999 and the numbers keep rising (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5106a3.htm). but Aspartame is not under the gun. Instead, Avian Flu is."

The CDC article did not reference the aspartame at all, it made me wonder.
The newsletter and article did not cite this supposed link with aspartame and SCD, I needed to verify if these people were full of it or not.

A quick google search led me to this article.
http://www.wnho.net/scdandaspartame.htm

It has an interesting list of facts of what aspartame does to the body.

Even more reason for me to poo poo my friends and loved ones not to use this shit.

More dangerous than booze and nicotine.... why would you?

I have found stevia a great natural zero calorie sweetener, and in light of the dangerous nature of these sweeteners, why not just use sugar!

A good article on the history of the Necronomicon

2008-07-14T17:38:00.002-04:00

http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/11nov/occultnecronomicon.html

Check 'er out. Its a pretty cool article.

Makes mention of K.Grant, P.Levanda, and the Manhattan occult scene of the 70s and 80s.

good Robert Anton Wilson interview videos

2008-07-10T09:09:00.002-04:00

http://www.tomross.com/videoarchivesraw.html

They are from '91 or so.

principia discordia

2008-07-07T09:45:00.002-04:00

So, I've been reading the pimary Discordian documents lately. They are very funny things. I highly suggest you check out the Principia Discordia. Once you get past the intro and acknowledgements, it is a gem.

If anyone reads it, let me know what you think.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/

Raves?

2008-07-07T09:02:00.002-04:00

I'll be attending my first rave in a couple weeks. It should be a fairly legit one. Its at an American Legion in Cambridge.

What if we took raves and breathwork into churches? This would take advantage of these buildings that are soon to be all but abandoned.

I think I'm going to start shopping around for some beautiful locations and see if I can have some workshops at them. This could solve a few problems with one action. Recycling buildings, low rent, more beauty in the workshop space, good locations all over the place. Overall, I'm pretty excited about this concept.

Now the bigger problem would be, how to get a rave inside of a church. I think that would be quite an amazing experience. The priests would have to be sure no one would break shit, and it would be clean in the morning. More thoughts on this soon. Maybe a Unitarian church would be the best place to start??

**Update** This was canceled because the Legion lied to the organizer about them having a beer license + the ability to have events like this. Oh well.

How to non-violently embarrass your international competition (shhhh. I mean "enemies"), especially if they call themselves a world super power, and you can't.

2008-07-05T08:57:00.001-04:00

How to non-violently embarrass your international competition (shhhh. I mean "enemies"), especially if they call themselves a world super power, and you can't.

How to creatively and non-violently redefine life as we know it.

So... Here it is.

First step for the undefined country.

1 Find out what they want.
2 Find out what you want.
3 Fund a "manhattan project" for energy research.
     3.1 Make different teams, with very different projects.
     3.2 Make sure the funding is deep.
     3.3 Don't let existing industry get their greasy fingers into this pot.
4 Have the researchers get lots of credit for their discovery.
5 License this newly developed technology to industry.
6 Make lots of money and gain new power.

If this strategy were carried out by any country that had a solid base of engineers and scientists, this could work.

I would be very happy if the US france UK russia, etc would all have their own, but these nations seem to be pre-occupied with oil/gas wars. If they are involved with the resolution of these issues, it is being done by private industry. IMO this is not enough.

I could see this working wonders in about 3 years tops if the project was launched now. If it takes much longer, I could see a few technologies come out of some small engineering groups that may take up a few niches.

So, step it up please (other countries) for the sake of the world. This could end our need for oil, and
greatly democratize life.

Thoughts?

1000 downloads

2008-06-23T19:05:00.000-04:00

Wicked. I'm at 1000 downloads on my podcast.
Time to step 'er up.

podcast

2008-06-23T07:45:00.001-04:00

Wow, I'm at 1000 downloads on my podcast.
Pretty intense.

Last night some forum posts and blog posts found there way to me, and I had a good chuckle that people were interested in what I was doing.

A new podcast was posted last night and another should be going up before I head off to Acadia National Park for a week.

www.occultsentinel.com

Hopefully when I get back I can dedicate some time to some more Sherpa songs.

Substrate

2008-06-06T17:27:00.001-04:00

I was discussing spirit with a friend recently, and he proposed the following as a "maybe". After a couple months, I still think this is an interesting thing to ponder.

This is how I remember his propsition. "What if Spirit needs consciousness in matter as fungi needs a substrate"

This has a lot of interesting implications that at the very least give you some good food for thought.

911 resources

2008-06-05T11:23:00.001-04:00

So I've never posted on 9/11 before.

Here is a great detailed resource list for those interested in the 9/11 conspiracy.

There are some fantastic videos that have been created on this as well as a free peer reviewed journal, and many other great things.

The primary jist is that the official 9/11 story makes no sense, in fact even "cock and balled" stories make more sense.

There was a boat load of censorship that took place making it look even more dicey.

Here is the link. Happy hunting.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/comprehensive_911_resource_and_research_list

telcos are assholes lloyd

2008-05-13T07:52:00.001-04:00

http://www.physorg.com/news129793047.html

Check out that link. It'll prove to you that you are being fucked by txt rates.

