This following internet address is about horses starving mostly in Colorado and Montana.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/
article/0,8599,1809950,00.html
We seem to be experiencing a perfect storm of problems on earth right now. It has come to the point where nearly everyone on earth is suffering from this terrorist war. Since we entered this terrorist war not with US money but on money borrowed from other nations, America is now the largest and biggest debtor nation on earth. This has sunk the dollar to as low as about 62cents of what is was about 5 years ago. Luckily, it's up to 64cents or more right now. Anyway, the borrowed money, the wars, the dropping dollar, the high price per barrel of oil, the high price of food, the subprime and Global erratic Climate change is causing owners to let their horses loose all over America. You will find them often wandering in the deserts and prairies because the owners have lost their land, or lost their jobs or income or both and can no longer afford the feed their horses and other livestock. So, worldwide now, it is not only people who are starving to death, it is horses and other livestock right here in the U.S.
If you are trying to tow your horse(s), whatever you choose to tow them with likely with trailer attached does not get above 8 to 10 miles per gallon. At 8 miles per gallon and $4 dollars a gallon average that is $1 for every 2 miles driven for gas. You can immediately see why no one much is driving horses anywhere far.
It is ironic that the only thing people will be able to afford to plow with to grow with and still sell their food if gas reaches $20 a gallon is starving to death right now in places like Colorado and Montana. Something to think about, isn't it?
Saturday, May 31, 2008
michigan and florida get half vote per delegate
Though I think this is a good way to hamdle the democratic delegates from florida and michigan it will cause a backlash in democratic voters in those states who had no say over any of this. By reducing the delegate votes to one half vote you also reduce the votes of all who voted in these states to one half vote also which is not only unfair but potentially illegal.
I want to know everything 2
I wrote another article called,"I want to know everything". I took my 12 year old daughter to see the latest Indiana Jones. Her Godfather accompanied us.When we went to get pizza she asked why the Soviet lady played by Cate Blanchet didn't make it. I said that evolved beings no matter what their intelligence tend to take adults for adults and to take them seriously. However, the Soviet Lady didn't have good motivations and so her desire to know everything caused her demise. There is a saying, "Absolute power kills absolutely." However, I have a saying, "Having absolute power is completely self
destructive if in the hands of those without Good or perfect motivation." In other words for the same reason chidren aren't usually given driver's licences, people without good or perfect motivations should never be given great power.
Indiana Jones understood his place as a man. Being balanced enough he knew where he should be and what he should be doing. He wasn't perfect by a long shot but he knew his place and was a basically balanced human being.
destructive if in the hands of those without Good or perfect motivation." In other words for the same reason chidren aren't usually given driver's licences, people without good or perfect motivations should never be given great power.
Indiana Jones understood his place as a man. Being balanced enough he knew where he should be and what he should be doing. He wasn't perfect by a long shot but he knew his place and was a basically balanced human being.
Why are there Radioactive Materials below Quake Lake?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
20080530/ts_afp/chinaquake
This earthquake in China is the disaster that just keeps on coming, not matter what. The latest question I think should be: Why are there Radioactive materials below the quake lake in china that could break and flood all below at any time? This disaster is beginning to remind me of Chernobyl and Hundreds of square miles still uninhabitable in Russia. It is another nuclear radioactive nightmare in the making.
20080530/ts_afp/chinaquake
This earthquake in China is the disaster that just keeps on coming, not matter what. The latest question I think should be: Why are there Radioactive materials below the quake lake in china that could break and flood all below at any time? This disaster is beginning to remind me of Chernobyl and Hundreds of square miles still uninhabitable in Russia. It is another nuclear radioactive nightmare in the making.
Asteroid Belt caused by Nuclear Weapons
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080531/
ap_on_re_eu/britain_us_security
A Catholic priest who was a very good friend of mine and who spoke 20 languages and who was a district Attorney of Santa Cruz county, california, told me in about 1980 of reports in both Izvestia and Pravda in the Soviet Union about how a Soviet Probe of the Asteroid Belt had proved that the Asteroids came from nuclear explosions. Scientists in the old Soviet Union concluded that the asteroid belt had once been a planet that had had a nuclear war or nuclear accident and the asteroids are the result.
Though this report never made it into US newspapers or TV that I know of it helped cause the collapse of the old Soviet Union by the Intelligentsia of the old Soviet Union.
My theory is that pieces of the planet that the asteroid belt now is eventually hit earth and killed off the dinosaurs. It is also my theory that this blast blew off most of Mars' atmosphere as well leaving it as it is today. I believe that Earth might not have been inhabited by humans then because of the dinosaurs but after they died off from pieces of planet hitting earth in the form of asteroids, earth became inhabitable for human type beings. It is possible that earth was colonized by the survivors from the Asteroid belt planet and Mars.
ap_on_re_eu/britain_us_security
A Catholic priest who was a very good friend of mine and who spoke 20 languages and who was a district Attorney of Santa Cruz county, california, told me in about 1980 of reports in both Izvestia and Pravda in the Soviet Union about how a Soviet Probe of the Asteroid Belt had proved that the Asteroids came from nuclear explosions. Scientists in the old Soviet Union concluded that the asteroid belt had once been a planet that had had a nuclear war or nuclear accident and the asteroids are the result.
Though this report never made it into US newspapers or TV that I know of it helped cause the collapse of the old Soviet Union by the Intelligentsia of the old Soviet Union.
My theory is that pieces of the planet that the asteroid belt now is eventually hit earth and killed off the dinosaurs. It is also my theory that this blast blew off most of Mars' atmosphere as well leaving it as it is today. I believe that Earth might not have been inhabited by humans then because of the dinosaurs but after they died off from pieces of planet hitting earth in the form of asteroids, earth became inhabitable for human type beings. It is possible that earth was colonized by the survivors from the Asteroid belt planet and Mars.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Arcane
When I first started writing about a science fiction character that I named "Arcane" I didn't know then that I was writing about a past lifetime that interfaces with my present life. At that time I used the 'angst' of my then young life from 1969 through 1980 when I began to write of Arcane not realizing fully that one works upon things lifetime after lifetime until one gets it right. So many of "Arcane's" issues were variables of issues I was still dealing with in this life.
I was just looking up the definition of Arcane.
Arcane means:Known or understood by only a few
Synonyms: mysterious, esoteric, occult, inscrutable
one of the synonyms is inscrutable which means:
Difficult to fathom or understand; impenetrable
I once said to a friend who has published many books."People like me think such and such." My friend said to me, "There are no people like you, Fred. The people who somewhat are like you are still in the religion you were raised in. However, most of the people that had the experience you had are dead or committed suicide. There are no people left alive like you."
I'm not sure I completely agree with him but it is true that I had to leave the religion I was raised in and had sort of a "Moses" kind of experience. Many people wanted me to start a new religion because I survived being excommunicated from the old. However, my reaction was, "People have enough religions to confuse them already. My job is to do spiritual scientific research for all mankind so the human race can better survive what I see that is coming!" That is my honest reply to those who wanted me to start another religion. I feel we have too many religions already for anyone to make sense of as it is.
What is more important than starting new religions is each ones search for truth and enlightenment. Back when everyone struggled more just to eat and to stay alive than now, almost no one found the truth and most people suffered incredibly with physical and mental and emotional infirmities. Now however, at least 1/4 to 1/2 of the world's population has enough wealth and free time to actually devote their lives more to the pursuit of truth and enlightenment and genuine scientific and spiritual scientific research. Right now, individual enlightenment is taking place in unheard of numbers for even 1 century ago. So even though millions likely will starve to death this year, unheard of numbers of people will attain various levels of enlightenment and these people will help those who pass on transition smoother into healing heaven realms and help them into transitions into more and more desirable heavens. Though some are suffering incredibly physically and emotionally, others are attaining enlightenment in record numbers and helping everyone more quickly to an enlightened state of being.
I was just looking up the definition of Arcane.
Arcane means:Known or understood by only a few
Synonyms: mysterious, esoteric, occult, inscrutable
one of the synonyms is inscrutable which means:
Difficult to fathom or understand; impenetrable
I once said to a friend who has published many books."People like me think such and such." My friend said to me, "There are no people like you, Fred. The people who somewhat are like you are still in the religion you were raised in. However, most of the people that had the experience you had are dead or committed suicide. There are no people left alive like you."
I'm not sure I completely agree with him but it is true that I had to leave the religion I was raised in and had sort of a "Moses" kind of experience. Many people wanted me to start a new religion because I survived being excommunicated from the old. However, my reaction was, "People have enough religions to confuse them already. My job is to do spiritual scientific research for all mankind so the human race can better survive what I see that is coming!" That is my honest reply to those who wanted me to start another religion. I feel we have too many religions already for anyone to make sense of as it is.
What is more important than starting new religions is each ones search for truth and enlightenment. Back when everyone struggled more just to eat and to stay alive than now, almost no one found the truth and most people suffered incredibly with physical and mental and emotional infirmities. Now however, at least 1/4 to 1/2 of the world's population has enough wealth and free time to actually devote their lives more to the pursuit of truth and enlightenment and genuine scientific and spiritual scientific research. Right now, individual enlightenment is taking place in unheard of numbers for even 1 century ago. So even though millions likely will starve to death this year, unheard of numbers of people will attain various levels of enlightenment and these people will help those who pass on transition smoother into healing heaven realms and help them into transitions into more and more desirable heavens. Though some are suffering incredibly physically and emotionally, others are attaining enlightenment in record numbers and helping everyone more quickly to an enlightened state of being.
The Science of Being Everywhere and Everywhen
If you have studied particle physics then you already know this stuff.
Our bodies, everything is not completely here all the time according to the laws of particle physics. It is only a probability that any atom or electron will be in any given place at any time. In fact, some of the atoms in each of our bodies and not just in our bodies but in all matter everywhere in all time and space is actually somewhere and some when else. Yes, it will likely come back to where it was and then another atom or electron will go traveling. If they all went traveling to another time and space at once then the person you were talking to would just disappear and be somewhere and some when else.
This is the actual nature of physical things throughout the universe according to the laws of particle physics. This isn't talked about more in popular conversation because some people just can't handle it. However, it has all been scientifically proven. Only some of your atoms in your body are actually here at any given time. That's true of everyone and everything. If this bothers you then just pretend it isn't true. That might be helpful at this point if this upsets you.
If one could scientifically or by some other means have all atoms in any object go instantly to a specific place and time then we wouldn't need spaceships, cars, boats or trains to get anywhere or any when. If humans had this ability then going to another place or planet would be relatively easy depending upon having enough power sources available to make it happen.
Our bodies, everything is not completely here all the time according to the laws of particle physics. It is only a probability that any atom or electron will be in any given place at any time. In fact, some of the atoms in each of our bodies and not just in our bodies but in all matter everywhere in all time and space is actually somewhere and some when else. Yes, it will likely come back to where it was and then another atom or electron will go traveling. If they all went traveling to another time and space at once then the person you were talking to would just disappear and be somewhere and some when else.
This is the actual nature of physical things throughout the universe according to the laws of particle physics. This isn't talked about more in popular conversation because some people just can't handle it. However, it has all been scientifically proven. Only some of your atoms in your body are actually here at any given time. That's true of everyone and everything. If this bothers you then just pretend it isn't true. That might be helpful at this point if this upsets you.
If one could scientifically or by some other means have all atoms in any object go instantly to a specific place and time then we wouldn't need spaceships, cars, boats or trains to get anywhere or any when. If humans had this ability then going to another place or planet would be relatively easy depending upon having enough power sources available to make it happen.
What is Real?
"What is Real?" may not be the most useful question unless you just woke up from an all weekend bender and have to figure out not to walk in front of that moving truck.
However, "Why am I choosing to live here on Earth?" might be more useful in your sojourn here on earth during your lifetime.
Just because a whole lot of people believe something for thousands of years doesn't make it true. For example, for thousands and thousands of years people believed the world was flat and if you said anything else, you would be killed just for disagreeing with them. Were they right? No. We all now know(most of us at least) that the world is definitely not flat.
Likely, there will be other sacrosanct notions about life that will be broken and something else proven true in the next several thousand years. What they will be is unknown to most of us at present.
For the time being, however, the most useful question I can think of is: "What is important to me?" and next "What is important to keep the human race alive and not extinct on earth." For if the human race stays alive, my children and my seed might stay alive too. And in this way I might become immortal through the lives of my descendants.
I think these are the important questions to begin with. After that, an infinitude of other questions might follow. It's up to you.
However, "Why am I choosing to live here on Earth?" might be more useful in your sojourn here on earth during your lifetime.
Just because a whole lot of people believe something for thousands of years doesn't make it true. For example, for thousands and thousands of years people believed the world was flat and if you said anything else, you would be killed just for disagreeing with them. Were they right? No. We all now know(most of us at least) that the world is definitely not flat.
Likely, there will be other sacrosanct notions about life that will be broken and something else proven true in the next several thousand years. What they will be is unknown to most of us at present.
For the time being, however, the most useful question I can think of is: "What is important to me?" and next "What is important to keep the human race alive and not extinct on earth." For if the human race stays alive, my children and my seed might stay alive too. And in this way I might become immortal through the lives of my descendants.
I think these are the important questions to begin with. After that, an infinitude of other questions might follow. It's up to you.
Have your own moment
I was walking through the living room and happened to see my wife's Oprah magazine lying there. A cover article called, "Have your own moment etc" was on the cover. I thought about this but had to rescue a mourning dove caught in the outer alcove of our house. There is a window above our front alcove facing the street and sometimes birds can't go down to go out and just bang themselves against the window rather than going down about 3 feet to where there is a 9 foot high by 10 foot wide way out. The mourning dove reminded me of the many people I saw recently in a very homeless area I had to drive through on business. The contrast between the mourning dove that just couldn't go down 3 feet to save herself instead of forever banging her head on the glass trying to get out reminded me a lot of many people down and out.
If there is one secret to life that I have found it is kindness. Not idiot kindness but well thought out kindness that doesn't cost one their life or their life savings. I am always looking for an opportunity to help people, to help the life around me in a useful and safe way. This quality in me, I believe, is why God has always taken such good care of me.
If I were to say what my secrets to a good life are it would be a constant wise and kind attitude toward all beings and the total efficiency that I was taught by my Swiss German relatives. This led to me always looking for efficient ways to be kind as well as efficient ways to make money and to get ahead. People and beings always came first with me and money always came second. So I have always had my priorities straight in this way.
Wealth of all kinds(spiritual and monetary) comes from kindness toward other beings. All other kinds of wealth are but temporary and will bring suffering eventually if not based upon kindness toward oneself and others. This appears to be a law of life no matter your philosophy or religion. This last law seems to affect all beings in the universe. This has been my personal experience throughout my life and many other people have told me this is their experience as well.
So "Have your own moment". Have your own Oceanic experiences with God and the infinite Universe, beyond time and space. These kinds of moments bring us in as lovers of both the universe and of God, depending upon our natures.
If there is one secret to life that I have found it is kindness. Not idiot kindness but well thought out kindness that doesn't cost one their life or their life savings. I am always looking for an opportunity to help people, to help the life around me in a useful and safe way. This quality in me, I believe, is why God has always taken such good care of me.
If I were to say what my secrets to a good life are it would be a constant wise and kind attitude toward all beings and the total efficiency that I was taught by my Swiss German relatives. This led to me always looking for efficient ways to be kind as well as efficient ways to make money and to get ahead. People and beings always came first with me and money always came second. So I have always had my priorities straight in this way.
Wealth of all kinds(spiritual and monetary) comes from kindness toward other beings. All other kinds of wealth are but temporary and will bring suffering eventually if not based upon kindness toward oneself and others. This appears to be a law of life no matter your philosophy or religion. This last law seems to affect all beings in the universe. This has been my personal experience throughout my life and many other people have told me this is their experience as well.
So "Have your own moment". Have your own Oceanic experiences with God and the infinite Universe, beyond time and space. These kinds of moments bring us in as lovers of both the universe and of God, depending upon our natures.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
apple moth EIRs required now in two counties
I have written a couple of other blog articles about this problem since last fall. When synthetic pheromone was sprayed by plane above our suburban home along with everyone else in our county, my wife got asthma for 6 days even though she doesn't have asthma. So we knew it was from being exposed to the spray. Around 500 people reported to the State and County that they had become ill which likely means that around 10 times that number actually became ill and weren't able to either make the association with the time of the spraying or didn't know the spraying had occured. My wife, being a good citizen even went to her doctor to get a letter for the state and county to illustrate
the plight of her and hundreds and possibly thousands of people in our county.
Our area was sprayed twice. After much research we found the asthma causing agent was not the synthetic pheromone but the propellant which also gives asthma to painters because it is found in many paints. Most of the associated illnesses were resperatory in nature or allergic in nature to the propellant.
