This is a speed design of a social image for my new page (Open Creative Toolkit) at http://bit.ly/2hphHd1 where I describe the software choices I make in my small design business.
open creative toolkit
If you like it please thumbs-up or share! If you like them, please subscribe for more! I’m always looking for ways to connect with people about tech, design, teaching, and lots of other topics. If you think we should talk, connect with me at http://bit.ly/2hrI3Z3
“Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (published in paperback as Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity) is a 2004 book by law professor Lawrence Lessig that was released on the Internet under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-commercial license (by-nc 1.0) on March 25, 2004. This book documents how copyright power has expanded substantially since 1974 in five critical dimensions: duration (from 32 to 95 years), scope (from publishers to virtually everyone), reach (to every view on a computer), control (including “derivative works” defined so broadly that virtually any new content could be sued by some copyright holder as a “derivative work” of something), and concentration and integration of the media industry. It also documents how this industry has successfully used the legal system to limit competition to the major media corporations through legal action against: College students for close to $100 billion, because their improvements of search engines made it easier for people in a university intranet to find copyrighted music placed by others in their “public” folder. Lawyers who advised MP3.com that they had reasonable grounds to believe streaming an MP3 uploaded by a customer only to computers that the customer has logged-in on for the service is legal, and Venture Capitalists who funded Napster. The result is a legal and economic environment that stifles “the Progress of Science and useful Arts”, exactly the opposite of the purpose cited in the US Constitution. It may not be possible today to produce another Mickey Mouse, because many of its early cartoon themes might be considered “derivative works” of some existing copyrighted material (as indicated in the subtitle to the hardback edition and in numerous examples in this book).” curated by lemasney from Free Culture (book) – Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)
Hey, all. I hope you are doing well! For those of you I’ve worked with in the past, please consider giving me a review on Google Maps. I’m looking for ratings, photos, and reviews because the move from NJ to VA wiped out my reviews, and it looks like I’m a newbie here. Thanks in advance, and if I can help you with Photos, WordPress, Design or anything else, I’d love to!
That’s my boy, Jack, below. I love him and his brother David more than life itself. Jack and I went camping and backpacking on a hiking trip this weekend.
Jack’s 11th Birthday smile
But, this weekend, I failed. That’s okay. Failing is okay in our house. In fact, it’s expected and encouraged. I have failed at a lot of things in life, on the path of learning about them, and so, I’m familiar with the benefits of failing.
Still, it does not always feel great in the moment. I failed to get to the ‘grass-covered peak’ of a cool mountain on day 2 of a 3 day backpacking hiking trip. Though I’m a seasoned walker, this was my first backpacking hiking trip, and I learned later that some of the other fathers were marathoners, and all except one other father (who successfully managed the hike, and was a marathoner) had gone hiking before, many times. They had an understanding of the gear, terrain, and stamina. I learned late in the trip that one of the fathers hiked the Himalayas with his wife. I have not run or tested my lungs in years, maybe ever. I walk a lot, and I figured it was the same language. Mountain hiking is like running to me now. You have to have control of your breath, and a good understanding of your body under physical stress. I, for one, was not ready for this trip, but I did not suspect that going in. What’s worse, it was a father-son trip, and my son thought he was ready because I thought I was ready. Deep sigh. So, where to begin?
A synopsis of the hiking trip:
12 people, fathers and sons, were going on a three day camping and hiking trip. We’d travel about a mile on the first night to a camp near the parking for Camp Shenandoah and camp. We would then wake and hike from that spot to the top of Elliot Knob on day two, about 8 miles uphill and over 2000 feet elevation on a 4000+ foot peak, and we’d return on day three. Here’s a screenshot of those two points.
Trail map from Camp Shenandoah to Elliot Knob
Here is a topographic look at the area:
And here is a link to Elliot Knob in Google Maps (interactive):
“Elliot Knob is the highest point in Augusta County, and one of the highest peaks in Virginia. Just west of Staunton and secluded in Buffalo Gap, this hike features two waterfalls, several great views to the west and east, and a grass covered summit. If you’re lucky, this hidden treasure can be all yours for a day. From the small parking area pass the closed gate and head up Falls Hollow Trail. The trail is marked with both yellow blazes and yellow plastic diamonds, and follows an old logging road for the first 1.5 miles.” curated by lemasney from Elliot Knob Hike at https://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/ElliottKnob/
My 11 year old son and I made it to within a half of a mile of the peak, and we were not able to go any further. We started up at 8:30am, and by 5 we were exhausted. By 7, we had finally decided to give up on the ascent. The others had gone ahead, after I informed the last leader I saw at 5pm that we were done, and that if they did not see us, that we had decided to exit, which we eventually did. I’ll explain the details of that rather harrowing experience in the considerations below.