I'm soon to cancel my existing phone and ditch sms until or if it becomes sensibly priced.

This is just to help you become more angry with the big utility companies that you can do little about.

Coming clean

2008-05-13T07:49:00.001-04:00

I'd like to come clean on the blog. Not like many people read it, but I've been tying to live multiple lives on the internet.

Living one life over at the Zoo blog, one on my podcast site, and some various other ones in the video game worlds.

This was due to paranoia about people finding out who I am, lol.

Soo here on this blog for the first time, I will be posting a link to my podcast.

http://www.occultsentinel.com

Its a strange world we live in when even Joe Moore is paranoid, lol.

If you enjoy or hate anything on the blog or the podcast, let me know via comment or email.

Peace

Plastic bottles

2008-05-09T10:15:00.001-04:00

With all the hype in the last month about plastic bottles, I wanted to throw my two cents in the pot.

Sigg bottles from Switzerland is going to make a killing on this, because they are the best but expensive alternative to Lexan(no7) Nalgene bottles. I just bought one to replace my Nalgene, and it is good enough for now.

Other aluminum bottle companies can also make huge inroads here, if they take advantage of the current plastic phobias that are running wild. Kleen Kantene is one competitor in the market, maybe its time to have more competition? Some US based manufacturers?

Nalgene's soft plastic bottles that were not victim of this scrutiny suck. I've used them for years, and they make the water taste gross, just like a leeching plastic bottle would. I don't think this is a good route going forward either.

Maybe bio-plastics, or other substances could be made into bottles? Plastics engineers get yo shit together. I (maybe we) need something new, so I can be free of plastic paranoia.

Do the permaculture + organic types have any thoughts on this?

Update: 5-16-08: I purchased a Sigg bottle and a Camel Back BPA free bottle. Both are nice. Nalgene has responded very responsibly to the problem. You can check it out here. They clarify a few things that help in regards to this problem. http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/

Future topics

2008-05-02T10:01:00.001-04:00

How to non-violently embarrass your international competition (shhhh. I mean "enemies"), especially if they call themselves a world super power, and you can't.

How to creatively and non-violently redefine life as we know it.

Most of what I want to write about here at the blog will be about thought experiments related to brainy stuff. I want to try to keep thoughts not worth thinking off of the blog. Not worth thinking will be defined by me. If you want to help me redefine "not worth thinking" let me know and we can talk.

How to survive huge near earth asteroids.

2008-04-29T19:43:00.001-04:00

I just read an article titled "Reporter: Planetary Projection" in the April 2008 issue of SEED and it discussed NEOs (near earth objects) as still being a risk to humanity. It is certainly being overlooked and underfunded, as are all things that could save human lives and future culture.

A while back, discovery channel aired a documentary on the asteroid that hit northern siberia in 1908. Here is a wiki link on that blast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

Apparently according to the article the US funds the majority of the NEO research. Due to funding limitations (war funding takes precedent), NASA is being deprived funding, and a few key observatories are being shut down, thus putting the planet at greater risk of incident. That said, some experts speculate that if one is going to hit us, chances are very slim that we'll see it in time to act.

Other nations are continually stepping up their space programs, so maybe they will see that this does pose a risk to the continuity of governments, commerce, and (most importantly?) humanity as we currently know it.

So, what I'm really trying to get at here, is that this is another problem for us humans to solve. In order to solve it, there needs to be adequate funding and a dedicated international team pushing the initiative. The UN is out there for this purpose, but they are corrupt, broken, and have less funding that the US state of New Hampshire.

Maybe something new?
I'm a libertarian at heart, and the solutions are a problem for me, as it makes me struggle with my political belief system (BS). Governments need to be working towards the survival of the planet from just about all possible risks. What would the anarchist Chomsky have to say on this? Arrest the current political and war criminals, and hope that democracy works itself out? Maybe a new form on government that has yet to be tried in modern society?

Stan Grof and other philosophers like Ken Wilber suggest that in order to survive the current problems on earth, we will need to live differently and with a different awareness of who and what we are, and to understand our relation to others. We are all in this together.

Holotropic states initiated through breath work, spiritual practices, and through proper drug use can help us reach the understandings required to survive and to grow into more enriched beings.
This is one of the primary reasons I facilitate workshops. I feel like it initiates a positive change in people who participate. It helps clear old energy blocks, and some times helps people feel more connected to this spaceship earth that we all depend upon.

To cap of this rant I'd like to point you towards a lecture that Stan Grof did on April 29th. Here is the link. I hope you enjoy it.
http://tinyurl.com/5blr2e

Weekend trip to nyc - I went Saturday night and came back sunday night.

2008-04-14T06:40:00.000-04:00

My first trip to the big city. It was big. For pictures of my trip, click here.

P.S. Times Square is like sensory overload if you try to take it all in at once. Try this, but not for too long.

My first float tank experience.