Now, both Santa Cruz County and Monterey County in California have required through the courts and EIR(Environmental Impact Report) before further spray can occur.
As resident, most all of us want the spraying to not occur ever again because of not only human health issues but also many of us have noticed the extreme reduction of not only all moths and butterflies but of local birds and squirrels. My assessment would be that there is presently a 90% reduction of all local birds and squirrels as well as 90% of ALL moths, butterflies and insects. The moths and butterflies and insects have depleted because the synthetic pheromone affects so many insect species not just the Light Brown Apple Moth from Australia. The loss of so many insects in turn has seriously reduced species that feed on those insects and this affects all animals and birds up this food chain.
I have also noticed a depletion of local squirrels both gray and brown. One other factor that isn't recognized much is that when the planes go over at night and spray it scares many creatures and so they look up in fear and because their eyes are open are blinded either temporarily or permanently because unlike humans, washing out the spray out of their eyes with water is much more problematic for them at night. So many blinded creatures like birds and squirrels were likely lost in this way when the spraying actually occurred both times throughout all the counties affected.
It is the hope of many of us that the EIR won't just be another whitewash and we hope that spraying of this pheromone or anything else will cease permanently over heavily populated areas.
the plight of her and hundreds and possibly thousands of people in our county.
Our area was sprayed twice. After much research we found the asthma causing agent was not the synthetic pheromone but the propellant which also gives asthma to painters because it is found in many paints. Most of the associated illnesses were resperatory in nature or allergic in nature to the propellant.
Now, both Santa Cruz County and Monterey County in California have required through the courts and EIR(Environmental Impact Report) before further spray can occur.
As resident, most all of us want the spraying to not occur ever again because of not only human health issues but also many of us have noticed the extreme reduction of not only all moths and butterflies but of local birds and squirrels. My assessment would be that there is presently a 90% reduction of all local birds and squirrels as well as 90% of ALL moths, butterflies and insects. The moths and butterflies and insects have depleted because the synthetic pheromone affects so many insect species not just the Light Brown Apple Moth from Australia. The loss of so many insects in turn has seriously reduced species that feed on those insects and this affects all animals and birds up this food chain.
I have also noticed a depletion of local squirrels both gray and brown. One other factor that isn't recognized much is that when the planes go over at night and spray it scares many creatures and so they look up in fear and because their eyes are open are blinded either temporarily or permanently because unlike humans, washing out the spray out of their eyes with water is much more problematic for them at night. So many blinded creatures like birds and squirrels were likely lost in this way when the spraying actually occurred both times throughout all the counties affected.
It is the hope of many of us that the EIR won't just be another whitewash and we hope that spraying of this pheromone or anything else will cease permanently over heavily populated areas.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Most day traders lose their money in 3 years
I was talking to a friend who has been an investor for around 30 years. He said he had once been a day trader but realized that one tends to lose sleep because of all the continuous gambles day after day. This loss of sleep makes one slowly lose their good judgment. So my friend told me the apparently little known fact that 95% of day traders tend to lose all or most of their money within 3 years.
I suppose a way to avoid this might be to day trade for a few weeks, then do something else for a few months and then do day trading when you are feeling and thinking really sharp again without any real problems that you are dealing with. That way if you start to lose sleep over investments, you become aware of it and just stop day trading for awhile.
I talked to another friend that said he had stayed at day trading too long and he eventually lost all or most of his money. He is in another profession now.
I suppose a way to avoid this might be to day trade for a few weeks, then do something else for a few months and then do day trading when you are feeling and thinking really sharp again without any real problems that you are dealing with. That way if you start to lose sleep over investments, you become aware of it and just stop day trading for awhile.
I talked to another friend that said he had stayed at day trading too long and he eventually lost all or most of his money. He is in another profession now.
US child obesity 'hits plateau'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7423981.stm
The above internet article from BBC says that Child US Obesity rate has stabilized at 16%.
It is my experience, however, that Obesity has to do more with the eating of Fast Foods from Fast Food Restaurants since the food there has always tended to be low food value and high fat content. Also, high Fructose syrups in drinks are very fattening so one should look to see what one is drinking before consuming it. Also, as fast foods became more popular after the 1950s, fast food like food started showing up in the frozen foods section first as dinners and then as dinner entres.
Though fast food restaurants in general have upped their food quality since the 1950s and lowered their fat content in general, still fast food is relatively unhealthy but still better to eat than starving. If I'm traveling somewhere in a car I often do a drive through at a fast foods restaurant just to get where I'm going as soon as possible so I don't have to rent more rooms than necessary along the way. However, if I can find it I prefer a Subway Sandwich shop where I can eat a little more healthy.
My father was very into health and into being a vegetarian and health foods and organic foods. So I was exposed to very healthy foods growing up. My response was to go to small markets on the way home from school and buy gum, pop and chips and candy and to consume it on the way home on my bike so I didn't get yelled at for eating it when I was home.
As an adult most of my girlfriends and my first and second wife were very into organic foods and even growing organically if we had a big enough backyard or were renting enough land to grow organically. My third wife was less into this but we still buy as much organically as possible.
However, if you are having trouble making ends meet but still want to buy organic I will share with you the most important things to buy organic.
1. Milk should only be bought organic, especially if you have any children below 21 in age because asthmatic conditions and other health problems result from non-organic milk (because of the additives given cows in their food and drugs) and could cost you thousands of dollars in health costs for the lifetime of your child.
2. apples, carrots and potatoes should only be bought organic because they all take the spray into the meat of the apple, carrot or potato. This means you are eating the insecticides and herbicides in your food and your child's food. Though it may not kill you or cause you cancer or other health problems all this builds up in your bodies tissues and tends not to be eliminated and reduces your lifetime and your children's lifetimes.
3. Salad makings are better organic because it is very difficult to wash off the spray from lettuce, for example, without destroying what you want to eat if it is sprayed and most of the time you eat the spray rather than destroy the lettuce.
The above types of foods are the most important to buy only organic.
However, if you can afford it also buy organic wheat, or rye or sourdough or potato breads and organic chips. Also, if you can afford it buy organic canned food and organic rice and flour and organic peanut butter.
If you have the money buy or grow organic only and live that way as much as possible. I did, throughout my 20s and 30s and growing up years.
When I got a heart virus at age 49 and I had an angiogram the doctors said they were jealous because I had the cleanest arteries and veins they had ever seen from growing up vegetarian(lacto ovo) "milk and eggs" and veggies. I'm still about 95% or more vegetarian. However, over age 50 it is hard to get enough balance in your diet and staying 100% vegetarian becomes more problematic as one ages if one also wants to be healthy.
The above internet article from BBC says that Child US Obesity rate has stabilized at 16%.
It is my experience, however, that Obesity has to do more with the eating of Fast Foods from Fast Food Restaurants since the food there has always tended to be low food value and high fat content. Also, high Fructose syrups in drinks are very fattening so one should look to see what one is drinking before consuming it. Also, as fast foods became more popular after the 1950s, fast food like food started showing up in the frozen foods section first as dinners and then as dinner entres.
Though fast food restaurants in general have upped their food quality since the 1950s and lowered their fat content in general, still fast food is relatively unhealthy but still better to eat than starving. If I'm traveling somewhere in a car I often do a drive through at a fast foods restaurant just to get where I'm going as soon as possible so I don't have to rent more rooms than necessary along the way. However, if I can find it I prefer a Subway Sandwich shop where I can eat a little more healthy.
My father was very into health and into being a vegetarian and health foods and organic foods. So I was exposed to very healthy foods growing up. My response was to go to small markets on the way home from school and buy gum, pop and chips and candy and to consume it on the way home on my bike so I didn't get yelled at for eating it when I was home.
As an adult most of my girlfriends and my first and second wife were very into organic foods and even growing organically if we had a big enough backyard or were renting enough land to grow organically. My third wife was less into this but we still buy as much organically as possible.
However, if you are having trouble making ends meet but still want to buy organic I will share with you the most important things to buy organic.
1. Milk should only be bought organic, especially if you have any children below 21 in age because asthmatic conditions and other health problems result from non-organic milk (because of the additives given cows in their food and drugs) and could cost you thousands of dollars in health costs for the lifetime of your child.
2. apples, carrots and potatoes should only be bought organic because they all take the spray into the meat of the apple, carrot or potato. This means you are eating the insecticides and herbicides in your food and your child's food. Though it may not kill you or cause you cancer or other health problems all this builds up in your bodies tissues and tends not to be eliminated and reduces your lifetime and your children's lifetimes.
3. Salad makings are better organic because it is very difficult to wash off the spray from lettuce, for example, without destroying what you want to eat if it is sprayed and most of the time you eat the spray rather than destroy the lettuce.
The above types of foods are the most important to buy only organic.
However, if you can afford it also buy organic wheat, or rye or sourdough or potato breads and organic chips. Also, if you can afford it buy organic canned food and organic rice and flour and organic peanut butter.
If you have the money buy or grow organic only and live that way as much as possible. I did, throughout my 20s and 30s and growing up years.
When I got a heart virus at age 49 and I had an angiogram the doctors said they were jealous because I had the cleanest arteries and veins they had ever seen from growing up vegetarian(lacto ovo) "milk and eggs" and veggies. I'm still about 95% or more vegetarian. However, over age 50 it is hard to get enough balance in your diet and staying 100% vegetarian becomes more problematic as one ages if one also wants to be healthy.
Bears:Big Dogs
The native Americans sometimes referred to Bears as "Big Dogs" because often that is what they look and act like. The biggest difference would be they are not pack animals and don't as a general rule fight in teams unless that team is mother and partly grown cub against the world.
Also, like a big man, nothing much other than another big man tends to mess with them. Likewise, only a bigger bear messes with a bear except for men. However, I think the big dog reference is fairly useful. Bears though they can get ornery are generally, if they have enough food, even tempered and fairly good natured unless they are a Grizzly bear or a Polar Bear. If it's a Grizzly or Polar Bear then all bets are off. You generally, if they are hungry enough are food and nothing else except a competitor for food and then you might as well be food because you will be just as dead.
So avoiding Grizzlys and Polar Bears is one way to stay alive if they are in the neighborhood. So if you see one just take a picture or a movie and make sure they don't see you. Believe me, it's better that way, unless you are in a big enough metal vehicle to withstand their claws.
I remember one time I was camping in Yosemite and heard a terrible crashing sound and people screaming and a bear grunting and making noises. Since I was in a tent with my wife and children I was more than a little uncomfortable when the cause of all the noise and screaming and wailing of humans walked by our tent and I could see the shadow of the relaxed macho bear walk slowly by while people screamed and banged pans to get him or her to quickly leave.
At this point I got up and walked to where the commotion had been. A cabover camper had been neatly torn in half by the bear and food was scattered all around. Even metal cans of food the bear had bitten in half. So if you are in bear country be sure to either hang your food above the bears reach in a tree(usually 10 to 12 feet off the ground over a limb will do or in a metal food container at campsites designed to be bear proof) or you can just expect doors, windows and sometimes roofs of cars and trucks or whole motorhomes torn in half. Bears aren't weaklings and are usually at least 10 times stronger than a grown man and one swipe of those claws and your life is over. So store food carefully so your vehicle or camper isn't destroyed.(You have to store even gum,perfume and sunblock because it reminds the bear of berries and honey in its smell. Bears have about as good a nose as a good tracking dog like a bloodhound generally. So don't underestimate their smelling ability. Also, a woman on her moon might be vulnerable to a Grizzly or Polar Bear so also be careful of that. Happy Camping!
Also, like a big man, nothing much other than another big man tends to mess with them. Likewise, only a bigger bear messes with a bear except for men. However, I think the big dog reference is fairly useful. Bears though they can get ornery are generally, if they have enough food, even tempered and fairly good natured unless they are a Grizzly bear or a Polar Bear. If it's a Grizzly or Polar Bear then all bets are off. You generally, if they are hungry enough are food and nothing else except a competitor for food and then you might as well be food because you will be just as dead.
So avoiding Grizzlys and Polar Bears is one way to stay alive if they are in the neighborhood. So if you see one just take a picture or a movie and make sure they don't see you. Believe me, it's better that way, unless you are in a big enough metal vehicle to withstand their claws.
I remember one time I was camping in Yosemite and heard a terrible crashing sound and people screaming and a bear grunting and making noises. Since I was in a tent with my wife and children I was more than a little uncomfortable when the cause of all the noise and screaming and wailing of humans walked by our tent and I could see the shadow of the relaxed macho bear walk slowly by while people screamed and banged pans to get him or her to quickly leave.
At this point I got up and walked to where the commotion had been. A cabover camper had been neatly torn in half by the bear and food was scattered all around. Even metal cans of food the bear had bitten in half. So if you are in bear country be sure to either hang your food above the bears reach in a tree(usually 10 to 12 feet off the ground over a limb will do or in a metal food container at campsites designed to be bear proof) or you can just expect doors, windows and sometimes roofs of cars and trucks or whole motorhomes torn in half. Bears aren't weaklings and are usually at least 10 times stronger than a grown man and one swipe of those claws and your life is over. So store food carefully so your vehicle or camper isn't destroyed.(You have to store even gum,perfume and sunblock because it reminds the bear of berries and honey in its smell. Bears have about as good a nose as a good tracking dog like a bloodhound generally. So don't underestimate their smelling ability. Also, a woman on her moon might be vulnerable to a Grizzly or Polar Bear so also be careful of that. Happy Camping!
Ben Stein says it'll be over $10 a gallon
I was watching the Glen Beck show on headline news on tv. He had Ben Stein as a guest there and was doing a promo for his new movie Expelled which is advocating intelligent design. I also enjoy Ben Stein's column in the financial section of the New York Times. I usually read it through nyt.com .
Anyway, Glen Beck was bemoaning that we are paying $5 a gallon some places like California already and that we could be paying $10 a gallon or more. Ben Stein said, "Oh. It'll be more than that." Since he is a financial columnist he is someone who has the financial credentials to take seriously about this.
As a psychic, if it goes to $10 a gallon, I would say it will come within 3 to 5 years or much sooner depending upon a multitude of factors.
For me, the saddest thing for the whole world is how many millions will die because of this worldwide. And any of the children of those who they watch starve to death will not forget. What will come of this I'm afraid will be about 100,000 Bin Ladens. This will likely come in about 30 years. Scary but true. Seems to be all but inevitable now.
Because those children and parents who watch their loved ones starve to death will study how it happened and how investors caused their death by moving their money from the dollar and dollar based stocks and investments to oil and food commodities and as a psychic I'm afraid they might research who these big investors were and target them one by one. Not being one of these big investors now might save ones life in the future. Even if I weren't a psychic this isn't rocket science folks just pure human nature.
Note: in the year 2000 the average gas price was expected to be $1.45 a gallon and the summer before it had been $1.17 per gallon. So at $10 a gallon we would be looking at an almost 1000 percent increase from 2000 to the present. How can any nation survive that realistically?
My internet source for the above paragraph was:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/special/summogas.html
2nd note: The short term energy outlook for the US as of may 6th 2008 is at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html
There are also links here to global output as well.
Anyway, Glen Beck was bemoaning that we are paying $5 a gallon some places like California already and that we could be paying $10 a gallon or more. Ben Stein said, "Oh. It'll be more than that." Since he is a financial columnist he is someone who has the financial credentials to take seriously about this.
As a psychic, if it goes to $10 a gallon, I would say it will come within 3 to 5 years or much sooner depending upon a multitude of factors.
For me, the saddest thing for the whole world is how many millions will die because of this worldwide. And any of the children of those who they watch starve to death will not forget. What will come of this I'm afraid will be about 100,000 Bin Ladens. This will likely come in about 30 years. Scary but true. Seems to be all but inevitable now.
Because those children and parents who watch their loved ones starve to death will study how it happened and how investors caused their death by moving their money from the dollar and dollar based stocks and investments to oil and food commodities and as a psychic I'm afraid they might research who these big investors were and target them one by one. Not being one of these big investors now might save ones life in the future. Even if I weren't a psychic this isn't rocket science folks just pure human nature.
Note: in the year 2000 the average gas price was expected to be $1.45 a gallon and the summer before it had been $1.17 per gallon. So at $10 a gallon we would be looking at an almost 1000 percent increase from 2000 to the present. How can any nation survive that realistically?
My internet source for the above paragraph was:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/special/summogas.html
2nd note: The short term energy outlook for the US as of may 6th 2008 is at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html
There are also links here to global output as well.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Soros says oil price a Bubble
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/may/26soros.htm
The above url speak about how Soros thinks that the oil price is a bubble that will only burst when the U.S. and Great Britain go into full blown recession. I might agree except for one thing: When President Bush went to Saudi Arabia to plead for more oil production the Arabs there gave him a bicycle. Some of you think it is a joke. I don't. I believe they are saying: "Our oil fields have peaked. We all need bicycles now!" That is my interpretation of the Saudi's giving Bush a bicycle.
