Parkour

Coolest "sport" ever... massively dangerous, incredibly diverse, and readily achieved in any location.







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Twilights Last Gleam.

At the end of every great accomplishment, whether it is a small or great task, there is the last gleam of achievement just before the onset of completion and the personal responsibility of caring and nurturing for said accomplishment while moving on to achieve even more.

Don't let that last gleam steal so much of your attention and emotion that it makes it hard to accept the inevitable end of an era and the dawning of a new one. Let that shimmer of light fade in order to create space for a new spark to ignite the limitless possibilities inside of us all.

Just Breathe

Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Breathing, Drinking, Eating and Warmth. These are the only things we need to survive. I used to include companionship in that list but it occurs to me that if a infant was abandoned at birth and some how managed to survive and never knew the companionship of the mother, family and friends, s/he could still survive on the four necessities, which are more commonly known as the four elements. Life is in abundance all around us, there is no need to work to make money to survive. Just breathe. Just drink of the fresh rain water and eat of the wild vegetation. Plant a garden, build a cabin, start a fire.

But you say, I love civilizations luxuries. I do not want to go back to simpler days. Well then use the fire of the sun to power your solar powers home. Fill said home with only the simplest of luxuries that you deem to be necessary. Maybe a laptop or a TV. A fridge or a blender. But in using the power of fire to enable these devices to work you are going back to simpler times, while incorporating modern technology.

Use the water of the clouds to fill your reservoir, don't be duped in to being stuck to a grid in which you have to pay for a free substance. Not only pay but be subjugated to drinking water which in contaminated with fluoride, iron, surfer and all sorts of nasty chemicals. Save rain water, drink it, shower with it, water your garden, live.

Fire isn't the only manner of generating heat and electricity, invest in wind power and the very air around you will come to life. Learn to love the environment around you. The very atmosphere that sustained this planet long enough to give us the ability to inhabit it. Take care of the air around you and it will take care of you.

Earth is the easiest element to take advantage of. Buy a plot of land, plant some vegetables and fruits. Save money at the super market that way. Go even further and you can plant grains to make bread, hops and barley to make beer, Ginseng, Ginko and St Johns Wart to cure illness, sugar cane or corn to create bio fuel. The possibilities are endless, the fertile ground around us can give us more than we even recognize.

Money is not the solution to all of life's problems, it is the cause. It is the fact that we have been trained to believe money is the only way to survive that we are stuck in the rat race work place, the never ending debt and this all consuming consumerist society. Everything you need in life is right in front of you. It is all around you. It is the planet, atmosphere, and elements you stand amongst right now. Just Breathe.

Sleep Walkers

People who go about their lives in an unconscious state in which they allow their emotions and their initial impressions to dictates their every action. People who start fights over parking spots, who threaten employees who need the day off to visit a sick family member, who become vindictive and vengeful over getting cut off. These people truly are living a life of absolute absurdity. They don't understand the need for calm, rational examination of the current situation. They don't think of repercussions or ulterior alternatives. They are endlessly drifting through life reacting to events they think they have no power over, giving them the need to stress their perceived social strength over the individual or situation causing them to feel powerless. Instead of living life in a state of re-active response we must start being pro-active in our ability to form the environment around us. We must start being pro-active in our ability to adapt to others perceived or actual projections on our ego. Just cause someone "unjustifiably" damages your character doesn't mean you have to give them the extra joy in indulging in their level of social stupidity. Laughing them off and treating them as the immature party, or telling them straight up what's real and what they are going to do for you, or just straight up completely ignoring the situation is IMO the best manner of dealing with people who are completely sleep walking through life.

Real News

Ted Turner, General Electric, Rupert Murdock, The Walt Disney Company, Bill Gates, Viacom, these are the people and corporations controlling the news you receive every day. These are the people whose opinions dictate the level of attention a certain story will or will not get. Based on liberal, moderate, or conservative idea's these people decide how they want their news stations and papers to report the news.