2008-04-10T07:59:00.001-04:00

April 9, 2008

Showed up at 8:15pm. Got orientation, for a nice lady who showed us the tanks and how to work them from the inside. Very nice place. Kind of expensive, $60 for the 50 minute session.

This experience was analogous to meditation for me. It seemed to me like a meditation where I was much less bothered by body pains. I hoped to get into a deep meditative state. This didn't happen. My experience in the tank was very surface level. I moved around a lot trying to get comfortable, and couldn't really find a good balance.

I used ear plugs. The facility required this on their consent forms. Mike who I went with, didn't read that particular line, and didn’t use them. He had a couple complaints about not using them, but overall it didn’t seem like that big of a deal for him.

The experience started with me turning off the lights and fidgeting the music controls. My mind started going wild, and I kept trying to reign it back in unskillfully via mantra, or vipassana(awareness) techniques. I didn’t have enough will power to keep returning to the technique, so this didn’t work out too well. It was worth experimenting with, but I need to try harder next time if this is what I want to do.

At about 25 minutes I started to feel strange relaxation/soreness in my calves and other muscle groups. Hard to say if this was the salt acting, relaxation, or the sensory deprivation action at work.

After about what felt like 30 minutes in the tank I started experimenting with accelerated deep breathing through my mouth. This was interesting, tetani(misspelled) came on quickly. When I refer to tetani it is a mild to heavy pins and needles sensation occasionally felt all over the body when breathing is accelerated, it dissipates after a few minutes.

After I came down from the tetani, I kept moving around, because I couldn't get entirely comfortable.

Now I was able to really get into my head and think, to try and strategize about the rest of the time I had in the tank. My strategy was unsuccessful, my mind won…I turned my music on and off a few times to see what was better. I tried opening and closing my eyes to see what I could see. About 1 minute from when the lights came on automatically, I started seeing light/dark patterns with my eyes open, I couldn't see any real pattern I could put a name to.

The lights came on, I got out of the tank, showered, and had some nice green tea.

Very nice experience. Refreshing and relaxing after a really psychologically hard day of work. I need to experiment with it further at Driftaway spas. If I happen to be in the vicinity of another float tank facility, I’ll check that out as well.

http://driftawayspas.com/

http://www.floatation.com/wheretofloat.html

HR Geiger and Stan Grof

2008-04-07T22:39:00.001-04:00

Last night I stayed up late looking through H.R. Geiger's Necronomicon. It is quite a body of work. Any artist would be proud and horrified of producing this. Geiger describes the process of creating his are as an exorcism.

While looking at the art, my thought process was to reconcile or practice the application of Dr Stanislav Grof's Birth Perinatal Matrices to the art. On a few occasions it was strikingly obvious that a lot of the images in the art were related to the matrices which apply to the peri-natal experiences. After about 20 minutes of looking at his art, I was positive that my dreams would revolve around some negative BPM related experiences. This was not the case. I was 'spared'. In retrospect I wish I was not spared, because these experiences tend to have a holotropic effect.

While I was at the Omega Institute last fall, I was able to listen to a "Darshan" of Dr. Grof's on Geiger's art as it relates to the BPMs as he calls them. This was truly fascinating and they started to come alive for me when looking at the art. The Geiger art is truly disturbing and grotesque, but at the same time beautiful and skillfully crafted. His lecture was done in a very interesting set and setting, because we had all been doing holotropic breathwork, and doing vipassana meditation for about 4 to 5 days at that point, and were really open.

What an experience. I suggest anyone interested in the BPM theory, do some cursory exploring of the theory, and then look at some Geiger art. You can find some lectures by Stan on the internet, so maybe also check those out. Stan also had a great slide show later on related to the political art aspect of BPMs. He said that people knew how to play on these complexes and matricies that we all (most of us) had laid upon us at birth. Octopus, closing in themes, etc.The Psychohistorian Lloyd deMause was a pundit of this idea. Stan discussed his collaboration with deMause at this later slide show presentation.

A member of the board of the Association of Holotropic Breathwork International told me once that Stan's real discovery for BPMs was the otological origin of Archetypes in the human consciousness. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. That smoked... I don't have enough experience or knowledge or archetypal patterns to say if this is accurate. It is a good theory and is worth looking into further.

CC Mixter

2008-04-07T21:37:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share with you this great music website that is totally free and legal.
It is run by the creative commons folks and I think CCMixter is a great project. People create share and openly mix each others work. Its very cross genre, and the editors pick section should be of interest to most people.

Check it out. I borrow songs from the site to use in all my podcasts and in some of my songs.

Here is an interesting song on the site.
http://ccmixter.org/files/lazztunes07/14385

I just got a new dog. Its so nice

2008-04-04T22:05:00.001-04:00

http://zip.4chan.org/an/src/1207187798472.jpg

http://zip.4chan.org/an/src/1207358495789.jpg

These are some funny photoshop jobs that were done on a dog. I thought I would share.

4chan.org is a site that Bill O'Reilly called a far left internet website providing "blank" to "blank".