So is Soros right or wrong? I think the bicycle says it all.
The above url speak about how Soros thinks that the oil price is a bubble that will only burst when the U.S. and Great Britain go into full blown recession. I might agree except for one thing: When President Bush went to Saudi Arabia to plead for more oil production the Arabs there gave him a bicycle. Some of you think it is a joke. I don't. I believe they are saying: "Our oil fields have peaked. We all need bicycles now!" That is my interpretation of the Saudi's giving Bush a bicycle.
So is Soros right or wrong? I think the bicycle says it all.
advanced teachings for mystics and metaphysicians
I was sharing with two relatives after a relatives funeral. I was talking about how I was taught as a child to put up a forcefield that my parents and their religion called a Tube of Light to protect me from physical and spiritual harm. However, I was talking to a relative about how if I feel safe sometimes I find I can extend my aura out sometimes as far as the edges of the Galaxy. I was saying that it is extremely powerful when one can do that for a variety of reasons. It is very healing for ones soul and healing for all your aura touches. However, for many people it is unthinkable because they are afraid. In order for this to be a positive thing one needs to develope a deep deep feeling of kindness and compassion towards all life in the universe. If one doesn't do this first there can be very serious repercussions. I learned the importance of doing this when Kriyananda came into the county where I was and the weather changed and I saw first hand what it does when one is evolved enough to do this firsthand. Though I wasn't very successful at doing this until my middle 30s, eventually through long experiments I became proficient at this as well. It is very powerful and healing both for the one doing this and for all life interpenetrated by ones aura if one can maintain a parentlike or grandparentlike mode towards all one encompasses with ones aura. It should only be done spontaneously when one feels safe, expanded and at peace.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
I want to know everything
This was a line in a recent movie. I won't tell you which movie in case you haven't seen it yet and intend to. However, in real life wanting to know everything is not necessarily a good thing(unless) you have already developed wise rightmindful compassion for all life in the universe in all time and space. Without developing this kind of compassion first actually beginning to know everything could be a death sentence and not only for you but potentially for everyone you know.
Actually knowing everything a being even a human being could know is about as dangerous as a hydrogen bomb unless that person is wise enough and kind enough to know how to handle that much wisdom and knowledge and what to do with it and even more importantly what not to do with it. In the end life everywhere in the universe depends upon balance more than any other single thing.
So, just like the Peter Principle and how a person moves in a job to a level of incompetence, as a person moves forward with knowledge that person tends to move forward to just shy of a lethal share of knowledge and wisdom. People who exceed that just aren't around anymore.
Actually knowing everything a being even a human being could know is about as dangerous as a hydrogen bomb unless that person is wise enough and kind enough to know how to handle that much wisdom and knowledge and what to do with it and even more importantly what not to do with it. In the end life everywhere in the universe depends upon balance more than any other single thing.
So, just like the Peter Principle and how a person moves in a job to a level of incompetence, as a person moves forward with knowledge that person tends to move forward to just shy of a lethal share of knowledge and wisdom. People who exceed that just aren't around anymore.
Oil speculation and oil supply
Begin quote:
OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Friday he was not worried about reports of faster-than-expected depletion in the world's biggest oil fields and repeated his position that runaway oil prices were caused by speculation and not by supply problems. endquote.
I agree that oil speculation and the low dollar in combination are the main causes of high oil prices worldwide. However, if you do your homework and see that only the big Saudi fields have not peaked yet or are peaking now you will realize like I do that oil only has until about 2020 to 2050 as a viable fuel. However, as demand increases because of emerging nations like China and India the law of supply and demand will become ever more a problem in the next 5 to 10 years. $10 a gallon and even $15 a gallon is inevitable the question is when. $6 dollars a gallon by August is expected by many financial pundits to be here by August or September 2008. I, myself saw $4.78 per gallon for premium in Santa Barbara, California a few days ago and more and more places in California premium is now over $5 a gallon. So even if the rest of the country didn't see $6 a gallon by August it is pretty inevitable to reach $6 a gallon somewhere in California within this month or possible next.
OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Friday he was not worried about reports of faster-than-expected depletion in the world's biggest oil fields and repeated his position that runaway oil prices were caused by speculation and not by supply problems. endquote.
I agree that oil speculation and the low dollar in combination are the main causes of high oil prices worldwide. However, if you do your homework and see that only the big Saudi fields have not peaked yet or are peaking now you will realize like I do that oil only has until about 2020 to 2050 as a viable fuel. However, as demand increases because of emerging nations like China and India the law of supply and demand will become ever more a problem in the next 5 to 10 years. $10 a gallon and even $15 a gallon is inevitable the question is when. $6 dollars a gallon by August is expected by many financial pundits to be here by August or September 2008. I, myself saw $4.78 per gallon for premium in Santa Barbara, California a few days ago and more and more places in California premium is now over $5 a gallon. So even if the rest of the country didn't see $6 a gallon by August it is pretty inevitable to reach $6 a gallon somewhere in California within this month or possible next.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Watch animals and birds for signs of impending earthquake
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080525/sc_afp/
chinaquakeanimal_080525021628
Begin quote from above url.
Chinese media reports and Internet blogs have buzzed with reports of mass migrations of thousands of frogs and toads near the quake region in Sichuan province just before the May 12 disaster, which left more than 80,000 people dead or missing.
Whether linked to the quake or not, there is little dispute among scientists that animals can predict earthquakes, possibly through sensitivity to pressure waves.
endquote.
I have heard many many incidents of this. The most recent famous incident of ancient traditional people listening to and watching the animals and birds is the Moken People during the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami. All of the Moken people who listened to their traditional teachings of watching what the animals and birds do survived by paddling, sailing and motoring their boats far enough out to sea so the tsunami waves could be ridden over them as rolling waves rather than breaking waves that one gets close to shore or shallow water or land. So, even though the Moken Sea Gypsies mostly survived by doing this, many they told about this who weren't Moken didn't believe them and died because they didn't understand how watching the birds and animals made any sense. So they stayed too close to shore and died. However, most Moken people were far out to sea during the tsunami and survived.
chinaquakeanimal_080525021628
Begin quote from above url.
Chinese media reports and Internet blogs have buzzed with reports of mass migrations of thousands of frogs and toads near the quake region in Sichuan province just before the May 12 disaster, which left more than 80,000 people dead or missing.
Whether linked to the quake or not, there is little dispute among scientists that animals can predict earthquakes, possibly through sensitivity to pressure waves.
endquote.
I have heard many many incidents of this. The most recent famous incident of ancient traditional people listening to and watching the animals and birds is the Moken People during the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami. All of the Moken people who listened to their traditional teachings of watching what the animals and birds do survived by paddling, sailing and motoring their boats far enough out to sea so the tsunami waves could be ridden over them as rolling waves rather than breaking waves that one gets close to shore or shallow water or land. So, even though the Moken Sea Gypsies mostly survived by doing this, many they told about this who weren't Moken didn't believe them and died because they didn't understand how watching the birds and animals made any sense. So they stayed too close to shore and died. However, most Moken people were far out to sea during the tsunami and survived.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Life is what it is when you're there
There is a saying, "Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind". Well, this happens to all of us thousands of times in a lifetime to a greater or lessor degree.
One of the most beautiful and amazing things about being a human being for me is the capacity to lose ones dreams and then create new ones. Remember as a child how many things you wanted you didn't get? Did you Die? No. You cried a while and then you found something new to dream about. I ask you to consider is being an adult any different really? We may get more attached to our dreams as an adult but aren't we all still at core that ten year old whose dreams were broken only with a little more experience and a little more armor and layers on us than that 10 year old we once were?
I think of myself as a ten year old with a whole lot of armor and experience a lot of the time. Most of the time it is just the good old college bluff that gets me through. The same thing that wins football games or gets the girl in high school or college is what gets us through another day when we are 30,40,50,60 etc. Remembering this we become a little less brittle with age and stay adaptable. For in this world I think we all agree it is: "Adapt or DIE".
One of the most beautiful and amazing things about being a human being for me is the capacity to lose ones dreams and then create new ones. Remember as a child how many things you wanted you didn't get? Did you Die? No. You cried a while and then you found something new to dream about. I ask you to consider is being an adult any different really? We may get more attached to our dreams as an adult but aren't we all still at core that ten year old whose dreams were broken only with a little more experience and a little more armor and layers on us than that 10 year old we once were?
I think of myself as a ten year old with a whole lot of armor and experience a lot of the time. Most of the time it is just the good old college bluff that gets me through. The same thing that wins football games or gets the girl in high school or college is what gets us through another day when we are 30,40,50,60 etc. Remembering this we become a little less brittle with age and stay adaptable. For in this world I think we all agree it is: "Adapt or DIE".
$9 a gallon in Netherlands
Since we here (in the US) are upset about $4 a gallon for gas a lot of places and we are expecting $5 to $6 dollars a gallon by financial pundits by August it might help us to research what countries like the Netherlands which is used to $9 a gallon or more for gas do. First, they travel less by motorized vehicles or ride bikes or walk but also they rely on wind power a lot more because the ocean isn't very deep far out to sea there. Almost all European countries that have access to a windy ocean are building gigantic wind turbines just out of sight of land to power their needs. They have a head start on the United States because these are smaller countries. However, for all of us, necessity is the mother of invention.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Indiana Jones-The Baby Boomer
I wasn't up for a midnight show of the latest Indiana Jones but I went to the first show today at about 10am at our local theater. As I walked out of the theater my wife called who is traveling right now with perfect timing. I mentioned I had seen the movie and didn't want to spoil it for her other than telling her it is set in 1957.
We both laughed about how Indiana Jones is like a baby boomer with stiff and unbending parents who were barely survivors of the Great Depression and World War II. He has the same intelligence, angst and even confusion from being raised with the totally unrealistic expectations of the previous generation. His response is to worship the past and struggle with the present and future, the angst of a baby boomer. However, there is something universal also in this, so all can relate.
I don't want to spoil the story for you so that's all I'm going to say for now.
We both laughed about how Indiana Jones is like a baby boomer with stiff and unbending parents who were barely survivors of the Great Depression and World War II. He has the same intelligence, angst and even confusion from being raised with the totally unrealistic expectations of the previous generation. His response is to worship the past and struggle with the present and future, the angst of a baby boomer. However, there is something universal also in this, so all can relate.
I don't want to spoil the story for you so that's all I'm going to say for now.
Pride
Some of you might think Pride is a good thing. This article is more in the vein of "pride comes before the fall". When I was young I was arrogant which is a form of false pride though at the time I might have just called it testosterone. There is a saying that says, "Young people do impossible things because they believe they can and sometimes do." This was true of me too. I accomplished things because no one told me I couldn't and at the time I really could have cared less if I had died trying. This is probably a very good description of many young unmarried men who are adventurous the way I was before I got married. When I got married and had a son I had to do things that were new for me like not rock climbing and not dating other women because I wanted to be alive to raise my son so he always had a father and I didn't just die doing one adventurous thing or another.
My father had a lot of pride and was very unbending in this. He was also a very intense man and though he never hit or beat me was a rage-aholic. In other words he yelled a lot. But usually only for good reasons. However, he was very self disciplined and never once hit me or Mom. He had already seen what happens when people do that in his own family. Besides, Mom was a very mellow, centered and emotionally balanced woman which had a very calming affect on my father. She was very good for him.
I found I just couldn't be as prideful as my Dad. The closest I could get to where he
"lived" was to be young and arrogant. My Dad worried about me a lot because of the risks I always was taking. After having whooping cough and childhood epilepsy my view of living in a human body on earth was that life was pretty crazy. So being very intelligent my reaction to all this was being very kind to people because of what I had been through while in my own relationship with myself I was terminal macho. Some call this being self destructive. However, I found that like my Dad if I even had one woman, one calming influence in my life I might stay alive. Because of my childhood illnesses I found myself always taking risks. It was sort of like I was always trying to outdo myself. I wasn't competitive with others. That didn't bring me joy. It took me until I was in my 30s to finally give a name to the quality I had. I was completely ruthless. I didn't do anything unless I knew I would succeed and win. I always got the girl(from the time I was about 15 on). No one could ever compete with me because I didn't compete. Whatever I set out to do I didn't talk about it I just did it and it was done. I was ruthless. I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way. It was just a necessary component of survival as far as I was concerned.
So, pride for me wasn't what it was for most people. For me, pride was not dying. Pride was more for me (after age 15 and surviving childhood epilepsy) a spiritual pride. I couldn't compete with my fathers rigid pride so I developed my own style,my own individual form of pride that was totally different from my Dad. I didn't even want to compete with him because he and my Mom were always my best friends. It just wasn't right to compete with them. So I didn't.
The death of whatever normal pride I had took place when I was excommmunicated from my parents church(the one I was raised in since babyhood). This was the single biggest death of my family pride that I have ever experienced. I felt I had failed my parents somehow and I contemplated suicide both directly and indirectly for several years. I made it a point to always have a girlfriend or a wife after that. My loyalty and love to my girl friend always kept me from killing myself after that.
I remember one time after my first wife and I broke up I was driving my 1968 camaro and was feeling so much pain. I was going to drive into a telephone pole at about 80 mph to end it all when I realized I had my 3 year old son in the back seat so I couldn't do that. So my son saved both our lives that day. This is always the way for me. I stay alive so that I can be there for others. This altruism has always kept me alive to take care of others. Otherwise I think I would have died by age 21.
My father had a lot of pride and was very unbending in this. He was also a very intense man and though he never hit or beat me was a rage-aholic. In other words he yelled a lot. But usually only for good reasons. However, he was very self disciplined and never once hit me or Mom. He had already seen what happens when people do that in his own family. Besides, Mom was a very mellow, centered and emotionally balanced woman which had a very calming affect on my father. She was very good for him.
I found I just couldn't be as prideful as my Dad. The closest I could get to where he
"lived" was to be young and arrogant. My Dad worried about me a lot because of the risks I always was taking. After having whooping cough and childhood epilepsy my view of living in a human body on earth was that life was pretty crazy. So being very intelligent my reaction to all this was being very kind to people because of what I had been through while in my own relationship with myself I was terminal macho. Some call this being self destructive. However, I found that like my Dad if I even had one woman, one calming influence in my life I might stay alive. Because of my childhood illnesses I found myself always taking risks. It was sort of like I was always trying to outdo myself. I wasn't competitive with others. That didn't bring me joy. It took me until I was in my 30s to finally give a name to the quality I had. I was completely ruthless. I didn't do anything unless I knew I would succeed and win. I always got the girl(from the time I was about 15 on). No one could ever compete with me because I didn't compete. Whatever I set out to do I didn't talk about it I just did it and it was done. I was ruthless. I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way. It was just a necessary component of survival as far as I was concerned.
So, pride for me wasn't what it was for most people. For me, pride was not dying. Pride was more for me (after age 15 and surviving childhood epilepsy) a spiritual pride. I couldn't compete with my fathers rigid pride so I developed my own style,my own individual form of pride that was totally different from my Dad. I didn't even want to compete with him because he and my Mom were always my best friends. It just wasn't right to compete with them. So I didn't.
The death of whatever normal pride I had took place when I was excommmunicated from my parents church(the one I was raised in since babyhood). This was the single biggest death of my family pride that I have ever experienced. I felt I had failed my parents somehow and I contemplated suicide both directly and indirectly for several years. I made it a point to always have a girlfriend or a wife after that. My loyalty and love to my girl friend always kept me from killing myself after that.
I remember one time after my first wife and I broke up I was driving my 1968 camaro and was feeling so much pain. I was going to drive into a telephone pole at about 80 mph to end it all when I realized I had my 3 year old son in the back seat so I couldn't do that. So my son saved both our lives that day. This is always the way for me. I stay alive so that I can be there for others. This altruism has always kept me alive to take care of others. Otherwise I think I would have died by age 21.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Wind
Today the sand was blowing off one of the beaches onto the freeway and hopefully not taking the paint off of cars and micro-pitting their windshields. I was thinking just now how that same 30 mph nuisance wind could be an energy source if a generating fan were placed on a hybrid electric car or truck that could folded up in place in a wind. So even if an electric car was parked facing into the wind it could generate power while parked. Wind whenever and wherever it arises is a VAST, VAST, untapped resource. Until steam engines it was one of the main engines of commerce worldwide through sailing ships. On hybrid electric cars or trucks this wind source now makes sense again en masse along with a solar array on the roof of every hybrid electric so that whether running or parked on a sunny day the solar array would be generating electricity to either power the vehicle or to be sold to the grid (directly through its plug-in line)if not used by the vehicle.
I was thinking of a great design where one could incorporate solar cells directly into the non moving part of the car mounted wind generator. Only the moving blades of the wind generator would not be covered with solar cells to generate power during sunlight hours even when there wasn't any wind.
