Wew, kiamat, topik yang menarik, eh? So, di postingan kali ini gw TIDAK akan membahas kiamat berdasarkan film2 yang baru aja populer kemaren2 whatsoever; gw akan membahas kiamat berdasarkan perenungan pribadi gw. Tulisan ini hanya opini pribadi semata, ingat! Gw tidak berusaha mendoktrin orang2 dengan tulisan ini. Ini hanya buah pikiran pribadi berdasarkan perenungan pribadi ditambah bacaan2 yang sekadar memberikan inspirasi. Oke?

Gw dapet ide untuk nulis postingan berdasarkan sebuah quote yang pernah gw denger. Gw gak tau dari mana, entah dari ayat di Qur’an (tapi gw ga nemu setelah barusan browsing2 di dalem Qur’an…haha), hadits, atau sumber lainnya (citation, please) yang kurang lebih berbunyi bahwa pada hari kiamat matahari akan sangat dekat di atas kepala kita sehingga panasnya seakan2 berasal dari banyak matahari2 lainnya. Nah, setelah gw browsing di internet gw nemu tulisan yang cenderung saintifik ini

… Matahari akan terbit dari arah barat sesuai dengan prediksi dari beberapa sumber yang mengatakan kalau bumi akan berubah kutub. Matahari akan sangat dekat dari atas kepala manusia (sejengkal di atas kepala) juga mendekati dengan fakta kalau Nibiru (Planet X) yang merupakan kembaran matahari akan sangat dekat bahkan menabrak bumi. …

(diambil dari  http://mochii90.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/ramalan-dan-prediksi-kiamat-di-tahun-2012/)

Gw belum baca seluruh tulisannya tapi inilah bagian yang gw cari: Matahari akan sangat dekat dari atas kepala manusia (sejengkal di atas kepala).

Nah, gw kan lagi baca The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time (baca Insomniac) dan di buku ini gw menemukan ilham. Tepatnya di halaman 12-13 tertulis

… And then I thought about how, for a long time, scientists were puzzled by the fact that the sky is dark at night, even though there are billions of stars in the universe and there must be stars in every direction you look, so that the sky should be full of starlight because there is very little in the way to stop the light reaching earth.

Then they worked out that the universe was expanding, that the stars were all rushing away from one another after the Big Bang, and the further the stars were away from us the faster they were moving, some of them nearly as fast as the speed of light, which was why their light never reached us.

I like this fact. It is something you can work out in your own mind just by looking at the sky above your head at night and thinking without having to ask anyone.

And when the universe has finished exploding all the stars will slow down, like a ball that has been thrown into the air, and they will come to a halt and they will all begin to fall towards the centre of the universe again. And then there will be nothing to stop us seeing all the stars in the world because they will all be moving towards us, gradually faster and faster, and we will know that the world is going to end soon because when we look up into the sky at night there will be no darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars, all falling.

Except that no one will see this because there will be no people left on the earth to see it. The will probably have become extinct by then. And even if there are people still in existence they will not see it because the light will be so bright and hot that everyone will be burnt to death, even if they live in tunnels. …

Got it? Menurut gw, alasan mengapa matahari dikatakan berjarak sejengkal di atas kepala kita adalah karena alam semesta berhenti meledak dan seperti seseorang yang melempar bola ke atas, suatu saat bola akan jatuh lagi ke bawah, ke pusat gravitasi, dan alam semesta kita pun pada akhirnya akan jatuh kembali ke pusatnya setelah mereka selesai meledak (yah, anggap saja, akan ada turning point). Seperti kalian juga ketahui, kalau masih inget pelajaran Fisika tentang Tata Surya, alam semesta ini sedang mengembang karena ledakan Big Bang masih berlanjut sampai sekarang. Gw juga inget jaman SMA pernah diajarin ma Pak Ngatmoyono kalau ada tiga teori tentang terciptanya alam semesta: Big Bang Theory, Oscillation Theory, dan Steady-State Theory. Steady-State adalah teorinya mereka yang ga percaya kalau dunia itu dinamis, mereka menganggap dunia itu statis. Nantinya ya dunia itu gini2 aja, gak berubah. Oscillation Theory adalah pengembangan dari Big Bang Theory. Tau oscillation kan? Bayangkan grafik sin (grafik yang dibangun dari rangkaian berseling puncak dan lembah, ingat?) seperti ini.