Check out this image for the exact quote.

http://i14.tinypic.com/8ad5m9v.jpg

Free education resources

2008-03-24T12:49:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to share this great resource.
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/itunesu.html

You are now able to get free lectures from top universities including UCLA + Yale. All sorts of subjects are discussed.

The only downside here is that you need iTunes installed on your computer. I'll be checking out the free anthropology, psychology, and other resources. There are tons of other free sites as well. Check them out.

http://www.lecturefox.com/

http://www.freeuniv.com/

MIT - http://ocw.mit.edu/

Podcasts can also be a great educational resource. Check them out to, you may be able to learn astronomy or chemistry during your commute.

McBess

2008-03-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

Here is some art that I thought was amazing.
This was designed as a desktop background. I'll probably use it once I
get sick of my current one.

Arresting politicians...

2008-03-17T10:51:00.001-04:00

Wow, so this article is a nice Monday read.

It suggests that any person in government ("public servant")trying to pass a retro-active law, should be jailed per the US Constitution. They took the oath to uphold this, so should be held accountable. Making large companies immune to laws that they previously broke.

This reminds me of two funny things I've read recently.

Congressmen should have their terms redefined. 1 year of service, 1 year in jail.
Another is something I can't remember, but it was related to the probability towards "kinks".

We should have weekly meditation sessions and monthly breathwork sessions for all of these guys.

http://www.connorboyack.com/blog/ex-post-facto-law

Terrence McKenna said once that politicians are largely irrelevant based on how quickly technology is growing. It is running so much faster than they can keep up with.

Timothy Leary once said that modern politics is so slow that it doesn't meet our needs. He posited that the US government should be run from a glass pyramid filled with computers, and that it should be 100% transparent so that we know we are safe from it.

Hopefully some day we can trust government... when? Tomorrow? I hope.

Christopher Hyatt passes away

2008-02-12T10:08:00.000-05:00

He was an amazing scholar and if you have any interests in tantra, magick, thelema, or hermetics, he should be checked out.

Alan Miller AKA C.S. Hyatt passed away on February 9, at his home in
Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife Linda and son Michael in
attendance.
He had been bravely waging a long struggle with cancer, but suffered
several strokes in his last week.

From Wikipedia:
Christopher Hyatt's interest in the occult began in his early
twenties. His desire to further pursue his studies in magick
resulted in meeting Israel Regardie in Studio City in the 1970s.
Regardie introduced Hyatt to Reichian therapy, which he insisted
Hyatt learn prior to any magickal pursuits. Regardie further
instructed Hyatt in the magickal system of the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn. Hyatt has belonged to such occult organizations as the
Ordo Templi Orientis, and once headed the Thelemic Golden Dawn.

Academic Career
Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D., Adv. M.ED. was trained in experimental
and clinical psychology and practiced as a psychotherapist for many
years. Miller used the 18 units earned fom his military GED towards
his first academic career at Los Angeles City College, where he
studied accounting for two years. He later changed his graduate to
General Psychology, earning Masters Degrees in Experimental
Psychology and Medical Education and Counselling. He was a member of
a Freudian clinic in Southern California. He spent almost a year
studying hypnosis at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in Los
Angeles. He also studied hypnosis at the University of California,
Irvine. Alan Miller has Ph. D.s in both Clinical Psychology and
Human Behavior, finally earning a Post Doctorate in Criminal
Justice. Some of the techniques he employs include a blend of
Reichian physiotherapy and tantric yoga. He also incorporates
hypnosis along side his body work with patients and students.
According to his website: "He left academia and state sponsored
psychology to become an explorer of the human mind."

Hyatt claims on his website that as a research scientist he has
published "numerous" peer-reviewed articles in professional journals
and was a Research Fellow at the University of Toronto and the
University of Southern California. However, his website does not
provide any references or name any of the journals he claims to have
published in, making verification of his academic credentials
difficult.

Iraq war ego trauma pics

2008-02-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

If you wanted to damage your ego spend some time trolling these pics. Great collection of photographs taken of Iraqi children. I'm sure most of these were taken after attacks by the usaf designed to catch the bad guys. I scrolled through it at a hard time and had my beliefs firmed up a tad.

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20040504_1.htm

McKenna Psychadelics quotes.

2008-02-04T17:57:00.000-05:00

Some awesome McKenna quotes. Check out the podcast.

http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?p=256

Terence McKenna: "But in fact it seems that the ouroboros has taken its tail in its mouth and these two concerns psychedelics and computers] are seen to be simply different approaches to the completion of the same program of knowledge."

Terence McKenna: "The citizen is an interchangeable part in the body politic."

Terence McKenna: "Yes, I mean television certainly has an influence on the mass mind, but on the creative, cutting-edge of the civilization it’s psychedelics. Television influences culture, but if you watch television it’s psychedelics that shape the agenda of television."

Terence McKenna: "As a global society, possessing DNA sequencers and thermonuclear delivery systems and so forth and so on, we cannot have the luxury of an unconscious mind. That’s something that may or may not have some appropriateness if you’re hunting wooly mastedons and that sort of thing, but an integrated global culture cannot have the luxury of a large portion of its mind inaccessible to itself and somehow occluded."