I was thinking of a great design where one could incorporate solar cells directly into the non moving part of the car mounted wind generator. Only the moving blades of the wind generator would not be covered with solar cells to generate power during sunlight hours even when there wasn't any wind.
$5 to $6 a gallon for gas by August
One of the financial wizards from MSNBC mentioned on the NBC news tonight that he expected gas to be $5 to $6 a gallon by August and how he thought a whole lot more people were going to be taking a bus soon because almost no one would be able to afford to fly soon.
I was thinking a lot especially after I saw the documentary "A Crude Awakening" available at netflix for rent. I realized that 5, $10, $15, and even $20 or $50 a gallon was inevitable. It is just a matter of when. At present I believe within 10 years or 15 at most, oil will be too expensive for anything but for making plastics. Even that might not be practical then. Airlines have to find a fuel not made of oil. Maybe hydrogen from water. Maybe they can fill their tanks with water and break it apart as needed and convert their airplanes to hydrogen or somehow multifuel ehanol, hydrogen or whatever is available. This might mean the difference between airlines staying in business or going bankrupt en masse.
Where electricity is cheap enough(where there is enough wind,water dam powered, solar, coal or nuclear) electric trains can transport people and plug in their electric cars. Where it is not, cheap coal powered steam trains(or coal to steam to electric) can transport people once again en masse. Maybe people can put their electric cars on trains to their destination knowing that they can only drive about 300 miles or so on a charge.
Once again, the nations and areas of the world that have a cheap source(or sources) of energy from now on will BE the most advanced nations of the world and the greatest economic powerhouses. Those that don't won't.
Everything is changing people worldwide. For all of us it is: "quickly change to a cheap enough energy basis that works and is efficient or pass out of existence". This appears to be the only real solution for us worldwide.
The way that the United States geared up for World War II we now have to gear up for changes away from oil to other cheaper sources of energy. If we can do this the best and the fastest we will stay preeminent and on top but if we get bogged down in oil and gas and diesel driven cars, trucks and infrastructure we will be LEFT BEHIND by other parts of the world that will simply solve the problem as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. It's completely up to us what happens!
I was thinking a lot especially after I saw the documentary "A Crude Awakening" available at netflix for rent. I realized that 5, $10, $15, and even $20 or $50 a gallon was inevitable. It is just a matter of when. At present I believe within 10 years or 15 at most, oil will be too expensive for anything but for making plastics. Even that might not be practical then. Airlines have to find a fuel not made of oil. Maybe hydrogen from water. Maybe they can fill their tanks with water and break it apart as needed and convert their airplanes to hydrogen or somehow multifuel ehanol, hydrogen or whatever is available. This might mean the difference between airlines staying in business or going bankrupt en masse.
Where electricity is cheap enough(where there is enough wind,water dam powered, solar, coal or nuclear) electric trains can transport people and plug in their electric cars. Where it is not, cheap coal powered steam trains(or coal to steam to electric) can transport people once again en masse. Maybe people can put their electric cars on trains to their destination knowing that they can only drive about 300 miles or so on a charge.
Once again, the nations and areas of the world that have a cheap source(or sources) of energy from now on will BE the most advanced nations of the world and the greatest economic powerhouses. Those that don't won't.
Everything is changing people worldwide. For all of us it is: "quickly change to a cheap enough energy basis that works and is efficient or pass out of existence". This appears to be the only real solution for us worldwide.
The way that the United States geared up for World War II we now have to gear up for changes away from oil to other cheaper sources of energy. If we can do this the best and the fastest we will stay preeminent and on top but if we get bogged down in oil and gas and diesel driven cars, trucks and infrastructure we will be LEFT BEHIND by other parts of the world that will simply solve the problem as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. It's completely up to us what happens!
When 20- Somethings Move Back Home
begin quote.
Articles full name "When 20-somethings move back home-It isn't all Bad"
By Sur Shellenbarger, WSJ.com
Dow Jones & company, Inc.
In a new twist in US family life, the open nest is replacing the
empty nest.
More young adults are returning home to live with their parents in their 20s, and a surprising number of parents are content about it. Based on a new collection of studies, the deepest look so far at the failure-to-launch trend, the pattern is likely to persist. And as it becomes more widespread, researchers say, the stigma traditionally linked to young adults' living at home will fade.
More upper- and middle-income parents, including many who felt pressed for time when their children were growing up, aren't ready to be "finished with them" by their 20s, says Katherine Newman, a Princeton University sociology professor and one of the project's 20 researchers. Also, as more students attend college at older ages, parents are coming to regard the 20s as a time of self-discovery.
Alan Robbins, St. Louis, says he hasn't minded having his daughters home for a while post-college. Alison, 25, a fitness specialist, just moved out after two years at home spent working and saving money for a car and furniture. Diana, 22, moved home after graduating last weekend, enabling her to participate in a master's degree program while teaching third grade. Both pay most of their expenses.
The proportion of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents has risen by an estimated five percentage points since 1980, to roughly 34%, says Aaron Yelowitz, an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and a contributor to the collection of studies "The Price of Independence," published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
To be sure, living together still causes tension for parents and kids alike. Living with parents reduces young adults' life satisfaction, Dr. Newman found. But the more widespread the practice, the less psychological toll it takes, she says. In southern Europe, where as many as 60% of young adults live at home, the stigma has eased; she cites research showing more than half of European adults think living longer with one's parents is a good thing.
Similar attitudes are taking root in the U.S. While many young adults still get "cabin fever" living with parents, "there's no shame" in it any more, says Mr. Robbins's daughter, Alison. For her, living at home has been "a steppingstone to help me get on my feet."
Mary Ann Vlahac, who introduced me to the term "open nest," welcomed her 23-year-old college-graduate son back to her Stratford, Conn., home while he applies for jobs in law enforcement, she says. He does chores, cooks and pays room-and-board while working part-time as a truck driver. Mother and son agree that they get on each other's nerves sometimes, she says, though she enjoys seeing how well he's doing. Besides, adds Ms. Vlahac, a single mother, their roles may reverse later.
Researchers on the project set out to document economic factors driving the trend, but found it's bigger than the financial causes usually blamed for it. To be sure, rising housing and commuting costs play a role, Dr. Yelowitz found. But neither those factors nor job-market changes fully explain the 25-year trend. The biggest increase in young adults living with parents came in the 1980s, when the labor market generally improved, he found. And rising real housing costs explain only about 15% of the drop in independent living among young adults, which started years before the sharpest run-up in housing.
More enduring cultural and social changes are at work, including a growing "child-centeredness" among families, Dr. Newman says. Many parents enjoy having adult kids around as long as they're pursuing "a future they can endorse."
Robert Thompson, San Francisco, wants his three children to find work they love. Thus when his 26-year-old son came home from college without a career plan, Mr. Thompson nudged him toward pursuing his passion, photography, then supported his plan to get a master's degree; he charges his son rent and will treat tuition as a loan. While he wishes his son were more focused, Mr. Thompson says, "Am I pleased with him as a human being? Absolutely. He's a good friend. We enjoy having him" home.
More at The Wall Street Journal
endquote.
My own experiences with moving back home were an ongoing phenomenon. It started when my parents sent me away to a private church school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the time I lived with my parents in Glendale, California so this was about 1700 miles away from home. Being away from my parents for my senior year in High School was very good for me. Not only did I get to live in the snow for that fall and winter but I also realized that my parents were very good and kind people and after being away from them for a whole school year I found them to be much more wonderful people than when I originally left home for school. So when I returned home my relationship with my parents was like 3 adults living together. So when my girlfriend moved into my bedroom at my parents house from Michigan I had to (according to my church principles) get my own apartment so we didn't sleep together) that summer.
However, after getting my own apartment all I did was sleep there and I realized I didn't really like living alone at all. I found it more a waste of money and a pain more than anything else and I found it lonely. So after that depressing experience I always tried to find ways to never live alone after that.
So, if I wasn't living with friends or girlfriends or married I made it a point to live with my parents even into my 30s. Life is good!
Articles full name "When 20-somethings move back home-It isn't all Bad"
By Sur Shellenbarger, WSJ.com
Dow Jones & company, Inc.
In a new twist in US family life, the open nest is replacing the
empty nest.
More young adults are returning home to live with their parents in their 20s, and a surprising number of parents are content about it. Based on a new collection of studies, the deepest look so far at the failure-to-launch trend, the pattern is likely to persist. And as it becomes more widespread, researchers say, the stigma traditionally linked to young adults' living at home will fade.
More upper- and middle-income parents, including many who felt pressed for time when their children were growing up, aren't ready to be "finished with them" by their 20s, says Katherine Newman, a Princeton University sociology professor and one of the project's 20 researchers. Also, as more students attend college at older ages, parents are coming to regard the 20s as a time of self-discovery.
Alan Robbins, St. Louis, says he hasn't minded having his daughters home for a while post-college. Alison, 25, a fitness specialist, just moved out after two years at home spent working and saving money for a car and furniture. Diana, 22, moved home after graduating last weekend, enabling her to participate in a master's degree program while teaching third grade. Both pay most of their expenses.
The proportion of 18- to 34-year-olds living with their parents has risen by an estimated five percentage points since 1980, to roughly 34%, says Aaron Yelowitz, an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and a contributor to the collection of studies "The Price of Independence," published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
To be sure, living together still causes tension for parents and kids alike. Living with parents reduces young adults' life satisfaction, Dr. Newman found. But the more widespread the practice, the less psychological toll it takes, she says. In southern Europe, where as many as 60% of young adults live at home, the stigma has eased; she cites research showing more than half of European adults think living longer with one's parents is a good thing.
Similar attitudes are taking root in the U.S. While many young adults still get "cabin fever" living with parents, "there's no shame" in it any more, says Mr. Robbins's daughter, Alison. For her, living at home has been "a steppingstone to help me get on my feet."
Mary Ann Vlahac, who introduced me to the term "open nest," welcomed her 23-year-old college-graduate son back to her Stratford, Conn., home while he applies for jobs in law enforcement, she says. He does chores, cooks and pays room-and-board while working part-time as a truck driver. Mother and son agree that they get on each other's nerves sometimes, she says, though she enjoys seeing how well he's doing. Besides, adds Ms. Vlahac, a single mother, their roles may reverse later.
Researchers on the project set out to document economic factors driving the trend, but found it's bigger than the financial causes usually blamed for it. To be sure, rising housing and commuting costs play a role, Dr. Yelowitz found. But neither those factors nor job-market changes fully explain the 25-year trend. The biggest increase in young adults living with parents came in the 1980s, when the labor market generally improved, he found. And rising real housing costs explain only about 15% of the drop in independent living among young adults, which started years before the sharpest run-up in housing.
More enduring cultural and social changes are at work, including a growing "child-centeredness" among families, Dr. Newman says. Many parents enjoy having adult kids around as long as they're pursuing "a future they can endorse."
Robert Thompson, San Francisco, wants his three children to find work they love. Thus when his 26-year-old son came home from college without a career plan, Mr. Thompson nudged him toward pursuing his passion, photography, then supported his plan to get a master's degree; he charges his son rent and will treat tuition as a loan. While he wishes his son were more focused, Mr. Thompson says, "Am I pleased with him as a human being? Absolutely. He's a good friend. We enjoy having him" home.
More at The Wall Street Journal
endquote.
My own experiences with moving back home were an ongoing phenomenon. It started when my parents sent me away to a private church school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the time I lived with my parents in Glendale, California so this was about 1700 miles away from home. Being away from my parents for my senior year in High School was very good for me. Not only did I get to live in the snow for that fall and winter but I also realized that my parents were very good and kind people and after being away from them for a whole school year I found them to be much more wonderful people than when I originally left home for school. So when I returned home my relationship with my parents was like 3 adults living together. So when my girlfriend moved into my bedroom at my parents house from Michigan I had to (according to my church principles) get my own apartment so we didn't sleep together) that summer.
However, after getting my own apartment all I did was sleep there and I realized I didn't really like living alone at all. I found it more a waste of money and a pain more than anything else and I found it lonely. So after that depressing experience I always tried to find ways to never live alone after that.
So, if I wasn't living with friends or girlfriends or married I made it a point to live with my parents even into my 30s. Life is good!
A Question of Balance
New Fiction? The following is a part of the ongoing saga of Elohar and Ragna, future incarnations of my parents in the 70th century. Whether they lived this before or after or concurrently during and after my birth I can't say. However, this began today.
As I walked up the trail with my dogs this morning I knew because of the simple fact that I had forgotten to bring my cellphone that I might see Elohar today. She has been dropping in more lately the last 6 months or more sort of like a mother or a therapist might drop on someone they were concerned about.
I met her on the trail. It is always startling to me to meet what looks a lot like my mother did when I was about 6 years old only with auburn colored hair this time. But still those expressive green eyes that seem to twinkle with the spark of eternity and compassion are still there. So startling is always my first experience of my mother, the Time Traveller from the future reincarnated. She greets me, "HI Jonathan(Fred's alter ego)! How have you been?" This always seems trite as she knows what I'm thinking and what I've been through in this life in some ways better than I do. I answer, "Hi Elohar. It's good to see you too. How's Ragna, my new Dad?" Elohar looked a little bewildered at this question. She said, "He's about 1 million years in the future with Arcane on New Deva. Arcane wanted him to meet Arcane when he was about 15 years old. I think he wanted to show Ragna the similarity between Arcane and you." I laughed. "Arcane is just so much like me Ma---sorry Elohar. It's just very easy to slip back into being the 7 year old I once was when I see you like this." She smiled. That's good I'm glad she's taking it well. She said, "I expect this sort of thing especially because of the state your mother is presently in." I looked at her imploringly and said, "Why is my mother spending so much time here on earth in this Senile dementia state. What good is it?" She seemed thoughtful and said, "You aren't a woman, Jonathan. You just wouldn't understand and even if I told you you would think it stupid." I said, "Try me." She said, "Okay. You asked for it. Don't say I didn't warn you. It's not about you, Jonathan. When you told your mother goodbye you were intuiting correctly. Because you let her go she knew she was free to do as she needed to do as a soul. No longer did she have to be your mother. In a way she was reincarnated in the same body." I said, "Why?" Elohar looked carefully at me and said, "Your mother had to grow up too fast. She had no time to live. Her childhood during the great depression was very tough and when her father left her mother when your mother was 18, your mother had to go to work and support her mother and herself because her mother was devastated and had never worked anywhere ever. So after supporting her mother for 10 years she married your father and had you. Your mother's life has NEVER been her own. You had your own life. Your mother never had her own life separate from her family or your father or you. She needed this to move forward as a soul and to become me." I was speechless because I was trying to take all this in."
Moments later I saw someone walking toward us down the trail. At first I was a little scared because I thought it might be a ghost but then I realized that this was an actual human being as Elohar turned and reached her arm out to her. Elohar said, "Your Aunt Eloise reincarnated in my time and became my best friend who is now called Rachel(pronouced Ray chell). I said awkwardly. "Uh. Hi Rachel I mean Aunt Eloise." Rachel said, "Hi Jonathan. Why don't you just call me Eloise so you are more comfortable with all this." "Okay." I said.
I said, "Do you know Arcane and Ragna and King Interlaken?" Eloise Rachel said, "Oh yes! I'm a sister of Elohar's order and I assist her with her duties. I'm like her personal assistant, I believe it is called these days. more later.
As I walked up the trail with my dogs this morning I knew because of the simple fact that I had forgotten to bring my cellphone that I might see Elohar today. She has been dropping in more lately the last 6 months or more sort of like a mother or a therapist might drop on someone they were concerned about.
I met her on the trail. It is always startling to me to meet what looks a lot like my mother did when I was about 6 years old only with auburn colored hair this time. But still those expressive green eyes that seem to twinkle with the spark of eternity and compassion are still there. So startling is always my first experience of my mother, the Time Traveller from the future reincarnated. She greets me, "HI Jonathan(Fred's alter ego)! How have you been?" This always seems trite as she knows what I'm thinking and what I've been through in this life in some ways better than I do. I answer, "Hi Elohar. It's good to see you too. How's Ragna, my new Dad?" Elohar looked a little bewildered at this question. She said, "He's about 1 million years in the future with Arcane on New Deva. Arcane wanted him to meet Arcane when he was about 15 years old. I think he wanted to show Ragna the similarity between Arcane and you." I laughed. "Arcane is just so much like me Ma---sorry Elohar. It's just very easy to slip back into being the 7 year old I once was when I see you like this." She smiled. That's good I'm glad she's taking it well. She said, "I expect this sort of thing especially because of the state your mother is presently in." I looked at her imploringly and said, "Why is my mother spending so much time here on earth in this Senile dementia state. What good is it?" She seemed thoughtful and said, "You aren't a woman, Jonathan. You just wouldn't understand and even if I told you you would think it stupid." I said, "Try me." She said, "Okay. You asked for it. Don't say I didn't warn you. It's not about you, Jonathan. When you told your mother goodbye you were intuiting correctly. Because you let her go she knew she was free to do as she needed to do as a soul. No longer did she have to be your mother. In a way she was reincarnated in the same body." I said, "Why?" Elohar looked carefully at me and said, "Your mother had to grow up too fast. She had no time to live. Her childhood during the great depression was very tough and when her father left her mother when your mother was 18, your mother had to go to work and support her mother and herself because her mother was devastated and had never worked anywhere ever. So after supporting her mother for 10 years she married your father and had you. Your mother's life has NEVER been her own. You had your own life. Your mother never had her own life separate from her family or your father or you. She needed this to move forward as a soul and to become me." I was speechless because I was trying to take all this in."