I guess it's an ok system if every individual understands that concept of biased control and uses each station equally to try and balance the coverage to find a happy medium. But who actually does that besides me and a few other dedicated individuals? Most people don't even watch the entire news cycle from the station they choose, just the commercials, the taking points and the repeated loop of the same 3 news stories over and over all day long.

How are we to be an informed and concerned citizenry without actually being given the true information we need to make up our decisions properly? If we are being bombarded with biased news such as Sean Hannity labeling Barack Obama a socialist or Keith Olberman calling Sarah Palin out on unverified claims of not knowing that Africa was a continent, how are we to actually focus on the real issues at hand?

If ABC decides that the civil war raging in the Congo isn't worth covering, but Barney the White House Dog biting a reporter is worth their time, how are we to know what is going on around the world? Is CNN interviews Mitt Romney for a half an hour and Ron Paul for 3 minutes how are we to get any real perception of who we want to run our country?

If most people don't even watch the "news" that is most prevalent in our western culture, and get their information from second hand sources who are just barely paying attention to what is going on around them, that makes us a society of completely uninterested, unconcerned, uneducated, buffoons. This is not a generalization, I am not offering up that everyone is like what I just stated. However the sad truth is that MANY, MANNNYYY people are. They get their news about the election from chain e-mails and neighbors who get their information from Bill O'Reilly or Chris Matthews, leaving everyone completely in the dark.

Don't get me wrong, all the pundits I have named thus far are incredible at what they do, and that is rallying the base, "reporting" on certain daily events, and entertaining their audience. However they do not report the news, they are not real reporters, they just watch the news as it comes in and give their opinions. Like I already stated though, that news that is coming in to them to discuss is strictly limited to what their parent corporations want them to report on.

So these pundits are being fed the news to discuss in front of camera in order for the America people to feel a semblance of understanding of what is going on around them. The sad part to me is that I truly believe they hire certain pundits knowing that they won't question their position, they don't want to be real reporters, they just want to be in front of the camera. They don't care if what they are reporting is hear say or completely false, they just word it in a way that they can't be blamed for the accusations.

Read a book, search the internet, vary and limit your corporate news intake, subscribe to private, uncontrolled, YouTube news stations, talk to experts, and when all of that comes together to the point of true understanding, create or report the news yourself. This world is much larger than the 2008 Presidential Election, or the Olympics, or a 100 MPH car chase. There is alot more out there to learn about if you truly want to be an informed and concerned citizen of your country and your world.

Music

Truly is the vibrational and inspirational wave to be ridden to absolute perception. Being able to vibe with an instrument, especially with the addition of multiple people jamming, is the ultimate. Being the notes, being the beats and the silence. Being the music you are making. Feeling only the present moment, no concern with the sound that was there and no thought of the sound that will be there, only a deep investment in the sound that is here! No teacher can instill this skill in you, the ability to be here and now. It is something each individual has to nourish in themselves. By taking control over your consciousness, taking control over your own mind. Not letting it dictate what emotional state or what memories are going to pop up today. We have to take control over our mind just as we have control over our limbs. We have to tell our mind to stop wandering off, to stop being in the past and the future. There is so much to experience right now that is missed out on because of this wandering. The present is the meaning of life, it is all encompassing, it is the potentiality of any and everything and the accumulation of everything that has been. Just be. Just be.

Time Travel

I just realized that you can look up years on Wikipedia and it will tell you what will happen on what date. Now that may not sound too interesting when thinking about looking up past years, but the thing is you can look up future dates as well. Important events like the winter solstice, the super bowl, and election day can easily be predicted, as the dates are set in stone. However the interesting part is entries like these for the year 2012:

February 7 - Scrambles the Death Dealer will attack Washington D.C. and the end of the world as we know it will begin....also meatloaf will be served.

September 11 - Britney Spears runs for president.....oh damn, shaves her head again, and marries Tom Cruise to start an evil cult of Scientology

December 12 - Happy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Obviously someone got their Wikipedia editing privileges and no one has noticed their contributions yet. Thank God for that!