Oke, ini dia grafik sin kita. Udah pada belajar sejak jaman SD, kan? hihihihihihi ;3

Nah, menurut teori itu dunia ini akan selalu mengalami siklus Big Bang. Di satu saat semua akan terpadatkan jadi satu kemudian meledak, mengembang sampai energi untuk mengembang habis dan jatuh kembali ke pusat, memadat lagi, kemudian meledak lagi, dan seterusnya. Menurut gw, pada saat dunia dipadatkan kembali adalah apa yang disebut kiamat dan pada saat dunia diledakkan lagi adalah suatu kehendak Allah mengenai langit dan bumi setelah kiamat, yang entah apa itu, hanya Dia yang tahu.

Menarik kan?

Waktu tadi gw buka2 Qur’an untuk nyari referensi, gw nemu ayat dari Surah Al-Isra’ ini, yang berbunyi

Katakanlah (Muhammad), “Jadilah kamu batu atau besi, atau menjadi makhluk yang besar (yang tidak mungkin hidup kembali) menurut pikiranmu.” Maka mereka akan bertanya, “Siapa yang akan menghidupkan kami kembali?” Katakanlah,”Yang telah menciptakan kamu pertama kali.” Lalu mereka akan menggeleng-gelengkan kepalanya kepadamu dan berkata,”Kapan (kiamat) itu (akan terjadi)?” Katakanlah, “Barangkali waktunya sudah dekat.” (QS 17:50-51)

Jawaban yang singkat, padat, dan jelas: Barangkali waktunya sudah dekat. So, be prepared, people, time is running out. Just be a good boy and a good girl, won’t ya?

***

Be careful what you wished for, history starts now.

Five for Fighting in World

***

Regards,

dyl!

As we celebrate the “Birthday” of Jesus, I wonder what he would make of the festivities going on around the world in his name.

There are people starving in Africa, Asia and even in the USA. Yet, we see people spending obscene amounts of money being spent on presents in the name of Jesus that are unneccesary, expensive and unwanted.

Would he not admonish his followers to give rather than receive? Is this not a time to be giving charity in his rememberance and as a thankful gesture to God for all the blessings we have received during the year?

In many parts of the African continent, kings still exist for various tribes and regions, although they don’t wield the same power they used to. Daniel Laine has travelled around Africa and profiled a whole bunch of these kings. Above is Nyimi Kok Mabiintsh III, the King of Kuba in the Democratic Republic of Congo:

The Nyimi Mabiintsh III is fifty years old. He acquired the throne at the age of twenty. As a descendant of god the creator, the king is attributed with supernatural powers.

Due to his top position he is restricted by several contraints: he does not have the right to sit on the ground, and he cannot cross a cultivated field. Apart from his cook, no one has seen him eat. Moreover he never travels without him, and his personal cooking ustensils.

It took me three weeks to photograph the Nyimi (king) of the Kuba in his royal apparel, the “bwantshy”. The outfit made out of material stitched with beads and “cauris” (small shells used as money in Africa), weighs 160 lb. It takes more than two hours to dress the King, and two days of spiritual preparation to be sufficiently purified in order to wear the outfit.

The weight and the heat of the bwantshy is such, that it is impossible to wear it more than one hour. The preceeding King had only worn it three time during his entire life.

Daniel Laine’s Fantastic Work on African Kings [Design You Trust]

We had been driving in circles down dark Clifton streets in your maroon Cadillac for fourty five minutes when we finally went over the bridge.