Terence McKenna: "Technology, the evolution of languages and so forth have taken a turn toward ‘outing’ the unconscious. And computers are a wonderful tool for this, as are psychedelic drugs."

Terence McKenna: "High definition TV may give a surprising shot in the arm to the, at this point on-the-ropes linear uniform unitarians, because it’s going to be much more like cinema and photography. And it’s not going to have to be deciphered. It can be looked at, and this will have unexpected consequences on the sense ratios and assumptions operating within society."

Ralph Abraham (in 1991): "Video is doomed not because of a resolution limitation but because it’s not interactive. Interactive computer graphic games where you can watch the soap opera but also play with it to change the script, and so on, is bound to be much more interesting just because of interaction than video or cinema."

Terence McKenna: "So the conclusion is that civilization which welcomes psychedelics is the civilization that will lead and rule the planet."

Guillermo Del Toro to Direct Peter Jackson's Hobbit Series

2008-01-30T09:31:00.000-05:00

http://www.bigpictureradio.com/2008/01/guillermo-del-toro-to-direct-peter.html

It seems natural for Guillermo del Toro to take over where Peter Jackson left off, and now The Hollywood Reporter says a deal for Del Toro to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit could happen very soon.

In addition to being one of the most in demand directors alive - not to mention on of the very few who so closely resembles Milton from Office Space - Del Toro is also a wise choice sylistically. His work on the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth revealed his storytelling abilities more than previous efforts, but even in Blade 2 you could tell you were watching the work of someone unique.

Since the December resolution of a bitter lawsuit between New Line and Jackson over residual payments for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hobbit has been on a fast track. Jackson will produce, but has no time to direct or write, due to other commitments.

As with the Rings trilogy, the Hobbit films will be shot simultaneously, according to the Reporter. It's a $300 million safe bet for New Line, who will see the films go into production next year, assuming the writers strike doesn't drag out another six or eight months, with the films to be released in 2010 and 2011.

And somewhere, there's a guy dressed up in character already waiting in line.

Grof interviewing Albert Hofmann - Two important visionaries

2008-01-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Stanislav Grof interviewing Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, 1984.

Check out this interview from 84. They discuss some great stuff. I have the highest regard for both of these men, and have personally met and worked with Stanislav Grof at a breathwork retreat.

Stop the spying.

2008-01-29T09:39:00.001-05:00

This is a campaign designed around the recent proposals that would allow telcoms to not get in trouble for the recent illegal spying they did.

It also would hopefully restrict their ability to do it in the future.

Check it out, Digg it, etc.

MLK's Bday.

2008-01-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of goodwill to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.” This is the challenge facing modern man.

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002138

NH Primary issues.....

2008-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

Strange happenings in NH yesterday. The infamous e-voting company Diebold is at it again. Check out the top 11 headlines in today's Reddit listing. This was taken at around noon of January 9th 2008. Check out reddit.com and search around for Diebold for more information. Its a tricky situation for a democracy when not many people trust how the vote was taken, and suspect fraud.

Did Diebold rig New Hampshire? [politics] (drunkardslamppost.wordpress.com)

504 points posted 4 hours ago by mahjoun101 comments

Diebold. Privatizing Democracy. [pics] [politics] (homepage.mac.com)

291 points posted 4 hours ago by dizzle6714 comments

Do NH Primary Statistics Show Election Fraud?: Clinton Received a 4.5% Boost In "Diebold" Towns. [politics] (benmoseley.blogspot.com)

424 points posted 7 hours ago by bmoseley0767 comments

ABC News: "It is simply unprecedented for so many polls to have been so wrong. We need to know why." [politics] (blogs.abcnews.com)

560 points posted 10 hours ago by Flemlord99 comments

NH Rigged: Diebold favors Hillary, hand count for Obama [politics] (presscue.com)

585 points posted 11 hours ago by techtonix213 comments

youguysseriouslyregistereverythingisearch.com, now proudly owned by network solutions! (youguysseriouslyregistereverythingisearch.com)

1064 points posted 14 hours ago by geeeeoffff449 comments

The Derelict Amusement Park [Pics] (baraskit.se)

147 points posted 4 hours ago by neoronin48 comments

Your election is being stolen America. [politics] (politics.reddit.com)

261 points posted 8 hours ago by ClanPanda162 comments

Remember the Diebold machine Harri Hursti hacked in Flordia? They used the same model in NH [politics] (presscue.com)

91 points posted 2 hours ago by techtonix12 comments

10.

Voter Fraud Against Paul Confirmed in Sutton, N.H. [politics] (truthnews.us)

207 points posted 8 hours ago by blufr0g37 comments

11.

NH Primary: Very fishy in one town, my hometown!!! [politics] (dailypaul.com)

522 points posted 13 hours ago by ariana333160 comments

Advert firm uses new technology to make people "hear voices"

2007-12-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

Here it is.
Ad firm shoots sound into your cranium somehow off of billboards in NYC.
If an AD firm has it, the bad guys also have it.