Failure is only failure if you do not learn from it.
So in that light, I’m going to share with you all what I learned on this trip. These are ten things in no particular order, that I wish I had really heard or understood when seasoned hikers told me about them, leading up to the trip.
Consideration 1: Know the hiking trip before you go, and consider your limits.
I learned about this trip just a few weeks ago. I did not know any of the other fathers or their kids. When I heard about the opportunity to take an 8 mile trip with seasoned hikers, it sounded like the safest way to gain insight into such an adventure. We were able to borrow tent and packs, and the rest of the gear and food would be a minimal investment. We learned a lot, and most of the trip was joyful and manageable. I saw bright orange lizards, beautiful waterfalls, rock formations, 10 different kinds of mushrooms, striations and geologic history, and one of the most beautiful foggy mornings in a sunlit forest that I have ever seen. I saw the tops of all of the other mountains in the area. It was only in the last few miles of the hike that the wondrous discovery was replaced with a sense of just getting there, until getting there seemed impossible, at which point it was.
Part of the issue is that the research I did for this post is the research I needed to do for the hike. Seems simple, right? I relied instead on the expertise of the other leaders, and should have taken a more serious look at the map, studied it, and known where we could have shortened the trip more safely.
If you look at the first map screenshot above, it shows you essentially two points. This was what I understood of the hike, just these two points. The other maps were just in my imagination. The elevation lines on a topography map, I learned in a meeting for planning, meant a hundred foot incline. We’d pass twenty of them. Neat! I had seen a trail map, but I simply did not understand the scale of what we were to do. The trail map for the second part of the trip in ascent to Elliot Knob follows, and I should have studied it:
The other hikers had endurance, understanding, and pace that Jack and I did not have. I consider myself fit. I walk every day and track it. To give you some sense of what I am normally capable of versus what we did that day, consider this:
LeMasney fitbit history, ending 8 20 2016
What this shows is that I try everyday to get 5k steps, and I love the feeling at the end of the day when I do. I do not walk up mountains, I do not encounter thin air, and I am not wearing a 60 pound pack. I got two new badges on this trip: the 30,000 steps in a day, and the 35,000 steps in a day, and so did Jack, in thin air, with packs. That’s pretty damned awesome. We actually hiked further than everyone else on the trip because the escape was backtracking our ascent for miles, but it was a lot easier going down a mountain than up. I do not think this will keep us from hearing that we failed from the peak reachers, but it feels kind of nice as a caveat. 🙂
In short, we were not ready for this trip. I’m fit enough to live well, but before I do this again, I’m going to do 10k steps a day for a few days in advance of the trip, with a pack. If I can’t, I should not be going.
Consideration 2: Have three hiking trip plans.
The plan was to follow the pack and to go to the end. We needed an additional shared plan in the event anyone had to leave near the middle of the trip, and a third plan in case anyone was not able to do the final approach. In the end, it was chaos, darkness, fear, and the unknown that put us in danger. It was clear-headedness, awareness of what we had passed and how it connected, and logic of the way that a service road worked that got us home. Part of the issue was the fear of letting others (who we did not know well) down or putting others in danger if we departed suddenly. The option should have been discussed ahead of time, and I’ll make sure it is next time.
Consideration 3: Know how many calories you need on the hiking trip, and pack no junk.