Moments later I saw someone walking toward us down the trail. At first I was a little scared because I thought it might be a ghost but then I realized that this was an actual human being as Elohar turned and reached her arm out to her. Elohar said, "Your Aunt Eloise reincarnated in my time and became my best friend who is now called Rachel(pronouced Ray chell). I said awkwardly. "Uh. Hi Rachel I mean Aunt Eloise." Rachel said, "Hi Jonathan. Why don't you just call me Eloise so you are more comfortable with all this." "Okay." I said.
I said, "Do you know Arcane and Ragna and King Interlaken?" Eloise Rachel said, "Oh yes! I'm a sister of Elohar's order and I assist her with her duties. I'm like her personal assistant, I believe it is called these days. more later.
Overwhelmed- Most people are it seems
It seems lately that most people are just barely hanging on, financially, mentally and physically. To be one of the few standing okay with my wife sometimes is a little difficult but we appear to be a bastion of strength in all ways in these times for our children and friends. This is getting harder each day. The transitions of death, near death, emotional distress and financial distress are hard to bear for us to watch everyone it seems go through but somehow being mature adults we seem to manage.
I don't think I remember a time in my 60 years when so many things were changing at once, or when so many people were dying at once(or when so many species were extincting at once). It makes my head spin trying to regain balance from it all. Not since World War II have things been this physically difficult on earth as they are now worldwide.
I can remember the 1960s and 1970s with all the radical social change that tore our country apart(America). I'm not really sure if it has recovered yet from the 60s and 70s or from
the Great Depression and World War II for that matter. And then just when it started to settle down and begin to make some sense there was AIDS that screwed up most of the social progress of the 1960s and 1970s during the 1980s. So at every point being a human has been twisted and convoluted with changes and craziness.
But now, Global warming, Islamic Jihad, the falling dollar, millions worldwide starving to death and no one seeming to know what to do, Cyclones and earthquakes killing hundreds of thousands of people in the last 4 years(maybe 500,000 total or more in 5 years), the craziness of the never ending Subprime meltdown, the emergence of China and India as economic powerhouses(this might be good for India and China) but I don't know yet for the rest of the world).
Then on a personal note 3 people close to me are dealing with senile dementia and one died, an Aunt in the past week, one of my sons closest friends just got married last fall and (surprise) just had to have all his lower intestines removed at age 29 and may or may not live, etc. etc. etc.
However, on a good note my sons other best friend just finished a documentary about jogging on the Great wall of China during a marathon there. He left the day of the earthquake and I talked to him yesterday from somewhere in California. He was walking on air. My son is elated and turning 34 today because he and his 21 year old girlfriend have been been accepted into the same medical school program they are transferring to. So they are happy that they will be together and study together there.
The following will be a metaphysical attempt to try to make some sense of the overwhelm. Don't expect what I'm going to say now to be literally always true but only a process of trying to make sense of it all through metaphysical free association.
I walked out my door with my dogs today and drove a mile to one of my favorite paths in our large green belt through a pine and oak forest with streams and ferns. As we walked I realized that I had left my cellphone charging. It made me think that how strange that we have become so dependant on cell phones for all types of communiction in just 20 years. This means that my first 40 years there was no such thing except large walkie-talkies and radiotelephones for the very few.
As I walked along I felt the warm sun on my face and felt the now familiar feeling of communion and communication with all the life around me on the beautiful beautiful trail. I started to think back on when I first felt Earth as a lover or as a wife. I think it must have begun in childhood. So from this real experience of earth as a person I have always deeply loved came the realization at about 22 that I was a natural shaman. I have read about Merlin's experiences of Gaia(mother earth) and now have written about such experiences myself on occasion. I know many worldwide feel as I do and experience the two way communication with all plants and animals and even people on a cellular level like I do. So even if there is no verbal communication most realy important communication between beings isn't verbal, I find. Verbal communication is mostly about being polite and reassuring others you won't hurt them I find. Maybe I especially need to assure people of this because I am 6 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and my aura is usually pretty intense so maybe I need to assure people more than most do.
However, at 60 I hope people view me in more kindly ways as less take my height and physicality as a threat. However, it has been very useful to be this big in travelling all around the world. No one has been foolish enough to physically attack me in all my travels. However, the East Indian gypsy lady who grabbed my thigh on a main street of New Delhi I felt fairly threatened by until I gave her some money to just go away. One doesn't usually want some strange older woman to get on her knees and grab ones thigh with thousands and thousands of people walking by and watching.
I realized that since I had a conversation with my aunt recently passed over that she had been trying to converse with me but I was just too overwhelmed until a few moments yesterday to have a useful conversation with her. I realized I needed to talk to her more yesterday to do what I could to help her with her transition to the next world.
Somehow, walking with my dogs in the morning sunlight on this beautiful day I knew would help.
I don't think I remember a time in my 60 years when so many things were changing at once, or when so many people were dying at once(or when so many species were extincting at once). It makes my head spin trying to regain balance from it all. Not since World War II have things been this physically difficult on earth as they are now worldwide.
I can remember the 1960s and 1970s with all the radical social change that tore our country apart(America). I'm not really sure if it has recovered yet from the 60s and 70s or from
the Great Depression and World War II for that matter. And then just when it started to settle down and begin to make some sense there was AIDS that screwed up most of the social progress of the 1960s and 1970s during the 1980s. So at every point being a human has been twisted and convoluted with changes and craziness.
But now, Global warming, Islamic Jihad, the falling dollar, millions worldwide starving to death and no one seeming to know what to do, Cyclones and earthquakes killing hundreds of thousands of people in the last 4 years(maybe 500,000 total or more in 5 years), the craziness of the never ending Subprime meltdown, the emergence of China and India as economic powerhouses(this might be good for India and China) but I don't know yet for the rest of the world).
Then on a personal note 3 people close to me are dealing with senile dementia and one died, an Aunt in the past week, one of my sons closest friends just got married last fall and (surprise) just had to have all his lower intestines removed at age 29 and may or may not live, etc. etc. etc.
However, on a good note my sons other best friend just finished a documentary about jogging on the Great wall of China during a marathon there. He left the day of the earthquake and I talked to him yesterday from somewhere in California. He was walking on air. My son is elated and turning 34 today because he and his 21 year old girlfriend have been been accepted into the same medical school program they are transferring to. So they are happy that they will be together and study together there.
The following will be a metaphysical attempt to try to make some sense of the overwhelm. Don't expect what I'm going to say now to be literally always true but only a process of trying to make sense of it all through metaphysical free association.
I walked out my door with my dogs today and drove a mile to one of my favorite paths in our large green belt through a pine and oak forest with streams and ferns. As we walked I realized that I had left my cellphone charging. It made me think that how strange that we have become so dependant on cell phones for all types of communiction in just 20 years. This means that my first 40 years there was no such thing except large walkie-talkies and radiotelephones for the very few.
As I walked along I felt the warm sun on my face and felt the now familiar feeling of communion and communication with all the life around me on the beautiful beautiful trail. I started to think back on when I first felt Earth as a lover or as a wife. I think it must have begun in childhood. So from this real experience of earth as a person I have always deeply loved came the realization at about 22 that I was a natural shaman. I have read about Merlin's experiences of Gaia(mother earth) and now have written about such experiences myself on occasion. I know many worldwide feel as I do and experience the two way communication with all plants and animals and even people on a cellular level like I do. So even if there is no verbal communication most realy important communication between beings isn't verbal, I find. Verbal communication is mostly about being polite and reassuring others you won't hurt them I find. Maybe I especially need to assure people of this because I am 6 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and my aura is usually pretty intense so maybe I need to assure people more than most do.
However, at 60 I hope people view me in more kindly ways as less take my height and physicality as a threat. However, it has been very useful to be this big in travelling all around the world. No one has been foolish enough to physically attack me in all my travels. However, the East Indian gypsy lady who grabbed my thigh on a main street of New Delhi I felt fairly threatened by until I gave her some money to just go away. One doesn't usually want some strange older woman to get on her knees and grab ones thigh with thousands and thousands of people walking by and watching.
I realized that since I had a conversation with my aunt recently passed over that she had been trying to converse with me but I was just too overwhelmed until a few moments yesterday to have a useful conversation with her. I realized I needed to talk to her more yesterday to do what I could to help her with her transition to the next world.
Somehow, walking with my dogs in the morning sunlight on this beautiful day I knew would help.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Disaster Fatigue
Disaster fatigue is setting in big-time worldwide. There have just been too many disasters this last decade for the civilization of earth to respond to in a really meaningful way. There is enough food and enough water for all humans alive right now. The problem is it costs too much to deliver so 10s of millions likely will starve to death this year. The disaster fatigue is understandable so what individuals can't do nations must step up to the plate and do. The alternative is to watch millions waste away every year this century with the numbers dying increasing every year.
Some might be callous enough to say it is survival of the fittest or natural selection and in a callous sense they might even be right. However, who among us has the right to say who lives and who dies? Only during wars do most people make these kinds of decisions. However, wars disturb the earth and only create more chaos most of the time. The kinds of things that create the worst wars are AIDS out of control, starvation out of control and gangs and warlords out of control as well as various epidemics.
The world must figure either a way to provide compulsory birth control worldwide or provide a meal and clothes and shelter for those born. The whole earth civilization together is responsible for what happens to all humans. If ten million humans starve to death the whole civilization of earth is responsible en masse.
Some might be callous enough to say it is survival of the fittest or natural selection and in a callous sense they might even be right. However, who among us has the right to say who lives and who dies? Only during wars do most people make these kinds of decisions. However, wars disturb the earth and only create more chaos most of the time. The kinds of things that create the worst wars are AIDS out of control, starvation out of control and gangs and warlords out of control as well as various epidemics.
The world must figure either a way to provide compulsory birth control worldwide or provide a meal and clothes and shelter for those born. The whole earth civilization together is responsible for what happens to all humans. If ten million humans starve to death the whole civilization of earth is responsible en masse.
The Problem with Atheism
There is a saying,"There are no atheists in foxholes". This simply put means if you think or know you are going to die you need God whether you want to believe in Him, Her, It or not.
For me, this is the main problem with Atheism and agnosticism. Though one can logically make all the arguments they want for either of these states of belief they are leaving out one important fact. Humans need a concept of God and eternity to move into passing on in a healthy way.
Yes. People all the time go out angry in an atheistic state of mind and I can understand that. However, pragmatically speaking I find that self-deceptive. It is self deceptive because even though atheism might be perfectly logical and even rational, it is not ultimately pragmatic and functional.
Right now I'm dealing with a friend that is old(almost 90) and has outdone even Frank Sinatra with the ladies. But there is one flaw he is now dealing with.
What happens when Didactic materialism meets with Atheism and wealth when the end is near? It is relatively horrific for the person going through this as the senses begin to fail. It is just not a pretty picture at all.
Many spiritual teachers from the East and West have talked about this problem. The problem is that you cannot take physical wealth or possessions with you to the next world. You can only take the abilities you have developed here in mind, spirit,and consciousness. While it is true that "As a Man thinks so is He" and "a rich man will usually get rich again even if his wealth disappears temporarily" the second statement doesn't work when one passes on.
Even if you believe in reincarnation one who is rich now might not be rich the next incarnation which is one reason many Gurus say to meditate upon the impermanence of life and of being as compassionate as possible to oneself and all other beings.
Being as kind as possible to other beings in whatever way one is gifted works well in the here and now whether one is an atheistic humanist or spiritual or religious so that when your time comes for giving up your physical life and physical possessions and all your friends and relatives at death it is less painful. Like one of my grandmothers used to say, "Ahh. It's that letting go that is the thing". At some point we will all have to let go of all our friends, our body and all we own or think we own. It is all temporary. So that it is not too awful when it happens maybe we should begin to practice at least in our minds letting go now. I think this is why Gurus say, "meditate on impermanence".
My son lost several members of his mother's family one year recently. His response to this was to say, "I'm tired of working on computers I want to be a nurse. I want to save people not computers. So now he is in medical school. I thought this to be a very astute meditation on impermanence. His response was to help prolong others visit here on earth before the inevitable happens as a way to heal his own loss of relatives and friends in the here and now.
For me, this is the main problem with Atheism and agnosticism. Though one can logically make all the arguments they want for either of these states of belief they are leaving out one important fact. Humans need a concept of God and eternity to move into passing on in a healthy way.
Yes. People all the time go out angry in an atheistic state of mind and I can understand that. However, pragmatically speaking I find that self-deceptive. It is self deceptive because even though atheism might be perfectly logical and even rational, it is not ultimately pragmatic and functional.
Right now I'm dealing with a friend that is old(almost 90) and has outdone even Frank Sinatra with the ladies. But there is one flaw he is now dealing with.
What happens when Didactic materialism meets with Atheism and wealth when the end is near? It is relatively horrific for the person going through this as the senses begin to fail. It is just not a pretty picture at all.
Many spiritual teachers from the East and West have talked about this problem. The problem is that you cannot take physical wealth or possessions with you to the next world. You can only take the abilities you have developed here in mind, spirit,and consciousness. While it is true that "As a Man thinks so is He" and "a rich man will usually get rich again even if his wealth disappears temporarily" the second statement doesn't work when one passes on.
Even if you believe in reincarnation one who is rich now might not be rich the next incarnation which is one reason many Gurus say to meditate upon the impermanence of life and of being as compassionate as possible to oneself and all other beings.
Being as kind as possible to other beings in whatever way one is gifted works well in the here and now whether one is an atheistic humanist or spiritual or religious so that when your time comes for giving up your physical life and physical possessions and all your friends and relatives at death it is less painful. Like one of my grandmothers used to say, "Ahh. It's that letting go that is the thing". At some point we will all have to let go of all our friends, our body and all we own or think we own. It is all temporary. So that it is not too awful when it happens maybe we should begin to practice at least in our minds letting go now. I think this is why Gurus say, "meditate on impermanence".
My son lost several members of his mother's family one year recently. His response to this was to say, "I'm tired of working on computers I want to be a nurse. I want to save people not computers. So now he is in medical school. I thought this to be a very astute meditation on impermanence. His response was to help prolong others visit here on earth before the inevitable happens as a way to heal his own loss of relatives and friends in the here and now.
My First Great Car
I was 20 years old and it was 1968. I had already had two cars by this point in my life. After getting my driver's license the day I turned 16 I bought my first car, a 1956 Ford Stationwagon that I called my "surf wagon" because it is what I used to haul my buddies and our surfboards to the ocean. I surfed Malibu and Huntington Beach back then between 1962 and 1969. At 18 when I started going to college my parents got me to sell my stationwagon and bought me a 1965 VW beetle(bug). I drove that while in College but then decided to work a couple of years after my first year in college. At 20 I was ready for my first "great car". At first I wanted a Porche until I sat in one and realized I was too tall to be comfortable in one. Next, I sat in a new 1968 Mustang fastback and realized I was too tall for that one too. However, a 1968 Camaro had just the right head room and leg room so I settled on buying a Camaro because it had both looks and power and already was known as "the poor man's Corvette". Though I wasn't poor I was 20 which for most people is being poor. My father had me look at first at a 6 cylinder 1967 Gold Camaro. However, I wanted a 327 8 cylindar engine. So, the next day I went shopping for a Camaro with my Mom(I needed her to cosign a car loan for me).
I bought a brand new 1968 Metallic blue 327 cubic inch 8 cylinder Camaro which was along with my cousins XKE Jaguar the fastest things I had ever driven between the speeds of 20 and 70 miles per hour. Both could make the trip from 20 to 70 miles per hour in about 2 or 3 seconds or less. I loved the feel of being pasted back into my seat like an astronaut taking off into space while doing a controlled acceleration in a muscle car. I liked the handling of a Camaro too. Though some people might consider the ride of a 1968 Camaro a little stiff it was designed for racing and cornering at high speeds without crashing. This feature saved my life many times on the freeways. Less speedy and less maneuverable cars than mine in the hands of drivers not as skilled as I often crashed in those days on the freeway. Today more cars on the road handle like sports cars and so everyone is safer, especially with disc brakes,radial tires, and ABS braking systems etc. Back then none of these were standard and even radial tires were relatively new and not standard yet. So freeway accidents then sometimes were pretty awful in Los Angeles, California.
