Though for those of you with wives and children these times might seem awful. However, for single people who are adults these times might be opportunities. For example, it could be a time married or single to go back to college to train oneself for a new economy, for example, as an alternative electrical engineer specializing in solar cell design or more efficient wind turbine electrical generation or new types of electrical generation not thought of yet.
Another idea is to become a solar technology installer working on the roofs of homes and businesses installing active and passive solar systems. Another idea is to learn how to install and maintain Wind generators especially on the plains and in other windy areas. There are many wind generator installations in windy areas in California where I live for example. However, most people coming into California on Interstate 10 are more familiar with the large installation of wind generators just outside of Palm Springs, California. When temperatures go up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit during summer months they save lives, especially if the power grid collapses from high temperatures. Wind generators keep all the air conditioning happening in Palm springs and the surrounding areas no matter what the power grid does.
Another idea is to move to another area where there are more jobs. For example, here in California the unemployment rate is 9.3% as of December and in my county here houses have lost 50% of their value since December 2007. Though the more affluent areas where I live the value lost is only about 14% still this 50% is unthinkable in the larger county. However, we now live in unthinkable but interesting times.
There is a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times". When this was first coined "interesting" meant times of war, plagues, awful weather or starvation. For now, including Africa with Cholera we have all these things happening on earth at once.
One thing for sure we live in times of extreme change. In times of extreme change I have lived through already i.e. "the 60s, the 70s, parts of the 80s, collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain and since 9-11, the times just seem to keep now getting more and more extreme with no end in sight primarily now because of Global Climate Change. While we "ants" have our wars and disagreements the poles melt and the old ways of life on earth we have known now for thousands of years are permanently gone at least for present generations.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Economic meltdown a perfect storm
http://www.montereyherald.com/
search/ci_11579888?IADID
Quote from above online newspaper article, "The pride is gone," said, Putin, whose country has fallen hard over the past year, seeing its currency plunge and once massively rich magnates lose billions.
Putin said economists and politicians should always be ready for such a crisis, saying it was as inevitable as the Russian winter.
The crisis differs from the Great Depression of the late 1920s and the early 1930s because it has affected everyone at this time of globalization," he said. "Regardless of their political or economic system, all nations have found themselves in the same boat."
end quote.
I think in its own way this is more evidence that the primary cause of this particular global meltdown is Global Climate change. When the world surplus of food ended with the droughts in Austalia and elsewhere it set off a panic among the world's poor last summer. Richer people and organizations panicked when the dollar and stocks dropped and there was no safe refuge to avoid the deflating values of both monetary systems and stocks and other investments. When food commodities and oil commodities shot up not entirely from a lack of oil and food products but from investors desperately searching for a safe investment, people could not afford to buy either food or oil products in much of the world as a result. And even those who could at least temporarily afford food and oil were having to change their ways of life to survive these times. Then banks started collapsing from all the undercurrents worldwide and a lack of good and stable investments. Then loans became impossible for most including the big three automakers in the U.S.
Yesterday, I found out that the average value of a house in my county had dropped 50% but not as bad in the affluent area where I live. It is down 14% in my area. But the fact that most homeowners in my county are enduring a 50% real value drop in value in 12 months is a real horror that they are all reckoning with in one way or another. No wonder California has basically run out of money because a 50% drop in the value of any house is also a 50% drop in taxes for that house or houses.
This also means that it is also every nation, every county, every city, every area, and every family and individual for themselves more than ever in my lifetime. If countries and areas are in this hard of a position how can they be expected to help others outside of their own areas if they can't even feed and clothe and house their own people?
More and more I unfortunately believe we will see whole 3rd world nations without enough food starving in these awful times. Never since I was born in 1948 have things gotten this bad. Only during the 1970s during the end of the Viet Nam War and then the Carter administration was there anything even beginning to approach this economic insanity.
search/ci_11579888?IADID
Quote from above online newspaper article, "The pride is gone," said, Putin, whose country has fallen hard over the past year, seeing its currency plunge and once massively rich magnates lose billions.
Putin said economists and politicians should always be ready for such a crisis, saying it was as inevitable as the Russian winter.
The crisis differs from the Great Depression of the late 1920s and the early 1930s because it has affected everyone at this time of globalization," he said. "Regardless of their political or economic system, all nations have found themselves in the same boat."
end quote.
I think in its own way this is more evidence that the primary cause of this particular global meltdown is Global Climate change. When the world surplus of food ended with the droughts in Austalia and elsewhere it set off a panic among the world's poor last summer. Richer people and organizations panicked when the dollar and stocks dropped and there was no safe refuge to avoid the deflating values of both monetary systems and stocks and other investments. When food commodities and oil commodities shot up not entirely from a lack of oil and food products but from investors desperately searching for a safe investment, people could not afford to buy either food or oil products in much of the world as a result. And even those who could at least temporarily afford food and oil were having to change their ways of life to survive these times. Then banks started collapsing from all the undercurrents worldwide and a lack of good and stable investments. Then loans became impossible for most including the big three automakers in the U.S.
Yesterday, I found out that the average value of a house in my county had dropped 50% but not as bad in the affluent area where I live. It is down 14% in my area. But the fact that most homeowners in my county are enduring a 50% real value drop in value in 12 months is a real horror that they are all reckoning with in one way or another. No wonder California has basically run out of money because a 50% drop in the value of any house is also a 50% drop in taxes for that house or houses.
This also means that it is also every nation, every county, every city, every area, and every family and individual for themselves more than ever in my lifetime. If countries and areas are in this hard of a position how can they be expected to help others outside of their own areas if they can't even feed and clothe and house their own people?
More and more I unfortunately believe we will see whole 3rd world nations without enough food starving in these awful times. Never since I was born in 1948 have things gotten this bad. Only during the 1970s during the end of the Viet Nam War and then the Carter administration was there anything even beginning to approach this economic insanity.
If you Lose your Jobs
I was inspired to write this in memory of the 5 families that have committed suicide in southern California unable to cope with the financial downturn.
First of all the last family of 7 to die could have gone to a lawyer and declared a Chapter 13 bankruptcy or if they wanted to live in a tent in the woods or under a bridge a chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, once they were both fired they couldn't get Unemployment compensation which likely triggered the family suicide.
I would like to say that one doesn't know what one is capable of surviving until one has to. I can say this from personal experience. It helps to believe in God to survive bad times but many who don't survive anyway. Also, 'there are no atheists in foxholes'. In other words if things get bad enough everyone cries out to God just to stay sane even if they become atheists again the next day.
Also, I have been through a 4 day vision quest with no water and no food in 1983. So I can say to you that even without food or water for about 4 days if you are in the right environment(away from people who might hurt you) you likely will survive even that even if the lack of food and water makes you hallucinate a little.
I think the primary problem is when people who have known nothing but school and their job and are not naturally multi-dimentional hit these kinds of circumstances they feel their lives are over and because they believe it, it comes true. You have to believe you have at least a chance of surviving something to attempt to survive it.
There is an old story about sailors of old when their ships sank. the sailors older than 27 to 30 were the ones likely to survive. The reason for this is younger sailors hadn't been close to death that many times. Whereas older sailors might survive because they had already had so many close calls with death they knew they might just survive this too.
I had a very bad experience from 1990 until 1995. I was raising 4 children(two biologically mine) from a baby to a 19 year old in 1990 to a 5 year old and a 24 year old in 1995. We had several bad economic setbacks in a row and our marriage finally couldn't withstand it anymore. In June 1994 I saw my marriage as over and was so despondent I went to a Wilderness area alone with my backpack and tent with the intention of fasting until I died. I didn't eat although I did drink water for 4 days while I prayed then in June 1994. Finally, I realized it didn't matter how difficult it was for me that I had to try to get custody of my then 5 year old daughter because she wasn't safe in her life. This decision saved my life and this became the focus of the next 10 years of my life. This decision rallied many old and new friends to my side. Even though this resulted in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy from trying to get custody of my youngest daughter I honored my vow to my daughter even if it was going to kill me which it almost did. It inspired someone new in my life to also help me and after my divorce we married and had another daughter. In 1998 I got a heart virus and almost died. First, my new wife's stepmother died, then two months later her mother died while my wife had a miscarriage because of her mother's death. The next month I found out from my doctor that I wasn't going to die like I had been told by my doctors for 7 months. I was forced to retire but luckily we were okay financially by then for me to retire. Two years ago my doctors finally found out(after 20 years) that my thyroid gland hadn't been working right since I was in my late 30s and was part of the reason why I had had a heart virus and multiple other complications since my late 30s. None the less from 1998 to the present have been the most peaceful and content of my life. By 1996 or 7 I obtained joint legal custody of my youngest daughter which meant I could see her about 10 weeks a year total. I got her to come back to California so I was always within 9 hours drive of my daughter and visited her at least 1 weekend a month and at least 2 weeks a year on vacation each year. When my wife's father passed on she spent a month with us and was the most useful person there to all of us. She is 19 now. When my mother passed on she went with my new 12 year old daughter (her half sister) to where my father ashes are and the three of us had a conversation with my Dad that has been gone since 1985 now.
What I'm trying to get at here is that you really don't know what you can survive until you have to. I never would have believed I could have survived everything I went through from age 40 on until now when I'm 60. If you had told me this when I was 39 I would have said, "You're lying." Because if I had believed you I would have just driven my car off a cliff and that would have been that. Once again, "You just don't know what you can survive until you have no other choice."
First of all the last family of 7 to die could have gone to a lawyer and declared a Chapter 13 bankruptcy or if they wanted to live in a tent in the woods or under a bridge a chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, once they were both fired they couldn't get Unemployment compensation which likely triggered the family suicide.
I would like to say that one doesn't know what one is capable of surviving until one has to. I can say this from personal experience. It helps to believe in God to survive bad times but many who don't survive anyway. Also, 'there are no atheists in foxholes'. In other words if things get bad enough everyone cries out to God just to stay sane even if they become atheists again the next day.
Also, I have been through a 4 day vision quest with no water and no food in 1983. So I can say to you that even without food or water for about 4 days if you are in the right environment(away from people who might hurt you) you likely will survive even that even if the lack of food and water makes you hallucinate a little.
I think the primary problem is when people who have known nothing but school and their job and are not naturally multi-dimentional hit these kinds of circumstances they feel their lives are over and because they believe it, it comes true. You have to believe you have at least a chance of surviving something to attempt to survive it.
There is an old story about sailors of old when their ships sank. the sailors older than 27 to 30 were the ones likely to survive. The reason for this is younger sailors hadn't been close to death that many times. Whereas older sailors might survive because they had already had so many close calls with death they knew they might just survive this too.
I had a very bad experience from 1990 until 1995. I was raising 4 children(two biologically mine) from a baby to a 19 year old in 1990 to a 5 year old and a 24 year old in 1995. We had several bad economic setbacks in a row and our marriage finally couldn't withstand it anymore. In June 1994 I saw my marriage as over and was so despondent I went to a Wilderness area alone with my backpack and tent with the intention of fasting until I died. I didn't eat although I did drink water for 4 days while I prayed then in June 1994. Finally, I realized it didn't matter how difficult it was for me that I had to try to get custody of my then 5 year old daughter because she wasn't safe in her life. This decision saved my life and this became the focus of the next 10 years of my life. This decision rallied many old and new friends to my side. Even though this resulted in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy from trying to get custody of my youngest daughter I honored my vow to my daughter even if it was going to kill me which it almost did. It inspired someone new in my life to also help me and after my divorce we married and had another daughter. In 1998 I got a heart virus and almost died. First, my new wife's stepmother died, then two months later her mother died while my wife had a miscarriage because of her mother's death. The next month I found out from my doctor that I wasn't going to die like I had been told by my doctors for 7 months. I was forced to retire but luckily we were okay financially by then for me to retire. Two years ago my doctors finally found out(after 20 years) that my thyroid gland hadn't been working right since I was in my late 30s and was part of the reason why I had had a heart virus and multiple other complications since my late 30s. None the less from 1998 to the present have been the most peaceful and content of my life. By 1996 or 7 I obtained joint legal custody of my youngest daughter which meant I could see her about 10 weeks a year total. I got her to come back to California so I was always within 9 hours drive of my daughter and visited her at least 1 weekend a month and at least 2 weeks a year on vacation each year. When my wife's father passed on she spent a month with us and was the most useful person there to all of us. She is 19 now. When my mother passed on she went with my new 12 year old daughter (her half sister) to where my father ashes are and the three of us had a conversation with my Dad that has been gone since 1985 now.
What I'm trying to get at here is that you really don't know what you can survive until you have to. I never would have believed I could have survived everything I went through from age 40 on until now when I'm 60. If you had told me this when I was 39 I would have said, "You're lying." Because if I had believed you I would have just driven my car off a cliff and that would have been that. Once again, "You just don't know what you can survive until you have no other choice."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
2008 Britain UFO Sightings
Since hundreds to thousands of people in Britain saw hundreds of UFO's this summer according to a UFO hunters on the History channel I would like to comment as an intuitive.
After watching this program it is obvious that hundreds of Time-space vehicles were present there this summer. What is not obvious is what country or planet they are from past, present or future. What they are doing is fairly obvious to me. Since many of the critical changes on earth historically happened in England they were at the very least observing first hand by traveling back into time what actually happened. What they would have done with this information is anybody's guess.
Second, they might have been interesting in changing time somewhat in Britain's past. Once again it would be difficult to ascertain what they would change and what would be the present day result.
From the 1930s to the present time travelers from this era tend to be preventing nuclear war and other technological mishaps primarily. If we go about 5000 years plus into the future of mankind we find the most sophisticated time travelers who also visit our era. However, their focus is to protect their primary ancestors from being killed or eliminated from time and they have less of a focus on preventing present day wars because others of our present era (1930s to 2500) have that as our focus so they don't need to have that focus as much. They primarily protect the time-space of their era like we do ours and so in our time their primary focus is to prevent people from stopping the births of their primary ancestors through time so whole genetic lines aren't eliminated by accident or on purpose that lead inexorably on into the future that they live in.
Understanding all these things helps present day people put all this into perspective. And on top of all this there are observers from many civilizations from the past and future of our planet as well as visitors from the past and future of various planets and dimensions in our galaxy and beyond.
I am saying all this as a lifelong Seer and Intuitive. I'm not asking you to believe any of this. However, if you have a sense that it is true then it likely is.
After watching this program it is obvious that hundreds of Time-space vehicles were present there this summer. What is not obvious is what country or planet they are from past, present or future. What they are doing is fairly obvious to me. Since many of the critical changes on earth historically happened in England they were at the very least observing first hand by traveling back into time what actually happened. What they would have done with this information is anybody's guess.
Second, they might have been interesting in changing time somewhat in Britain's past. Once again it would be difficult to ascertain what they would change and what would be the present day result.
From the 1930s to the present time travelers from this era tend to be preventing nuclear war and other technological mishaps primarily. If we go about 5000 years plus into the future of mankind we find the most sophisticated time travelers who also visit our era. However, their focus is to protect their primary ancestors from being killed or eliminated from time and they have less of a focus on preventing present day wars because others of our present era (1930s to 2500) have that as our focus so they don't need to have that focus as much. They primarily protect the time-space of their era like we do ours and so in our time their primary focus is to prevent people from stopping the births of their primary ancestors through time so whole genetic lines aren't eliminated by accident or on purpose that lead inexorably on into the future that they live in.
Understanding all these things helps present day people put all this into perspective. And on top of all this there are observers from many civilizations from the past and future of our planet as well as visitors from the past and future of various planets and dimensions in our galaxy and beyond.
I am saying all this as a lifelong Seer and Intuitive. I'm not asking you to believe any of this. However, if you have a sense that it is true then it likely is.
The Primal God
When I listen to most people talk about God it is my experience that they are talking about their fantasy of who God is.
God is not a fantasy for me. The difference would be like a teenager dreaming about someone they had puppy love fore and swooning for weeks and a person who was married, with kids and used to arguing and fighting for every good part of their lives together to actually happen at all.
So, I listen to people when they talk to me about God whether they are still in a fantasy or if God has come to them and thrown them off their first cliff yet to be broken on the rocks below and then resurrect them yet.
For me, it is like having a father that might be compared to Genghis Khan. People might want to kill you but then they would have to answer to a Warlord. You would always ask you father, Genghis Khan about important things because you don't want him to kill you too. But if anyone tries to attack you, you know intrinsically that those people will be hacked in two or nailed to crosses if they actually try to harm you either internally or externally.
For me, this is the difference between having a fantasy about God and having been thrown off a cliff by God and having been demanded upon pain of death to be his.
My experience of God is more like being raped as a man and being made God's bitch.
You who live in a fantasy of God might be horrified! But those of you who have had this experience like me know the truth of what I say.