When packing food for a trip like this, a thousand options exist. You can get prefab meals and MREs and cook pasta and sausage bakes. I got a pie iron for this trip that only came out of the pack when I carried it to lighten the load on my back. Silly, in retrospect. I had a camp stove, newly bought. It is still in the box. I carried fuel up and down the mountain without using it. Jack and I ended up eating trail mix (great), bagels (yum), apples (sweet!), cheap granola bars (uh-oh), prepackaged fruit cups (whoa, no), and an entire loaf of crusty bread (great) and some canned tuna (ew). I even brought two eggs (wait, what?) that I ended up throwing into the woods as a snack for some lucky fox instead of our hearty Sunday morning sandwich I had envisioned with the pie iron over the camp stove. There were also about 8 cookies. In retrospect, with clarity, I should have packed the most nutritious, simplistic, no-cooking, no-water-required, no pie-iron, no weight food I could stuff into 3 day’s bags with easy access. I figured higher calories was good, but in retrospect higher quality calories were required. I spent two minutes unpacking to get a snack every time, so ease of access is essential.
I typically eat 1400 calories in a day, restricted from my normal 2000 calories because I float between my goal weight of 200 pounds and 210 pounds. Fitbit tells me I burned 4735 calories that day. I brought enough food to have Jack and I eat 2000 calories each per day. That was almost 1.5 times too little food. Others had food, but I will have enough next time.
Fitbit Calorie Burn
Very important: Get a self contained water filter with enough capacity to quench your intense thirst a few times between water stops, and make sure that you have sufficient water stops. I had a waterbottle with a filtering straw, and two backup bottles, and we used them all day long. There was never enough water between stops, so make sure you can bring it with you.
Consideration 4: Pack precisely what you need, with weight and safety in balance.
Things I’d given anything to exchange:
A thin body mat and a blanket or a hammock instead of my inappropriately huge winter-camping sleeping bag with down lining.
More whole-foods in trail mix form instead of cooking utensils or gear (pie iron, stove) and certainly less junk food, high in sugar and little else.
USB Batteries, compass, three flashlights instead of a dead cellphone.
Protein based trail mix instead of Tuna, cookies, or poker mix.
A tarp as a structurable tent. (Jack promises to veto this)
Organized larger plastic bags instead of any trash-creators, like wrappers or boxes or plastic.
Consideration 5: Have comfortable, thick-soled hiking shoes.
This was emphasized, but I did not grok the importance. I brought two pairs of shoes: a pair of walking shoes that I was not familiar with, and a pair of sandals that I wear most of the time. The walking shoes kept my feet from blisters, but I felt every rock beneath my feet. I never wore the sandals. Jack wore jeans and sneakers. We were barely walking by the end of the day.
Don’t mess around. Get great boots for hiking, with compression features, ankle support, and thick mountain-proof soles.
Consideration 6: Have a backup plan, an escape route, and a few ways to communicate.
Here’s a short list of items I should have had on this trip:
A map of the trail with topography and clear escape plans.
working smart phone
whistles and shared signals
walkies for each hiker
contact info for each hiker
Backup USB batteries to power devices for each day of the trip.
Consideration 7: Bring the right tools, and test your gear.
What I brought:
a fork/knife/spoon multitool
a $3 3 LED flashlight
a smart phone that died on the first night
a flip phone with low battery
a borrowed tent
two borrowed framed backpacks
What I needed:
A swiss army knife
A $10 heavy-duty 9 LED flashlight
USB batteries
I needed to open and set up the tent before the trip
I needed to have a better understanding of the way a contemporary hiking backpack works. After really examining it upon return, after wearing it for a long 12 hour hiking day, I realized that my pack was set up for a much smaller frame, which made the pack work against me.
I needed to know that one of my key frame grommets was missing the pin, and that my pack was unhinged and unbalanced most of the trip as a result. It was repaired by one of the leaders midday, but only because he noticed and took action. By that point, I had done a lot of extra work, and it took a toll.
Consideration 8: Determine and discuss exit points and fallback camps. Ask 100 questions.
We should have known exactly what to do in the event that we became hopelessly separated. Without communication, visual contact, or even the way to make a very large sound or show, we could have been stranded.
Here is a list of some things we did not expect as we finally reached route 42 at the end of the service road, as we turned on our flip phone, low on power:
It was pitch black dark at 8 pm.
There was no cell service for a fifteen minute walk up or down a road that I did not know the name of (Route 42 beside the National Forest, I learned later).
There was no civilized station of service (gas, convenience, police) of any kind for any visible distance.
I never got a cell signal and so I’m not sure what sequence of calls I was going to make, but I never considered 911.