Ohio river beneath us and the winter stars overhead, I reached for the comfort of your soft surfer boy hands and squeezed my eyes shut. Time stood still and I could feel the static of  silence buzzing and humming and whispering in my ears. Wheels rolling beneath us, sweaty palms and unexplained terror.

“Are we off, are we off?”

Panic in my words and the metal of my pretty rings digging into the cracks and crevices of your fingers. It was over and I opened my eyes. Let out my breath. Inhaled. Exhaled. Smiled. You stared, with your ocean eyes and new gauges in your ears- lime green peace signs, yes I am quickly learning to adore every inch of you. It’s not that hard. You sing Jason Mraz in the car and tap your hands on the wheel to the beat, you love The Princess Bride and get embarassed of your OCD. You have an unhealthy addiction to Monster and resist the cold Ohio winter with every fiber of your California-boy being. You were not meant for these blustery suburbs, shining with snow and tweed scarves and promises. You were meant for neon swimming trunks and toes in the sand, uekelayles and coconut scented happiness. You are everything that boy I loved for so long could never be, And I am scared shitless but oh,

it is a beautiful fear.

You held my hand in the car until it stopped shaking. Until I realized that the bridge did not fall out from under us, that I was not drowning. That I was safe and warm and basking in the pure, unjaded loveliness of the simple silence only we can share in that tired old Caddy. I realized it was okay  to be lost in Kentucky with you, I realized

we weren’t really lost at all.

We were exactly where we were meant to be. There. Together. So I stopped cussing and complaining about my stomach. I stopped expecting a fairy tale night and embraced the beautifully unexpected adventure we were given. And when we got to that hotel I jumped on the bed with my dirty boots on and ordered BBQ wings. You kissed the sauce right off my cheek and made me laugh until my stomach hurt.

We put on our bathing suits and pretended we had escaped. Escaped from the frigid lies of the ones we thought we loved, the constant pressure and longing for perfection, the self loathing that comes from the lack of it and shame that comes from losing the halo you never had. Escaped from the life that on the surface offered so much security, so much safety and love and promise,

but beneath it was tainted.

It was dirty and dark and the same hands that held you would scratch you till you bled and bury you in your own insecurities. The same lips that kissed you would spit on you when you needed them to shower you in reassuring forgiveness the most. A broken blonde on a December night in her new checkered dress. Eyeliner smeared around those blue eyes that finally saw her reality for the hoax it truely was. That finally saw the evil that fueled that brunette prince. She ran  back to him because she thought she needed saving- a damsel who craved pad thai and familiar freckles and the safety your touch seemed to promise. She walked away from him alone, shivering because the truth was cold, radiating in the glow of a Mcdonalds drive through.

That night she was broken. She cried because she knew she designed her own disaster by surrendering to you again. But the next morning she took out those blonde extensions and washed her face. Dissapeared in the warmth of her long lost best friend and the boy who was waiting there when all  the ones she thought she loved forgot the way they used to laugh together. The next morning she vowed to leave the damsel standing underneath that Clifton Mcdonalds sign. To never go back to that ghost of a girl because she lost herself to the illusion of love when she was 16 and wasted that word on you.

Last night I canonballed into the murky green Marriot pool and got chlorine in my mouth and laughed. and laughed. and laughed. I did handstands and backflips and kissed you softly in the elevator. We watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the twinkling lights of Ohio as we fell asleep. The city accross the river looks so pretty at night, and finally these callused fingers are inspired again. I do not write to forget you or what we had, I am writing because it abandoning  this blog I forgot MYSELF.

I am writing to remember, I am writing to gain strength from the tragic beauty of my mistakes, and gain hope for the strong woman I am becoming every day.

While I’m happy to hear that some merchants are experiencing a late rush of shoppers today, I’m much happier when I hear stories about people celebrating Winter Solstice, Chanukah, or Christmas traditions and the transcendent magic of the season.

