Just Sitting There?

What are you doing just sitting there reading this? It's a beautiful day today no matter where you are. Whether the wind is blowing, rain is pouring, sunny or snowing, there is something wondrous to it all. Even if war is being waged in your lands or disease is spreading, there is a greater picture to it all. I cannot deny that I am "just sitting here" typing this right now, but I am going to go for a walk as soon as I am done motivating you to observe the wonder as well.

So often we take for granted what seems obvious, yet truly is so intricate. Look at human relations and how we can healthfully love another unconditionally. We give up our wants and needs in order to see another's happiness. In many cases we have died to save another. It is generally accepted that Jesus "died" to show us the way (and save us from our ego). While we all may have a different viewpoint on the life of Jesus, it is most important to realize the simple truth to his life and others like him (Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, for examples), sharing the vision of unconditional love and acceptance of all of life: beings and beyond. It is awe-inspiring, takes us out of our ego's petty problems and gives us a greater perspective on this short life we are fortunate to live.

So where are you going to take this little reminder? Hugging a loved one? Seeking out a long, lost friend? Watching the sunrise and set? Let us not forget that there is much more to this life than we can see at this very moment. With that remembrance of the unfathomable, we can become still in this very moment and embrace the universe and its infinite blessings.

Blogging Forward

There is this nagging thought in my mind that in order for me to move forward with a successful blog, not something just recreational, but something innovative and able to provide substaintail income gains, I have a good deal of changes to make. These are the following changes that I intend to make in the next year of my blogging:

1) Change from Blogger to a hosted WordPress platform.
2) Develop longer articles to keep readers engaged on my site.
3) Perform free or inexpensive marketing campaigns to drive traffic to my site.
3) Have effective ads implemented in the least intrusive manner possible so to generate more than twice my current income per month as a "data miner".
4) Receive and work more with reader feedback.
5) Demonstrate growing expertise in my area of writing including topics of personal development, service, and life analysis.
6) Set-up payment option for Paypal for donations. Investigate other options.

I have a vision for this production but feel limited with my current hosting and design options. I also like to experiment with new software and the best blogs I've seen are primarily using Wordpress. It is an exciting prospect, but one in which I need to invest more time and a little bit of money to start. I just need a little starter finances to get going with Dreamhost web hosting. If I choose the two year pre-payment for the Crazy Domain Insane special, it would a little less than a $200 investment so I need to work on this step first. I put it on the credit card, honey! Wish me luck!

Find your unclaimed property

Compliments of blog archives from Steve Pavlina, I found an excellent resource for people to find a surprise in their life: unclaimed property. Visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators website.

You can click Find Property along the left-hand side navigation and then are taken to a site to select the state. Each state will have a seperate site to visit and search by various criteria, usually first and last name. I searched a variety of states for my last name, my wife's name, and other people I know (Stephens, Grant, Kozlowski, Pineo, Prothro), but unfortunately nothing turned up. Maybe you will be more fruitful in your search for unclaimed riches!!

I believe there are auctions for unclaimed property as well so I will dig a little more on this and let you know what I find. Let me know if you are able to claim anything so we can split it as agreed upon when you read this last statement.

Gaining Inspiration

I've been gone for about a week or so just taking in life and exploring more of what I love and finding out more about what I am and intend to be.  I read an interesting passage from "Conversations with God: Book 3" last evening that summarizes an excellent way to move beyond old belief structures to empower our lives and be more whole.  The statement was that guilt and fear are humans biggest obstacles.  The counterpart to those feelings that will actually help us learn and grow are awareness (replacing guilt) and caution and consciousness (replacing fear).  Guilt leaves without energy and strength to move forward, awareness lets us know what belief or behavior is holding us back and allows us to change.  Fear stunts our growth and isolates us from experiencing all that the universe has to offer us.  Caution and conscious thought allows us to watch mindfully and make choices based on our intuition or "gut" feeling.  In my eyes, it is important to make these discernments because change is inevitable and being connected to the many changes we experience will help our growth be more natural and less shocking each time change transpires.

Post Testing

I am testing a new method of posting.  By emailing a certain address, the entry should automatically appear in my blog. I don't know how this is going to work, but I will soon find out.  Other than that, I feel like a little writer's block right now so if you don't see anything new from me for awhile, I apologize. I'm sure a new wave of creativity will come some time soon.