We would end up having to flag someone down, ask for help, and thank them profusely. We got a ride after flagging down a car when we gave up on getting a signal. Having an 11 year old and hiking gear in the dark on the side of a fast road helps you to share your urgency. We were saved by a Iraq war vet and her Virginia native husband who knew Camp Shenandoah like the back of his hand. God bless those people, who asked only that we ‘pay it forward’. I shared that we would.
Think of the worst and prepare for it.
Consideration 9: Don’t separate from the group.
You may be wondering how this part happened. The fact is that towards the end of the day the status quo of having everyone be in visual sight waned. The strongest able-bodied hikers often scouted ahead and would stop at major turns in the path, or when leaders would slow them down. For the last hike up, it was less important to do that theoretically, because there was only one path up, no offside roads, no alternate paths, no other way but down. As a result, I imagine that the mindset was just keep going up. That was the advice we got, with a smile. “You’re so close!” was encouragement, and we agreed to try. The leader and his son who we had last contact with, who had waited for us at the service road, left for their final ascent, 1.5 miles up, but a bulk of the ascension of the overall trip was in that last 1.5 miles. We tried that until we could not try it any longer, between 5 and 7 pm, when we had to descend to keep the light. Our last contact was a hopeful one, but we expressed our doubt that we would make it up.
The biggest issue with this was that the hike down, especially in our debilitated state, was treacherous, dark, and unknown. Safety in numbers, so stay with your group. In our case, we would have had to have done something like what we did eventually, but because it diverted from the plan, it was a surprise, and it should have been a (potential) part of the plan instead.
Consideration 10: Make choices, not defaults.
Jack and I discussed a lot of things in our last ascent to the top of Elliot Knob. We talked about the feelings we were having, including fear and despair. We encouraged each other to have hope. We cried. We talked about the disappointment of everyone else having done what we were not able to. How we could maybe make it if we tried. How we were safer to think about alternatives. That we had options.
The only thing keeping us exhausted on the side of a mountain in pitch black trying to set up a tent while crying and looking for bears with a flashlight was our discussion of that possibility. We decided that safety in retreat was better than exhaustion in success or regret in disaster.
I am crying as I write this at Jack’s bravery in light of the choice of either danger or failure. It was no contest, but we considered both for a long time as we were forced to rest, as we were trying to take labored, heavy-breathed steps up a steep incline like I had never traversed before, with heavy packs we could not drop, as we ached and yelped as we turned each corner and saw another quarter mile of difficult trail upward, with no towers in sight, like those we had heard about at the peak. We heard, saw, and felt nothing but nature. No cars, no humans, just nature, getting darker, and an uphill trail. We felt alone.
Jack ascending the trail
Jack and I learned a lot about the beauty of the deep woods and mountains of Virginia. We learned about preparedness and resourcefulness. We saw the tops of every other mountain in the county. We learned about the flora and fauna from a biologist. We met new friends and learned about their lives and philosophies. We saw vistas and waterfalls, and the intense life-giving sun changing the air as we walked. We learned about our limits. We learned about the importance of safety in the most unlikely places. We learned that we can rely on one another. We learned that we will always work with each other to be safe first, and winners at other times.
It’s the journey, friends, it has little to do with the destination. Be safe, have fun, make choices and get home.
I wanted to illustrate what I thought the Google Home might be like in 10 years. I saw it as floating, hovering by way of low-energy drones. The device would be like an eye, always looking, listening, and recording. A disoriented human asks “Okay Google, what year is it?” in wonderment. This design is related to my concept for their future automated car.
open Inkscape, create a circle, duplicate it, add a linear pattern to the topmost dupe, convert to path, shape into a shadow, place over circle, done.
But when I started doing it, to test whether it was just that simple, I was surprised at how many steps were really involved. You have to find the right pattern, you have to try a few on, you have to realize that you can’t easily add color to your patterns. You get some neat benefits though — real, deep calls to pop-based modernism, paying ideological royalties to Warhol’s Brillo Boxen and Jasper Johns’ frisky template based stories. So I decided to take it somewhere. And this post is the result.
What am I doing here?