Whatever your traditions, I hope you have time to step away from the day-to-day tasks of earning a living and tending to the household for some quality time and old fashioned fun with your family and the god of your heart.

–Malcolm

Current Biology has been accepted into leading edge science, but has been left out of the general public.

The pharmaceutical companies are keeping our beliefs in the science which is 50 years old, so they can continue to profit.

You’re an observer of the world and in the Quantum field we all live in, the observer has the power – and you’re changing the whole universe.

We’re trained to forget our own personal power, your mind controls what genes get selected

The subconscious mind is 1,000,000 times more powerful than the conscious mind
The subconscious mind creates 95% of our world.

The conscious mind has our desires, dreams and wishes – and the subconscious mind wants things to stay the way they are.

So in closing, if you don’t tell your subconscious mind what you want from life, you’ll just get what you got yesterday. But the world is changing every day, and tomorrow will be nothing like yesterday – so it’s our duty to keep our subconscious mind up to date not only with what we want, but also up to date with how we want the world to be.

And that’s what Life Balancing is all about – getting your subconscious in line with what you want from life so you get what you want from tomorrow, not what you got from yesterday.

First build the image of what you desire your life to be whether it is happiness, health, relationship, or abundance.  Get excited and think of how great it will be when your desire has manifested.  Can you feel it?  Can you really tell that it is going to manifest?  Are you excited and so grateful that it is on it’s way to you?  Are you not waiting and just enjoying and trusting each experience that comes to you knowing full well that you will be living that life you envision?  Okay…now…LET IT GO…let the image go out into the Universe and let the Universe take care of how it will happen.  Don’t picture every way it is going to happen for you.  Just see the end result and let the Universe take it over.  It will happen and it will happen in some unconventional way that you have never thought of.  Let it go and just know.

We have family coming in all day long.  Today I’ll be cooking and baking up a storm with Mom.  Today is tamales, cornbread stuffing, pies, and fresh cookies all for tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be all the rest of the big holiday feast.  What a wonderful time of year!

Christmas Carol

‘Twas a cauld, cauld nicht i’ the back o’ the year;
The snaw lay deep, and the starns shone clear;
And Mary kent that her time was near,
As she cam to Bethlehem.
When Joseph saw the toon sae thrang,
Quo’ he: ‘I houp I be na wrang,
But I’m thinkin’ we’ll find a place ere lang;’
But there wasna nae room for them.

She quo’, quo’ she: ‘O Joseph loon,
Rale tired am I, and wad fain lie doon.
Is there no a bed in the hail o’ the toon?
For farrer I canna gae.’
At the ale-hoose door she keekit ben,
But there was sic a steer o’ fremmyt men,
She thocht till hirsel’: ‘I dinna ken
What me and my man can dae.’

And syne she spak: ‘We’ll hae to lie
I’ the byre this nicht amang the kye
And the cattle beas’, for a body maun try
To thole what needs maun be,’
And there amang the strae and the corn,
While the owsen mooed, her bairnie was born.
O, wasna that a maist joyous morn
For sinners like you and me?

For the bairn that was born that nicht i’ the sta’
Cam doon frae Heaven to tak awa’
Oor fecklessness, and bring us a’
Safe hame in the hender-en’.
Lord, at this Yule-tide send us licht,
Hae mercy on us and herd us richt.
For the sake o’ the bairnie born that nicht,
O, mak us better men!

Hello again! It’s winter now. Christmas is nearly here. Can you believe 2009 is almost over? It is almost time to watch the ball drop (ahem, you know the sparkly ball, the Times square ball, ah forget it). Tradition, tradition…got me singing Fiddler on the Roof.

Brief catch-up: What am I doing right now? Where am I?

I haven’t traveled at all lately, much unlike my summer (i.e. Korea and China). It is both nice and annoying. I am home more of the time, but I would like to get away for a while. I’ve been feeling rather lazy at home. I don’t do much, occasionally turning to my unfinished history homework or the internet that is the vacuum of my time. Do you have this problem too? I hope I’m not alone.