God could care less if you are an atheist, criminal, priest or Saint. If God calls you, you either obey or you die. There is no other choice.
In our sophisticated societies of today we sometimes forget to read about the prophets in the old and new testament. I say to you today you do this at your own peril as God, in reality is as primal as it gets!
God is not a fantasy for me. The difference would be like a teenager dreaming about someone they had puppy love fore and swooning for weeks and a person who was married, with kids and used to arguing and fighting for every good part of their lives together to actually happen at all.
So, I listen to people when they talk to me about God whether they are still in a fantasy or if God has come to them and thrown them off their first cliff yet to be broken on the rocks below and then resurrect them yet.
For me, it is like having a father that might be compared to Genghis Khan. People might want to kill you but then they would have to answer to a Warlord. You would always ask you father, Genghis Khan about important things because you don't want him to kill you too. But if anyone tries to attack you, you know intrinsically that those people will be hacked in two or nailed to crosses if they actually try to harm you either internally or externally.
For me, this is the difference between having a fantasy about God and having been thrown off a cliff by God and having been demanded upon pain of death to be his.
My experience of God is more like being raped as a man and being made God's bitch.
You who live in a fantasy of God might be horrified! But those of you who have had this experience like me know the truth of what I say.
God could care less if you are an atheist, criminal, priest or Saint. If God calls you, you either obey or you die. There is no other choice.
In our sophisticated societies of today we sometimes forget to read about the prophets in the old and new testament. I say to you today you do this at your own peril as God, in reality is as primal as it gets!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
International Survival
I have given this a lot of thought. Most of the most serious group problems mankind are dealing with long term today can best be solved or mitigated by nation states around the world. In a sense it is the return of the nation state to a prominence it once had in centuries past.
I believe now that at core the problems of global climate change and of overpopulation which is one of the things that makes global climate change worse are just starting to be addressed by the nation states of the world. The nations that can move the most efficiently and quickly in these times will likely in the end see the higher percentages of their people not starve to death in these times.
I have finally isolated the core problems we are dealing with which are: exponentially increasing global climate change which is caused primarily by overpopulation.
If you were a group of nation states trying to fight Global Climate Change you would be faced with the primary cause of Global Climate Change which is overpopulation.
However, the primary cause of overpopulation is a lack of a world social welfare system and a lack of universal education systems worldwide.
If you analyze carefully the causes of overpopulation one then has to look primarily at third world nations to understand this phenomoma. First these people have no social welfare system. If they get sick or old they will die without children to take care of them. So, if possible these people have 5, 10, 12 or 15 or more children to teach to work for them as young and to take care of them, hopefully, when they are old. This is actually the primary cause of real overpopulation worldwide.
However, once people begin to get educated and begin to understand that they don't have to have so many children to survive in their later years as they move to countries with social welfare systems in place everything changes.
So, the primary weapons of the nation states of earth against overpopulation are the welfare state system(taking care of the old and infirm) and education(educating people to be able to use resources and to learn to train for careers). As people comprehend that they will be taken care of in old age because they have worked and paid into unemployment compensation insurance and Social Security systems, they then perceive having so many children as too expensive and counterproductive to their long term survival economically and then they tend to have less children as a general rule.
However, now, because of extreme overpopulation and extreme Global Climate change the primary weapon against overpopulation is unfortunately, starvation. No nation can continue to exist by advocating starvation as a way to reduce population. In the past, nations and tribes had wars over resources to reduce population in any given area on earth. This has been historical fact for thousands of years.
However, now with the loss of food surpluses worldwide because of extreme droughts and extreme weather fluctuations worldwide, starvation in numbers unseen yet this century is underway. Starvation is a very undesirable way to reduce population because people on their way out often get violent or their children who survive get violent in reaction to having watched one or both parents, and or siblings or other relatives starve to death. Even though with age (over 30) these same people might come to see that this was not personal against their families, younger people just tend to get enraged and reactionary rather than see the whole picture. In otherwords bad things sometimes happen to good people and no one was actually trying to create a starvation or death outcome for their relatives.
However, once again, as in awful past centuries we are seeing large nations and small desperately trying to manage mass starvation in third world nations.
However, in the end, unless the world completely changes the way it does everything by moving underground and using the surface of the planet ONLY for farming, recreation and transportation the present population CANNOT be maintained.
Realistically, I don't believe over 200 million people can be sustained for more than about 1000 years without the human race once again coming to this state of affairs.
So if the human race wants to avoid watching most people die of starvation or worse then people need to start moving underground where temperatures are fairly stable about 4 feet or more underground where temperatures most places on earth are around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Since this temperature is cool enough for most people(though most people might like it to be a little warmer) it would incredibly reduce both heating and cooling bills worldwide which would also reduce global warming by reducing the amount of fuel consumed in making electricity for the masses.
By creating reverse swimming pool technology even in underground wet areas moisture, underground streams etc. could be kept out of living areas unless one needed the water for bathing or to be filtered for drinking etc.
Only by using the surface of the earth only for growing food, recreation and transportation can the earth sustain this many people. Otherwise I believe we are presently on our way back to about 200 million or if we are stubborn, none.
I believe now that at core the problems of global climate change and of overpopulation which is one of the things that makes global climate change worse are just starting to be addressed by the nation states of the world. The nations that can move the most efficiently and quickly in these times will likely in the end see the higher percentages of their people not starve to death in these times.
I have finally isolated the core problems we are dealing with which are: exponentially increasing global climate change which is caused primarily by overpopulation.
If you were a group of nation states trying to fight Global Climate Change you would be faced with the primary cause of Global Climate Change which is overpopulation.
However, the primary cause of overpopulation is a lack of a world social welfare system and a lack of universal education systems worldwide.
If you analyze carefully the causes of overpopulation one then has to look primarily at third world nations to understand this phenomoma. First these people have no social welfare system. If they get sick or old they will die without children to take care of them. So, if possible these people have 5, 10, 12 or 15 or more children to teach to work for them as young and to take care of them, hopefully, when they are old. This is actually the primary cause of real overpopulation worldwide.
However, once people begin to get educated and begin to understand that they don't have to have so many children to survive in their later years as they move to countries with social welfare systems in place everything changes.
So, the primary weapons of the nation states of earth against overpopulation are the welfare state system(taking care of the old and infirm) and education(educating people to be able to use resources and to learn to train for careers). As people comprehend that they will be taken care of in old age because they have worked and paid into unemployment compensation insurance and Social Security systems, they then perceive having so many children as too expensive and counterproductive to their long term survival economically and then they tend to have less children as a general rule.
However, now, because of extreme overpopulation and extreme Global Climate change the primary weapon against overpopulation is unfortunately, starvation. No nation can continue to exist by advocating starvation as a way to reduce population. In the past, nations and tribes had wars over resources to reduce population in any given area on earth. This has been historical fact for thousands of years.
However, now with the loss of food surpluses worldwide because of extreme droughts and extreme weather fluctuations worldwide, starvation in numbers unseen yet this century is underway. Starvation is a very undesirable way to reduce population because people on their way out often get violent or their children who survive get violent in reaction to having watched one or both parents, and or siblings or other relatives starve to death. Even though with age (over 30) these same people might come to see that this was not personal against their families, younger people just tend to get enraged and reactionary rather than see the whole picture. In otherwords bad things sometimes happen to good people and no one was actually trying to create a starvation or death outcome for their relatives.
However, once again, as in awful past centuries we are seeing large nations and small desperately trying to manage mass starvation in third world nations.
However, in the end, unless the world completely changes the way it does everything by moving underground and using the surface of the planet ONLY for farming, recreation and transportation the present population CANNOT be maintained.
Realistically, I don't believe over 200 million people can be sustained for more than about 1000 years without the human race once again coming to this state of affairs.
So if the human race wants to avoid watching most people die of starvation or worse then people need to start moving underground where temperatures are fairly stable about 4 feet or more underground where temperatures most places on earth are around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Since this temperature is cool enough for most people(though most people might like it to be a little warmer) it would incredibly reduce both heating and cooling bills worldwide which would also reduce global warming by reducing the amount of fuel consumed in making electricity for the masses.
By creating reverse swimming pool technology even in underground wet areas moisture, underground streams etc. could be kept out of living areas unless one needed the water for bathing or to be filtered for drinking etc.
Only by using the surface of the earth only for growing food, recreation and transportation can the earth sustain this many people. Otherwise I believe we are presently on our way back to about 200 million or if we are stubborn, none.
Some climate damage already irreversible
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20090126/ap_on_sc/
sci_greenhouse_irreversible_damage
The above article says that already our climate will continue warming until the year 3000 AD even if all new carbon dioxide was stopped from going into the atmosphere completely now.
So, I guess 76 degrees Fahrenheit average temperature just might happen at the north pole by 3000 AD before the temperatures start going down again. Building houses underground where temperatures remain constant around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at four feet or deeper in the earth most places might save a lot of energy year around worldwide where doing this is practical.
20090126/ap_on_sc/
sci_greenhouse_irreversible_damage
The above article says that already our climate will continue warming until the year 3000 AD even if all new carbon dioxide was stopped from going into the atmosphere completely now.
So, I guess 76 degrees Fahrenheit average temperature just might happen at the north pole by 3000 AD before the temperatures start going down again. Building houses underground where temperatures remain constant around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at four feet or deeper in the earth most places might save a lot of energy year around worldwide where doing this is practical.
beware downadup or conficker worm
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/
computersecurity/
2009-01-26-internet-worm_N.htm
If you are running any windows operating system on the internet it is very important to download a patch from microsoft to protect not only your computer from becoming infected by the worm but also to prevent your computer from becoming a botnet or a remotely controlled robotic device spreading this worm to other computers. It appears the worm is a two or three stage problem and is now in stage 1 or 2. Though this could be done by criminals I think it is more likely being done by a large country like China or Russia or even Iran. I think it is like an economic weapon of war.
I have believed for sometime now that an economic war is being waged because everything we are experiencing in the free world has the feeling of having been well planned. Even if this latest worm is from another country if that country has nuclear weapons what really can we do in that situation? What if much of our financial downturn has been orchestrated by a nuclear power? What can we do nuke the world? No. We appear to be in basically uncharted territory right now and if this is what is happening no one really can afford to be open about it for many reasons.
computersecurity/
2009-01-26-internet-worm_N.htm
If you are running any windows operating system on the internet it is very important to download a patch from microsoft to protect not only your computer from becoming infected by the worm but also to prevent your computer from becoming a botnet or a remotely controlled robotic device spreading this worm to other computers. It appears the worm is a two or three stage problem and is now in stage 1 or 2. Though this could be done by criminals I think it is more likely being done by a large country like China or Russia or even Iran. I think it is like an economic weapon of war.
I have believed for sometime now that an economic war is being waged because everything we are experiencing in the free world has the feeling of having been well planned. Even if this latest worm is from another country if that country has nuclear weapons what really can we do in that situation? What if much of our financial downturn has been orchestrated by a nuclear power? What can we do nuke the world? No. We appear to be in basically uncharted territory right now and if this is what is happening no one really can afford to be open about it for many reasons.
The Last Templar
Mira Sorvino and Omar Sharif held the miniseries together. Without them it would have been a complete dog. However, their two portrayals kept me and my wife watching. Luckily, we watched the first one on DVR starting about 8 pm tonight and were dvring the second when we finished the first. So basically we watched both the first and second parts tonight while omiting the commmercials. So it was a fun ride. However,about the time divers were trying to bring up parts of a ship while a storm of the century was underway on the surface I felt like a somewhat believable tale had turned into a complete science fiction cartoon.
However, if you suspended disbelief during that segment and expected people to believe that anyone would have survived a storm that sinks ships in 100 foot waves and swims to any beach alive then one might believe that Omar Sharif is a Saintly gifted man that meets Mira Sorvino on shore. However, how did the FBI agent get to shore in a coma from a blow received on a ship? Did he come ashore okay only to hit is head on a rock on the shore or did a fisherman accidentally give him a blow to the head and put him in a coma? This wasn't explained either.
But then, Mira finds the long lost Yesu or Yeshua Bible or Scroll (the aramaic is Yesu by the way, Jesus in Aramaic his native language was Yesu) and then throws it into the wind and that old professor follows it over the cliff. This didn't seem very believable either.
I like the point of faith the story was trying to get to(sort of that there are no atheists in foxholes) or when you new lover is in a coma dying you just might try praying for him to wake up.
Anyway, I found the whole thing very entertaining especially because I DVRed the whole thing and didn't have to watch the commercials and I got to watch both the 1st and 2nd parts at one sitting with my wife. My God daughter, 23 got tired 1/2 hour into the 2nd part and went to bed but my wife and I stayed up until midnight finishing it. Mira had a way of making everything sort of funny which is her real talent in making people laugh and have fun. Omar Sharif made the Saintly man seem believable to me since I have met many people gifted like that all over the world and they are always like meeting precious incarnate angels.(God is where you find him, her, the Being).
However, unless you like Templar movies and Mira Sorvino and Omar Sharif's style you might want to watch something else. However, I found it entertaining except for the present day ship sinking and people getting to shore in a coma and stuff like that.
However, if you suspended disbelief during that segment and expected people to believe that anyone would have survived a storm that sinks ships in 100 foot waves and swims to any beach alive then one might believe that Omar Sharif is a Saintly gifted man that meets Mira Sorvino on shore. However, how did the FBI agent get to shore in a coma from a blow received on a ship? Did he come ashore okay only to hit is head on a rock on the shore or did a fisherman accidentally give him a blow to the head and put him in a coma? This wasn't explained either.
But then, Mira finds the long lost Yesu or Yeshua Bible or Scroll (the aramaic is Yesu by the way, Jesus in Aramaic his native language was Yesu) and then throws it into the wind and that old professor follows it over the cliff. This didn't seem very believable either.
I like the point of faith the story was trying to get to(sort of that there are no atheists in foxholes) or when you new lover is in a coma dying you just might try praying for him to wake up.
Anyway, I found the whole thing very entertaining especially because I DVRed the whole thing and didn't have to watch the commercials and I got to watch both the 1st and 2nd parts at one sitting with my wife. My God daughter, 23 got tired 1/2 hour into the 2nd part and went to bed but my wife and I stayed up until midnight finishing it. Mira had a way of making everything sort of funny which is her real talent in making people laugh and have fun. Omar Sharif made the Saintly man seem believable to me since I have met many people gifted like that all over the world and they are always like meeting precious incarnate angels.(God is where you find him, her, the Being).
However, unless you like Templar movies and Mira Sorvino and Omar Sharif's style you might want to watch something else. However, I found it entertaining except for the present day ship sinking and people getting to shore in a coma and stuff like that.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Living Freedom
It has been raining for a week and it is finally sunny here today at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So it is a nice day for northern California on the Ocean in the middle of winter.
As I sat there in my hot tub (spa) at about 104degrees Fahrenheit looking at all the greenery and trees in my back yard and all the surrounding back yards I began to think of freedom and what freedom has meant to me in my life.
First of all, unless I had been born to parents with good trades in Seattle, Washington in the United States I likely would not have experienced all the freedoms that I have the last 60 years I have been alive.
I started to categorize all the types of freedom I have experienced living in America.
I start with childhood freedom which I think for me was epitomized by being able to lie on my front lawn in front of my childhood home and watch the clouds blow by on a spring or summer day in Glendale, California. As I grew from then starting at age 8, 9, 10 all the way to 12, I rode my bicycle( a constant companion from age 5) for miles and miles alone or with friends. I think these two things looking up at the clouds and dreaming of my future and riding my bicycle and exploring for miles around where I lived in Glendale were what freedom was like for me starting at age 5 but really being there for me from age 8 on. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the 1950s when I had so much freedom and time to think for myself and figure everything out for myself.
The next freedom I would call the freedom of High School and College. Though both are a discipline in the European and American cultures both provide both discipline and a certain amount of freedom of thought, exploration and often in my day that exploration led to meeting a lot of girls my own age as well. This was always a welcome if not confusing part of the freedom of High School and College.
After college, since I was not married until age 26, I would call this time of freedom the Petite Morte(the little death). However, all the dating and meeting women and going steady and heartbreak was not peaceful. It was exciting but I think only in ones late teens and twenties could one really survive all that excitement. Oh, we may want to believe one could live like that forever. But in reality that would only be a death sentence. The freedom to date any single woman that would date me that I also wanted to date I found overwhelming and not peaceful at all. I was constantly either in heaven(in love) or in hell(broken up). Maybe the freedom of both these states got me to the next one (a committed relationship leading to marriage and children at age 26).
And with this came the next stage of freedom. The freedom to have a happy time raising children. Though children are very expensive, if they are healthy they are incredibly fun and rewarding. I always thought when I was growing up that I could put off growing up sort of by reliving my childhood through my children. Well. This sort of works and it sort of doesn't. However, growing up with your children is such an amazing experience that for those of it suited to it nothing ever comes close as being meaningful in your life.