I wrote ‘To be honest,’ but I loathe when people say that. We may be honest always, but what a stark surprise that would be, and the resulting pain that would potentially be inflicted seems an easily avoidable horror. So here, I’ll offer some harmless honesty: I’m not sure what i am doing here. I want to be productive, create and publish things of value, but I think that the audience has to find the value in you doing what you love, if any value is to be found at all. This may the closest digital alternative we have to Busking, posting on tools like WordPress (or worse yet, Facebook). But today, as I write this, it feels right. This is what I feel I should be doing: Writing about, illustrating, and sharing my experiences and results and insights and outcomes in the hopes of feeding into the collective insight of humanity. I have no idea if anyone will care, or even respond. But maybe. Only by trying will we find out.
Okay Google, so, what year is it?
So I was working on the practice of creating cross hatching in Inkscape, finding the stark contrast of the linear elements a bright, sharp change in my style. I began to make the circle into a kind of orb. The cross hatching became a futuristic fin that both altered direction and provided thrust. Each overlapped circle added a new dimensional layer of electronics or protection, all perfectly interlocking and freely moving.
A pupil and iris emerged. A short story about the future that writes itself in one’s mind resulted. The title of that short story is “Okay Google, what year is it?”, and the orb you see is some nearby year’s equivalent to the amazing Amazon Echo, except it uses quiet drone and magnetic stops technologies to float about your house, answering any question, turning on and off million colored micro LEDs under your feet and overhead as you walk along the heavily corridored apartments of the future. All of our houses start as shipping containers in my version. The main character asks the title question and the orb responds “I don’t know how to answer that. “
At any rate, a fun trip in the mind and I hope you enjoyed it.
I teach college students, high-schoolers, grad students, seniors, and a diverse bunch of others. I love teaching because I often find myself in some of the most interesting discussions I’ve had in my life there in those quiet classrooms and community rooms.
I am often placed in the position of amateur philosopher because I get to ask people branding prompts, queries like “what kind of meal are you?” or “if you could change the world now, how would it be different?” and the answers I get are often less examined than, let’s say, their favorite football team. I love the thought that the next time they are asked the question, they may have had time to reflect on their original answer and develop their point of view.
Undergraduate students ask different kinds of questions in quiet after-class sidebars.
I most often answer questions about technology in my classes, but sometimes we veer off into more interesting and useful territories. In teaching undergrads recently, which I do not do as often as other groups, I’ve been asked about things like life-trajectory and intended outcomes. One student told me that he was not sure if it was an àpropos use of the term, but that he felt like he was having a ‘existential crisis’. I replied that it was certainly possible, even likely at this time in his life, and that he was in good company. I shared that it may be a sign that he was growing. His main question, and the question often asked when I have had these deeper philosophical conversations, is “What should I do with my life?” I like many of the answers I’ve collected in the discussions, and thought I might share them here.
10 recent answers to “What should I do with my life?”
These are 10 answers I gave recently, in no particular order of importance. Our mental and conscious state is the result of an amazingly complex number of holistic and systemic factors, including genetics, authoritative influence, culture, society, exposure to ideas, emotional and physical environment, diet, and body chemistry. To look at the effects of one while ignoring the effects of others is an easy route to false- or half-truths. I often assume that the conversant is already in-line with and subject to the standard barrage of media, educational, and political propaganda and ideologically coercive forces that our society imparts (our government loves and protects you, we don’t commit crimes world-wide, we are not slaves and slavery ended a long time ago, social media is not poisoning us, etc.), and so I try to sidestep major social, religious, political, or diversity oriented issues. Instead…
I try to remind them that we are all the same regardless of our sensed differences like age, gender, religion, or skin color: an ambulatory pile of chemically bonded universal elements with the miraculous evolutionary gift of self-awareness.
and then, I offer some of these ideas, useful for me personally, but hopefully adaptable to another’s philosophy as well.
Pursue what you love and have passion for. Set aside goals of money, fame, or recognition, which may or may not come while you enjoy your life.
Collect experiences, not stuff. Live small and save money. Live so small that money is unnecessary or less necessary.
Look to your ideological mentors, leaders, and heroes for answers. Consider their answers with a critical thought. Listen to your thought opponents for clues to a median truth.