Reading about the future on Wikipedia almost seems like being able to... well read the future!! Is that what we are coming to eventually? Is that what time travel may start as, our ability to foresee future events with such great precision that we'll be able to know when and what of importance we will be facing in years to come? Then again if we are supposedly writing the future out for all to see, it being written may be the reason that certain events do come to fruition.

I think with powerful computer simulation programs, intelligent human futurist, ancient divining methods, and a strong understanding of the past and how it impacts the present we will be able to very commonly and precisely predict future events, technology, and cultural fads. Only time will tell.

Dichotomy

Does anyone wonder where our candidates for President come from? Who chooses the people who will be running in the primaries and then in the general? Sure it was the American people who voted Barack to be the Democratic candidate over Hilary, however it wasn't us who chose who we wanted to pick between. Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson never had a chance, same can be said of Mick Huckabee and Ron Paul. We knew before the primaries even began that it would be either Barack or Hilary VS either Mitt or John. Is that real choice? No all that is, is the dichotomy of a two party system. It is a bunch of pawns being put in to place, to allow the American people to feel a semblance of control over our system. The truth is no matter who won between the four front runners true change will never occur. We will still have an imperialistic military playing Risk with the world. We will still have a Federal Reserve taking loans from the World Bank in order to print money out of thin air to distribute to the American people. We will still have corporate media control of the majority of TV and print news that makes up most people's opinions on the world around them. We will still have secret meetings between high ranking government officials, CEO's, royalty and billionaire investors in order to make decisions about the things we believe our government is actually in control of. We will still have 1 percent of the population controlling 90 percent of the wealth. Maybe, just maybe if we're lucky we'll get some semblance of universal health care, start moving towards energy independence, and begin to intelligently use science to our benefit under an Obama administration, but the change we truly need to get this country out of it's downward spiral of weakening civil rights, economic woes, and military over extension hasn't been mentioned once by any of the candidates the media has focused on.

True Change will not come about until the people of the world stand up and demand it!

HR 1959

The Violent Radicalization and Home Grown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.

Is a freaking joke. It is worded so loosely that almost anyone that dissents to the actions of the government can be labeled a terrorist, have their rights taken away and be thrown in to Gitmo without a trial.

Is this the land of the free, the home of the brave that you were taught about in school? A place where your government thinks you are an enemy. A place where, even if this bill doesn't pass the senate, it has already passed the house with only 6 votes against it. Just the fact that a bill like this has been written makes me scared and worried about the current state of our Republic.

You know why these kind of things can happen right under our noses. Because most Americas just don't give a fuck. They're too busy working to pay the bills, taking care of kids, and watching reality TV. So instead of wondering what their elected government is enacting, in order to take away even more of our rights, they are being corporate media zombies!

Then the next problem is most people that would find out about a bill like this just don't care. They truly think the Patriot Act and HR 1959 will keep them safe from "terrorists". The only terrorists you have to worry about are the ones on capitol hill. The ones systematically and knowingly destroying our constitution. Them being able to check our library records, and tap our phones, and label us terrorists will not keep us safe. It will keep them safe from us when we realize the horrific acts they have been committing against us. By the time we want to do something about it, it will be illegal to say or do anything and anyone who dissents will be rounded up and jailed.

Scary shit, and hopefully something that never comes about, but the facts are that it really is a 50/50 chance. This bill could pass within the next year or so and then out first amendment rights are completely trash. So while I am sure you are very happy with your menial job, your VH1 Celebreality, your addiction to prescription anti depressants, your ebbing and flowing oil prices, your President Elect Barack Obama, your Starbucks and bar hoping, there is alot more to life and alot more to the government than you will ever realize. Start paying attention and start demanding accountability, or else you may never be able to.