In other news, a bird flew in our house. It was fun trying to shoo it out. No animals were harmed in the process, rest assured.

My dad flew in from the Incheon Airport last night. I was talking to him on the way back. He said, “To say something and to believe something are two totally different things.” Maybe I didn’t understand and still don’t understand what he meant fully, but thinking about it, yeah, it makes sense.

For example, I will openly detest body image criticisms. When I hear a “I look so fat today”, I will shoot it down with a “Don’t say that!  You are beautiful.” It is almost becomes an automatic response. And that is not to say I believe so-and-so is “fat”. But my immediate rejection does not call for any reflection, any why-am-I-saying-this.

The truth is, I do believe everyone is beautiful and I believe we should not attack our bodies. But sometimes I don’t believe that I am beautiful and sometimes I criticize the way I look. Am I then a hypocrite? I know this, I can say one thing, but believing in what I say means much more.

Today and everyday, I am a beautiful person. This is what I say, and this is what I will work towards believing.

Love,

Emmy

The human brain is conditioned to find answers and reasons for the questions we ask.

For example by asking a question “Why am I so stupid?” instructs our brain to look for all the cases in our lives where we may have done something stupid, even if it’s an edge case, and then once it’s found those things it makes a huge list of reasons why we’re stupid. And all those examples of stupid things we’ve done, and reasons why form a conclusion that “I must stupid”, and this then, after repetition becomes a belief “I am stupid”.

So we end up being the person defined by the answers we come up with to the questions that we ask ourselves.

And, then, our beliefs usually determine what questions we ask, so once we start down the path of asking the same question over and over, it perpetuates over time and gets stronger each time we ask it.

So how can you change what you think of yourself quickly and easily?

Practice asking yourself better questions, get new answers and form new beliefs about yourself.

“How can I do things better next time?”
“What can I learn from this situation that I wouldn’t know otherwise?”
“What’s amazing about being me, right now?”

It may seem odd at first, but give it a go and watch in awe as your brain comes up with a new set of answers. And if you get answers like “that’s a silly question to ask”, just ask the question again “no really… How can I do things better next time?” until you get good quality answers. A curious mind is a productive mind.

We’re defined by the questions we habitually ask ourselves ~ Topher Morrison

One of the benefits of taking my Life Balancing sessions is quick and lasting belief change, which automatically triggers off the asking of new questions to develop stronger beliefs in them, and enhance the natural you without the limitations that we sometimes impose on ourselves.

What if we believed all things were unfolding for our good — not just some of our experiences but ALL of them?  Well, what if we did?  That would eliminate all anxiety, fear and worry.  It would essentially rid us of all suffering.  But it would require something of us.  We’d have to suspend all conclusions.  We’d cease inserting a period into any experience.  We’d remember that life is in perpetual expansion and because of this the nature of all things is continually unfolding.  We know this to be true, now couple that with believing that everything that happens – happens for our good.  Imagine for just a moment what that would feel like.  Do you feel the peace, the ease and the profound relief wash over you as you rest in that knowing?

in a world where we can choose to adopt any belief we want to, why not choose the ones that work for us and with us.  Everything about this vast Universe moves with grace and benevolence.  The whole of nature moves towards balance and well being.  This is proof that all that does unfold is for the well being of everything.  Knowing this, there are no longer any reasons to suffer over anything.  Next time, should you find yourself beginning down the trail of suffering, take pause to remind yourself, everything unfolds for your greater good.  You may not see the bigger picture in this red hot moment but you can trust the truth of this knowing — everything unfolds for my good — and rest there.   No longer will you walk through darkness.  The belief that everything unfolds for your good will illuminate all your paths and prove itself true for you again and again, if you just let it.