Resist convenience and high technology where/when it removes your independence. In other words, financial credit is convenient, but it allows you to spend money you do not actually have, which replaces flexibility and independence with debt. A smartphone is convenient comparative to a land line, but given that your location, written & verbal communications, and other easily recorded sensor data becomes just as easily available to authorities, consider that the convenience costs you your privacy.
Learn to meditate and be mindful. Be open to different ideas. Question authority and assure its legitimacy for yourself. Avoid the constraints of silly rules or useless officials.
Imagine the public memory of your deceased self. Be missed. Have a legacy. Increase the number of people you have helped, forget how much you earned doing it.
Remove illusions and seek truths. Recognize, avoid, and ignore rat mazes and traps. Do this forever. Raise awareness of the losses or constrictions of rights. (Chomsky, et al.)
Recognize and beware addictions and vices. Ideas can be addictive and money is just an idea.
Realize the earth is only a sustainable resource if we slow down our consumption and plan sensible resource management. If we don’t, we will perish. Save room for nature.
Eat less; move more. Eat real food. Know what is in your food. (Pollan)
A supportive biblio/videography
What follows is an abridged bibliography and videography of influential thinkers and topics that is helping me to shape my ideas now, hopefully clearly related to my answers in the list above.
HighExistence: How to Escape the Rat Race and Live a Radically Free Life
I want to live simply (High Existence)
“Become very frugal and self-reliant and buy a cheap tiny home, cabin, boat, or van. Buy a modest patch of low-demand property somewhere for a good price, build a tiny home or some other low-cost, functional structure, and live very cheaply, perhaps growing some of your own food or doing other things to be as self-sufficient as possible.” excerpted from How to Escape the Rat Race and Live a Radically Free Life | High Existence at http://goo.gl/45p8jt
Michael Pollan: monocultures, food deserts, processed foods, and food politics.
Einstein: Relativity, absolutism, and nuclear energy.
“In 1905, Albert Einstein determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers. This was the theory of special relativity. It introduced a new framework for all of physics and proposed new concepts of space and time.” excerpted from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity: A Simplified Explanation at http://goo.gl/71qW0P
The grand circle theory, Shelter publications, Buckminster Fuller.
“Secondly, here are some personal aesthetic discoveries I’ve made in spending a few years around various plastic materials (I’d lived previously with more conventional materials such as wood, concrete, glass, brick, etc.) I’ve found that the less molecular rearranging a material has undergone, the better it feels to be around. Wood, rock, adobe as compared with polyurethane foam and polycarbonate resin windows.” excerpted from Domes — Shelter Publications at http://goo.gl/SMHETE
David Henry Thoreau: On the duty of Civil Disobedience
David Byrne with St. Vincent – I should watch TV
The Georgia Guidestones.
These are the kinds of things that are giving me insight into what I should be doing with my life, and I believe you can ask that question everyday in the hopes of a newly evolved answer.
Hi, all. I’m refocusing from design, technology and teaching to universal human kindness. Some of this is going to sound kind of new age-y, but I’m not interested in any of that.
It’s March of 2016. Things are changing quickly. I’m writing to capture my feelings that have come over the last month. February was eye-opening. I’m strictly limiting participation in most social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and the rest. I left traditional media, like TV, a long while back. it’s pure, continuous, streaming propaganda interspersed with ads now. I don’t listen to radio though I sometimes miss NPR’s ‘driveway moments’™. I can choose when to listen or watch via streaming services. But otherwise, I’m cutting it all out. I feel that I need to. Many of my friends are surprised, some say they are worried. They are asking “Will you freeze?” and “Are u going to live in a hut?”, mostly by text. They remind me I have lots of gadgets, gizmos, computers, and even phone-controlled 24-million color lights that I can set with a voice command. Yet, I’m ready to go off grid.
Why would a connected, progressive, change-oriented, academic technologist walk away from that which he loved? It’s simple: I now feel like it’s all going quickly in the wrong direction.
There’s a cold civil war in America.
For many it is already warm civil war, but I think many of us have been shielded from it due to the Huxley-an Soma of highly filtered media, like Fox or NBC or Food Network, where we look at rich chefs prepare all the food we never eat, but firmly believe that we have had the experience after watching it. It’s different from other civil wars in that it’s actually pretty civil. Mostly talk and monetary support, unless you are not adult, male or white, in which case it’s less civil towards you. The combatants have many lines drawn, but mostly around money, resources, agency, charisma, faith, and power. I’m trying to drop my sides and allegiances, but we are usually snow-blind to our biases until they are revealed to us.