This is very offensive to me that an AD firm would use this kind of technology and think it ethical. Although I can think of many funny uses for it, I don't think it should be used for marketing or outside of war zones.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=122491

Found the link on the media underground rss feed.

Update: New weapons in Iraq.

Death Ray Replaced By The Voice of God

Chemtrail video on German TV

2007-12-12T08:59:00.000-05:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MVc9GX5K_As

This video has English subtitles and goes over the phenomena in a fairly plain English way.

I've been looking at the subject very casually for a while, now it seems even Green party members and leaders are getting active about it.

Mike Adams - Health Ranger

2007-12-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

I've been inspired by Mike Adams of http://www.healthranger.org/. He is a very healthy and active guy who is a professional health activist. Check out his site. I have found some very good stuff there, on what to eat, what not to eat. He has written a number of books, and hundreds of articles. Mike also has many free audio downloads if you have an interest in checking those out. I've been drinking the shake he has listed on there for about a week now and it makes me feel great, and full for at least 4 hours of the day. Check it out and hopefully you'll be inspired to.

America is growing fascist.

2007-12-11T08:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7534

Reading articles like this really get my view of the current congress + executive branch in a different state.
The title of the article is this: “America is going fascist: The signs are all there for anyone to see, and time is getting short for action.”

I was reading articles such as this all the time for a while and it put me in quite the dark place. I've since stopped reading them frequently, but now and again I bump into reminder articles like this. It is important to be cognizant of this kind of governmental trend because it is archetypal, and has been seen through the ages, across the globe.

Thought I would share.

They can’t make you not love, and I suspect that is what they are trying to beat out of you. The ‘super-man” can come in any social situation, become the super-man.

I’d like to cite Crowley’s Liber OZ as a way to summarize how I feel about this kind of situation. The rights are not yet thwarted, and it is hard for this to be done. Hopefully we have many years left before this happens.

OZ: Liber LXXVII

"the law of
the strong:
this is our law
and the joy
of the world." AL. II. 2

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." --AL. I. 40

"thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." --AL. I. 42-3

"Every man and every woman is a star." --AL. I. 3

There is no god but man.

1. Man has the right to live by his own law--

to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.

2. Man has the right to eat what he will:

to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.

3. Man has the right to think what he will:

to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.

4. Man has the right to love as he will:--

"take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where, and with whom ye will." --AL. I. 51

5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.

"the slaves shall serve." --AL. II. 58

"Love is the law, love under will." --AL. I. 57

Expression Engine

2007-12-09T12:27:00.000-05:00

I've recently been developing a site for a client using a CMS package called Expression Engine. It used to be called pMachine when it was a blogging application. Expression Engine's coolest features is that you can make many templates that pull particular customized fields from any number of "weblogs" you have that contain a vast array of custom fields in them. So far my experience has been great with it. EE is a good outlet for my existing web language knowledge, and helping me to push it to the next level. Expect me to blog my progress here.

homeowner funtime.. No heat @ home

2007-11-14T12:20:00.000-05:00

Heat was out for 3 days in my house.... I eventually figured out the errors of my ways.

We temporarily heated the house with a pretty neat old kerosene heater. It is pretty old, and in fact was used to heat the house I grew up in starting around age 1. Which happened to be my first winter in NH.

Now I'm in Mass and need it frequently because I'm cheap and run out of oil all the time. My biggest fear in regards to this is that my girlfriend will get pissed. She says as long as the kerosene heater works, there is not that big of a problem.

So I didn’t want to order new oil until I got the furnace working. I got up early on Saturday morning to go buy some diesel fuel from the local Shell. I made 2 trips and bought 10 gallons total. My first mistake was detaching the oil feed line and then not re attaching in tight enough. I shouldn’t have disconnected it in the first place. I actually needed to unscrew the fuel/ air valve that was made to help prime the furnace. This was due to me not taking the time to remember what the oil guy did last winter. Lesson number 1…

Lesson number 2 would have been to not screw with the oil feed line if possible. Because of possible damage that can be done to the flare at the end of the pipe. I was forced to cut the old flare off and make a new one. To do this required some research into what it was actually called, and what tool did it. Homedepot.com and amazon.com helped me with this by browsing their tool selection. After expecting to pay $70 for the tools at Home Depot I got them for 20 dollars and tried it out on the feed tube. With my fuel soaked hands I made a pretty good flare and reattached the feed line to the furnace. While priming I was leaking air and just a little bit of fuel. So one more night without heat. People at work suggested I make a new flare, I did this and it turns out that what really needed to happen was to tighten the flare nut all the way. After I did this, the furnace lit up after a good prime. Lesson 3, tighten the nuts well enough so that air can’t leak through the “seal”.

Now we are warm and can burn through tons of the black gold!

What fun it is to be a home owner. Pure bliss and self confidence building tasks are quite abundant.

Podcasts

2007-11-09T07:44:00.000-05:00

*update 3-17-2008* "I now have a podcast of my own!"