Should we suffer needlessly again, it is because we’ve reached a conclusion that counts against everything unfolding for the good.  We’ve inserted a period into that experience —- forgetting momentarily how life is in constant flow.  We can re-join that flow right now.  Close your eyes and take a deep breath and sink into knowing that all things are unfolding for your good.  Stay there long enough to feel how it feels in your body and before you open your eyes remember you can take this feeling with you wherever you go.  Know that you need not suffer a moment longer as long as you choose to know with every fiber of your being that everything, absolutely everything is unfolding for your good.  Let that be the gift you give yourself this holiday season.   It truly will demonstrate itself to be the gift that keeps on giving.

What is it that you really believe in?  Whatever you sit and think about the most, where ever you put most of your attention to, that is what you believe in. If you are overly worried about your finances, your belief is in a struggling Universe.  If you are overly worried about your safety, your belief is in a nonprotective Universe.  Those beliefs are exactly what you will have in life but if you are able to transcend past the limited views of worry and fear and put your beliefs in the unlimited Universe that takes care of you then that is what you will have in life.  It is your choice.

A beautiful day to appreciate all that is around me…my dad telling his not so funny jokes, Peanut excited beyond belief about the holiday, Mom in the kitchen making fudge, Lee and Jim laughing at something on Hulu, my son calling to tell me he bought himself a new gi-normous (his word) television, and you.

Barbara Joye – The Shift Guru

Oh yes, and I would be very remiss if I did not include an acknowledgement of the tradition of holiday finances as I begin to wrap up this holiday series. 

How we spend during the holidays is also due to the belief systems we have around what is appropriate to spend during the holidays or what we desire to accomplish through our holiday spending…actually one in the same. 

The manner in which we spend – or more likely over spend – during the holidays is due less to what we experienced when we were small than what we are attempting to accomplish during the holiday season.  Very few of us consider the impact of our spending in the first quarter of the next year unless we hold a belief int he implications of holiday spending.  Most of us simply open our credit card statements in January and reflect upon what was accomplished or not accomplished during the holidays. 

Consider how your spending might or might not shift if your focus were on the size of your credit card statement or bank account in January.  And, for those of you who do focus on this element during your holiday spending, consider what it would feel like to not even have this as a consideration.  

And, then, based upon the feelings and thoughts generated by these considering’s, see if you can uncover your belief around holiday finances. And share what you have learned if it feels right. 

The Shift Guru is focused on assisting individuals in shifting their beliefs about themselves and live so they may enjoy the life they came into this incarnation to enjoy. visit us at http://www.theshiftguru.comto learn more. 

And follow me on my twitter and Facebook 

And for an amazing book on shifting your life, visit www.the-light-won.com.

The following post is my response to a wonderfully provocative post by Jason Cohen, “Don’t write a business plan“.

I agree that most success is learned through trial and error and that most plans are guesses. Fine.

Having said that, most small businesses need periodic rigorous scrutiny that they never take the time to give.

Small business owners are going with their gut. It was good enough for all of their past success, so it’s good enough now, right?

Wrong. People develop blind spots. They develop fear of asking questions that might draw attention to weaknesses.

I suppose that a serial business starter will never need to face his weaknesses if he always turns sustaining the business over to someone else after an initial success. However, almost everybody else should be reinvesting and reinventing their business every few years.

I haven’t met a small business owner who couldn’t benefit from doing a deep dive on what they know and don’t know about their business. Once you’ve done that work, it only makes sense to apply what you learned and build a plan. Yes, a plan, if only a working list of priorities.

If you know the most important thing to do and you build an action plan for doing it, you’ll usually find that you don’t have time to do lower priority things. Over time, iterating on what actions matter most to your business will make your business much more successful than operating without a plan.

You make the valid point that most plans are built on internally sourced data. That doesn’t make them bad. Most people know everything they need to know to dramatically improve their business and build a great plan. But knowing something in a disorganized way and knowing something in a very organized way produces wildly different results.