I have always identified with being a good father. I'm not sure I am or even want to be a good husband nor am I even sure I really know what that means. But if I and my best friend(wife) are happy raising a kid or kids together then we are happy and that is freedom.
The last freedom is the freedom of wealth. This is a very tricky thing. If you have wealth and then spend it all then you are poor or bankrupt. So the freedom of wealth is that you have to protect wealth, and to save it and to invest it or you have nothing. Once you do all that you can watch it go up or down in value but as long as you own it it is yours!
However, the freedom of wealth isn't for everyone. Because it just doesn't really work unless you are very disciplined in many ways and are either well educated or can surround yourself with educated people you can trust. Otherwise it is all gone very soon.
One definition of freedom I have heard is "Freedom is responsibility!" This in the end is what I have found real long lasting freedom really is. When one is young it might be the freedom to have a live in love relationship with someone your own age but in the end "Freedom is responsibility" but that doesn't really mean anything to anyone until they are ready for it.
It is my hope that all the good kinds of freedom fill your life and make your life worthwhile.
As I sat there in my hot tub (spa) at about 104degrees Fahrenheit looking at all the greenery and trees in my back yard and all the surrounding back yards I began to think of freedom and what freedom has meant to me in my life.
First of all, unless I had been born to parents with good trades in Seattle, Washington in the United States I likely would not have experienced all the freedoms that I have the last 60 years I have been alive.
I started to categorize all the types of freedom I have experienced living in America.
I start with childhood freedom which I think for me was epitomized by being able to lie on my front lawn in front of my childhood home and watch the clouds blow by on a spring or summer day in Glendale, California. As I grew from then starting at age 8, 9, 10 all the way to 12, I rode my bicycle( a constant companion from age 5) for miles and miles alone or with friends. I think these two things looking up at the clouds and dreaming of my future and riding my bicycle and exploring for miles around where I lived in Glendale were what freedom was like for me starting at age 5 but really being there for me from age 8 on. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the 1950s when I had so much freedom and time to think for myself and figure everything out for myself.
The next freedom I would call the freedom of High School and College. Though both are a discipline in the European and American cultures both provide both discipline and a certain amount of freedom of thought, exploration and often in my day that exploration led to meeting a lot of girls my own age as well. This was always a welcome if not confusing part of the freedom of High School and College.
After college, since I was not married until age 26, I would call this time of freedom the Petite Morte(the little death). However, all the dating and meeting women and going steady and heartbreak was not peaceful. It was exciting but I think only in ones late teens and twenties could one really survive all that excitement. Oh, we may want to believe one could live like that forever. But in reality that would only be a death sentence. The freedom to date any single woman that would date me that I also wanted to date I found overwhelming and not peaceful at all. I was constantly either in heaven(in love) or in hell(broken up). Maybe the freedom of both these states got me to the next one (a committed relationship leading to marriage and children at age 26).
And with this came the next stage of freedom. The freedom to have a happy time raising children. Though children are very expensive, if they are healthy they are incredibly fun and rewarding. I always thought when I was growing up that I could put off growing up sort of by reliving my childhood through my children. Well. This sort of works and it sort of doesn't. However, growing up with your children is such an amazing experience that for those of it suited to it nothing ever comes close as being meaningful in your life.
I have always identified with being a good father. I'm not sure I am or even want to be a good husband nor am I even sure I really know what that means. But if I and my best friend(wife) are happy raising a kid or kids together then we are happy and that is freedom.
The last freedom is the freedom of wealth. This is a very tricky thing. If you have wealth and then spend it all then you are poor or bankrupt. So the freedom of wealth is that you have to protect wealth, and to save it and to invest it or you have nothing. Once you do all that you can watch it go up or down in value but as long as you own it it is yours!
However, the freedom of wealth isn't for everyone. Because it just doesn't really work unless you are very disciplined in many ways and are either well educated or can surround yourself with educated people you can trust. Otherwise it is all gone very soon.
One definition of freedom I have heard is "Freedom is responsibility!" This in the end is what I have found real long lasting freedom really is. When one is young it might be the freedom to have a live in love relationship with someone your own age but in the end "Freedom is responsibility" but that doesn't really mean anything to anyone until they are ready for it.
It is my hope that all the good kinds of freedom fill your life and make your life worthwhile.
The Flies
fiction?
Though this is a real experience of mine I give it this (fiction?) designation to protect you who may not be shamanic or see angels or are not used to being clairvoyant and seeing the future your whole lives like I have always been. If you're not used to this sort of thing all the time it can be a little much to deal with.
Begin:
I brushed by a fly swatter and somehow this whole sequence of events got triggered. Maybe it was the thousands of flies, mosquitos, and other insects I killed because they were bothering me or others until at age 32 I took Ahimsa Vows and chose not to kill anything anymore except in self defense.
Anyhow, I became aware of all the flies on earth at once. At first I thought this strange until the King Fly said, "You were once the King of all the flies on earth. We were not flies then, however. We were your army. It just so happens that now we all are flies at once so you can save us."
I looked back through Akashic records on multiple planets and times and realized this was so. And so I said, "What do you want?" The King Fly said, "You are here to save us. Please save us." And so I prayed that all these flies would be with God now and after they passed on in a few weeks all over earth since flies don't live very long. And I felt God Make it So.
Whenever I have to look back into akashic records I usually find this to be somewhat disturbing. I remember thousands to millions of lifetimes I have lived in the past, present and future. And even though I know this to be true I find it overwhelming to deal with the fullness of this so I try not to think about it too much as it sometimes makes me nauseous to look at things like this very much while living in a human body on earth in these times.
Then the King fly said to me, "Are you Maitreya?" I replied, "I don't know." "What does that mean?" he said.
"It means I am of the Maitreya. This I am sure of. However, I see myself as part of the Entourage of Maitreya." The King Fly said, "Oh."
The King of the Flies said, "Thank you for praying for our kind. We will announce to all the coming of the Maitreya!"
I thought to myself of the saying in the Bible, "And the Rocks shall Cry out his name!"
Though there was more to all this I've said enough now.
end of story.
I believe in my heart of hearts that Maitreya Buddha and the Second Coming of Christ are the same thing. However, this is just me. You may obviously believe whatever you want to.
Though this is a real experience of mine I give it this (fiction?) designation to protect you who may not be shamanic or see angels or are not used to being clairvoyant and seeing the future your whole lives like I have always been. If you're not used to this sort of thing all the time it can be a little much to deal with.
Begin:
I brushed by a fly swatter and somehow this whole sequence of events got triggered. Maybe it was the thousands of flies, mosquitos, and other insects I killed because they were bothering me or others until at age 32 I took Ahimsa Vows and chose not to kill anything anymore except in self defense.
Anyhow, I became aware of all the flies on earth at once. At first I thought this strange until the King Fly said, "You were once the King of all the flies on earth. We were not flies then, however. We were your army. It just so happens that now we all are flies at once so you can save us."
I looked back through Akashic records on multiple planets and times and realized this was so. And so I said, "What do you want?" The King Fly said, "You are here to save us. Please save us." And so I prayed that all these flies would be with God now and after they passed on in a few weeks all over earth since flies don't live very long. And I felt God Make it So.
Whenever I have to look back into akashic records I usually find this to be somewhat disturbing. I remember thousands to millions of lifetimes I have lived in the past, present and future. And even though I know this to be true I find it overwhelming to deal with the fullness of this so I try not to think about it too much as it sometimes makes me nauseous to look at things like this very much while living in a human body on earth in these times.
Then the King fly said to me, "Are you Maitreya?" I replied, "I don't know." "What does that mean?" he said.
"It means I am of the Maitreya. This I am sure of. However, I see myself as part of the Entourage of Maitreya." The King Fly said, "Oh."
The King of the Flies said, "Thank you for praying for our kind. We will announce to all the coming of the Maitreya!"
I thought to myself of the saying in the Bible, "And the Rocks shall Cry out his name!"
Though there was more to all this I've said enough now.
end of story.
I believe in my heart of hearts that Maitreya Buddha and the Second Coming of Christ are the same thing. However, this is just me. You may obviously believe whatever you want to.
Joel Osteen: Inspirational Speaker
I was feeling the strain of portfolios cut by one third to one half by the last 2 years. Though I'm still okay there are many people who are not okay worldwide. I started praying last night for guidance. I know I and my family will be okay. But these are pretty tough times for the average person on earth.
I was channel surfing with my cable TV and saw Joel Osteen. It was about midnight and the rest of my family had gone to sleep hours before. But I was still up trying to feel good about the world and my life. It was like an answer to my prayer when I turned my TV to Joel Osteen's show.
He reminded me of many of the religious folks I grew up knowing through my parents, a lot like Norman Vincent Peale and other positive thinking Christians. Since my parents were positive thinking Christian Mystics I felt touched to the core listening to Joel's uplifting rhetoric.
I found my emotions being turned around and beginning to feel more positive about my life and the world.
He spoke of things like "The wealth of the ungodly is being laid up for the Godly." Since God and angels have never been theoretical but an actual experience all my life I have seen this in action all my life.
My wife often says, "How can you worry so much if you have these experiences with God?"
My answer is that even though I have experiences with God all the time my worry reminds me of the man that was in a flood and knew that God would save him. First a log floated by but the man didn't get on because he knew God would save him. Then a raft floated by but the man didn't get on because he knew God would save him. Then a boat came by but the man didn't get on because he knew God was going to save him. Then a helicopter tried to pick him up out of the flood but the man wouldn't get in because he knew God would save him. Finally, the man drowned and he went to heaven and he said to God, "God! Why didn't you save me?" God said, "I sent you the log, the boat, the raft and the helicopter. Why didn't you use one of these things I sent to save your own life?"
I guess my worry is that God will send something to save me in a situation and I might not recognize that I'm being saved by that device in that way. After all, God does things in very unusual ways and sometimes it is hard to recognize some of the ways God saves our lives.
I think another reason is that though God has always been in my life it is a lot like being an ant on an elephant. You just have to watch out when God(the elephant lies down). Knowing God for me has been in some ways both the most wonderful and yet terrifying and traumatic experience of my life. When God grabs you time and again and throws you off a cliff that free fall and hitting the ground is pretty traumatic. People often envision God as all hearts and flowers. The actuality for me at least is much more harsh than that. Wonderful and terrifying. That's God.
I was channel surfing with my cable TV and saw Joel Osteen. It was about midnight and the rest of my family had gone to sleep hours before. But I was still up trying to feel good about the world and my life. It was like an answer to my prayer when I turned my TV to Joel Osteen's show.
He reminded me of many of the religious folks I grew up knowing through my parents, a lot like Norman Vincent Peale and other positive thinking Christians. Since my parents were positive thinking Christian Mystics I felt touched to the core listening to Joel's uplifting rhetoric.
I found my emotions being turned around and beginning to feel more positive about my life and the world.
He spoke of things like "The wealth of the ungodly is being laid up for the Godly." Since God and angels have never been theoretical but an actual experience all my life I have seen this in action all my life.
My wife often says, "How can you worry so much if you have these experiences with God?"
My answer is that even though I have experiences with God all the time my worry reminds me of the man that was in a flood and knew that God would save him. First a log floated by but the man didn't get on because he knew God would save him. Then a raft floated by but the man didn't get on because he knew God would save him. Then a boat came by but the man didn't get on because he knew God was going to save him. Then a helicopter tried to pick him up out of the flood but the man wouldn't get in because he knew God would save him. Finally, the man drowned and he went to heaven and he said to God, "God! Why didn't you save me?" God said, "I sent you the log, the boat, the raft and the helicopter. Why didn't you use one of these things I sent to save your own life?"
I guess my worry is that God will send something to save me in a situation and I might not recognize that I'm being saved by that device in that way. After all, God does things in very unusual ways and sometimes it is hard to recognize some of the ways God saves our lives.
I think another reason is that though God has always been in my life it is a lot like being an ant on an elephant. You just have to watch out when God(the elephant lies down). Knowing God for me has been in some ways both the most wonderful and yet terrifying and traumatic experience of my life. When God grabs you time and again and throws you off a cliff that free fall and hitting the ground is pretty traumatic. People often envision God as all hearts and flowers. The actuality for me at least is much more harsh than that. Wonderful and terrifying. That's God.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Still looking for a Cause to the World's problems that makes sense
I have blogged about Banks attacking nations, rich people trying to get rich no matter what happens to the worlds poor or for that matter anybody, Corporations attacking each other for pre-eminence. Nations attacking each other economically for pre-eminence but I'm beginning to believe it is not that simple.
I started to think back to about 6 months to 1 year ago of a food tipping point on earth and remembered how many Australian farmers were committing suicide because there wasn't enough water because of long term droughts to any longer farm, raise sheep, or any livestock profitably because there just wasn't enough rain to do that anymore.
This in turn created a lack of rice, soybean, and wheat surplus worldwide. This started to react upon the price of food commodities and interacted with the price of oil worldwide and helped speed us to where we all are internationally.
In other words the world surplus of rice, soybeans, and wheat is gone and it has become each nation for itself with the poorest of nations mostly without enough rice, soybeans and wheat. Some AID organizations have learned to buy these things at bargain basement prices from third world nations so they can afford to feed more of the starving poor mostly refugees in third world nations. However, donors to this organizations likely will be hard pressed worldwide to be able to give enough money to keep these AID organzations afloat properly. The small donations of individuals in 1st world and 2nd world nations who normally have a few dollars here and there might not be there in the near future because they have to take care of their own families in distress and their friends families who live in the same country. So a good portion of donated money to food relief agencies is likely to dry up that comes from middle class and lower class donors in the 1st and 2nd world.
It could be that the food tipping point in Australia (no food surplus worldwide) and the fear engendered by those starving made its way up to richer and richer people so quickly that this too was a factor in the worldwide economic collapse we are all witnessing.
So here is my latest scenario for trying to make some sense of all of this. First of all, tornadoes, hurricanes(cyclones) and bad weather of all kinds including drought affects all places on earth in one way or another. Both poles (north and south) melting at alarming rates panics others. Then the subprime(which I believe is a direct reaction to the insanity of the terrorist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) began to unravel the American Dream of being able to borrow on ones constantly increasing value of one's home or commercial property or business. The government being occupied in such a single minded way on Iraq and Afghanistan was basically oblivious to all other changes including the bankrupting of our American and World economy from these wars.
It would be basically like being in a bar and so focused on the person you were fighting that you didn't notice the person behind you stealing your wallet and all your credit cards.
If you put all these scenarios together we begin to make some sense of what is happening right now on earth.
I started to think back to about 6 months to 1 year ago of a food tipping point on earth and remembered how many Australian farmers were committing suicide because there wasn't enough water because of long term droughts to any longer farm, raise sheep, or any livestock profitably because there just wasn't enough rain to do that anymore.
This in turn created a lack of rice, soybean, and wheat surplus worldwide. This started to react upon the price of food commodities and interacted with the price of oil worldwide and helped speed us to where we all are internationally.
In other words the world surplus of rice, soybeans, and wheat is gone and it has become each nation for itself with the poorest of nations mostly without enough rice, soybeans and wheat. Some AID organizations have learned to buy these things at bargain basement prices from third world nations so they can afford to feed more of the starving poor mostly refugees in third world nations. However, donors to this organizations likely will be hard pressed worldwide to be able to give enough money to keep these AID organzations afloat properly. The small donations of individuals in 1st world and 2nd world nations who normally have a few dollars here and there might not be there in the near future because they have to take care of their own families in distress and their friends families who live in the same country. So a good portion of donated money to food relief agencies is likely to dry up that comes from middle class and lower class donors in the 1st and 2nd world.
It could be that the food tipping point in Australia (no food surplus worldwide) and the fear engendered by those starving made its way up to richer and richer people so quickly that this too was a factor in the worldwide economic collapse we are all witnessing.
So here is my latest scenario for trying to make some sense of all of this. First of all, tornadoes, hurricanes(cyclones) and bad weather of all kinds including drought affects all places on earth in one way or another. Both poles (north and south) melting at alarming rates panics others. Then the subprime(which I believe is a direct reaction to the insanity of the terrorist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) began to unravel the American Dream of being able to borrow on ones constantly increasing value of one's home or commercial property or business. The government being occupied in such a single minded way on Iraq and Afghanistan was basically oblivious to all other changes including the bankrupting of our American and World economy from these wars.
It would be basically like being in a bar and so focused on the person you were fighting that you didn't notice the person behind you stealing your wallet and all your credit cards.
If you put all these scenarios together we begin to make some sense of what is happening right now on earth.
6 errors made on way to financial crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/
business/economy/25view.html
One of the six errors I have been blogging about since I first realized how serious the problem was 1 1/2 to 2 years ago. I couldn't believe that our government could be so unresponsive to not deal with it directly. But I was wrong. All the complacency and apathy of doing business as usual no matter what led to this present outcome.