Or you can dig your head in to the ground and ignore the truth, ignore the real issues we face today, and make believe that our only problems are health care, education, energy, abortion and gay marriage. Don't get me wrong, these are issues, but they are just very broad one's that the government uses to take our attention away from the thousands of agendas on the table which they know the American people ignore and could care less about. Giving them the ability to do whatever the hell they want!

Read a book, become informed, take your mind off menial events and people and start actually being an informed and concerned citizen of your country.

Renewable Energy

Every time I hear people complaining about electric and oil prices the first thing I tell them is "You know, for the price it is going to cost you to fill your oil tank over the next 4 years you could buy a solar panel and never have to pay for heat again". Most of the times I get a response that acknowledges it's awesomeness, yet seems very uninterested in actually making that investment. Do people just not understand the idea of free electricity? Or are they scared of spending so much at once? Would they rather spend that much, TIMES 20 over the next few years as long as it is in smaller increments? Ridiculous. Over the past year and in the coming year I have started my investment in to renewable energy. Slowly but surely I am acquiring small portable solar and wind power generators to change small things from my camera to my phone, a heater to a fan. While I do not have the capability to power a TV or a PC yet it is a start. I am saving a little bit of energy now, and working my way to more expensive and more powerful solutions for energy efficiency. Within the next 5 years I hope to have enough power generated through the sun and wind to power everything I own that needs electricity, including my VW bus. Which I am in the midst of attempting to convert in to either completely electric or hybrid electric/biodiesel. Get with it people, start investing in renewable energy now, and you will never have to pay a power bill again for the rest of your life!!

I Love Lucy

Old TV is incredible. I Love Lucy, Get Smart, Dick Van Dyke, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched. These shows have such great characters, premises, plots, and dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I love TV today too, but for the most part it seems that TV today is moving more towards serial drama's than sitcoms. I am quite thankful for that as Lost, Heroes, and Chuck are my favorite shows right now. Not to mention sitcoms have been pretty lacking the past few years, asides from maybe My Name is Earl. I guess the 90's was really the last time they had any sort of staying power. With Home Improvement, Rosanne, Seinfeld, etc. Just like everything else in this world TV goes through ebbs and flows. Sitcoms will come back, but I don't think they will ever be as endearing as they were 50 years ago in their heyday. I guess all kinds of media can be considered at their best form at the beginning. Video games for instance may be much more graphically exciting today, but does that mean the stories and characters are better? Music may be a little more polished and produced today, but nothing will ever compare to the Beatles or Run DMC. Older media, original media, will always be what we look back at for ideas, for inspiration and for pure entertainment.

Ear Wax and Bugers

Ewwwwwww. I have some gushy shit coming out of my ear right now. Ear infections suck. During the fall I had some crazy allergies going on causing a running nose constantly. Attractive right? From what I understand our ears and noses make these fluids in order to expel foreign objects from the body. Pollen, dust, animal hair, etc. Then the ear and nose, even when the object has been expelled get confused and forget to stop creating the fluid. WTF?! Shouldn't our bodies be a little smarter then that? Shouldn't they know when to stop creating fluids, whether it's the liver or the ear or the eye or the gallbladder. Secondly why can't our brains control that? Our brains control our hands and mouths, but not our inner workings? They don't control our heart and ears. How weird is that? That our brains can only control parts of our bodies and the rest are on autopilot? What does control them, different parts of the brain or do they just work because of the blood flowing through them? Odd way to state that, can't think of another way to word it though. But whatever the case may be, what controls my insides?!

Eventually

I just read an article about how research into nuclear fusion may lead to a break through in the technology we need to protect astronauts in space, allowing them to get to Mars or beyond.

Yesterday a man named Barack Obama was voted to the highest office in the land, ney the world. The first black man in the history of civilized western culture to be the leader of a nation.

Yesterday Wolf Blitzer did an interview on CNN, with the hologram of Jessica Yellin, Star Wars, Obi Wan style. Bill Gates and Prince Charles have already sent their hologram selves cross oceans, but now it's becoming mainstream.