I’m no longer a democrat or a republican, I’m not the 99% nor the 1%, I’m not Kanye or Anonymous. I’m not Muslim or Christian. I’m not poor or rich. Even John feels false now. I just am. Those designations (labels) are all potential factions though.
The labeled differences exist because at each line, there is money to be made, power to be gained, shirts and commemorative tchotchkes to be sold, flags to be waved, crosses to be burned in five collectible colors.
In this civil war, no one will actually get hurt in the debates between groups, (unless guns are involved, and sadly, they often are and likely will be). The conversations between warring groups help the rich get richer, and help the poor to stay in debt in crowded cities. We work ourselves to death, slaves to a system we do not enjoy, we worry about our health, and predict 1.3 heart attacks per person because our land-of-plenty produces mostly high fructose corn syrup and fatty meats on five dollar foot long rolls, with veggies deep-fried. We all tend to overeat without manufactured tools, like diets and pedometers, to save us. That is a key point:
The diseases we suffer from are contrived and put in place: We sell you the diseases in the form of food and other pollution, so that you can talk with your doctor, who allows you to see a specialist, so that you can get hooked on the cure, until the cure wears off because you kept eating pollution, because nothing was actually addressed in your thought processes or decision-making, so we tighten a ring around your stomach, so that you can live with monitors and buzzers, and then eventually be put in an expensive wooden box, surrounded by Alma-mater-team-colors-coordinated-24-hour-turnaround flowers.
Money (and most other things we long for) is a socially agreed-upon idea. Money does not actually exist. We handle representations of it. We allow it with our recognizance. It is only in the absence of money, the influence of money, the handcuffs of money, and the propagandist messages of money that these things can occur. As a result, I am opting out.
What does opting out mean?
Living simply, linked from http://highexistence.com
I understand that not everyone will recognize anything but money for goods and services and taxes, etc., but I am going to reduce and remove its influence wherever possible. I’m not going to try to pay my taxes with woven baskets. I’m just going to try to pay less taxes.
I am planning, designing, forming, and practicing an escape.
I am going to practice and try to understand universal human kindness.
This is key for me: I want to find universal truths, and not fractional truths. Those exist most clearly out of earshot of advertisements, arguments, and pitches. I plan to find them in the woods and other quiet places. I want to cement my understanding that I am just the elements of the universe looking at itself, and the universe is me looking back. We are one, and we are the rhythms, echoes, and other frequencies between. I want to focus on humans, rather than labels or groups, or types of humans. I want to be a practicing anthropologist that filters out the manufactured influences of false media. I want to focus on our kindness, meaning our kinship, what we all have in common. I do not mean to use kindness in terms of niceness or courtesy, but rather very deeply on what we all have in common — the bits we share, all of us. That means removing false groupings, labels or differences that are purely superficial or socially determined. I may even include gender in those, after having some insightful conversations with people who do not recognize, associate or promote differences in humans via the concept of gender.
Part of that has been the giving away of my superfluous belongings. Another is finding the right property. It looks like an acre or two of land in VA with a small fully owned dwelling on it. Rent is, by far, my largest cost in life. I am ending that. I have credit card debt that I am about to pay off and I will forbid debt from returning. The debt has hung over me for years, threatening me. I’m taking away its power. I have learned and practiced in recent years how to live without addictions, threats to my health, and sources of depression. We get to choose our life path, and this path is becoming clearer each day.
Humans do not need McDonald’s. They need to eat. Humans do not need casinos. They need to exchange acts of value with others and the world. Humans do not need mansions. They need shelter. I want to explore these ideas.
In general, my new personal branding keywords are universal, human, and kindness.
I will likely write about my new path once a week or once a month. I’ll share photos when appropriate, I think my work will change, but I still love to help people and teach. When people heard about my new adventure, they told me to capture and journal the adventure. This writing is for them as well as for me. Thanks to all of my friends for understanding and trusting that I have not lost my mind, I just let go of my stuff.