Since most people who survived the 1930s are in their 80s or older who are still alive most of them weren't listened to either. So people like myself with parents who constantly cautioned my generation to prepare for the next bad recession or outright depression were very insistent that we put all our ducks in a row to prepare for it. However, only about 1 in 10 even in my generation were properly prepared for this latest downturn.
Having lived through the 1970s which were in some way remarkably like this recession we are now in, high unemployment was one of many factors we dealt with then as well as now. Since where I live in California unemployment has now reached 9.3% it is definitely scaring the rest of the country as well. To add to that state checks may soon become IOUs because the state coffers are now pretty much empty. I am told that 37 other states are in trouble financially as well as California. However, if Obama wanted to jump start the nations economy California has always proved itself both very innovative and very responsive in these kinds of situations being the 8th largest economy world wide even now.
The other thing that doesn't make a lot of sense to me still is all this smacks of something planned. However, I can't figure out if world banks are making war against nations or if Europe and the U.S. and India are making economic war against China or if China is making economic war against the rest of the world. This whole thing doesn't make sense to me.
It is easiest to make sense of if I take all this information and say it is:"Everyone for themselves". This makes the most sense to me of multiple very rich people or groups of rich people world wide trying to get very wealthy whether the economy goes up or down in any place or places.
If this last scenario is actually what is mostly happening at core then the 1 billion poorest on earth are in trouble. Because unless these "richest greedy people" are reigned in a little the bottom 1 billion may not survive the next 20 years or so.
business/economy/25view.html
One of the six errors I have been blogging about since I first realized how serious the problem was 1 1/2 to 2 years ago. I couldn't believe that our government could be so unresponsive to not deal with it directly. But I was wrong. All the complacency and apathy of doing business as usual no matter what led to this present outcome.
Since most people who survived the 1930s are in their 80s or older who are still alive most of them weren't listened to either. So people like myself with parents who constantly cautioned my generation to prepare for the next bad recession or outright depression were very insistent that we put all our ducks in a row to prepare for it. However, only about 1 in 10 even in my generation were properly prepared for this latest downturn.
Having lived through the 1970s which were in some way remarkably like this recession we are now in, high unemployment was one of many factors we dealt with then as well as now. Since where I live in California unemployment has now reached 9.3% it is definitely scaring the rest of the country as well. To add to that state checks may soon become IOUs because the state coffers are now pretty much empty. I am told that 37 other states are in trouble financially as well as California. However, if Obama wanted to jump start the nations economy California has always proved itself both very innovative and very responsive in these kinds of situations being the 8th largest economy world wide even now.
The other thing that doesn't make a lot of sense to me still is all this smacks of something planned. However, I can't figure out if world banks are making war against nations or if Europe and the U.S. and India are making economic war against China or if China is making economic war against the rest of the world. This whole thing doesn't make sense to me.
It is easiest to make sense of if I take all this information and say it is:"Everyone for themselves". This makes the most sense to me of multiple very rich people or groups of rich people world wide trying to get very wealthy whether the economy goes up or down in any place or places.
If this last scenario is actually what is mostly happening at core then the 1 billion poorest on earth are in trouble. Because unless these "richest greedy people" are reigned in a little the bottom 1 billion may not survive the next 20 years or so.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Problem of Belief
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090119/lf_afp/lifestylebritainreligiontransportatheism
The above article talks about a worldwide campaign to eradicate God.
Though I understand that this is created as a direct reaction to Muslim terrorists I still think in essence it is wrong headed.
I'm approaching all this as a pragmatist. I'm not saying unequivocally whether God is real or not.
However, one thing I do know that many times people need to believe that there is a God whether or not there is one or not and that many people on earth right now would kill you right now if you said that there is no God and you said this to their face.
Such strong feelings on both sides must be taken into consideration if people want to live through these kinds of confrontations either in person, in print, by phone, or even television.
Though I understand that this movement to eradicate God from normal usage worldwide is sincere and based entirely upon the terror people feel from people who they consider crazy believing in virgins being given to them if they blow other people and themselves up. I understand this. However, entirely eradicating God I don't believe is possible or useful in any way.
I think this needs to be approached in another way. My thinking is that whether God exists or not human beings need to believe sometimes or even all the time that there is such a thing. Whether this comes from growing up as a little child with parents who take care of us and then needing parents to make the hard decisions still as an adult I don't know. However, I have experienced in my own life and the lives of everyone I know that at times people seriously need to believe in God or something.
It is less important, I believe whether God exists or even whether God can be proved or disproved. This in the in I don't believe is important. What is important is that many or most people's lives would be over if they didn't believe in God.
If you want to make everyone on earth a criminal for example, you could give everyone a drug that made them not believe in God. All societies would immediately collapse without the altruism that a belief in God brings. People would have no reason in most parts of the world to do anything to help anyone without a belief in God. Though this might not be true of Buddhist nations that don't necessarily believe in God it would be a disaster for the rest of the world.
To repeat: It isn't important whether God exists or can be proven, people need to believe in God for civilization itself to continue. This is what I believe is important.
The above article talks about a worldwide campaign to eradicate God.
Though I understand that this is created as a direct reaction to Muslim terrorists I still think in essence it is wrong headed.
I'm approaching all this as a pragmatist. I'm not saying unequivocally whether God is real or not.
However, one thing I do know that many times people need to believe that there is a God whether or not there is one or not and that many people on earth right now would kill you right now if you said that there is no God and you said this to their face.
Such strong feelings on both sides must be taken into consideration if people want to live through these kinds of confrontations either in person, in print, by phone, or even television.
Though I understand that this movement to eradicate God from normal usage worldwide is sincere and based entirely upon the terror people feel from people who they consider crazy believing in virgins being given to them if they blow other people and themselves up. I understand this. However, entirely eradicating God I don't believe is possible or useful in any way.
I think this needs to be approached in another way. My thinking is that whether God exists or not human beings need to believe sometimes or even all the time that there is such a thing. Whether this comes from growing up as a little child with parents who take care of us and then needing parents to make the hard decisions still as an adult I don't know. However, I have experienced in my own life and the lives of everyone I know that at times people seriously need to believe in God or something.
It is less important, I believe whether God exists or even whether God can be proved or disproved. This in the in I don't believe is important. What is important is that many or most people's lives would be over if they didn't believe in God.
If you want to make everyone on earth a criminal for example, you could give everyone a drug that made them not believe in God. All societies would immediately collapse without the altruism that a belief in God brings. People would have no reason in most parts of the world to do anything to help anyone without a belief in God. Though this might not be true of Buddhist nations that don't necessarily believe in God it would be a disaster for the rest of the world.
To repeat: It isn't important whether God exists or can be proven, people need to believe in God for civilization itself to continue. This is what I believe is important.
Saint Germain Speaks of his life as Francis Bacon
fiction?
I am only writing this under the heading fiction so that those of you who don't believe this kind of stuff will feel relieved.
I was going to sleep tonight and Saint Germain began talking with me. Today felt very strange. I realize now it was Saint Germain filling me with his consciousness of when he was Francis Bacon in Elizabethan England during the reign of Elizabeth I.
I offered to tell his story direct from the akashic records but he declined saying, "That would only terrify people because they don't think that way anymore these days." Then he said, "I would like to tell my own story in my own way through you in a way that would be helpful to present day mankind."
Saint Germain Speaks of his life as Francis Bacon
"I thank Fred here for attempting this communication. He asked if he would be allowed to read the akashic records of my life and to translate them here. I realized that not only would it be counterproductive but that it could actually harm him so I declined.
I was born the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I of England. I also had a brother that my mother Elizabeth executed when he tried to take over the thrown and make it known he was a Prince of the realm. I saw always the futility of this and was sad when my brother was beheaded. I was raised by the Bacons after they adopted me at birth. I later became the Exchequer of London and wrote the Shakespearean plays and placed within the original manuscripts 7 codes only 1 or 2 which have been both deciphered and put before the public. All 7 codes have actually been deciphered now but only 1 of them is well known still.
When I feigned my death as Francis Bacon(when my grave was dug up eventually only rocks were in my coffin) I journeyed to mainland Europe under the guise of various names. I had discovered the philosophers stone and had engendered immortality thereby. However, I had not reached the full enlightenment necessary to make this entirely useful to me or anyone else. The first 20 years after my feigned death I found to be the most difficult.
However, eventually I came upon the idea that since everyone thought I was dead I could take on almost any identity I wished since I was rich at the time. And because of this I could travel anywhere on earth as anyone I chose. My first idea was to trace Jesus' life in the Middle East from birth to crucifiction. In the process of doing this I found it wise to dye my skin a darker tone to avoid being murdered as an infidel. Having done this I found myself shunned by lighter skinned and more vulnerable Europeans. Once I had traced the routes of Jesus I had met many interesting people. Some of these were mystics that introduced me to wonders I had never heard or even dreamt about. These tales lead me away from the middle east on the path to India of Saint Issa. By following the tales and legends of Saint Issa I was able to meet a then present day teacher in the lineage of Saint Issa in India. From this teacher I learned to raise my body from the dead like Jesus demonstrated after the crucifiction. He also introduced me to other teachers that taught things like Bi-location and even manifesting ones body in multiple places at once. I learned from still other recommended teachers to heal at a distance and various ways of listening and seeing past, present and future. In this way I could protect both myself and civilization in general in heretofore unknown ways by me. I was able to see just how important it is for the wisest and most compassionate of mankind to learn to never die. Though for most it would only be a curse to never die, for the compassionate wise servants of mankind only good would result. So I vowed to help to create immortality and to bring heaven to earth for mankind. I have worked to this end ever since. If Jesus brought Grace he has trained me to help bring immortality right here on earth. It is coming closer and closer each day for all who have the compassion and wisdom to will it so!"
"Now I would like to speak of present day problems. The danger today is the unraveling of large and small present day nations. There is an effort underway by banks and corporations to do away with nations or at the very least to weaken the nation states into things that could be more easily manipulated by large companies and corporations that are likely to survive this latest onslaught against humanity. If these interests could they would, like always before start a large war to reduce world population by several billion and for war profiteering as in past centuries. However, nuclear weapons prevent this because of the danger of the extinction of all life on earth. However, this fact only frustrates the financial powers of earth further. They are further frustrated by the fact that unless wealth is more evenly distributed worldwide even companies and corporations will cease to exist with only chaos and warlords remaining. So all groups including companies, nations, corporations and extremely wealthy individuals are extremely frustrated right now and this is likely to get worse.
However, the hope of mankind is in designing a new order of the ages. This past one has failed now miserably and a new one needs to be designed. If it is not put into place in the next 5 years then this sort of thing will happen again and again until people get fed up enough to create a new world order that is fair to everyone or at least a world order that is more fair to everyone than the present one is."
I am only writing this under the heading fiction so that those of you who don't believe this kind of stuff will feel relieved.
I was going to sleep tonight and Saint Germain began talking with me. Today felt very strange. I realize now it was Saint Germain filling me with his consciousness of when he was Francis Bacon in Elizabethan England during the reign of Elizabeth I.
I offered to tell his story direct from the akashic records but he declined saying, "That would only terrify people because they don't think that way anymore these days." Then he said, "I would like to tell my own story in my own way through you in a way that would be helpful to present day mankind."
Saint Germain Speaks of his life as Francis Bacon
"I thank Fred here for attempting this communication. He asked if he would be allowed to read the akashic records of my life and to translate them here. I realized that not only would it be counterproductive but that it could actually harm him so I declined.
I was born the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I of England. I also had a brother that my mother Elizabeth executed when he tried to take over the thrown and make it known he was a Prince of the realm. I saw always the futility of this and was sad when my brother was beheaded. I was raised by the Bacons after they adopted me at birth. I later became the Exchequer of London and wrote the Shakespearean plays and placed within the original manuscripts 7 codes only 1 or 2 which have been both deciphered and put before the public. All 7 codes have actually been deciphered now but only 1 of them is well known still.
When I feigned my death as Francis Bacon(when my grave was dug up eventually only rocks were in my coffin) I journeyed to mainland Europe under the guise of various names. I had discovered the philosophers stone and had engendered immortality thereby. However, I had not reached the full enlightenment necessary to make this entirely useful to me or anyone else. The first 20 years after my feigned death I found to be the most difficult.
However, eventually I came upon the idea that since everyone thought I was dead I could take on almost any identity I wished since I was rich at the time. And because of this I could travel anywhere on earth as anyone I chose. My first idea was to trace Jesus' life in the Middle East from birth to crucifiction. In the process of doing this I found it wise to dye my skin a darker tone to avoid being murdered as an infidel. Having done this I found myself shunned by lighter skinned and more vulnerable Europeans. Once I had traced the routes of Jesus I had met many interesting people. Some of these were mystics that introduced me to wonders I had never heard or even dreamt about. These tales lead me away from the middle east on the path to India of Saint Issa. By following the tales and legends of Saint Issa I was able to meet a then present day teacher in the lineage of Saint Issa in India. From this teacher I learned to raise my body from the dead like Jesus demonstrated after the crucifiction. He also introduced me to other teachers that taught things like Bi-location and even manifesting ones body in multiple places at once. I learned from still other recommended teachers to heal at a distance and various ways of listening and seeing past, present and future. In this way I could protect both myself and civilization in general in heretofore unknown ways by me. I was able to see just how important it is for the wisest and most compassionate of mankind to learn to never die. Though for most it would only be a curse to never die, for the compassionate wise servants of mankind only good would result. So I vowed to help to create immortality and to bring heaven to earth for mankind. I have worked to this end ever since. If Jesus brought Grace he has trained me to help bring immortality right here on earth. It is coming closer and closer each day for all who have the compassion and wisdom to will it so!"
"Now I would like to speak of present day problems. The danger today is the unraveling of large and small present day nations. There is an effort underway by banks and corporations to do away with nations or at the very least to weaken the nation states into things that could be more easily manipulated by large companies and corporations that are likely to survive this latest onslaught against humanity. If these interests could they would, like always before start a large war to reduce world population by several billion and for war profiteering as in past centuries. However, nuclear weapons prevent this because of the danger of the extinction of all life on earth. However, this fact only frustrates the financial powers of earth further. They are further frustrated by the fact that unless wealth is more evenly distributed worldwide even companies and corporations will cease to exist with only chaos and warlords remaining. So all groups including companies, nations, corporations and extremely wealthy individuals are extremely frustrated right now and this is likely to get worse.
However, the hope of mankind is in designing a new order of the ages. This past one has failed now miserably and a new one needs to be designed. If it is not put into place in the next 5 years then this sort of thing will happen again and again until people get fed up enough to create a new world order that is fair to everyone or at least a world order that is more fair to everyone than the present one is."
Friday, January 23, 2009
How Much Truth can you stand
I was walking through my garage and thinking about how I like to see my motor home as a morphing spaceship in my personal fantasies. However, I usually don't share these with others unless I'm writing.
I sort of laughed to myself when I thought about this and it took me back to Fall 1966 in Glendale College in california. One of my classes at age 18 was Social Science which at that time really wasn't taught much in High School. I had just come from my senior year in a church school in a private High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico while my parents waited for me to return to their home in Glendale, California. Though it had been very good for me to get away from my parents for a year in private school it had further ingrained me into the church's way of thinking in regard to evolution and abortion. The church I was raised in didn't believe in either of these things.
Though my father had taught me through debating me starting at age 8 to be a free and experimental thinker and to be pragmatic and objective about every situation I encountered physically or mentally I was vulnerable at Glendale College to a Social Science class which taught Evolution and Darwin. To make matters worse I was always telepathic and so immediately realized that 80% of the students in this class also firmly believed in both evolution and Darwin. So at this point I was horrified on multiple levels and this experience so rocked my worldview that I dropped out of college because of my inability to cope with this paradox.
It took me until I was about 20 or 21 to resolve this conflict. I finally in a more mature way decided that ideas were much like languages of thought. I decided there was no one language of thought that was the correct or only one. This adult decision has helped me to survive until age 60 which I am now. It has allowed me to feel comfortable meeting people of all philosophies and religions that I have talked to traveling worldwide as well as meeting people of diverse cultures here in the United States.
So freaking out my first year of college and taking a year off actually made me a more cultured and worldly and diplomatic person who became capable in an adult way of talking to people who believed almost anything without freaking out internally or externally. I may or may not agree with them but I could handle it either way.
However, many many people worldwide never come to this point because they didn't grow up in the United States or Europe or go to a public college in these areas. Education was the primary reason I had to grow and go beyond my parents belief system in order to survive in the larger world we live in. I consider suffering until I could learn to add onto my belief system each system like one learns languages. Not necessarily believing any of these systems but at least being able to be conversant with all kinds of people and being kind and useful both to them and creating them as useful to me and my family.