In the deserts near Pearblossom, California within 100 miles of Los Angeles, I can remember once passing 25 cars at once on a two lane highway. This would not have been possible with any other car that I have driven that didn't have the instant repsonsiveness of my new Camaro. However, that is something I wouldn't have done if I hadn't been 20 either. By 21 I had gained a lot of maturity. Now I have driven about 1 to 2 million miles since I was 12.
I bought a brand new 1968 Metallic blue 327 cubic inch 8 cylinder Camaro which was along with my cousins XKE Jaguar the fastest things I had ever driven between the speeds of 20 and 70 miles per hour. Both could make the trip from 20 to 70 miles per hour in about 2 or 3 seconds or less. I loved the feel of being pasted back into my seat like an astronaut taking off into space while doing a controlled acceleration in a muscle car. I liked the handling of a Camaro too. Though some people might consider the ride of a 1968 Camaro a little stiff it was designed for racing and cornering at high speeds without crashing. This feature saved my life many times on the freeways. Less speedy and less maneuverable cars than mine in the hands of drivers not as skilled as I often crashed in those days on the freeway. Today more cars on the road handle like sports cars and so everyone is safer, especially with disc brakes,radial tires, and ABS braking systems etc. Back then none of these were standard and even radial tires were relatively new and not standard yet. So freeway accidents then sometimes were pretty awful in Los Angeles, California.
In the deserts near Pearblossom, California within 100 miles of Los Angeles, I can remember once passing 25 cars at once on a two lane highway. This would not have been possible with any other car that I have driven that didn't have the instant repsonsiveness of my new Camaro. However, that is something I wouldn't have done if I hadn't been 20 either. By 21 I had gained a lot of maturity. Now I have driven about 1 to 2 million miles since I was 12.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Tibetan Art of Divination
http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/divination.html
The above site is from the Tibetan Government in exile. I would like to quote from this page but I will not change or alter what is written in any way. In this way you can benefit from this 3000+ plus year long civilization and culture. Their way of dealing with situations I have found to be profound. It will not work for you at all unless you believe it for that appears to be a part of the dynamics of divination. The person being helped(creating a positive outcome through a prayer form)through divination or at least the person asking for the divination must believe in the form of the divination and the one doing it for it to work properly that is a given. However, if the person being helped does not ever know about the divination they don't need to believe in it only the person doing the divination and the person asking for the divination need to believe for it to work.I printed out a copy of this for myself in 1997. I have found it very useful and comforting to have this information in my life which is why I wish to share it with you.
Begin quote:
Tibetan art of Divination
by Dorjee Tseten
Tibetan Bulletin
March-april 1995
"Although means of telling the future were employed in Tibet, before the advent of Buddhism, they are not regarded as an alien remnant outside the Buddhist framework that it is occasionally convenient to call upon. Rather, they are used within the sphere of Buddhist concepts, functioning in accordance with Buddhist principles such as karma. There are no references to divination in the collection of sutras, but many can be found in the tantras.
Purpose: By looking into someone's future, the diviner or medium can assess the particular situation and recommend how to respond or deal with it Remedial action, in the form of rituals, evokes positive forces and can result in a change in the person's fortune. Rituals will not change a person's karma, and those requesting and performing divination are aware of this. However, they can induce latent positive potential to take precedence over that which is perceived as the cause of an impending misfortune." endquote.
If you wish to learn more please go to the site I listed above on Tibetan Divination.
The last quote of "However, they can induce latent positive potential to take precedence over that which is perceived as the cause of an impending misfortune."
I feel this is very important to the entire human race. All actions create reactions in the form of good, bad, and neutral karma and usually all three at once. So just as in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" karma or sowing is the same. So leading with positive karma can create much better outcomes for everyone in both the short run and in the long run.
The above site is from the Tibetan Government in exile. I would like to quote from this page but I will not change or alter what is written in any way. In this way you can benefit from this 3000+ plus year long civilization and culture. Their way of dealing with situations I have found to be profound. It will not work for you at all unless you believe it for that appears to be a part of the dynamics of divination. The person being helped(creating a positive outcome through a prayer form)through divination or at least the person asking for the divination must believe in the form of the divination and the one doing it for it to work properly that is a given. However, if the person being helped does not ever know about the divination they don't need to believe in it only the person doing the divination and the person asking for the divination need to believe for it to work.I printed out a copy of this for myself in 1997. I have found it very useful and comforting to have this information in my life which is why I wish to share it with you.
Begin quote:
Tibetan art of Divination
by Dorjee Tseten
Tibetan Bulletin
March-april 1995
"Although means of telling the future were employed in Tibet, before the advent of Buddhism, they are not regarded as an alien remnant outside the Buddhist framework that it is occasionally convenient to call upon. Rather, they are used within the sphere of Buddhist concepts, functioning in accordance with Buddhist principles such as karma. There are no references to divination in the collection of sutras, but many can be found in the tantras.
Purpose: By looking into someone's future, the diviner or medium can assess the particular situation and recommend how to respond or deal with it Remedial action, in the form of rituals, evokes positive forces and can result in a change in the person's fortune. Rituals will not change a person's karma, and those requesting and performing divination are aware of this. However, they can induce latent positive potential to take precedence over that which is perceived as the cause of an impending misfortune." endquote.
If you wish to learn more please go to the site I listed above on Tibetan Divination.
The last quote of "However, they can induce latent positive potential to take precedence over that which is perceived as the cause of an impending misfortune."
I feel this is very important to the entire human race. All actions create reactions in the form of good, bad, and neutral karma and usually all three at once. So just as in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" karma or sowing is the same. So leading with positive karma can create much better outcomes for everyone in both the short run and in the long run.
Laser heats up the fusion future
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7407963.stm
begin quote from above url:
The world's most powerful laser has heated matter to 10 million Celsius, hotter than the surface of the Sun.
The Vulcan laser concentrated energy equivalent to 100 times the world's electricity production into a spot just a few millionths of a metre across.
Writing in the New Journal of Physics, scientists said they could create the conditions for fractions of a second.
The experiments demonstrated concepts which could be key to building a future nuclear fusion reactor.
Nuclear fusion is looked on as a panacea in a world that demands ever increasing amounts of energy.
The fuel for the process is deuterium and tritium, two heavier forms of hydrogen that are commonly found in seawater.
LASER FUSION
Christine Keeler
1. Powerful lasers irradiate a fuel capsule causing the outer layer to rapidly expand.
2. The fuel capsule's core increases in density, converging at the tip of a gold cone.
3. An intense ignition laser is fired into the gold cone producing energetic electrons.
4. Electrons bombard the fuel raising its temperature to 100 million Celsius, initiating fusion.
When these isotopes are combined at high temperatures, a small amount of mass is lost and a colossal amount of energy is released. By-products are no more radioactive than hospital waste.
The process naturally occurs in the core of the Sun where huge gravitational pressure allows this to happen at temperatures of around 10 million Celsius.
At the much lower pressures on Earth, temperatures to produce fusion would need to be much higher - above 100 million Celsius. endquote.
Though the practical use of hydrogen fusion as an energy source for the generation of power to run almost everything on earth may be 100 years away it is coming. In the meantime we may need to use solar, wind, and water as a source of hydrogen and oxygen to fill in the gap to avoid worldwide chaos during the interim.
begin quote from above url:
The world's most powerful laser has heated matter to 10 million Celsius, hotter than the surface of the Sun.
The Vulcan laser concentrated energy equivalent to 100 times the world's electricity production into a spot just a few millionths of a metre across.
Writing in the New Journal of Physics, scientists said they could create the conditions for fractions of a second.
The experiments demonstrated concepts which could be key to building a future nuclear fusion reactor.
Nuclear fusion is looked on as a panacea in a world that demands ever increasing amounts of energy.
The fuel for the process is deuterium and tritium, two heavier forms of hydrogen that are commonly found in seawater.
LASER FUSION
Christine Keeler
1. Powerful lasers irradiate a fuel capsule causing the outer layer to rapidly expand.
2. The fuel capsule's core increases in density, converging at the tip of a gold cone.
3. An intense ignition laser is fired into the gold cone producing energetic electrons.
4. Electrons bombard the fuel raising its temperature to 100 million Celsius, initiating fusion.
When these isotopes are combined at high temperatures, a small amount of mass is lost and a colossal amount of energy is released. By-products are no more radioactive than hospital waste.
The process naturally occurs in the core of the Sun where huge gravitational pressure allows this to happen at temperatures of around 10 million Celsius.
At the much lower pressures on Earth, temperatures to produce fusion would need to be much higher - above 100 million Celsius. endquote.
Though the practical use of hydrogen fusion as an energy source for the generation of power to run almost everything on earth may be 100 years away it is coming. In the meantime we may need to use solar, wind, and water as a source of hydrogen and oxygen to fill in the gap to avoid worldwide chaos during the interim.
Cyclone Nargis impact "bigger than Tsunami"
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23714320-2,00.html
begin quote from above url:"A DEEPLY shaken Tim Costello, World Vision Australia's boss, has arrived back from cyclone-ravaged Burma convinced it is "tottering on a precipice".
Cyclone Nargis, which hit two weeks ago, has left nearly 78,000 people dead and another 56,000 are still missing.
After a week and a half in the capital Rangoon, which was virtually unscathed by the hurricane, Mr Costello said there are tens of thousands of people who have yet to receive even the most basic aid.
"It (the cyclone) is going to knock the rice belt of Burma around for years," Mr Costello said."endquote.
Though I agree with the above from everything I'm reading in studying the situation from worldwide reports there also appears to be a local movement among the Burmese people in trying to help the affected victims. One Burmese lady spoke of long lines of people mostly wives and mothers standing begging for rice so they and there families could survive. They told her that it was worth it to wait for three or four hours on the main roads until someone gave them enough rice to survive another day. The lady from Rangoon said she was horrified at just how bad the situation was. Many Burmese feel the government may eventually collapse because of the many many many ramifications not only in Burma but the many effects especially from water born and airborne diseases throughout that part of Asia.
begin quote from above url:"A DEEPLY shaken Tim Costello, World Vision Australia's boss, has arrived back from cyclone-ravaged Burma convinced it is "tottering on a precipice".
Cyclone Nargis, which hit two weeks ago, has left nearly 78,000 people dead and another 56,000 are still missing.
After a week and a half in the capital Rangoon, which was virtually unscathed by the hurricane, Mr Costello said there are tens of thousands of people who have yet to receive even the most basic aid.
"It (the cyclone) is going to knock the rice belt of Burma around for years," Mr Costello said."endquote.
Though I agree with the above from everything I'm reading in studying the situation from worldwide reports there also appears to be a local movement among the Burmese people in trying to help the affected victims. One Burmese lady spoke of long lines of people mostly wives and mothers standing begging for rice so they and there families could survive. They told her that it was worth it to wait for three or four hours on the main roads until someone gave them enough rice to survive another day. The lady from Rangoon said she was horrified at just how bad the situation was. Many Burmese feel the government may eventually collapse because of the many many many ramifications not only in Burma but the many effects especially from water born and airborne diseases throughout that part of Asia.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
For a Rich Man to enter Heaven
The following will be based upon real experiences but fictionalized because these conversations I had with many highly developed spiritual and religious teachers, of Christian, Buddhist persuasions as well as Yogis and Native American medicine men. Though I'm attributing these conversations to my friend, Geshela(which means spiritual friend in Tibetan),who was a Tibetan Lama that my wife and I sponsored to come to California and helped him get a green card of the same kind granted to Catholic priests, these ideas are actually from ALL my spiritual teachers from birth until now.
It was January 1986 and I was in Dharmsala, India. We were staying in the Macleod Ganj section of Dharmsala at this point. When we first arrived in Dharmsala we stayed at the Kailash Inn? but because we were 5 we needed larger quarters and finally found them at a place called the Green Hotel. We then went out and purchased a kerosene stove to boil and sterilize our water for drinking. Also, it doubled as a heater for our room which had only electricity. Though it was a large group of rooms it got into the 20s farenheit in January because we were at almost 6000 feet in elevation in the Himalayas.So, the kerosene stove kept us from getting to cold or miserable while staying in Dharmsala at that time. I remember waking up one morning to go talk to a lama and it must have been about 30 degrees farenheit out(two degrees below freezing). There was a 3 year old getting a bath in ice cold water outside in a wash tub who didn't complain and acted like this was normal just like his Mom. I felt like such a pampered westerner at that moment. However, the flipside of this was that Geshela, whose parents were long distance traders who drove their yaks loaded with goods about 500 miles several times a year to trade with people in China from Kham, Tibet told me that his parents died at 52 for his father and 54 for his mother so he expected to die in his 50s. He was about 52 when I met him. I said, "Geshela. If you come back to California with us you will live much longer than that!" He looked at me not quite believing me because in Tibet most people don't live past their 50s who work out in the weather.
Though Geshela understood English very well his thick Khampa Tibetan Accent made it difficult to completely understand him sometimes. It was, at times like talking to someone from another planet, metaphorically at least. As I studied how a Tibetan and especially a Lama is taught to think I slowly found that dreams and physical reality are equal in validity.
For example, one night I had a terrible dream about being beheaded and felt sort of nervous about it the whole next day. Geshela said, "Oh. That is a wonderful dream. It means you are growing incredibly. That is a very good sign!" So I went from feeling very nervous about it to being reassured that this was a good sign in a Tibetan Lama way of thinking.
I think this equanimity of thoughts however, has its limitations. I found that many lamas seemed to have difficulty mastering things like driving cars because they lived in a world different than many people do. However, they could create supernatural events in such a way that it seemed perfectly natural because they existed in a consciousness that was at the nexus of dreams and physical reality.
Lama Gyultrul Rinpoche(spelling?) that I met in Ashland Oregon when he first came to Los Angeles was teaching the dharma to starfish. So I guess this means talking to starfish in Tibetan about the dharma. Well, he was doing this and people saw him and someone didn't know he was a Tibetan Lama and took him to the UCLA psychiatric center. So everyone had a good laugh when they realized he was a High Tibetan Buddhis t Lama and doing this was perfectly normal for Buddhist monks around the world.
There are many many true stories that I have heard and many I have seen myself. I have found Tibetan Lamas and Tibetans in general incredibly precious people that deserve our protection from harm because they are taught by their culture to be harmless. Such people should be helped and protected for they are a Godsend to us all.
One day I was taking a tour of Dharmsala and Geshela was talking to me. He said, "Fred, you have to stop talking about supernatural things. There are spies from all over the world here in Dharmsala trying to figure out how we do what we do. It is not good to talk about supernatural things because it could be dangerous."
Tibetan Lamas and monks don't teach or show the really powerful stuff unless the student demonstrates both aptitude and compassion for all life in the universe. This is out of compassion for all life in the universe that this system exists. It protects the student from biting off more than he can chew or survive. And it protects all beings from harm by an out of control student. Just like you don't let children drive cars, they don't teach powerful stuff to people with bad motivations.
There was a story I heard that I believe to be true from all that I saw there. A High Lama was being strangled to death by Chinese soldiers when they invaded Tibet. They shoved his Kata(white blessing cloth) down his throat and he was dying. He wanted to demonstrate he could kill with his mind if he chose to so he turned a cup on the table inside out with his mind and then psychically threw it against the wall before he died. He would not misuse he gifts even to save his own life to harm the soldiers. That is dedication and compassion! This kind of compassion and discipline I have found in many Tibetan Lamas. And I have found this kind of devotion in many Tibetan people I met. In my spirit I always felt more at home than any other time in my life when I was with Tibetans and Tibetan lamas. It was an ongoing very amazing experience.
Geshela and I were walking through Dharmsala and I asked him about rich people. He said, "Rich people are rich because of their karma." He said,"However, most highly evolved souls don't choose to be born rich. It is too easy to become distant and to loose compassion for the everyman, the everywoman and the everychild. It is harmful to ones soul to not be able to experience the suffering of the common person. There is no nobility without the compassion for the suffering of the common person. So I said, "So, Geshela. The problem isn't really being rich it is loosing touch with the reality of suffering of the common person?" He said, "Yes. That is the problem. And not being able to have empathy for them can lead to a hellish rebirth." I said, "What about being born poor to middle class like I and many people I know were and then becoming rich?" He gave me a look like he was sizing me up and said,"If one had already developed compassion for all beings in the universe then such a one could become rich like a Buddha to mankind and help to create an amazing future on earth for all life here." I will never forget the look he gave me after this. I think I had asked the right question!