Is anyone into podcasting?
I am. For me it is a great way to ingest tons of content while doing other things like taking a mid day walk or driving to and from work. I've learned an enormous amount of things from podcasts. Sometimes they are composed like a radio show on NPR for example. Other times its lecture like material.

My 3 favorite podcasts are as follows. If anyone has some they'd like to share with me, please do.

http://thelemacoasttocoast.com/
http://redicecreations.com/
http://occultofpersonality.com/

They have to do with things peripheral to the new age (new aeon) type stuff I'm interested in. I do have to say they have greatly enhanced my understanding of the world I find my self in. They've pulled me out of the Alex Jones Abyss, and I feel like I'm in a much better spot knowledge wise.

I have toyed around with the idea of getting into podcasting as I am 100% unsatisfied with the current media establishment. The guys over at Disinformation publishing say "don't complain about the media, be the media". This here Internet thing make it so damn easy to get my ideas out there....

Frozen water on the pond... November 9

2007-11-09T07:39:00.001-05:00

Yep so the pond has frozen. I'm not exactuly sure if this is a record or not. November 11.... Na, I bet it froze in October of past years. 30 degrees outside at 7:40am. Wahoo.

Raw Almond Butter

2007-11-09T07:20:00.003-05:00

I made some raw almond butter a day or so ago. It came out great.

I used 2 cups of raw almonds, some grape seed oil, 2-3 tablespoons. I just splashed the oil in. No measuring the oil for me.

The Vita-Mix only took about 1 minute to smash them all up into a nice butter, and it tastes fantastic.

Thought I'd share.

SPIN

2007-10-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

An interesting perspective of public figures.

57 minutes.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7344181953466797353

Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality.

Orwell on Delusional Political Thinking

2007-10-09T10:14:00.000-04:00

So far as I can see, all political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. . . To appreciate the danger of Fascism the Left would have had to admit its own shortcomings, which was too painful; so the whole phenomenon was ignored or misinterpreted, with disastrous results.

The most one can say is that people can be fairly good prophets when their wishes are realizable. But a truly objective approach is almost impossible, because in one form or another almost everyone is a nationalist… The most intelligent people seem capable of holding schizophrenic beliefs, or disregarding plain facts, of evading serious questions with debating-society repartees, or swallowing baseless rumours and of looking on indifferently while history is falsified. All these mental vices spring ultimately from the nationalistic habit of mind, which is itself, I suppose, the product of fear and of the ghastly emptiness of machine civilization….

I believe that it is possible to be more objective than most of us are, but that it involves a moral effort. One cannot get away from one’s own subjective feelings, but at least one can know what they are and make allowance for them.

–George Orwell, London Letter in: Partisan Review (Winter, 1945)

New Thought!!!

2007-08-01T14:51:00.000-04:00

New thought!!

Yiff and Ferverts…

Please do google image searches for more details of these two furry behaviors.

http://images.google.com

God and I love furries

2007-07-10T06:47:00.000-04:00

Hi,

Back again with a totally different subject matter and attitude.

Please do some research on furries. They are probably the most hilarious phenomenon this side of the Atlantic. I bet some people are doing this over in Europe as well.

Furries are people who dress up and act as animals very frequently when they are not necessarily getting paid to do so. Many furries go to conventions to meet up with furries. Some post craigslist ads to find other furries to get funky with. Others have cartoon images that idealise what their furry should look like, huge abs, pecs, or boobs. I’ll post some links to places you can find furry pictures at the end of this post. Overall it’s a pretty strange sub culture, but well worth looking into for some laughs. Sorry if you are a furry and are reading this right now, its just so funny.

I have seen furries on the internet everywhere in this country from D.C. to San Francisco. They play games, drink, dance and party. Some even get freaky with their outfits on. One guy was permanently tattooed with cheetah spots and had the wiskers implanted in his face. You may have seen stuff similar to this on TV, there are more people like this out there than just him. It is way too funny… Modern ethical thought, and liberal social attitudes have created a very special form of nihilism that is fantastic for creating extreme-O people. I thank GOD almighty for the opportunity to see these funny guys on the internet in the past and again soon. Hopefully I’ll also meet a couple and have the guts to ask them some questions. If I do, you will most definitely hear about it.

http://www.godhatesfurries.com/viewimage.php?id=98

http://www.godhatesfurries.com/viewimage.php?id=97

http://www.godhatesfurries.com/viewimage.php?id=85

http://www.godhatesfurries.com/viewimage.php?id=84

http://www.godhatesfurries.com/viewimage.php?id=80

http://clx.leapingtiger.org/map/?lang=fr&furre=eustache

http://clx.leapingtiger.org/map/?lang=fr&furre=rimou

A short response to the current media attention towards Paris Hilton.

2007-06-13T07:36:00.000-04:00

Hi America, Just a quick reminder here that there are problems in the world other than Paris Hilton that merit far more attention.

Let me start off with a short list of atrocities that most likely happened as recently as a few hours ago.

How many people died in Iraq last night, or are now homeless due to bombs.

How many people were killed by genocidal governments yesterday and today in Africa.

How many women in China were forcibly sterilized in the last few hours.