Learning to think like an educated diplomat will save your life in multiple situations if you are exposed to diverse cultures and peoples. Otherwise you just better not travel if you aren't open to dealing with diverse perspectives. If you can't deal with other points of view you should stay home so you can stay alive.
What I'm mostly saying is that in order to travel the world safely you must first find out what is happening where you are thinking about going to. Otherwise, almost anything can and will happen to you there. So if you want to travel the world, for God's sake, do some research so you can survive it and tell your kids and Grand kids about it!
I sort of laughed to myself when I thought about this and it took me back to Fall 1966 in Glendale College in california. One of my classes at age 18 was Social Science which at that time really wasn't taught much in High School. I had just come from my senior year in a church school in a private High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico while my parents waited for me to return to their home in Glendale, California. Though it had been very good for me to get away from my parents for a year in private school it had further ingrained me into the church's way of thinking in regard to evolution and abortion. The church I was raised in didn't believe in either of these things.
Though my father had taught me through debating me starting at age 8 to be a free and experimental thinker and to be pragmatic and objective about every situation I encountered physically or mentally I was vulnerable at Glendale College to a Social Science class which taught Evolution and Darwin. To make matters worse I was always telepathic and so immediately realized that 80% of the students in this class also firmly believed in both evolution and Darwin. So at this point I was horrified on multiple levels and this experience so rocked my worldview that I dropped out of college because of my inability to cope with this paradox.
It took me until I was about 20 or 21 to resolve this conflict. I finally in a more mature way decided that ideas were much like languages of thought. I decided there was no one language of thought that was the correct or only one. This adult decision has helped me to survive until age 60 which I am now. It has allowed me to feel comfortable meeting people of all philosophies and religions that I have talked to traveling worldwide as well as meeting people of diverse cultures here in the United States.
So freaking out my first year of college and taking a year off actually made me a more cultured and worldly and diplomatic person who became capable in an adult way of talking to people who believed almost anything without freaking out internally or externally. I may or may not agree with them but I could handle it either way.
However, many many people worldwide never come to this point because they didn't grow up in the United States or Europe or go to a public college in these areas. Education was the primary reason I had to grow and go beyond my parents belief system in order to survive in the larger world we live in. I consider suffering until I could learn to add onto my belief system each system like one learns languages. Not necessarily believing any of these systems but at least being able to be conversant with all kinds of people and being kind and useful both to them and creating them as useful to me and my family.
Learning to think like an educated diplomat will save your life in multiple situations if you are exposed to diverse cultures and peoples. Otherwise you just better not travel if you aren't open to dealing with diverse perspectives. If you can't deal with other points of view you should stay home so you can stay alive.
What I'm mostly saying is that in order to travel the world safely you must first find out what is happening where you are thinking about going to. Otherwise, almost anything can and will happen to you there. So if you want to travel the world, for God's sake, do some research so you can survive it and tell your kids and Grand kids about it!
The Shakespeare Code
When I was growing up my parents owned a copy of "the Bi-Literal Code of Sir Francis Bacon. This was donated to them by a collector in their church. Eventually they donated this book to the Saint Germain Foundation Library in the 1970s. Unless it has been sold or moved likely it is still there. Also, when I was a boy my family visited the Francis Bacon Library which might be a part of the Pomona College Library now or still exist in Los Angeles County? I'm not sure about this either way.
I have found a book called the Shakespeare Code that has researched the story behind all this called "The Shakespeare Code" by Virginia M. Fellows. If you can't find it through Amazon or your local bookstore it is also available through The Summit University Press online. I can't vouch for this book as I haven't read it. However, I know much of the story because my parents told me about all this when I was a boy.
The story goes something like this. Within the Bi-Literal Code(Francis Bacon was the world authority on codes until computers were invented during the 1940s) and since Francis Bacon is thought by many to have written the Shakespearean plays, his codes, I believe the bi-literal code said that there are 7 or more codes impregnated into the original manuscripts. In order to decode these codes one must go from copies of the original manuscripts of the plays for it to work for you in any decoding.
Also, according to the bi-literal code it said that Francis Bacon was an illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It becomes even more interesting when one realized that Francis Bacon was the Exchequer of London, England as an adult and believed by many to be none other than Saint Germain who is also known as Prince Ragocy of Transylvania. To make this even more interesting the legends of Prince Ragocy of Transylvania and of Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania got intertwined and perverted by the masses to result in the books and movies of Count Dracula of pulp fiction and science fiction.
To make this even more interesting the Count de saint Germain of France was an associate of Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette as well as many other famous Kings, Queens and dignitaries of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
So in finding out about the Shakespeare Code you could be a part of the research that discovers more amazing facts about Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, Prince Ragocy, the Count de saint Germain etc. If you can somehow prove your findings you could become very famous and well known indeed. However, because all these things happened now 200 to 400 years ago it will be very difficult unless you have access to time travel. Since I believe time travel at this point is a given in our galaxy and universe through my own research, it is possible you already know but are unwilling to share because it could or would unravel time on into the future.
So, at the very least this subject is one of the most interesting enigma's I have encountered almost comparable to the unknowns concerning Jesus and Buddha.
I have found a book called the Shakespeare Code that has researched the story behind all this called "The Shakespeare Code" by Virginia M. Fellows. If you can't find it through Amazon or your local bookstore it is also available through The Summit University Press online. I can't vouch for this book as I haven't read it. However, I know much of the story because my parents told me about all this when I was a boy.
The story goes something like this. Within the Bi-Literal Code(Francis Bacon was the world authority on codes until computers were invented during the 1940s) and since Francis Bacon is thought by many to have written the Shakespearean plays, his codes, I believe the bi-literal code said that there are 7 or more codes impregnated into the original manuscripts. In order to decode these codes one must go from copies of the original manuscripts of the plays for it to work for you in any decoding.
Also, according to the bi-literal code it said that Francis Bacon was an illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It becomes even more interesting when one realized that Francis Bacon was the Exchequer of London, England as an adult and believed by many to be none other than Saint Germain who is also known as Prince Ragocy of Transylvania. To make this even more interesting the legends of Prince Ragocy of Transylvania and of Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania got intertwined and perverted by the masses to result in the books and movies of Count Dracula of pulp fiction and science fiction.
To make this even more interesting the Count de saint Germain of France was an associate of Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette as well as many other famous Kings, Queens and dignitaries of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
So in finding out about the Shakespeare Code you could be a part of the research that discovers more amazing facts about Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, Prince Ragocy, the Count de saint Germain etc. If you can somehow prove your findings you could become very famous and well known indeed. However, because all these things happened now 200 to 400 years ago it will be very difficult unless you have access to time travel. Since I believe time travel at this point is a given in our galaxy and universe through my own research, it is possible you already know but are unwilling to share because it could or would unravel time on into the future.
So, at the very least this subject is one of the most interesting enigma's I have encountered almost comparable to the unknowns concerning Jesus and Buddha.
The Frogs are Croaking
Though all of us know that frogs and birds are in the middle of a massive die-off worldwide for at least the last 20 years that is not what I'm writing about.
I'm writing about frogs still alive and croaking in the rain. Today I got turned around because of low clouds turning into fog on the ground in my normal almost daily walk through the pine and oak and fern forest surrounding my home on the Northern California Coast. Since it has been raining now most of the week the dogs (2) were anxious to get out into the wet interesting smelling forest. So I obliged them by throwing them into the back of my suv and driving 5 minutes to my favorite trails so they wouldn't have to deal with traffic and so I could safely take them off leash.(It took me about 1 to 2 years to train them effectively to do this). So if you haven't trained your dog for this and to be friendly not only to any humans they meet and any dogs including difficult ones then you might consider keeping them on leash until you have confidence in them in all situations. Even now, my daughter's female corgi gets spooked by a person riding through the forest on a bicycle accompanied by a dog and runs away back to the car. The first incident of this kind of thing cost about $3000 to repair one of her back legs that she permanently pulled a muscle on and about 2 months recuperation with cone etc. So needless to say my big dog(Australian Shepard-German Shepard mix) who is very smart is a much better choice than my daughter's female corgi for going off leash as nothing even domesticated wolves off leash don't spook him. He fits right in. However, he is a man's dog and the corgi is a love which women really like.
Anyway, today I got thrown off by the low hanging clouds and rain and mist and when I went down into a canyon and came back up into the trees I realized something was wrong and that I wasn't where I thought I was. I knew this wasn't a problem because this forest is bounded by roads or ocean on all sides that are eventually paved so finding where I was was only a matter of time. Since I had no appointments it was sort of like being over 9 or 10 when this sort of thing happened a lot. I always liked getting lost within an area where I always could discover eventually where I was and not die. This was the essence of adventure for a very young man in a boys body. So even though I realized I had been turned around somehow I found myself enjoying the adventure and the unknown like when I was a boy. Eventually when I hit a road I was amazed at where I really was and couldn't believe that I had been turned around about 180 degrees from where I thought I was. Since I was back near my car I decided to end my trek when I heard from a nearby valley or canyon 50 to 100 frogs croaking together. Knowing that this is a mating call it made me very happy to hear this because there would likely be more frogs next year because of this. It also made me happy to know that this area was still healthy enough for frogs to live in, an ecologically safe place to raise children. This gave me great peace as I returned with my dogs to my SUV.
I'm writing about frogs still alive and croaking in the rain. Today I got turned around because of low clouds turning into fog on the ground in my normal almost daily walk through the pine and oak and fern forest surrounding my home on the Northern California Coast. Since it has been raining now most of the week the dogs (2) were anxious to get out into the wet interesting smelling forest. So I obliged them by throwing them into the back of my suv and driving 5 minutes to my favorite trails so they wouldn't have to deal with traffic and so I could safely take them off leash.(It took me about 1 to 2 years to train them effectively to do this). So if you haven't trained your dog for this and to be friendly not only to any humans they meet and any dogs including difficult ones then you might consider keeping them on leash until you have confidence in them in all situations. Even now, my daughter's female corgi gets spooked by a person riding through the forest on a bicycle accompanied by a dog and runs away back to the car. The first incident of this kind of thing cost about $3000 to repair one of her back legs that she permanently pulled a muscle on and about 2 months recuperation with cone etc. So needless to say my big dog(Australian Shepard-German Shepard mix) who is very smart is a much better choice than my daughter's female corgi for going off leash as nothing even domesticated wolves off leash don't spook him. He fits right in. However, he is a man's dog and the corgi is a love which women really like.
Anyway, today I got thrown off by the low hanging clouds and rain and mist and when I went down into a canyon and came back up into the trees I realized something was wrong and that I wasn't where I thought I was. I knew this wasn't a problem because this forest is bounded by roads or ocean on all sides that are eventually paved so finding where I was was only a matter of time. Since I had no appointments it was sort of like being over 9 or 10 when this sort of thing happened a lot. I always liked getting lost within an area where I always could discover eventually where I was and not die. This was the essence of adventure for a very young man in a boys body. So even though I realized I had been turned around somehow I found myself enjoying the adventure and the unknown like when I was a boy. Eventually when I hit a road I was amazed at where I really was and couldn't believe that I had been turned around about 180 degrees from where I thought I was. Since I was back near my car I decided to end my trek when I heard from a nearby valley or canyon 50 to 100 frogs croaking together. Knowing that this is a mating call it made me very happy to hear this because there would likely be more frogs next year because of this. It also made me happy to know that this area was still healthy enough for frogs to live in, an ecologically safe place to raise children. This gave me great peace as I returned with my dogs to my SUV.
A Time of Testing for Mankind
When I look back upon the times of testing that I have already lived through that most or all of mankind shared with me I come up with the following: The Bay of Pigs in Cuba, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of JFK, of Bobby his brother, of Martin Luther King, the insanity of Viet Nam, the collapse of the Soviet Union, 9-11, the war in Afghanistan, torture, the War in Iraq, and now the world economic collapse being called at this point a severe recession.
Each of these times has tested mankind, and each in slightly different ways.
Now we are dealing with something that affects more people right where they live, in their pocketbooks. Millions will die around the world from starvation, directly caused by this economic downturn. More will likely die of starvation in the next few years than in all the wars around the world in the last 10 years. This is just a fact of life.
For me, looking at this there is an important side to all this. It is a reality check. In the past many of us have retreated into our computers, computer games and television. Though this escape might have calmed us it also took us away from the real suffering of not only ourselves and our families but also away from dealing with the suffering of all mankind. How can we help ourselves without in some way trying to help others? How can we feel good about our own lives if we do nothing to help others when we have the chance.
This came home to me during my 4 months in India and Nepal in 1985-86. I could not in good faith look away from all the people who lifted their hands and screamed and begged, "Bakshish", which loosely translated means "help me, please share with me!"
At first, my response embarrassed me. I went home and couldn't sleep that night and decided that my response was not useful and that as a person that had taken Ahimsa vows in 1983(not killing anything except in self defense) that my appropriate response had to be to give something to everyone that was safe enough for me to do so. Since people who beg in India are usually very spiritually devout or were in 1985, I was safe to give anything from about a penny to a nickle to a quarter to anyone who begged me to give them something. I also found that the Tibetan Lama tried to give something to everyone who asked as well. One day he bought a bag of candy that had at least 1000 pieces of hard candy in it. We had thousands of people begging on the way up to a holy sight. He meticulously gave every person a single piece of candy. Many of the cried to have a holy man give them a piece of candy. It might have been the only piece of candy that year for them. This experience shook me to the core. Many of these people were lepers. I couldn't believe there were still lepers then because about $5 worth of medicine bought in India could have cured their disease per year per patient. So the fact that there were still people who still had this disease there(I saw thousands with fingers and noses gone) was horrifying to me.
However, what I learned then and still do is that if I feel safe enough to give someone who is begging even here the in U.S. money I will try to give them $5 in quarters that I keep in my car for these occasion or more. In this way that person can buy a meal and at the very least live one more day until something better comes along in their lives. I think each of us needs to start doing this because we don't know when and if that person might be us.
Though I am wealthy now I believe more than any other reason my wealth came from being generous with my time and my help and even my resources to all the people I have met in my life. Wealth comes from the kindnesses you show others. Temporary wealth may come in another way but all permanent wealth comes from helping and serving others. This is the basis of life on earth.
Each of these times has tested mankind, and each in slightly different ways.
Now we are dealing with something that affects more people right where they live, in their pocketbooks. Millions will die around the world from starvation, directly caused by this economic downturn. More will likely die of starvation in the next few years than in all the wars around the world in the last 10 years. This is just a fact of life.
For me, looking at this there is an important side to all this. It is a reality check. In the past many of us have retreated into our computers, computer games and television. Though this escape might have calmed us it also took us away from the real suffering of not only ourselves and our families but also away from dealing with the suffering of all mankind. How can we help ourselves without in some way trying to help others? How can we feel good about our own lives if we do nothing to help others when we have the chance.
This came home to me during my 4 months in India and Nepal in 1985-86. I could not in good faith look away from all the people who lifted their hands and screamed and begged, "Bakshish", which loosely translated means "help me, please share with me!"
At first, my response embarrassed me. I went home and couldn't sleep that night and decided that my response was not useful and that as a person that had taken Ahimsa vows in 1983(not killing anything except in self defense) that my appropriate response had to be to give something to everyone that was safe enough for me to do so. Since people who beg in India are usually very spiritually devout or were in 1985, I was safe to give anything from about a penny to a nickle to a quarter to anyone who begged me to give them something. I also found that the Tibetan Lama tried to give something to everyone who asked as well. One day he bought a bag of candy that had at least 1000 pieces of hard candy in it. We had thousands of people begging on the way up to a holy sight. He meticulously gave every person a single piece of candy. Many of the cried to have a holy man give them a piece of candy. It might have been the only piece of candy that year for them. This experience shook me to the core. Many of these people were lepers. I couldn't believe there were still lepers then because about $5 worth of medicine bought in India could have cured their disease per year per patient. So the fact that there were still people who still had this disease there(I saw thousands with fingers and noses gone) was horrifying to me.
However, what I learned then and still do is that if I feel safe enough to give someone who is begging even here the in U.S. money I will try to give them $5 in quarters that I keep in my car for these occasion or more. In this way that person can buy a meal and at the very least live one more day until something better comes along in their lives. I think each of us needs to start doing this because we don't know when and if that person might be us.
Though I am wealthy now I believe more than any other reason my wealth came from being generous with my time and my help and even my resources to all the people I have met in my life. Wealth comes from the kindnesses you show others. Temporary wealth may come in another way but all permanent wealth comes from helping and serving others. This is the basis of life on earth.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Oneness while falling Through Space
Fiction?
Though this my real experience it gives me greater liberty to be truthful about what I write about to use this designation of (fiction?)