It was January 1986 and I was in Dharmsala, India. We were staying in the Macleod Ganj section of Dharmsala at this point. When we first arrived in Dharmsala we stayed at the Kailash Inn? but because we were 5 we needed larger quarters and finally found them at a place called the Green Hotel. We then went out and purchased a kerosene stove to boil and sterilize our water for drinking. Also, it doubled as a heater for our room which had only electricity. Though it was a large group of rooms it got into the 20s farenheit in January because we were at almost 6000 feet in elevation in the Himalayas.So, the kerosene stove kept us from getting to cold or miserable while staying in Dharmsala at that time. I remember waking up one morning to go talk to a lama and it must have been about 30 degrees farenheit out(two degrees below freezing). There was a 3 year old getting a bath in ice cold water outside in a wash tub who didn't complain and acted like this was normal just like his Mom. I felt like such a pampered westerner at that moment. However, the flipside of this was that Geshela, whose parents were long distance traders who drove their yaks loaded with goods about 500 miles several times a year to trade with people in China from Kham, Tibet told me that his parents died at 52 for his father and 54 for his mother so he expected to die in his 50s. He was about 52 when I met him. I said, "Geshela. If you come back to California with us you will live much longer than that!" He looked at me not quite believing me because in Tibet most people don't live past their 50s who work out in the weather.
Though Geshela understood English very well his thick Khampa Tibetan Accent made it difficult to completely understand him sometimes. It was, at times like talking to someone from another planet, metaphorically at least. As I studied how a Tibetan and especially a Lama is taught to think I slowly found that dreams and physical reality are equal in validity.
For example, one night I had a terrible dream about being beheaded and felt sort of nervous about it the whole next day. Geshela said, "Oh. That is a wonderful dream. It means you are growing incredibly. That is a very good sign!" So I went from feeling very nervous about it to being reassured that this was a good sign in a Tibetan Lama way of thinking.
I think this equanimity of thoughts however, has its limitations. I found that many lamas seemed to have difficulty mastering things like driving cars because they lived in a world different than many people do. However, they could create supernatural events in such a way that it seemed perfectly natural because they existed in a consciousness that was at the nexus of dreams and physical reality.
Lama Gyultrul Rinpoche(spelling?) that I met in Ashland Oregon when he first came to Los Angeles was teaching the dharma to starfish. So I guess this means talking to starfish in Tibetan about the dharma. Well, he was doing this and people saw him and someone didn't know he was a Tibetan Lama and took him to the UCLA psychiatric center. So everyone had a good laugh when they realized he was a High Tibetan Buddhis t Lama and doing this was perfectly normal for Buddhist monks around the world.
There are many many true stories that I have heard and many I have seen myself. I have found Tibetan Lamas and Tibetans in general incredibly precious people that deserve our protection from harm because they are taught by their culture to be harmless. Such people should be helped and protected for they are a Godsend to us all.
One day I was taking a tour of Dharmsala and Geshela was talking to me. He said, "Fred, you have to stop talking about supernatural things. There are spies from all over the world here in Dharmsala trying to figure out how we do what we do. It is not good to talk about supernatural things because it could be dangerous."
Tibetan Lamas and monks don't teach or show the really powerful stuff unless the student demonstrates both aptitude and compassion for all life in the universe. This is out of compassion for all life in the universe that this system exists. It protects the student from biting off more than he can chew or survive. And it protects all beings from harm by an out of control student. Just like you don't let children drive cars, they don't teach powerful stuff to people with bad motivations.
There was a story I heard that I believe to be true from all that I saw there. A High Lama was being strangled to death by Chinese soldiers when they invaded Tibet. They shoved his Kata(white blessing cloth) down his throat and he was dying. He wanted to demonstrate he could kill with his mind if he chose to so he turned a cup on the table inside out with his mind and then psychically threw it against the wall before he died. He would not misuse he gifts even to save his own life to harm the soldiers. That is dedication and compassion! This kind of compassion and discipline I have found in many Tibetan Lamas. And I have found this kind of devotion in many Tibetan people I met. In my spirit I always felt more at home than any other time in my life when I was with Tibetans and Tibetan lamas. It was an ongoing very amazing experience.
Geshela and I were walking through Dharmsala and I asked him about rich people. He said, "Rich people are rich because of their karma." He said,"However, most highly evolved souls don't choose to be born rich. It is too easy to become distant and to loose compassion for the everyman, the everywoman and the everychild. It is harmful to ones soul to not be able to experience the suffering of the common person. There is no nobility without the compassion for the suffering of the common person. So I said, "So, Geshela. The problem isn't really being rich it is loosing touch with the reality of suffering of the common person?" He said, "Yes. That is the problem. And not being able to have empathy for them can lead to a hellish rebirth." I said, "What about being born poor to middle class like I and many people I know were and then becoming rich?" He gave me a look like he was sizing me up and said,"If one had already developed compassion for all beings in the universe then such a one could become rich like a Buddha to mankind and help to create an amazing future on earth for all life here." I will never forget the look he gave me after this. I think I had asked the right question!
Stalemate over Burma
This stalemate only means 10s of thousands more will die in Burma. I believe as a thinking man and as a life long precognitive psychic that it doesn't end there. The consequences of the world not being allowed to save Burmese lives will be very long lasting. It is my belief that those children who do survive will have revenge in mind and if they aren't properly educated they could be very dangerous in the future. To whom, I'm not sure just yet. In the shorter term Dengue Fever, Cholera, and other diseases that come from drinking water with dead things in it like people and animals likely will be the worst problem in Burma and neighboring countries. Walking wounded of people who have lost all their family or most of their family or even one significant other or a child will be wandering around Burma and the world for some time. This stalemate only shows the world just how dysfunctional and out of control things are getting some places and it seems to be spreading. It seems the whole world is in for it this century one way or the other. God Help US!
Even though a similar thing has happened because of the earthquakes in China, at least there is some hope there. There is some sanity there with Chinese helping Chinese and at least burying the dead. With some group sanity there can be at least hope. Without hope, the people perish!
Even though a similar thing has happened because of the earthquakes in China, at least there is some hope there. There is some sanity there with Chinese helping Chinese and at least burying the dead. With some group sanity there can be at least hope. Without hope, the people perish!
UFO Believers Thrilled By Vaticans Blessing
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.
php?Cat=&Board=news_philosophy&Number=296239884
begin quote from above URL:
"We are always trying to restrict God's creativity, putting theological difficulties in the way. But I don't think God bothers with theological difficulties."
Human beings, on the other hand, have a tendency to be a bit literal when interpreting the teachings of their faiths. Proof of that can be found in the Puritanical pudding at the Salem witch trials in 1692, not to mention countless history books or even today's headlines. Many a faithful soul today would be aghast at talk of UFOs and other forms of intelligent life.
"Any kind of literalist in Christianity would be barring these sorts of beliefs," said Thomas O'Brien, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University. "If you were to go to some fundamentalist Christian churches, you'd hear some pastors say belief in UFOs is tantamount to a non-belief in Jesus Christ."
Such pooh-poohing of cosmic possibilities runs quite counter to last week's comments from the Vatican Observatory. Funes said that to not believe life exists beyond our planet would be to "set limits on the creative liberty of God."
And God, most believers would agree, is not someone you want to mess with. As the Rev. Thomas O'Meara, a visiting theology professor at Boston College, put it: "If you have a mature view of God, God can do what God wants."
So what's next? A canonical embrace of ghosts, psychic powers, fairies and, perhaps, the Easter Bunny?
Turns out that's not necessary.
"There are no problems with ghosts and the paranormal because a lot of the personages that populate the cosmic world of Catholicism are precisely those kinds of figures," said O'Brien, the DePaul professor. "So there's nothing against that kind of belief."
endquote.
If God exists and if God is infinite then he or she or it is infinitely
creative and time or space or being are no barrier to what God can do!
Religions are penned in books by men and women beings in finite mortal bodies that do not have the capacity to think infinitely. So how can any man or woman perceive God but in a limited way that cannot possibly do justice to God?
If we are to honor God we must try to reach the infinite capacity that God has in our hearts because human mind is not capable of this alone!
One of the paths is to learn to experience no limitations through meditation. My meditation has been soul travel to inner and outer space. It is possible for me because I have consciously done this since my 20s. However, as a meditation thinking expansively with compassion liberates the mind and soul to care more and to understand more. To limit what God can do in your mind mostly limits you. In setting God free in your mind you set yourself, your family and all your friends free too!
php?Cat=&Board=news_philosophy&Number=296239884
begin quote from above URL:
"We are always trying to restrict God's creativity, putting theological difficulties in the way. But I don't think God bothers with theological difficulties."
Human beings, on the other hand, have a tendency to be a bit literal when interpreting the teachings of their faiths. Proof of that can be found in the Puritanical pudding at the Salem witch trials in 1692, not to mention countless history books or even today's headlines. Many a faithful soul today would be aghast at talk of UFOs and other forms of intelligent life.
"Any kind of literalist in Christianity would be barring these sorts of beliefs," said Thomas O'Brien, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University. "If you were to go to some fundamentalist Christian churches, you'd hear some pastors say belief in UFOs is tantamount to a non-belief in Jesus Christ."
Such pooh-poohing of cosmic possibilities runs quite counter to last week's comments from the Vatican Observatory. Funes said that to not believe life exists beyond our planet would be to "set limits on the creative liberty of God."
And God, most believers would agree, is not someone you want to mess with. As the Rev. Thomas O'Meara, a visiting theology professor at Boston College, put it: "If you have a mature view of God, God can do what God wants."
So what's next? A canonical embrace of ghosts, psychic powers, fairies and, perhaps, the Easter Bunny?
Turns out that's not necessary.
"There are no problems with ghosts and the paranormal because a lot of the personages that populate the cosmic world of Catholicism are precisely those kinds of figures," said O'Brien, the DePaul professor. "So there's nothing against that kind of belief."
endquote.
If God exists and if God is infinite then he or she or it is infinitely
creative and time or space or being are no barrier to what God can do!
Religions are penned in books by men and women beings in finite mortal bodies that do not have the capacity to think infinitely. So how can any man or woman perceive God but in a limited way that cannot possibly do justice to God?
If we are to honor God we must try to reach the infinite capacity that God has in our hearts because human mind is not capable of this alone!
One of the paths is to learn to experience no limitations through meditation. My meditation has been soul travel to inner and outer space. It is possible for me because I have consciously done this since my 20s. However, as a meditation thinking expansively with compassion liberates the mind and soul to care more and to understand more. To limit what God can do in your mind mostly limits you. In setting God free in your mind you set yourself, your family and all your friends free too!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Surviving the Wild
There is a tv cable program that I have started to watch once in a while(we haven't reinstalled cable tv for one year because we just got so tired of 20 minutes of commercials an hour and I couldn't talk my wife into Tivo and I got tired of taping everything before I watched it. Also, my daughter had never experienced life without Cable tv which is a very good thing for every child to experience at one point or another to better understand who they are and how they fit into the universe as well as getting along with their family.
The programs I've seen of "man vs. wild" on the Discovery cable channel have all been pretty accurate as to what one needs to do to survive the situations he "encounters". Even though the situations are obviously "set up" he does basically what one has to with minimal or no equipment to survive in these situations. If you find yourself vacillating on whether to do something or not to survive then likely you won't survive. You simply either do what it takes to survive in that moment or maybe you won't survive. Spending even 10 minutes thinking about what to do might cost you your life in many situations. So knowing when to simply act and when to (after you create some kind of food and shelter) when to take time to make a better plan is very important to your survival.
The first url following is the movie "Man vs Wild"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883772/
If you want to stream tv episodes if your modem is fast enough from your computer
go to:
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/episode/episode.html
One time my then wife in about 1986 and I were off in our van 15 miles from the nearest paved road and driving up into the snow on a dirt road. Even though I had chains I didn't have 4 wheel drive on this vehicle and when I tried to turn around I got stuck and trying to get out I got very wet and so did my wife. The temperature was very unfortunate. It was about 35 to 37 degrees farenheit. I would say from experience that some of the very worst temperatures to be out in above zero degrees are 32 degrees to about 50 degrees if you don't have a good shelter, good clothes and something to stop the nearly freezing rain whether that be a car, truck, roof or plastic poncho or something like that. We did not have those things. We were prepared for snow but not freezing rain and so we got into trouble. We both realized that we couldn't get the vehicle unstuck because of the position without the vehicle turning over and possibly killing one of us.
So we realized that about 5 miles from us was a friends cabin. We knew we might have to break into it but it had a wood stove if he wasn't there with wood we could light and not get so hypothermic that we would both get delerious and pass out. Another option would have been to stay with the vehicle but we both realized we had gotten too cold to be able to warm up without a fire and no fire could be built easily in this driving freezing rain. So we decided to jog the 5 miles to our friends cabin and break in if he wasn't there and build a fire so we didn't die. To this day I don't know if we made the right decision leaving our vehicle but the end result was we survived when many others wouldn't have. So by running the 5 miles we did get more hypothermic but not enough to begin serious halucinations even though by the time we reached the cabin there was not a dry place on either of us so soaked by heavy freezing rain were we.
After we broke into our friends cabin I had difficulty making my hands and fingers work. I had to light several matches and broke them in frustration because my hands were so cold they wouldn't work. So I was shivering shaking and swearing while my wife started to go into halucinations from hypothermia(being too cold too long). However, within 1 hour after reaching the cabin and building a fire we started to feel normal again. Within 3 hours our friend returned and was a little frightened until he saw who it was and was very grateful we had survived the ordeal. Before dark since he had a hefty 4wheel drive chevy pickup truck and a winch, he pulled our vehicle out of the snow and everything was okay.
So it is important to make a useful decision to survive. I still don't know today if I made the right decision because it was very close that we almost didn't make it that day. If I had gotten so cold that I began to halucinate from hypothermia neither of us might have made it and if we had stayed with our vehicle it might have been curtains for us. There were no cellphones then and we didn't have a walkie talkie or anything like that in our vehicle and there were no people at all within 10 miles of us where we got stuck. We survived. That's all.
I think the time I came closest to buying the farm though was on San Gorgonio mountain which is the highest mountain in southern California. I was 21 and it was Winter 1970.
I had driven to younger guys one 18 and one 17 up to climb the mountain with them. I had already climbed Half Dome with the 18 year old so I felt fairly comfortable climbing with him. However, I didn't know the younger guy so I wasn't sure if he would be safe to climb a mountain with. Anyway, we started off and I had snowshoes tied to my back to make it to the top of San Gorgonio Mountain 11,000 plus feet high. However, the cords I had tied the snowshoes on with were cutting into my shoulder so I said I'd stop and adjust them. They asked me if I knew the route to the top. I said, "yes." However, what I didn't know was that there were 2 trails to the top. These boys knew one trail and I only knew of the other. So needless to say I never found them even though I hiked all the way to the summit. However, when I summited at 4 pm I knew I was in trouble. I probably wouldn't have summited if I had known there were two trails because as the oldest I would have stayed with them to watch out for them because I was more mature in my thinking than they were. So I was on the summit and the sun was getting ready to set and I knew I was in trouble. However, I did have one secret weapon a large sheet of plastic like used on some greenhouses. I folded it up and made a sled out of it and slid down about 1000 to 2000 feet in elevation on the snow into the valley toward my car. However, after I stopped sledding down the mountain I put on my snowshoes and started walking but I was cold and tired and it was starting to get dark the sunset was beautiful but I knew this wasn't good as I was still 5 miles from my car. The round trip from car to summit to car was 20 miles so I had already walked 15 miles and was pretty tired and it was starting to get dark. Then something really bad happened. I walked over an invisible because of the snow 10 foot high manzanita bush. My weight broke through the 6 inches of snow on top of it and I was hung by my feet inside the bush called "ironwood" and impaled in many places. At least I didn't have blood coming out of my eyes. Because of my clothing most of the wounds weren't that bad just very painful. As I hung upside down by my snowshoes inside the bush my head didn't touch the ground. I was still several feet from the ground from my head.
I had snow and leaves in my eyes and up my nose and had to be very careful not to put my eyes out on the many twigs and branches surrounding my face. I was so tired and in pain at this point that I felt I needed to cry. I hung upside down for about 30 seconds before I realized that no matter how much it hurt I had to take off my snowshoes, fall further into the bush and then no matter how much it hurt climb out of the manzanita "ironwood" back up onto the snow "about 10 feet deep and put my snowshoes back on so I didn't fall through again. I knew I wouldn't do well if I fell through again. So I scrambled up and out after falling when I released my snowshoes. The hardest part was disentangling my snowshoes without falling back into the hole I had made in the top of 10 feet of snow.
Though there were many other problems in the dark like falling on ice on the trail many times in the dark I survived by walking to the car at about 10pm or 11 pm that night. By this time my father had driven there and contacted a forest ranger and were considering a search party for me the next day. All were incredibly happy to see me. I was really mad at the 18 year old and 17 year old for being as irresponsible as they were and jeapordizing my life.