How many children died yesterday due to not having clean water and food.

How much money worth of drugs did Congress do combined last night?

How many Palestinian children did Israeli soldiers use as body shields yesterday?

How much money did the US spend on researching and building new nuclear weapons yesterday? (Is it illegal for this country to build more of these? YES!)

The list could go on and on and on, but I will stop here. Hopefully my point is illustrated, and some of you can tell that the TV + crap news has trapped your brain in a little box that it controls. Don’t think about the real stuff, this news is what you really want to know about……

Best of luck!

Don’t forget that the highest truth and principle is love… without it we would all be lost.

Bruce Willis: Celebrities Shut up.

2007-05-22T06:59:00.000-04:00

This is in response to an article that received over 5000 diggs recently on Digg.com. http://digg.com/political_opinion/Bruce_Willis_Tells_Hollywood_To_Shut_Up

Here is the quote in particular that caught my eye and made me cringe.

"I don't think my opinion means jack s**t, because I'm an actor. "Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds - thousands - of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. "Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor's mouth lately?" He adds, "Although I liked George Clooney's documentary on Darfur."http://www.floppingaces.net/2007/05/13/bruce-willis-tells-hollywood-t/

I don’t think Bruce was put up to saying this by any large interest group, but I do think his opinion reflects that of a large portion of this country. So to begin with, at the end of his statement he brings up one very good reason that celebrities should speak up. To be accurate, Mr. Bruce, it is not necessarily that their opinion means more than the rest of the population, just that their soap box is so much bigger than everyone else’s. I would hope that this party train of activist celebrities keeps going and they say something conscious, positive, whistle blowing or progressive at the very least.

What sparked me writing this article was that last night I saw Deal or No Deal on NBC and thought it was maybe about time to watch my second episode of it. At around 8:30 pm I sat down to watch it and previews of the nightly news started to come on. The biggest headline was something about the pet food scare from 5 or more weeks ago… Talk about mind numbing news. It is hard to say that this (the poor quality of news media) is not by design or that they are covering this issue for the ratings. So if the nightly news media is not going to cover issues that are worth hearing about, how are the people going to hear about them? Celebrities are the answer to this, or at least bold high profile people in the news media like Bill Moyers. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/ Other places include Harpers, antiwar.com, and other internet news locations. Reddit.com digg.com rense.comPrint publications like AdBusters are also great for good content that is hard to find elsewhere.

Let us look at a few issues that have been in the public eye in the last couple years that celebs have helped out redirecting public attention towards.

Darfur – George Clooney, and many others. (There are many other genocides currently going on now as well.)

AIDS – Too many to count!

911 Truth - Charlie Sheen, Rosie O’Donnell, David Lynch, and others.

Global Warming (not totally convinced on this yet) Too many to count!

Environmentalism - Many, many, many, people.

Human Rights – Gay marriage to helping starving people get food – same.

Many more issues could be touched on, but I want to keep this blog post short.

So in brief, if the nightly TV news won’t cover these things well, who will? Non mainstream Internet and print media will. With the help of the celebs and the masses combined , the proper issues to focus on, will with luck, get the attention they deserve.

Please do consider becoming active in anything you care about. A warning up front may be useful... organizations however benevolent they seem up front, may be funtioning only to make certain people more wealthy.

In conclusion, Mr. Willis, I disagree with your statement, but love your movies.

Peace

Book Report: Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins

2007-04-24T22:10:00.000-04:00

After reading this book I was shocked and appalled by how incredibly deep the banks, industry and world governments are tied together. John Perkins worked in private industry and with the banks to help set the stage for the dire situation we, the people of earth, are faced with today. This book is exciting, informative and I highly recommend it as a good place to start reading about the "corporatocracy".

The corporatocracy are the financial elite who currently control the destiny of nations of all sizes who mostly use subtle methods like the media and loans, but also use techniques such as assassinations, and wars.

He covers topics such as setting up loans for small countries from large banks that would a few years later effectively turn the smaller states into 'slave states' for the global empire. These loans would be given with economic forecasts John Perkins and his fellow economic hitmen would design showing how the economy of the nation would boom after the money was used to build power plants, highways and factories. John admits that he didn't do his job if the country didn't eventually default on the loan.

John wrote this book at great personal risk with the intent of starting to atone for the misdeeds of his life, and to help put and end to the already on edge global empire. I commend him for his efforts.

Overall the goal of this book was to help people, like you and I to wake up to world events, and to try to work to make the world as we want it. This requires that we find our voice, grow up and start to live more intelligently and holistically. This requires a lot of effort that the current mode of existence most of us exist in, but the value of living an authentic life is immeasurable.

Thanks John for the great book! You are doing some fantastic work out there.

You can find more information on John Perkins here.
http://www.johnperkins.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins

The introduction to my blog.

2007-04-13T18:58:00.000-04:00

Hi,
My name is Joe, I live in New England, and this blog is about things that concern my interests and things that I feel are noteworthy in the world around us.

It will relate to war, peace, spirituality, and other things.

I hope that you find some of this content useful to you.