I have always been very intuitive. Even at age 2 I remember knowing what people were thinking and wondering why they didn't say what they thought. This troubled me growing up and as a result I had less faith in adults in general as a result. However, by about age 12 to 15 I began to realize that not saying what one really thinks is the essence of civilization. For if everyone always said exactly what they thought in any given moment everyone would be dead without exception by now.
And so, I learned that politeness and kindness was and is the essence of civilization simply because we are all, in the end animals who teach our children to be civilized. In this way we limit mass murder to a minimum.
As one learns growing up to be and to become civlized, it sometimes is difficult to know when to be truthful and when to mitigate the truth. This is where many people go wrong in life by confusing themselves over this issue and thereby creating nothing but havoc in their lives.
I tend to be at core a naturally truthful person and my father's family tended always to be truthful to a fault. As a result I had to learn the hard way how to not hurt people's feeling with the truth. For truth is a two edged sword that cuts both ways. So, then growing up for me more than any one thing was to learn to worship the truth without destroying people around me with it. It is said, "Know the truth and the truth will set you Free!" But you notice it doesn't say, "Speak the truth and the truth will set you free." For speaking the truth unless one is very careful can be disastrous. So then, learning to know the truth appears to be what is important and holding the truth in your heart and mind appears to be in the end to secret of life and even of a long life.
However, speaking the truth is a very tricky thing and very few handle it right but the very wisest of all men and women.
Given all this I'm sharing my truths in a (Fiction?) context in order to protect both you and I. I think this is very funny but also necessary.
I named this "Oneness while falling through space" because since we are all falling through space both in actuality(earth and solar system and Galaxy falling through space into infinity) and metaphorically (major economic shifts on planet earth). The "Oneness" part for me is about how to enjoy more our fall through space.
First of all, if you have a place to live, clothes and food and have reasonably good health, the likelihood is that you will survive all this. Looking at things this way is very useful to all of us. And second, if you know how to pray, meditate or can find ways to peace even if you don't believe in God, nature or something, then you will likely be okay in the consciousness department as well.
However, I'm writing here to share my own experiences with you in the hope that they might help you have more peace about your present life ongoing into the future.
I started out being raised as a Christian Mystic. My parents beliefs were in the direction of Christian Science, Rosicrucian, SRF, and that direction. They were church leaders in Los Angeles of their church of around 500 to 1000 members with many other churches worldwide. I was raised to not wear red or black, to not eat onions and garlic and most of all to not eat any meat. This was difficult being raised in Glendale in the Los Angeles County area from 1956 until 1969 when I turned 21.
I followed my parents beliefs like most children did then until I became about 10 or 12 and then began to question all religious people being sane. It didn't matter the religion I began to consider all religious people a little nuts. Then I got childhood epilepsy and in order to survive this I got religion. Since my parents taught me in their way this was the religion I chose to survive childhood epilepsy. By using my parents religious principles God and I defeated childhood epilepsy. However, in order to defeat childhood epilepsy I had to invite God to live in my body with me. I did this so powerfully that my whole life changed much like an old testament prophet. To say the changes were terrifying is to underestimate the changes to my life. However, the good part was that I became like an apostle or prophet extremely gifted with God gifts like precognition, healing at a distance, and experiencing myself as the whole universe which I call infinite resonance. So my experience a lot of the time is that I am God in a body on earth giving order to life in the universe. Now, just so you don't think I'm just nuts, I have found that among people with God given gifts, generally God doesn't allow you to stay alive with these gifts unless you are under his command. The penalty for misusing gifts at this level is either insanity or death or both.
So, here I am at age 15 with all these gifts feeling like I had a literal tiger by the tail(the gifts) and knowing if I misused these gifts that I would be killed. I suppose it would be like if you were the only non blind person on earth. There is a whole lot you could get away with. However, I knew fully that God let me see in this way for a reason and if I took advantage of my position in a way he didn't approve that I would die. This is a very scary place to be for a 15 year old.
So, I began studying everything I could so God would have no reason to kill me through misuse of the gifts he had given me. As I used the gifts I understood they grew and grew. I began to be able to walk by people and know when they were going to die. I knew when women were pregnant before they did as I walked by. I knew the nature of the souls in the wombs of obviously pregnant women. I blessed all these souls first consciously and then as I grew wiser both automatically and consciously as needed and as God needed. Every time I used my gifts as a wise being God increased my gifts more and more and more. Though this was frightening in one way I became accustomed to all this and more accepting that I could handle it and not misuse it and not die from it.
Thoughout my twenties I began to hear from friends with advanced degrees in for example comparative religion as well as a master's degree in History of Religion specializing in Buddhism and translating Sanskrit of a state of consciousness where one would literally be One with all compassionate beings of the past, present and future, literally everywhere everywhen, trillions and trillions of beings.
I consciously attained that state in my early thirties and it was a very terrifying experience for about 24 hours. A lesser aware person might die in this kind of transition, for too much fear might cause death in this kind of transition. However, once this state had been attained, I found that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of as long as one was faithful to all life in the universe at the behest of God.
So what I'm talking about is not for irresponsible children of any age unless of course they want to die.
It is sort of like piloting a very large passenger jet(you better know what you're doing first).
However, I'm sharing here with you that this infinite conscious 24 hour a day direct real experience with all compassionate beings in thousands of Galaxies throughout all time and space is possible right here and now on planet earth. And might I say neither time or space is an obstacle to manifesting Good will right here on earth once this state is attained. And for that matter there is no obstacle to manifesting Good Will anywhere anywhen, anywhere in the universe! My best wishes to you in attaining this state of consciousness if it is your foremost desire. Blessings.
Though this my real experience it gives me greater liberty to be truthful about what I write about to use this designation of (fiction?)
I have always been very intuitive. Even at age 2 I remember knowing what people were thinking and wondering why they didn't say what they thought. This troubled me growing up and as a result I had less faith in adults in general as a result. However, by about age 12 to 15 I began to realize that not saying what one really thinks is the essence of civilization. For if everyone always said exactly what they thought in any given moment everyone would be dead without exception by now.
And so, I learned that politeness and kindness was and is the essence of civilization simply because we are all, in the end animals who teach our children to be civilized. In this way we limit mass murder to a minimum.
As one learns growing up to be and to become civlized, it sometimes is difficult to know when to be truthful and when to mitigate the truth. This is where many people go wrong in life by confusing themselves over this issue and thereby creating nothing but havoc in their lives.
I tend to be at core a naturally truthful person and my father's family tended always to be truthful to a fault. As a result I had to learn the hard way how to not hurt people's feeling with the truth. For truth is a two edged sword that cuts both ways. So, then growing up for me more than any one thing was to learn to worship the truth without destroying people around me with it. It is said, "Know the truth and the truth will set you Free!" But you notice it doesn't say, "Speak the truth and the truth will set you free." For speaking the truth unless one is very careful can be disastrous. So then, learning to know the truth appears to be what is important and holding the truth in your heart and mind appears to be in the end to secret of life and even of a long life.
However, speaking the truth is a very tricky thing and very few handle it right but the very wisest of all men and women.
Given all this I'm sharing my truths in a (Fiction?) context in order to protect both you and I. I think this is very funny but also necessary.
I named this "Oneness while falling through space" because since we are all falling through space both in actuality(earth and solar system and Galaxy falling through space into infinity) and metaphorically (major economic shifts on planet earth). The "Oneness" part for me is about how to enjoy more our fall through space.
First of all, if you have a place to live, clothes and food and have reasonably good health, the likelihood is that you will survive all this. Looking at things this way is very useful to all of us. And second, if you know how to pray, meditate or can find ways to peace even if you don't believe in God, nature or something, then you will likely be okay in the consciousness department as well.
However, I'm writing here to share my own experiences with you in the hope that they might help you have more peace about your present life ongoing into the future.
I started out being raised as a Christian Mystic. My parents beliefs were in the direction of Christian Science, Rosicrucian, SRF, and that direction. They were church leaders in Los Angeles of their church of around 500 to 1000 members with many other churches worldwide. I was raised to not wear red or black, to not eat onions and garlic and most of all to not eat any meat. This was difficult being raised in Glendale in the Los Angeles County area from 1956 until 1969 when I turned 21.
I followed my parents beliefs like most children did then until I became about 10 or 12 and then began to question all religious people being sane. It didn't matter the religion I began to consider all religious people a little nuts. Then I got childhood epilepsy and in order to survive this I got religion. Since my parents taught me in their way this was the religion I chose to survive childhood epilepsy. By using my parents religious principles God and I defeated childhood epilepsy. However, in order to defeat childhood epilepsy I had to invite God to live in my body with me. I did this so powerfully that my whole life changed much like an old testament prophet. To say the changes were terrifying is to underestimate the changes to my life. However, the good part was that I became like an apostle or prophet extremely gifted with God gifts like precognition, healing at a distance, and experiencing myself as the whole universe which I call infinite resonance. So my experience a lot of the time is that I am God in a body on earth giving order to life in the universe. Now, just so you don't think I'm just nuts, I have found that among people with God given gifts, generally God doesn't allow you to stay alive with these gifts unless you are under his command. The penalty for misusing gifts at this level is either insanity or death or both.
So, here I am at age 15 with all these gifts feeling like I had a literal tiger by the tail(the gifts) and knowing if I misused these gifts that I would be killed. I suppose it would be like if you were the only non blind person on earth. There is a whole lot you could get away with. However, I knew fully that God let me see in this way for a reason and if I took advantage of my position in a way he didn't approve that I would die. This is a very scary place to be for a 15 year old.
So, I began studying everything I could so God would have no reason to kill me through misuse of the gifts he had given me. As I used the gifts I understood they grew and grew. I began to be able to walk by people and know when they were going to die. I knew when women were pregnant before they did as I walked by. I knew the nature of the souls in the wombs of obviously pregnant women. I blessed all these souls first consciously and then as I grew wiser both automatically and consciously as needed and as God needed. Every time I used my gifts as a wise being God increased my gifts more and more and more. Though this was frightening in one way I became accustomed to all this and more accepting that I could handle it and not misuse it and not die from it.
Thoughout my twenties I began to hear from friends with advanced degrees in for example comparative religion as well as a master's degree in History of Religion specializing in Buddhism and translating Sanskrit of a state of consciousness where one would literally be One with all compassionate beings of the past, present and future, literally everywhere everywhen, trillions and trillions of beings.
I consciously attained that state in my early thirties and it was a very terrifying experience for about 24 hours. A lesser aware person might die in this kind of transition, for too much fear might cause death in this kind of transition. However, once this state had been attained, I found that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of as long as one was faithful to all life in the universe at the behest of God.
So what I'm talking about is not for irresponsible children of any age unless of course they want to die.
It is sort of like piloting a very large passenger jet(you better know what you're doing first).
However, I'm sharing here with you that this infinite conscious 24 hour a day direct real experience with all compassionate beings in thousands of Galaxies throughout all time and space is possible right here and now on planet earth. And might I say neither time or space is an obstacle to manifesting Good will right here on earth once this state is attained. And for that matter there is no obstacle to manifesting Good Will anywhere anywhen, anywhere in the universe! My best wishes to you in attaining this state of consciousness if it is your foremost desire. Blessings.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Falling Through Space
Though over half of the People of America and the world are happy about Obama becoming the President this week, generally most people feel like they are falling through space. There is a general feeling that there is no bottom or top to what America and the world is going through the last few years. In other words for most people there is no rhyme or reason to all of this. Even people who study such things are surprised by much of what is happening.
I think the most important thing to be aware of is just how fragile the world economic system is. It has been built over hundreds of years in such a haphazard way that this sort of thing I guess was inevitable. Little did most people who started getting subprime loans or who first went to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq know that their(in most cases) well intentioned plans could lead to anything like this.
It appears that the whole financial structure of the world is a house of cards that reminds me more than anything else like a belief system or even a religion. The rise of oil this summer and the subprime losses of average americans brought a lot of people to the edge of losing their belief in the world economic system at least for now.
Without a belief or confidence in the system, it just doesn't work and won't work until a new system is developed that people can believe in. It is unlikely none of this can change until some new enforceable system is in place that everyone or at least most people can trust. We're just not there yet. And because we are not there yet people around the world won't return to investing their money in the stock market, and until they do there won't be enough money for people to have or borrow to easily run businesses worldwide unless big governments get into the banking business by starting to nationalize banks.
Unfortunately, the nationalization of at least some of the big banks of each nation to get loans and money flowing again might be the only short term solution that might actually work in getting things moving again. It will never be the same. Too many people lost their beliefs in the world financial system. But if it stays in the present direction we might see serious collapse of major world governments. Unless you want to live Mad Max the movie you don't want to see your government collapse into chaos. So supporting your government into creating at least one nationalized large bank might bridge each countries finances until a more permanent solution is found.
I think the most important thing to be aware of is just how fragile the world economic system is. It has been built over hundreds of years in such a haphazard way that this sort of thing I guess was inevitable. Little did most people who started getting subprime loans or who first went to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq know that their(in most cases) well intentioned plans could lead to anything like this.
It appears that the whole financial structure of the world is a house of cards that reminds me more than anything else like a belief system or even a religion. The rise of oil this summer and the subprime losses of average americans brought a lot of people to the edge of losing their belief in the world economic system at least for now.
Without a belief or confidence in the system, it just doesn't work and won't work until a new system is developed that people can believe in. It is unlikely none of this can change until some new enforceable system is in place that everyone or at least most people can trust. We're just not there yet. And because we are not there yet people around the world won't return to investing their money in the stock market, and until they do there won't be enough money for people to have or borrow to easily run businesses worldwide unless big governments get into the banking business by starting to nationalize banks.
Unfortunately, the nationalization of at least some of the big banks of each nation to get loans and money flowing again might be the only short term solution that might actually work in getting things moving again. It will never be the same. Too many people lost their beliefs in the world financial system. But if it stays in the present direction we might see serious collapse of major world governments. Unless you want to live Mad Max the movie you don't want to see your government collapse into chaos. So supporting your government into creating at least one nationalized large bank might bridge each countries finances until a more permanent solution is found.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
UBUNTU updates
Though I have two Imacs and a macbook, I still run a dual boot laptop that will run XP or ubuntu. I prefer ubuntu for the internet on this laptop because as of yet viruses and adware and other problems aren't there on this open source linux based operating system. However, if you are technically savvy enough to install a dual boot ubuntu or XP type of partitioned system be sure to always download the updates as soon as possible to keep it running smoothly. Just like you would download Microsoft updates for XP or Vista you need to download the ubuntu updates to keep it running smoothly as well.
For those of you who haven't heard of UBUNTU yet it is becoming as popular in its own way as Firefox. The difference being that firefox is a browser and UBUNTU is a fully functional superior linux open source based operating system that seems to work the best alongside of XP as far as I understand it. Dowloading using this operating system is faster than any operating system my son has ever seen. No matter what your downloading speed capacity is it will tend to increase using ubuntu. I personally think that this thing is so well designed for efficiency by thousands of volunteer open source programmers all over the world who just want to design the best operating system that ever existed up to this day for PCs. If you are technically savvy enough to install and use it by partitioning your hard drive then by all means try it or have your tech partition your hard drive and then try it. As long as you have both XP and UBuntu on board if you don't like the way ubuntu does something then simply restart in XP.
I personally only use it for traveling the internet. However, my son who installed my xp and ubuntu dual boot does all sorts of other stuff as well. There is also all sorts of extra programs designed all over the world to use in conjunction with UBUNTU as well. It is a very fun open source Free operating system. Try it if you like.
For those of you who haven't heard of UBUNTU yet it is becoming as popular in its own way as Firefox. The difference being that firefox is a browser and UBUNTU is a fully functional superior linux open source based operating system that seems to work the best alongside of XP as far as I understand it. Dowloading using this operating system is faster than any operating system my son has ever seen. No matter what your downloading speed capacity is it will tend to increase using ubuntu. I personally think that this thing is so well designed for efficiency by thousands of volunteer open source programmers all over the world who just want to design the best operating system that ever existed up to this day for PCs. If you are technically savvy enough to install and use it by partitioning your hard drive then by all means try it or have your tech partition your hard drive and then try it. As long as you have both XP and UBuntu on board if you don't like the way ubuntu does something then simply restart in XP.
I personally only use it for traveling the internet. However, my son who installed my xp and ubuntu dual boot does all sorts of other stuff as well. There is also all sorts of extra programs designed all over the world to use in conjunction with UBUNTU as well. It is a very fun open source Free operating system. Try it if you like.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Drawing a Line in the Sand
Bush drew a line in the sand and basically said to those attacking the free world, "Thus far and no farther". For this, the world is very grateful. However, a "War on Terror" is much like a "War on Drugs". Look at Mexico right now at where the war on drugs got them. They are close to financial and governmental collapse because of it.