Know-It-All

This story was prompted by my drive to work today. Pulling out from the Wawa near my home ( a right turn with yield sign and short lane), the car in front of me pulled out and then I followed, believing I had plenty of room between me and the cars that had just left the intersection from a light change. The person in front of me decided not to speed up to keep the flow of traffic going and was seemingly oblivious as to how to drive. He then slowly switches lanes. Well, the first car in the right lane must have come off the gun quickly (because she needed to get into the left lane). She sped up right on my tail and then cut over in front of Mr. Oblivious. I looked over and she was cursing up a storm and I could lip read her saying "so sick of stupid f*^%ing drivers" and continued her complaint. She looked at me once, but as I continued to look in her direction, she refused to look back. On reflection, I cannot say for certain if I was the "stupid driver" to which she referred. I got a little pissed because I didn't feel I did anything wrong.

Further down the road, I thought more deeply about how I assumed myself to be right and even momentarily, privately had to argue with this stranger (who was not present). I stopped defending my position and concluded that I could have been at fault and more patient upon entering the road. Sometimes we can admit our mistakes almost immediately when it is so apparent that no excuse can cover up your mistake. Other times we are not necessarily sure if we made a mistake so we are usually more likely to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt versus the other party. Where am I going with this and how does it pertain to the title of being a know-it-all?

Well, I write a blog to suggest interesting things that you should try and sometimes I feel like, "what am I doing?" and "why would anyone care about this?". Do I know so much more (know-it-all) that you wouldn't have these or better ideas for your life already? My ideas may not be better, but I tend to believe they are a little different. My point is if you have had a lucid dream while listening to the Flaming Lips soaking in a bathtub with Himalayan Bath Salts, my writing has worked. If you have tried out some of Google products, read some of Steve Pavlina's great personal development articles, or drank a mug of yerba mate while chanting 'hare krishna', I'm doing my job and I derive great satisfaction if I've helped you get in touch with your 'stranger side'.

In conclusion, I thought I was right and realized that it wasn't necessarily so. I try not to be 'right' when writing to my audience here at Synthesize and Remind, I try to be helpful, information, and interesting, so your curiosity remains high and you continue to return and refer other readers. I don't want to cut you off in traffic and then suggest that I was not the problem; I want to admit when I'm wrong, try to be right, and have us all grow along the way. Ending random transmission.

A New Leaf

This week I've begun a new system so that I can grow to be an expert in a new field. This was inspired by two articles, one, from Creating Passionate Usersentitled How To Be An Expert and second, from Steve Pavlina's Blog entitled How To Become An Early Riser. Using the the ideas from these blog entries, I've begun the practice of becoming an earlier riser in order to study a new, we'll call it hobby for now, for as it grows I will be changing into an expert.
Right now, the subject matter I've selected is computer programming, reviewing information regarding Phython, ASP.NET and so forth, trying to gauge what can languages have and will withstand the ever-dynamic industry. Further I am trying to decide on the mobility of these skills and the net worth they will be able to provide me. I do like programming because it joins writing, math, art, and science into a working application. But enough about the specifics (because it you know me well enough, they could likely change).
I am trying to emphasize that adding that one hour a day to my schedule is going to free up a substantial amount of time to become an expert. If I do programming for one hour every week day, I will have hundreds of hours put in just this year alone. If you wake up one hour or even a half-an-hour earlier, you could read your bible or chosen spiritual text (as my friend Jennifer suggests she will do), practice your putting, do yoga/pilates, or even just get some extra housework down that usually gets neglected. Just a little adjustment in your schedule could transform your life into a more efficient and rewarding style. Food for thought.

Music Review Round-up

Here some recent albums that have been on the top of my playlist lately:

Matisyahu- Live at Stubbs

Matisyahu is a Hassidic Jew Reggae Musician with a capable band that has a diverse repitoire of musical genres that I would summarize as jam rock reggae. This album is a live concert from Stubb's in Austin, Texas. He is a rising star in the music world, making a great presense in the commercialized music scene. He is talented and deserving of the accolade. We will have to see if he can maintain his humble spiritual roots or lose control through the attractions of fame.