The programs I've seen of "man vs. wild" on the Discovery cable channel have all been pretty accurate as to what one needs to do to survive the situations he "encounters". Even though the situations are obviously "set up" he does basically what one has to with minimal or no equipment to survive in these situations. If you find yourself vacillating on whether to do something or not to survive then likely you won't survive. You simply either do what it takes to survive in that moment or maybe you won't survive. Spending even 10 minutes thinking about what to do might cost you your life in many situations. So knowing when to simply act and when to (after you create some kind of food and shelter) when to take time to make a better plan is very important to your survival.
The first url following is the movie "Man vs Wild"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883772/
If you want to stream tv episodes if your modem is fast enough from your computer
go to:
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/episode/episode.html
One time my then wife in about 1986 and I were off in our van 15 miles from the nearest paved road and driving up into the snow on a dirt road. Even though I had chains I didn't have 4 wheel drive on this vehicle and when I tried to turn around I got stuck and trying to get out I got very wet and so did my wife. The temperature was very unfortunate. It was about 35 to 37 degrees farenheit. I would say from experience that some of the very worst temperatures to be out in above zero degrees are 32 degrees to about 50 degrees if you don't have a good shelter, good clothes and something to stop the nearly freezing rain whether that be a car, truck, roof or plastic poncho or something like that. We did not have those things. We were prepared for snow but not freezing rain and so we got into trouble. We both realized that we couldn't get the vehicle unstuck because of the position without the vehicle turning over and possibly killing one of us.
So we realized that about 5 miles from us was a friends cabin. We knew we might have to break into it but it had a wood stove if he wasn't there with wood we could light and not get so hypothermic that we would both get delerious and pass out. Another option would have been to stay with the vehicle but we both realized we had gotten too cold to be able to warm up without a fire and no fire could be built easily in this driving freezing rain. So we decided to jog the 5 miles to our friends cabin and break in if he wasn't there and build a fire so we didn't die. To this day I don't know if we made the right decision leaving our vehicle but the end result was we survived when many others wouldn't have. So by running the 5 miles we did get more hypothermic but not enough to begin serious halucinations even though by the time we reached the cabin there was not a dry place on either of us so soaked by heavy freezing rain were we.
After we broke into our friends cabin I had difficulty making my hands and fingers work. I had to light several matches and broke them in frustration because my hands were so cold they wouldn't work. So I was shivering shaking and swearing while my wife started to go into halucinations from hypothermia(being too cold too long). However, within 1 hour after reaching the cabin and building a fire we started to feel normal again. Within 3 hours our friend returned and was a little frightened until he saw who it was and was very grateful we had survived the ordeal. Before dark since he had a hefty 4wheel drive chevy pickup truck and a winch, he pulled our vehicle out of the snow and everything was okay.
So it is important to make a useful decision to survive. I still don't know today if I made the right decision because it was very close that we almost didn't make it that day. If I had gotten so cold that I began to halucinate from hypothermia neither of us might have made it and if we had stayed with our vehicle it might have been curtains for us. There were no cellphones then and we didn't have a walkie talkie or anything like that in our vehicle and there were no people at all within 10 miles of us where we got stuck. We survived. That's all.
I think the time I came closest to buying the farm though was on San Gorgonio mountain which is the highest mountain in southern California. I was 21 and it was Winter 1970.
I had driven to younger guys one 18 and one 17 up to climb the mountain with them. I had already climbed Half Dome with the 18 year old so I felt fairly comfortable climbing with him. However, I didn't know the younger guy so I wasn't sure if he would be safe to climb a mountain with. Anyway, we started off and I had snowshoes tied to my back to make it to the top of San Gorgonio Mountain 11,000 plus feet high. However, the cords I had tied the snowshoes on with were cutting into my shoulder so I said I'd stop and adjust them. They asked me if I knew the route to the top. I said, "yes." However, what I didn't know was that there were 2 trails to the top. These boys knew one trail and I only knew of the other. So needless to say I never found them even though I hiked all the way to the summit. However, when I summited at 4 pm I knew I was in trouble. I probably wouldn't have summited if I had known there were two trails because as the oldest I would have stayed with them to watch out for them because I was more mature in my thinking than they were. So I was on the summit and the sun was getting ready to set and I knew I was in trouble. However, I did have one secret weapon a large sheet of plastic like used on some greenhouses. I folded it up and made a sled out of it and slid down about 1000 to 2000 feet in elevation on the snow into the valley toward my car. However, after I stopped sledding down the mountain I put on my snowshoes and started walking but I was cold and tired and it was starting to get dark the sunset was beautiful but I knew this wasn't good as I was still 5 miles from my car. The round trip from car to summit to car was 20 miles so I had already walked 15 miles and was pretty tired and it was starting to get dark. Then something really bad happened. I walked over an invisible because of the snow 10 foot high manzanita bush. My weight broke through the 6 inches of snow on top of it and I was hung by my feet inside the bush called "ironwood" and impaled in many places. At least I didn't have blood coming out of my eyes. Because of my clothing most of the wounds weren't that bad just very painful. As I hung upside down by my snowshoes inside the bush my head didn't touch the ground. I was still several feet from the ground from my head.
I had snow and leaves in my eyes and up my nose and had to be very careful not to put my eyes out on the many twigs and branches surrounding my face. I was so tired and in pain at this point that I felt I needed to cry. I hung upside down for about 30 seconds before I realized that no matter how much it hurt I had to take off my snowshoes, fall further into the bush and then no matter how much it hurt climb out of the manzanita "ironwood" back up onto the snow "about 10 feet deep and put my snowshoes back on so I didn't fall through again. I knew I wouldn't do well if I fell through again. So I scrambled up and out after falling when I released my snowshoes. The hardest part was disentangling my snowshoes without falling back into the hole I had made in the top of 10 feet of snow.
Though there were many other problems in the dark like falling on ice on the trail many times in the dark I survived by walking to the car at about 10pm or 11 pm that night. By this time my father had driven there and contacted a forest ranger and were considering a search party for me the next day. All were incredibly happy to see me. I was really mad at the 18 year old and 17 year old for being as irresponsible as they were and jeapordizing my life.
The End of an Era
With the passing of my Aunt Eloise at age 88 it is the end of an era. She is the last of my father's brothers and sisters to pass on. They grew up mainly in the 1920s all of them even though my uncle Bob was born in 1912 and my Dad in 1916. And though my mother's body is still alive she hasn't known who I am for about 2 years now. She is 89.
Eloise's family (her father and mother) were born in the 1880s. I knew them both because I was born in 1948 and spent the first 4 years of my life on their land in Lake Forest Park, Washington before my father moved us to San Diego, California in 1952.
Eloise like all her family were amazing, intense, very intelligent, never say die kind of people. I guess you sort of had to be to even survive the first part of the 20th century up through world war II. After that the 1950s were a whole lot easier(at least for Americans) than all the hell that had come before in America and the world.
Eloise married a Navy Blimp Captain Sub Chaser during world War II. When they divorced their son was 5 years old. My family moved to the same city they lived in Near Hollywood, California when he was 13 and I was 8. Eloise was an aspiring actress then. She was a very beautiful blue eyed natural blonde and was in many tv commercials and presentations at the Pasadena Playhouse and in Palm Springs, California. However, she never made the big time as an actress as that is a very comnpetitive business. However, she did marry an actor that had a main part in the Ten Commandments and used to be a lead in several 1940s mystery movies in black and white. They had a son in 1965.
Eloise was the most like my Dad. They were both very intense, outspoken and very individualistic people. I can remember when my parents went to church in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday nights they left me at Aunt Eloise's from about 1954 to 1956. I watched The Wonderful World of Disney with my 5 years older cousin.I was 6 to 8 years old during this time. Later it was called maybe "Disneyland". It had several different names over the years.
Growing up in the 1920s my Aunt Eloise and my father and his brothers and sisters met people born as far back as the 1840s and 1850s. So they met people who had lived through the Civil War during the 1920s. Someone born in 1840 would be 80 or more years old in 1920. Someone born in 1850 would be 70 in 1920. I myself met people in the 1950s that had been born in the 1870s and all my grandparents were born during the 1880s and I met and knew them all fairly well before they passed away mostly during the 1970s when I was in my 20s. In 1980 I was 32.
When my father passed away in 1985 there were still three of siblings left, Bob, born in 1912 and Eloise and Doris. Doris was the youngest and passed away in 1995 from a melanoma. This caused my mother and I to go to a dermatologist and to find both of us had at least one skin cancer too even though not any melanomas(thank God). We just had squamish cell carcinomas. By visiting a dermatologist every 6 months since then we are both fine, me at 60 and her at 89.(Even though Mom doesn't know who she is or who I am anymore).
With the passing of Eloise, the last of her brothers and sisters an era has ended. I feel an incredible vacuum with them all gone now. The world is a much lonelier place without them and all their incredible strength and "never say die" attitude.They always found a way to laugh at their problems and move on. They will all be missed.
Eloise's family (her father and mother) were born in the 1880s. I knew them both because I was born in 1948 and spent the first 4 years of my life on their land in Lake Forest Park, Washington before my father moved us to San Diego, California in 1952.
Eloise like all her family were amazing, intense, very intelligent, never say die kind of people. I guess you sort of had to be to even survive the first part of the 20th century up through world war II. After that the 1950s were a whole lot easier(at least for Americans) than all the hell that had come before in America and the world.
Eloise married a Navy Blimp Captain Sub Chaser during world War II. When they divorced their son was 5 years old. My family moved to the same city they lived in Near Hollywood, California when he was 13 and I was 8. Eloise was an aspiring actress then. She was a very beautiful blue eyed natural blonde and was in many tv commercials and presentations at the Pasadena Playhouse and in Palm Springs, California. However, she never made the big time as an actress as that is a very comnpetitive business. However, she did marry an actor that had a main part in the Ten Commandments and used to be a lead in several 1940s mystery movies in black and white. They had a son in 1965.
Eloise was the most like my Dad. They were both very intense, outspoken and very individualistic people. I can remember when my parents went to church in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday nights they left me at Aunt Eloise's from about 1954 to 1956. I watched The Wonderful World of Disney with my 5 years older cousin.I was 6 to 8 years old during this time. Later it was called maybe "Disneyland". It had several different names over the years.
Growing up in the 1920s my Aunt Eloise and my father and his brothers and sisters met people born as far back as the 1840s and 1850s. So they met people who had lived through the Civil War during the 1920s. Someone born in 1840 would be 80 or more years old in 1920. Someone born in 1850 would be 70 in 1920. I myself met people in the 1950s that had been born in the 1870s and all my grandparents were born during the 1880s and I met and knew them all fairly well before they passed away mostly during the 1970s when I was in my 20s. In 1980 I was 32.
When my father passed away in 1985 there were still three of siblings left, Bob, born in 1912 and Eloise and Doris. Doris was the youngest and passed away in 1995 from a melanoma. This caused my mother and I to go to a dermatologist and to find both of us had at least one skin cancer too even though not any melanomas(thank God). We just had squamish cell carcinomas. By visiting a dermatologist every 6 months since then we are both fine, me at 60 and her at 89.(Even though Mom doesn't know who she is or who I am anymore).
With the passing of Eloise, the last of her brothers and sisters an era has ended. I feel an incredible vacuum with them all gone now. The world is a much lonelier place without them and all their incredible strength and "never say die" attitude.They always found a way to laugh at their problems and move on. They will all be missed.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Red Dwarf not Streaming
I think netflix got too many streaming hits from customers for the Red Dward series so they stopped streaming it. So, since my 12 year old has fallen in love with the series I just rent one disk at a time up through I think 8? seasons. Good luck. I mentioned in another blog about streaming red dwarf on to my 52 inch widescreen from the laptop via S-video cord and to my computer via wireless router. Though the streaming to a widescreen via a computer doesn't have good resolution or pixel level yet it is still a fun new thing to do. I run sound through my woofer and tweeters from my desktop via the earphone jack on my laptop. On most laptops there is an S-video connector jack built in. Even if your S-video cord has less prongs than you see it might still work if you use external speakers run through your laptop for sound or just use the built in speakers on your laptop and keep the laptop close to you and your audience for the show.
Older usually means Happier
When I look back now from age 60 the least happy times of my life were between ages 21 and 32. Though I traveled and had many girlfriends until I got married at age 26 and had a son the main reason I was unhappy was that I had like most young people so many unrealistic expectations of my life. This caused incredible psychological suffering for most people my age at that time. The other factor that caused a lot of pain was even though, for example, I had about 25 girlfriends or more between ages 21 and 25 and was sexually active during that time, life was either "heaven", I was with a wonderful woman, or it was hell meaning that we had broken up and I was alone. Even when I married at age 26 and had a son(though I was very happy to be a father) my first wife was actually too young to be emotionally ready for this married relationship.(Even though she constantly tells me that divorcing me was the single worst mistake she ever made).(We are still good friends today).
All these (and many more) unrealistic expectations and so much heaven and hell made from age 21 to 32 barely survivable for me.
However, starting when I married again at age 32 having been a single parent for almost 3 years I married a friend with two children and the next 5 years were the happiest of my life not to be exceeded until I almost died in 1998, at age 50 and then miraculously recovered and went to Europe with my then 10 year old daughter and my mother to Scotland to see where her parents had grown up near Glasgow, Scotland. Then we flew to Germany and met my 25 year old son and his friend and rented a motorhome and drove through Austria, Switzerland and into northern Italy from Germany. This was the beginning of the best 10 years in my long life so far.
All these (and many more) unrealistic expectations and so much heaven and hell made from age 21 to 32 barely survivable for me.
However, starting when I married again at age 32 having been a single parent for almost 3 years I married a friend with two children and the next 5 years were the happiest of my life not to be exceeded until I almost died in 1998, at age 50 and then miraculously recovered and went to Europe with my then 10 year old daughter and my mother to Scotland to see where her parents had grown up near Glasgow, Scotland. Then we flew to Germany and met my 25 year old son and his friend and rented a motorhome and drove through Austria, Switzerland and into northern Italy from Germany. This was the beginning of the best 10 years in my long life so far.
Grassroots survival worldwide
Whether they be governments or corporations worldwide I have lost my faith in them. Money has corrupted them all. It is really a time for back to basics. I actually believe now the only person you can really trust is yourself. Survival systems are breaking down.
Look at Burma for a perfect example of the horrendous breakdown in civil society. Has their government saved them? No it just let about 200,000 people starve. They are still starving, the ones that aren't already dead or have gotten more sick from drinking contaminated water.
Look at China. China is helping its own people and for that I'm grateful and I'm proud of China stepping up to the plate in this way. However, the main reason that the United States and other western and eastern nations can't do more to help the Burmese people is that China is buying northern Burmese forests from the Burmese military junta. Because China is in bed for timber with the Burmese Junta 100's of thousands of Burmese will die! It is no longer if "They have or they will DIE!" because of the China Burma Timber connection.
This is the real problem of the way china does business. The Chinese only care if the people are Han or Mandarin. If you are anything else(tibetan? Weezy" anything else?" then you can just starve to death or die. This is an unfortunate truth of China in the business world worldwide. I think this is historical and comes from 5000 years of continuous culture. And this worked quite well until TV and the internet. China can no longer hide what it does. Nor can any country on earth!
As a result I believe we are all worldwide on our own. Some governments can be trusted more than others in certain ways. However, we are all on our own! It is every man and woman and child for themselves with the changes coming now!
note: I found the following url talking about 78,000 dead and still 2.5 million in jeapordy ongoing in Burma (myanmar).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20080516/ap_on_re_as/myanmar
Look at Burma for a perfect example of the horrendous breakdown in civil society. Has their government saved them? No it just let about 200,000 people starve. They are still starving, the ones that aren't already dead or have gotten more sick from drinking contaminated water.
Look at China. China is helping its own people and for that I'm grateful and I'm proud of China stepping up to the plate in this way. However, the main reason that the United States and other western and eastern nations can't do more to help the Burmese people is that China is buying northern Burmese forests from the Burmese military junta. Because China is in bed for timber with the Burmese Junta 100's of thousands of Burmese will die! It is no longer if "They have or they will DIE!" because of the China Burma Timber connection.
This is the real problem of the way china does business. The Chinese only care if the people are Han or Mandarin. If you are anything else(tibetan? Weezy" anything else?" then you can just starve to death or die. This is an unfortunate truth of China in the business world worldwide. I think this is historical and comes from 5000 years of continuous culture. And this worked quite well until TV and the internet. China can no longer hide what it does. Nor can any country on earth!
As a result I believe we are all worldwide on our own. Some governments can be trusted more than others in certain ways. However, we are all on our own! It is every man and woman and child for themselves with the changes coming now!
note: I found the following url talking about 78,000 dead and still 2.5 million in jeapordy ongoing in Burma (myanmar).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20080516/ap_on_re_as/myanmar
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