Where does it all end? I think the human race will have to rethink about how it can long term reconcile freedom and terrorism, poverty and survival of the free world. The only long term solution that I can see is: education, birth control and every surviving human left having access to both food and shelter. Guaranteeing everyone a job on earth I just don't think will ever happen in actuality. However, guaranteeing food and shelter is doable and at some point will be the only real way to end terrorism. And if someone is still a terrorist then they should be denied food and shelter as a punishment.
The world is different in every way from the way it was in the 20th century. Unless enough of us realize it soon the free world may end.
One $5000 shelter that sleeps 8:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5134222/5000-paper-house-is-the-worlds-swankiest-hobo-pad
Where does it all end? I think the human race will have to rethink about how it can long term reconcile freedom and terrorism, poverty and survival of the free world. The only long term solution that I can see is: education, birth control and every surviving human left having access to both food and shelter. Guaranteeing everyone a job on earth I just don't think will ever happen in actuality. However, guaranteeing food and shelter is doable and at some point will be the only real way to end terrorism. And if someone is still a terrorist then they should be denied food and shelter as a punishment.
The world is different in every way from the way it was in the 20th century. Unless enough of us realize it soon the free world may end.
One $5000 shelter that sleeps 8:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5134222/5000-paper-house-is-the-worlds-swankiest-hobo-pad
Let's do the Time Warp Again
I went to Disneyland with my family and while some of the members were riding Space Mountain, my wife and I were listening to a band in Air Force like uniforms singing "Let's do the time warp again" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". As we sang along with that line we both laughed at the tweek. The paradox of humor of an Air Force rock and country band singing "Let's do the time warp again" when the Air Force, Navy and Marines and possibly even then Army might be involved in real time travel seemed incredibly kitch and funny to my wife and I.
I have written possibly fictional accounts of my father, uncle, Grandfather and other uncle's exploits in early time travel during the 1930s. However, I had a twilight zone kind of moment when I found a document of appreciation for one uncle that wasn't supposed to have been in the military at all from the military at my cousin's house yesterday.
I had some incredible experiences with my uncle who supposedly died in a plane crash in 1942 when I was suicidal in 1969 to 73. Again he came to me in spirit to tell me he was coming to get my Dad a few hours before my Dad passed away in 1985. So the whole thing is its own kind of time paradox of nothing being exactly what it appears to be. I have found always that "Truth is always stranger than fiction" When you actually get to the truth it is way more interesting than fiction. The trouble is, "How many people recognize the truth when they find it?" The answer always is, "Not many!"
I have written possibly fictional accounts of my father, uncle, Grandfather and other uncle's exploits in early time travel during the 1930s. However, I had a twilight zone kind of moment when I found a document of appreciation for one uncle that wasn't supposed to have been in the military at all from the military at my cousin's house yesterday.
I had some incredible experiences with my uncle who supposedly died in a plane crash in 1942 when I was suicidal in 1969 to 73. Again he came to me in spirit to tell me he was coming to get my Dad a few hours before my Dad passed away in 1985. So the whole thing is its own kind of time paradox of nothing being exactly what it appears to be. I have found always that "Truth is always stranger than fiction" When you actually get to the truth it is way more interesting than fiction. The trouble is, "How many people recognize the truth when they find it?" The answer always is, "Not many!"
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Obama by Train
I woke up today and turned on CNN cable tv and watched Obama's train pull into Wilmington, Delaware on the east coast today. I thought just how different a president he was going to be following in not only Lincoln's footeps by taking a train like Lincoln did to Washington D.C. and being sworn in on the same bible that Lincoln was but just the fact that this whole train thing hasn't been done I think since Truman and possibly Eisenhower. It's like we've gone full cycle now and are returning to our roots somehow. The train once again is one of the most efficient means of transportation for many adults at once, especially the diesel electrics, electric light rail and other electrics like subways. Drawing attention to all these things at once shows just how bright and multitasking he is.
Obama is not just a speech giver, he is a communicator. A communicator tends to bring people together. But in the end, someone has to make a timely decision, no matter how many people are asked to give their different opinions.
A lot of different opinions might be useful and then there is the internet. Are all these opinions including my own what is useful in making quick and fast decisions? When I'm driving a car one of the last things I want to do when I'm on the freeway is to ask everyone in the car there opinion of where I should go. Maybe before I start driving this would be good but not after I take the wheel and turn on the engine and drive out of the driveway. Then I better have a good idea of where I am going or I'd better stop(at least at a red light) and consult other people in the cars opinions. Otherwise, watch out!
Obama is not just a speech giver, he is a communicator. A communicator tends to bring people together. But in the end, someone has to make a timely decision, no matter how many people are asked to give their different opinions.
A lot of different opinions might be useful and then there is the internet. Are all these opinions including my own what is useful in making quick and fast decisions? When I'm driving a car one of the last things I want to do when I'm on the freeway is to ask everyone in the car there opinion of where I should go. Maybe before I start driving this would be good but not after I take the wheel and turn on the engine and drive out of the driveway. Then I better have a good idea of where I am going or I'd better stop(at least at a red light) and consult other people in the cars opinions. Otherwise, watch out!
Warm weather for California
Though it still can be cold(in the 30s at night), California coastal weather has been very warm last week and next with coastal temperature highs between 72 and 80 degrees from San Francisco south to the Mexican border. I'm staying at a hotel on the ocean right now on business near San Diego listening to the surf build and remembering living down in this area in the 1970s with a dirt-street motorcycle riding over all the (then dirt roads between interstate 15 and the coast and through the then undeveloped areas near San Marco and East and south of Escondido. Back then I lived in Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas and went to Palomar College and San Diego State university. I loved snorkeling at La Jolla cove and watching the golden Garibaldi fish. I loved the warm weather and worked as a Landscaping contractor in the late 1970s here in San Diego after my first divorce. Both my son, then 5 and my parents lived in the county back then. I can remember since being a Contractor your time is your own since you are you own boss that often during the summer my contracting buddies and I would take off an afternoon when it just got too hot to be productive and go snorkeling, or bodysurfing. And in the winter this also led to Cross Country skiing and downhill skiing at Snow Summit in the Big Bear Area. Those were great years between 1978 and 1980 before I moved north with my son to Mt. Shast and remarried. Though I loved the snow skiing and mountain lakes up north I also missed the warm nights at the beach and the warmest ocean water on the west coast in San Diego County. Great memories!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
In Bruge
I had been watching the Golden Globes and heard the movie "In Bruges" mentioned and saw Colin Farrell win a Golden Globe for his portrayal. So I decided then that if possible I would eventually see the movie. Tonight I was visiting an old friend's house and he has every possible hbo and max other new movie channel and it was playing. It had been a difficult day dealing with finances so I needed to watch something to unwind.
The movie was on and I started to watch it. My first reaction was that it was a kind of sick movie. However, as I began to overlook all the swearing and the fact that it was difficult to understand Irish, English and Flemish accents while they spoke English because I am an American. For example, I was never more embarrassed when I stopped for gas with a rental car somewhere in Scotland only to find that I could make out only 1 word in about 4 in this particular Scottich dialect. I found this quite embarrassing. In other words "two people separated by a common language. After a while I began to pick up the slang they were using which is the real trick in understanding another dialect of the same language I find. Even in Canada there are dialects I can understand the words they are saying but they have different meanings there than the slang I use in California so it can be problematic as to what they are trying to convey.
In the 1950s it was the same for some American southern accents that I couldn't make out. However, now I can understand almost all American dialects because TV has made all american dialects closer since the 1950s. Most people on TV speak the California dialect because of Hollywood since about 1900 now.
The lesson of Bruges seemed to me to be "Life is Hell on Earth". As the movie ended I began to think about people who actually live like the ones in this movie and I felt very sorry for them. Since I tend to live with Angels since I am a clairvoyant and a Seer and have chosen to live with God and Angels, whenever I see depictions of people like this I feel very bad for the people. It reminds me of the joke of the man who went to the Himalayas and asked the Cave Yogi what the secret of life was. The Yogi simply said, "Good Decisions!" Then the seeker asked, "How do you learn to make good decisions?" The Yogi shot back, "Bad decisions!"
In Bruges, the movie you see very few good decisions, and when you see good decisions mostly they die because of making good decisions. So it is as if all these people are trying to work their way out of hell and hell for them is their life on earth.
So, as you understand by now, the people in this movie have made mostly bad decisions so far and the decisions have been consistently so bad that the good ones tend to kill them. Another good name for this movie would be, "Karma in real time!"
The movie was on and I started to watch it. My first reaction was that it was a kind of sick movie. However, as I began to overlook all the swearing and the fact that it was difficult to understand Irish, English and Flemish accents while they spoke English because I am an American. For example, I was never more embarrassed when I stopped for gas with a rental car somewhere in Scotland only to find that I could make out only 1 word in about 4 in this particular Scottich dialect. I found this quite embarrassing. In other words "two people separated by a common language. After a while I began to pick up the slang they were using which is the real trick in understanding another dialect of the same language I find. Even in Canada there are dialects I can understand the words they are saying but they have different meanings there than the slang I use in California so it can be problematic as to what they are trying to convey.
In the 1950s it was the same for some American southern accents that I couldn't make out. However, now I can understand almost all American dialects because TV has made all american dialects closer since the 1950s. Most people on TV speak the California dialect because of Hollywood since about 1900 now.
The lesson of Bruges seemed to me to be "Life is Hell on Earth". As the movie ended I began to think about people who actually live like the ones in this movie and I felt very sorry for them. Since I tend to live with Angels since I am a clairvoyant and a Seer and have chosen to live with God and Angels, whenever I see depictions of people like this I feel very bad for the people. It reminds me of the joke of the man who went to the Himalayas and asked the Cave Yogi what the secret of life was. The Yogi simply said, "Good Decisions!" Then the seeker asked, "How do you learn to make good decisions?" The Yogi shot back, "Bad decisions!"
In Bruges, the movie you see very few good decisions, and when you see good decisions mostly they die because of making good decisions. So it is as if all these people are trying to work their way out of hell and hell for them is their life on earth.
So, as you understand by now, the people in this movie have made mostly bad decisions so far and the decisions have been consistently so bad that the good ones tend to kill them. Another good name for this movie would be, "Karma in real time!"
What do you do with 50 billion dollars
First of all, I know a lot of millionaires. And yes, I know that Madoff had about 15 or 20 yachts. But as far as just cash on hand, if someone has about 5 million dollars in cash for example, over and above any property, or yachts or planes or toys or women or whatever, there are only so may beaches one can lay on or restaurants one can go to or plane flights around the world before one is satiated.(At least for most humans).
I cannot for the life of me figure out what ANY one non-governmental official could want with 50 billion dollars unless one just wanted to be known at some point as the biggest single thief ever. I can't think of any reason but that unless this person were some kind of government operative for one or more countries on earth and this money was actually Black ops covert money.
Of course, this is only speculation and I wouldn't even think of this unless I knew so many rich people. Middle class and lower wouldn't even think this way. But for everyone's sake I think I'm asking the question. This makes even more sense that Madoff isn't in jail. For if he were a "fundraiser" for European, Israeli, or American or other governments then he couldn't ever be sent to jail and only made to either stop thinking or stop breathing because he just might know too much for everyone's sake.
I cannot for the life of me figure out what ANY one non-governmental official could want with 50 billion dollars unless one just wanted to be known at some point as the biggest single thief ever. I can't think of any reason but that unless this person were some kind of government operative for one or more countries on earth and this money was actually Black ops covert money.
Of course, this is only speculation and I wouldn't even think of this unless I knew so many rich people. Middle class and lower wouldn't even think this way. But for everyone's sake I think I'm asking the question. This makes even more sense that Madoff isn't in jail. For if he were a "fundraiser" for European, Israeli, or American or other governments then he couldn't ever be sent to jail and only made to either stop thinking or stop breathing because he just might know too much for everyone's sake.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I Love to Fly
I made a promise to my father in my late teens. I didn't want to make this promise but because I knew his brother had died in his own small plane in 1942, I promised my father I wouldn't get a pilot's license as long as my father was alive. I grew up when people actually made promises and kept them, not like today. This did not mean to me, however, that I would not fly. So whenever I could I would take a flying lesson and when my father passed on in 1985 I soloed in a Cessna 152 several times in 1987. I have taken a few lessons since then as well and had intended to complete my pilot's license and possibly either join a flying club or own my own plane by now.
However, in the interim about 5 years ago my Brother in law and his wife and dog died in their Piper Cherokee augering in to Idaho way out in the boonies. A nearby fire lookout saw the plane go down a few miles away from his station. This changed everything because the same thing that had happened to my father's family happened to my wife's and I had to take a hard look at myself and my responsibilities once again. I sort of made the same commitment to my wife that I had to my father,"I won't get a pilot's license or buy a plane." Though this still doesn't prevent me from taking flying lessons(for example I really would like to take off and land a sea plane the kind often seen in Canada and Alaska). However, when you are with an instructor there is also an added layer of security to the whole thing.
I remember my first solo flight in 1987. I had done the take-off and landing pattern and landing thing(touch and go's) many many times in preparation for my first solo. But when I took off alone and found myself in the air for the first time alone I found myself fighting back panic. I had not expected this reaction. So I was very surprised to experience this. So, I fought back the panic and tried to enjoy the experience. However, there were just too many planes in the air at the time and I wasn't alone up there by myself and therefore able to better enjoy the experience. Also, there was no control tower where I was taking off and landing so it was first come first served so to speak both in the taking off and landing. So I took off and flew around trying to land alone for the first time. However, just before I turned for my final approach some crazy lady in a small place cut in front of me and nearly hit me in the process. So, I was sort of white knuckled at this point and it was all I could do to land the plane in one piece. I forced myself to take off and land two more times. But for me, the joy of the experience was completely gone at that point and I couldn't really rationalize any reason to continue at that point. Maybe it was all the conditioning from my father about how his brother died and messed up everyone in his family for yearas. Maybe that was it. However, now I prefer to be up flying with an instructor when I go. I don't really want to be alone in the air. I'm fine in a car or truck or even on a motorcycle but I've lost my desire to be alone up there in the air. I suppose in an emergency I could land almost anything I was riding in because of everything I know now from direct experience.
The single most important thing to know about flying is that taking off almost any 5 year old could do if he or she was strong enough to pull the yoke back and follow instructions. However, landing is really difficult if you want to walk away from it.
So when you hear about some kid who takes off a plane who hasn't flown one before it makes any pilot scared for that child. Because every pilot know just how hard it is to land a plane and to walk away from it given every variable possible of winds, altitude, heat, clouds, fog, rain etc. that one could potentially face in trying to land.
However, in the interim about 5 years ago my Brother in law and his wife and dog died in their Piper Cherokee augering in to Idaho way out in the boonies. A nearby fire lookout saw the plane go down a few miles away from his station. This changed everything because the same thing that had happened to my father's family happened to my wife's and I had to take a hard look at myself and my responsibilities once again. I sort of made the same commitment to my wife that I had to my father,"I won't get a pilot's license or buy a plane." Though this still doesn't prevent me from taking flying lessons(for example I really would like to take off and land a sea plane the kind often seen in Canada and Alaska). However, when you are with an instructor there is also an added layer of security to the whole thing.
I remember my first solo flight in 1987. I had done the take-off and landing pattern and landing thing(touch and go's) many many times in preparation for my first solo. But when I took off alone and found myself in the air for the first time alone I found myself fighting back panic. I had not expected this reaction. So I was very surprised to experience this. So, I fought back the panic and tried to enjoy the experience. However, there were just too many planes in the air at the time and I wasn't alone up there by myself and therefore able to better enjoy the experience. Also, there was no control tower where I was taking off and landing so it was first come first served so to speak both in the taking off and landing. So I took off and flew around trying to land alone for the first time. However, just before I turned for my final approach some crazy lady in a small place cut in front of me and nearly hit me in the process. So, I was sort of white knuckled at this point and it was all I could do to land the plane in one piece. I forced myself to take off and land two more times. But for me, the joy of the experience was completely gone at that point and I couldn't really rationalize any reason to continue at that point. Maybe it was all the conditioning from my father about how his brother died and messed up everyone in his family for yearas. Maybe that was it. However, now I prefer to be up flying with an instructor when I go. I don't really want to be alone in the air. I'm fine in a car or truck or even on a motorcycle but I've lost my desire to be alone up there in the air. I suppose in an emergency I could land almost anything I was riding in because of everything I know now from direct experience.
The single most important thing to know about flying is that taking off almost any 5 year old could do if he or she was strong enough to pull the yoke back and follow instructions. However, landing is really difficult if you want to walk away from it.
So when you hear about some kid who takes off a plane who hasn't flown one before it makes any pilot scared for that child. Because every pilot know just how hard it is to land a plane and to walk away from it given every variable possible of winds, altitude, heat, clouds, fog, rain etc. that one could potentially face in trying to land.