This leads me to believe, truly and completely believe that everything and anything is only an eventuality. People said there would never be a black president, at least not in our life time, that we'll never go to Mars or outside of our solar system.

People think we're never going to find out how the universe was created, what the higher power is, never going to be able to teleport or travel in time or clone a human or cure cancer.

I say that it is all only a matter of time. Human beings will do some amazing things over the next hundred years. I can't wait to be a part of it. To experience things that we never thought were going to be a reality.

Imagine the possibilities.

Hussein

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
William Jefferson Clinton
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
John Quincy Adams
William Howard Taft
Lyndon Baines Johnson
George Walker Bush


and


Barack Hussein Obama!!!

What a drastic turn around from protestant white presidents. Any black man could have been elected president with a name like Jason, Bryan, David, Brandon, Chris, Kevin, Micheal, or Justin. But instead of that we got ourselves a president with a name that sounds eerily like one of our FBI's most wanted and a dictator we recently took out of power! How freaking weird is that? Also how freaking awesome is it that the American people were willing to look past something as silly as a name. We were willing to look past race, Barack wasn't elected because he is black and he will not be known as the black president, but a president who happens to be black. Hopefully the first of many minority leaders.

Tears keep coming to my eyes every time I watch the scene outside of the white house last night with hundreds of George Washington University students cheering on Barack, and in Grant Park where Barack gave his acceptance speech and in Kenya where hundreds of people were ecstatic that a descendant of theirs became the leader of the free world. I am so happy, so incredibly happy to see the youth vote finally keep their promise of showing up at the ballot. I am so incredibly happy to see the enthusiasm and overwhelming power that last night had amongst not only Democrats, not only Americans, but THE ENTIRE WORLD!

The Taliban want's to negotiate with us, Hugo Chavez wants to let our ambassador back in the country, the President of Spain said this is a new age in American European relations. Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey were in tears last night. John McCain and George W. both called Barack to wish him well. ::sigh::

It took till today for this to all sink in. I have been pushing for this day for well over a year now, paying such close attention that I feel like I was on the campaign trail with Barack. Change has not occurred yet, hope has not driven away fear entirely, but we have taken one giant step in that direction. We as a people have shown the world what America is all about, dreaming big and accomplishing what we set out to do. We will lead the green revolution, we will tend to the sick and needy in our country, we will invest in infrastructure and education, we will be that shining beacon to the rest of the world again.

This is a new age, not just in politics or in our society. But a new age in the history of mankind. Sure that sounds grandiose, but sometimes things are that important. Cynicism has rules for too long it's time for optimistic to take it's rightful place once again.

Yes We Did!!!

Europe

Don't ya love how the rest of the world, especially Europe, talks shit about America constantly, calling us ignorant, fat, sloppy, aggressive, etc etc etc? I'm watching Morning Joe on MSNBC right now and someone just said "do you think France would ever elect a black candidate?" and the answer was overwhelmingly no. Do you think they would vote in a woman. I think not. Yet no matter what happens today America has shown the world that, the people of this country, not the government, not the elites and not the corporations, the American People! are willing and ready to take that giant step towards true equality. We as a people are incredible, we are caring, progressive, inventive, strong willed and well informed (when we want to be). We are showing the world that it is us, US that everyone else should be envious of, not because of what this country gives us, but because of what we give this country. Not because of something as menial as health care or media coverage, but because of the minds and hearts of the American people. Sorry world, we've proven once again that we are the best.

Ephemeral

Something that lasts only a short period of time. A blossoming flower, a cloud overhead, a rainbow. These things, in the human terminology of time, last not very long. However the same can be said of human life when compared to the existence of a rock, an ocean, a star.
Our lives are ever fleeting, constantly out of our own grasp. We are always waiting for that one moment where everything clicks and life seems perfect. How long will that perfection last though? Is perfection possible?
Do we live our lives in this constant struggle to find peace and happiness only to find ourselves at the end thinking "I had it all along but didn't see it right in front of me?"