Old Crow Medicine Show - OCMS

Old Crow Medicine Show are present-day folk and mountain music revivalists. With clever lyrics and on point renditions of traditional folk music tunes, this album will definitely grow on you. It's range of slow ballad to upbeat allows one to more fully appreciate OCMS's skill.

Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke - Sixty Six Steps

This is the album I drove into work today listening to. It has a calypso feel to it (it was recorded Costa Rica). It is a fun, unique album with some exceptional guitar work by Kottke complimented by perfect rhythms prepared by Mike Gordon (formerly of Phish). Read the reviews on Amazon though, there is a great debate about copyright protection on the CD that consumers have complained about.

The Flamings Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

If you don't know about this album, get it! I saw the Flaming Lips live and they are show stoppers! They are playful, joyful, and often come through with profound lyrics. I suggest this album because it is the most recent and compared to it's predecessor album (The Soft Bulliten) it has a greater selection of compelling songs.

If you want to hear these musicians before buying an album, you can find downloadable concerts (legal and free) from places like archive.org or bt.etree.org. Using these services may require some software downloads and investigation, so if you need help, let me know.

Express Your Concerns: Get Free Stuff!

Because my family has certain dietary concerns, we sometimes have a more limited range of foods that we buy. When we find something we like, we often stick with it, like rice cheese or gluten-free pretzels. Occassionally we will purchase a less-than-quality product that we usually have no problems with. On these rare occassions, I will contact the consumer concerns department of the manufacturer and they are usually more than happy to replace the product. For example, I bought a bag of Kettle Brand Sea Salt and Black Pepper Chips and almost all of them were smashed. I wrote a quick note to the company telling them how decadent these chips are, but that I had the experience. Since I had the UPC code and production code date, it was extra helpful to them to investigate the problem. The representative also offered to send me two free bags (and it arrived shortly thereafter). I responded to this service by saying, "Great, I will take them into my work and share their deliciousness." She then responded and said she would also send me coupons for free products and those arrived too! So with a little honesty and follow-through, I got four free bags (big bags!) of my favorite potato chips. Now I am awaiting a response from Galaxy Foods in response to a bad batch or shredded rice cheese.

The key to this whole process it to be honest and greatful for the usually consistent and good quality of product they offer. If you gripe without offering some constructive consumer criticism or praise, you probably won't be as well-received as if you are polite, kind, and thankful.

Rollyo, yo

A great little, build-your-own web technology can be found at Rollyo.com. I've built a little search engine based on the theme of Yoga.

I hope this works for you. If so, I will put the search in the main part of the page. (edit) Since it works, I can go back and add other categories of search, like blogging, golf, web design, and those will be included in the drop-down list. Simply type in what you would like to search in the box and drop down to select the category. I tested it on this blog by search 'Maryland' and selecting Yoga and received good results. I have no idea how you might implement something like this if you don't have your own website to post it to, but there are a lot of examples on the Rollyo site that you may find helpful.

SelectRollyoga

Yahoo! Widgets

There is a nifty little program that I run on my home computer. It is called Yahoo! Widgets Engine. These "Widgets" are smaller programs that can run on your desktop and include things like a mini photo slideshow, news feeds, weather, system monitoring, and more. On the Yahoo! Widgets home page, you can download the engine software and find a huge list (that continues to grow) of widgets that you can download. It is quite addictive, but can sometimes hog your computer's RAM so make sure you have plenty to spare. This was once called Konfabulator, but Yahoo! snatched it up. Enjoy!

Himalayan Pink Bath Salts

This salt is rumored to be a fantastic remedy for muscle aches and further, if you bath in one kilo (about 2lbs) of it for 30 minutes, you are supposed to feel as though you fasted for 3 days. I know there are some great benefits from fasting, but most people look at you cross-eyed when you suggest it. So, here is an alternative that may even be a bit pleasure, i.e. if your mate joined you in the bath. However, be aware that you may feel intense fatigue after such a bath and I would urge you to drink at least 8 ounces of water every hour. Keep in mind that I am NOT a doctor, but I've had discussions about this product and have the cooking version in my kitchen; we call it the magic salt. These salts and others can all be purchased at SaltWorks, Inc. They can also be purchased local to me from my friend, Ileana Sutter, at The Healing Temple.