110 volts
My Grandfather(on my father's side) was an Electrical Contractor. My father first trained with his father during his teens(when school was out) and after high school graduation worked first as an electrician's helper and then as a journeyman electrician and in Los Angeles County from the time I was 12 years old on, an Electrical Contractor like his Dad before him.
Because I was bored during the summers Dad took me on as an apprentice starting at age 12. So I was a full fledged Electrician's helper by age 15 to 17 summers and weekends, and when I burnt out on being a computer programmer-operator at age 21 from working 12 hours a day 7 days a week midnight to noon I worked for another year as an electrician's helper in Los Angeles County, California before I went back to college while trying to figure out what next to do with my life.
My wife is very impressed just because I disabled a bathroom fan. I said, "The bathroom fan in the ceiling not only stopped working but starting to smell like it was going to catch fire. So I disabled the switch." She looked at me and said, "Does that mean the light switch in the bathroom doesn't work too?" I said, "The light is fine. All I did was to take the switch plate off and cut off one of the wires in the back of the switch right at the switch and tape both over so the fan switch is disabled. The light switch isn't affected at all."
At this point she was impressed. I wasn't trying to impress her. I simply wanted to avoid someone walking into our bathroom and while sitting on the john trying to turn the fan on an burning down our house. At some point we will either hire someone to replace the (ceiling fan and flourescent back up light combo) or I'll just do it myself. I haven't decided yet.
I decided to write this piece because becoming an electrian's helper is a great way to survive a severe recession like the one we are in. Hotels, manufacturing plants etc. all need a standby maintanence electrician to repair any electrical problem that comes down. And usually this type of job is much easier than building a home electrically from scratch or remodel work. Though most of the work I did would be considered remodeling work electrical work is very basic and mechanical. However, there are certain things one needs to know in order to stay alive doing it with both sight and hands still working.
As a cautionary note, as a boy I once blew the PBS TV station off the air in Los Angeles for about 5 or 10 minutes and was blind for about the same amount of time because I had to work on a main panel hot. Hot means with the electricity on. My father said, "I need you to work on this hot because the station needs to stay on the air. Electricity coming in to a commercial building is 110,220,440 and sometimes but rarely higher than that. So I was working on a 440 volt panel with just my screwdriver. Unfortunately, one large wire was being very difficult because being large it wouldn't bend right into its panel socket. So my screwdriver slipped when the wire popped out and my screwdriver arc welded itself to the panel and blew little balls of molten metal at my face. Luckily, I only went temporarily blind for about 5 or 10 minutes and my face hurt. My father just led me to the neares staircase and had me sit down while he put the pbs tv station back on the air. He then came over and asked me if I could see which I was beginning to again. The pain of little pieces of molten metal on my face actually bothered me more than not seeing and of course I was embarrassed to blow the tv station off the air. end cautionary note.
If you are working on your own home in a residential or country area the voltage coming into the main Electrical panel from the street is 220 volts if you live in the United States. Coming in from the street telephone and power pole or underground if that is what is in your area comes three wires about the thickness of one of your smaller fingers. Two of these are the Hot wires and one of these is the neutral or white wire. White wires always denote the non hot wire. Most commonly the hot wire is black but sometimes it can be other colors too. However, the neutral wire is always white. So coming in from the street to the main panel is two black wires and one white one. This 220 volts is then used for things like electrical stoves, electrical washers and electrical dryers and the like. These are usually the main items that use 220 volts.
You may ask where does the 110 volts come from? Well. That is a trick. If you take only one of the two black wires and a neutral white then you get 110 volts. You only get 220 volts if you use both black wires and a white one altogether at once. So 110 volts is often called "a half leg" by electricians because you are only using half the electricity coming into the house.
In your home using appliances and lights you don't have to worry about all this because it has been all plotted out by Electrical Contractors and journeyman electricians. Most of the work is not actually installing everything physically. No. The hardest job is figuring out line loads and how big of a main panel and how many sub panels will be installed and what the wiring on a building plan looks like and such.
For example, I am capable of building a whole house from a building plan including electrical etc and carpentry. However, don't ask me to draw up an electrical or framing plan. That I can't do. Also, plumbing is my weakest suit so if I was building a house I would have to hire a plumber for most of that. Otherwise, I could if I had to (and I have many times already) build a house from a plan designed by an architect, builder and Electrical Contractor.
So, when my father and I came to a job he would have already given a bid for a job and drawn up a plan and had his bid accepted before we would even start. Once his bid was accepted he would then order all the wire(and in Los Angeles County)during the 1960s when I mostly did this, pick up all the materials we needed from an electrical supply wholesale house nearby. Some of the materials likely would be large spools of wire of various diameters, emt pipe to pull wire through and flexible metal cable to pull wire through as well as nail like devices to hold the pipe and flex in place in walls attics and under houses.
If we were coming to a room addition for example, we first would establish either a main panel or sub panel and begin stringing pipe or flex through the walls to lights, plugs, light switches etc. We used a one horsepower drill with a 1 foot to 3 foot auger drill bit in place. The problem with this is if you accidentally hit a nail the drill might break your arm. I've been wound up on a 1 horsepower drill more than once but so far have avoided breaking my arm even though I have hit many unseen nails while drilling through 2 by 4 studs stringing flex cable through a house or room addition. (In Los Angeles County) at that time flex cable was used in walls, ceilings and under houses to protect the wires from various kinds of harm and to prevent fires. EMT pipe was used mostly in commercial applications on the surface of cement walls where there was no way to do anyting else but put wires on surfaces of walls. Then we used a type of gun to shoot bolts into the cement which could get very dangerous and I knew of many people who were injured because the cement broke off and the bolt bounced a little like a bullet around the cement room and people were injured or died as a result. So if you use one of these guns just remember if anything goes wrong they are at least as lethal as a .45 caliber bullet inside a cement room bouncing around. Another tool that is very dangerous is a nail gun. A friend of mine accidentally nailed his testicle to the roof and had to be taken to the hospital. Luckily the important part was pushed out of the way by the impact and the nail only got skin instead. However, any injury in that area is very problematic for a man.
Because I was bored during the summers Dad took me on as an apprentice starting at age 12. So I was a full fledged Electrician's helper by age 15 to 17 summers and weekends, and when I burnt out on being a computer programmer-operator at age 21 from working 12 hours a day 7 days a week midnight to noon I worked for another year as an electrician's helper in Los Angeles County, California before I went back to college while trying to figure out what next to do with my life.
My wife is very impressed just because I disabled a bathroom fan. I said, "The bathroom fan in the ceiling not only stopped working but starting to smell like it was going to catch fire. So I disabled the switch." She looked at me and said, "Does that mean the light switch in the bathroom doesn't work too?" I said, "The light is fine. All I did was to take the switch plate off and cut off one of the wires in the back of the switch right at the switch and tape both over so the fan switch is disabled. The light switch isn't affected at all."
At this point she was impressed. I wasn't trying to impress her. I simply wanted to avoid someone walking into our bathroom and while sitting on the john trying to turn the fan on an burning down our house. At some point we will either hire someone to replace the (ceiling fan and flourescent back up light combo) or I'll just do it myself. I haven't decided yet.
I decided to write this piece because becoming an electrian's helper is a great way to survive a severe recession like the one we are in. Hotels, manufacturing plants etc. all need a standby maintanence electrician to repair any electrical problem that comes down. And usually this type of job is much easier than building a home electrically from scratch or remodel work. Though most of the work I did would be considered remodeling work electrical work is very basic and mechanical. However, there are certain things one needs to know in order to stay alive doing it with both sight and hands still working.
As a cautionary note, as a boy I once blew the PBS TV station off the air in Los Angeles for about 5 or 10 minutes and was blind for about the same amount of time because I had to work on a main panel hot. Hot means with the electricity on. My father said, "I need you to work on this hot because the station needs to stay on the air. Electricity coming in to a commercial building is 110,220,440 and sometimes but rarely higher than that. So I was working on a 440 volt panel with just my screwdriver. Unfortunately, one large wire was being very difficult because being large it wouldn't bend right into its panel socket. So my screwdriver slipped when the wire popped out and my screwdriver arc welded itself to the panel and blew little balls of molten metal at my face. Luckily, I only went temporarily blind for about 5 or 10 minutes and my face hurt. My father just led me to the neares staircase and had me sit down while he put the pbs tv station back on the air. He then came over and asked me if I could see which I was beginning to again. The pain of little pieces of molten metal on my face actually bothered me more than not seeing and of course I was embarrassed to blow the tv station off the air. end cautionary note.
If you are working on your own home in a residential or country area the voltage coming into the main Electrical panel from the street is 220 volts if you live in the United States. Coming in from the street telephone and power pole or underground if that is what is in your area comes three wires about the thickness of one of your smaller fingers. Two of these are the Hot wires and one of these is the neutral or white wire. White wires always denote the non hot wire. Most commonly the hot wire is black but sometimes it can be other colors too. However, the neutral wire is always white. So coming in from the street to the main panel is two black wires and one white one. This 220 volts is then used for things like electrical stoves, electrical washers and electrical dryers and the like. These are usually the main items that use 220 volts.
You may ask where does the 110 volts come from? Well. That is a trick. If you take only one of the two black wires and a neutral white then you get 110 volts. You only get 220 volts if you use both black wires and a white one altogether at once. So 110 volts is often called "a half leg" by electricians because you are only using half the electricity coming into the house.
In your home using appliances and lights you don't have to worry about all this because it has been all plotted out by Electrical Contractors and journeyman electricians. Most of the work is not actually installing everything physically. No. The hardest job is figuring out line loads and how big of a main panel and how many sub panels will be installed and what the wiring on a building plan looks like and such.
For example, I am capable of building a whole house from a building plan including electrical etc and carpentry. However, don't ask me to draw up an electrical or framing plan. That I can't do. Also, plumbing is my weakest suit so if I was building a house I would have to hire a plumber for most of that. Otherwise, I could if I had to (and I have many times already) build a house from a plan designed by an architect, builder and Electrical Contractor.
So, when my father and I came to a job he would have already given a bid for a job and drawn up a plan and had his bid accepted before we would even start. Once his bid was accepted he would then order all the wire(and in Los Angeles County)during the 1960s when I mostly did this, pick up all the materials we needed from an electrical supply wholesale house nearby. Some of the materials likely would be large spools of wire of various diameters, emt pipe to pull wire through and flexible metal cable to pull wire through as well as nail like devices to hold the pipe and flex in place in walls attics and under houses.
If we were coming to a room addition for example, we first would establish either a main panel or sub panel and begin stringing pipe or flex through the walls to lights, plugs, light switches etc. We used a one horsepower drill with a 1 foot to 3 foot auger drill bit in place. The problem with this is if you accidentally hit a nail the drill might break your arm. I've been wound up on a 1 horsepower drill more than once but so far have avoided breaking my arm even though I have hit many unseen nails while drilling through 2 by 4 studs stringing flex cable through a house or room addition. (In Los Angeles County) at that time flex cable was used in walls, ceilings and under houses to protect the wires from various kinds of harm and to prevent fires. EMT pipe was used mostly in commercial applications on the surface of cement walls where there was no way to do anyting else but put wires on surfaces of walls. Then we used a type of gun to shoot bolts into the cement which could get very dangerous and I knew of many people who were injured because the cement broke off and the bolt bounced a little like a bullet around the cement room and people were injured or died as a result. So if you use one of these guns just remember if anything goes wrong they are at least as lethal as a .45 caliber bullet inside a cement room bouncing around. Another tool that is very dangerous is a nail gun. A friend of mine accidentally nailed his testicle to the roof and had to be taken to the hospital. Luckily the important part was pushed out of the way by the impact and the nail only got skin instead. However, any injury in that area is very problematic for a man.
Citizen or Consumer
If a person is a citizen then a citizen has both rights and duties. And if a citizen does not protect and defend his or her rights by becoming informed then how can that person call themselves a citizen? How can you defend yourselves, your family, your friends, your country if you are not informed?
If you are a consumer, it is important to note that 3 and 4 year olds are consumers too. If you are a consumer first and a citizen second then all the world will always treat you as no more than a child.
If you are a citizen first and a consumer second, then you know that being a good citizen is about researching the usefulness and healthiness of any product you buy. Because as a good citizen you know that unless this product is proven safe through your personal research, it could damage or kill anyone you know or even strangers you may never know. Being an informed citizen and only buying products you have researched to be safe and useful, not only protects everyone you know, it protects less informed people than yourself. For once you do the research you should as a matter of course inform your relatives and friends as to whether that product is a good and useful product or a dangerous product that should be boycotted or shunned completely.
Only by being both good Citizens and consumers do we protect ourselves, our families and hopefully all mankind.
If you are a consumer, it is important to note that 3 and 4 year olds are consumers too. If you are a consumer first and a citizen second then all the world will always treat you as no more than a child.
If you are a citizen first and a consumer second, then you know that being a good citizen is about researching the usefulness and healthiness of any product you buy. Because as a good citizen you know that unless this product is proven safe through your personal research, it could damage or kill anyone you know or even strangers you may never know. Being an informed citizen and only buying products you have researched to be safe and useful, not only protects everyone you know, it protects less informed people than yourself. For once you do the research you should as a matter of course inform your relatives and friends as to whether that product is a good and useful product or a dangerous product that should be boycotted or shunned completely.
Only by being both good Citizens and consumers do we protect ourselves, our families and hopefully all mankind.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Obama brings change
You thought I was going to say, "Obama brings Hope" didn't you. Yes. Obama brings hope for Progressives worldwide. HOwever, if you look at all Americans and all human residents of earth, Obama brings change, maybe even extreme change. And that, is the point of this article.
For a lot of people like myself who are either progressive or populist by nature, Obama is basically a good thing for planet earth in general and for America in specific. Bush's lot in the carrot and stick approach has to be seen as the stick(not a fun lot in life for a president). Though Obama in good times might make a great president in these times I'm not sure anyone would make a good president or be entirely what america needs now. So within one year it is possible that Obama will envy Bush's first few years in context with what he is likely to face from within america and from the world in general. One of the biggest problems I can see for the new president is how in the world can he set useful priorities without offending almost everyone. People on the extreme right as well as the extreme left cannot but come to hate him because if he does what is right for our nation in order to keep the ship of state afloat and not sinking from severe recession or war or both will have to be very middle of the road. Basically, bail out the boat and don't eat or sleep until the ship of state is on a good course and out of trouble again. these changes might not come soon. But if they don't come soon enough it could be the permanent or semi permanent end of the United States.
And you in the rest of the world might say, "Well. What's wrong with the end of the United States?" My answer would be, "Do you expect China to be as kind to you or as helpful or to give you as much money for development as the U.S. has if the US goes under?
For people who are racists worldwide, Obama becoming president might be the single most terrifying thing they have ever experienced in their lives. After all, nations have seen nothing but old white men running America since before the Declaration of Independence. And it is important to note that a good estimate of the number of avowed or (closet) racists worldwide is also somewhere between 30% to 50% of the world population. So this could affect the way that America is treated as well.
So, even though Obama might signal hope for you and I and most of the people we know, he signals only change of the most terrifying kind to many people on earth. How they will react to him we can only guess at this point.
For a lot of people like myself who are either progressive or populist by nature, Obama is basically a good thing for planet earth in general and for America in specific. Bush's lot in the carrot and stick approach has to be seen as the stick(not a fun lot in life for a president). Though Obama in good times might make a great president in these times I'm not sure anyone would make a good president or be entirely what america needs now. So within one year it is possible that Obama will envy Bush's first few years in context with what he is likely to face from within america and from the world in general. One of the biggest problems I can see for the new president is how in the world can he set useful priorities without offending almost everyone. People on the extreme right as well as the extreme left cannot but come to hate him because if he does what is right for our nation in order to keep the ship of state afloat and not sinking from severe recession or war or both will have to be very middle of the road. Basically, bail out the boat and don't eat or sleep until the ship of state is on a good course and out of trouble again. these changes might not come soon. But if they don't come soon enough it could be the permanent or semi permanent end of the United States.
And you in the rest of the world might say, "Well. What's wrong with the end of the United States?" My answer would be, "Do you expect China to be as kind to you or as helpful or to give you as much money for development as the U.S. has if the US goes under?
For people who are racists worldwide, Obama becoming president might be the single most terrifying thing they have ever experienced in their lives. After all, nations have seen nothing but old white men running America since before the Declaration of Independence. And it is important to note that a good estimate of the number of avowed or (closet) racists worldwide is also somewhere between 30% to 50% of the world population. So this could affect the way that America is treated as well.
So, even though Obama might signal hope for you and I and most of the people we know, he signals only change of the most terrifying kind to many people on earth. How they will react to him we can only guess at this point.
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