Lastly, I actually want to defend the inane formal business plan that nobody will ever read. The utility of going through all the ridiculous work involved in building an MBA’s business plan is in thinking through a problem from a wide variety of angles, in an attempt to avoid dangerous blind spots and big faulty assumptions.

Sure, if you’re a business genius, you don’t need a plan. MBA’s and business plans are guiderails for the rest of us.

Don’t you think the world would be a better place if people were a little more thoughtful about what they were doing?

1. Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

It seems like the obvious choice because almost every Top 10 list has this in at least the Top 3 with most of them having it as the number one.  The reason: this piece of work is just that good.

Mazuchelli furthers the graphic medium in strange and ingenious ways to depict time, characters, moments, emotions all in separate visual ways.  The art and the writing combine to make the piece extraordinary.

The story follows Asterios Polyp, a tenured professor of architecture, who, due to circumstances, removes himself of all of his possessions and travels to the Midwest to rediscover himself.  Through the novel, we’re treated to glimpses back to what has made Asterios who he is and what he feels is wrong with his life.  Memorable characters are abundant throughout, and I only wish I could have as many philosophical conversations in one lifetime as Asterios does.

Frankly, this is the perfect exercise of what comics are, what comics can become, and what makes comics – and frankly storytelling – so goddamn enjoyable.

2. The Life and Times of Savior 28 by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro

What is the use of a superhero once they start advocating for peace through nonviolent means?  No beat ‘em up, no entertainment, no thrills, no deaths, no nothing… just a message.

DeMatteis explores this question among many others in his pinnacle achievement of Savior 28.  This comic came out so strong because it explored national identity, personal identity, and the human condition of morals, beliefs, and love.  What started out as a rejected Captain America pitch from 20 years ago turned into one of the best superhero comics of, honestly, the decade.

The art isn’t anything special, but I’m a fan of that for this story because readers need something simple to latch onto while they face some very complex thoughts.

It challenges the status quo, and shows that superheroes can be people who fuck up, too.

3. Donatello: The Brain Thief by Jim Lawson

There was no better comic to come out of Mirage this year than Jim Lawson’s miniseries on Donatello.  First and foremost, I have to admit that Donatello is far from my favorite turtle.  Nevertheless, Lawson captured something special in the character that made him fresh and exciting.

Jim Lawson’s illustrations are often stark and barren, but somehow still filled with incredible amounts of minute detail.

And frankly, the last issue where he inks his own work (Eric Talbot inked the first three) you can see a master at his best.

The story resonates as a mystery comic with mixes of science fiction and fantasy, but it is still incredibly accessible to new readers.  Sure, it’s a ninja turtle comic, but whoever said that was a bad thing?

4. Batwoman in Detective Comics by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III

Powerful female lead(s), the strongest portrayal of a homosexual character in any comic I have ever read, and by far the most beautiful artwork in mainstream comics.  I have been a fan of this from the get-go, and have probably shoved it down everyone’s throats with all of my reviews.  Nevertheless, people even interested in comics need to read this one!

Williams III switches between styles to display different parts of Kate Kane’s character, but it is still distinctly his work.  Plus, all of the styles he uses are on the level and often exceed the work of contemporary, modern artists in any field.

Not only does it achieve great things for women and homosexuals with incredible artwork, but this comic contains a hell of a story!

5. Blackest Night by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Probably the greatest crossover book of the decade, and it’s not even finished yet.

Sure, the premise is kind of stupid: let’s bring back all of the dead characters in the entire universe whether they were good or bad before, and turn them into the equivalent of flesh (and emotion) eating zombies.  There are dozens of zombie books on the market, why would anyone want to read one from a mainstream publisher?

Well, somehow the simple concept becomes something much more complex, and Geoff Johns writing far exceeds most of his peers.  He can take this mildly goofy premise and turn it into something that actually feels like it matters.

Plus, he throws in hell of some surprises along the way.

Zombie Aquaman sharks, attack!

6. Nine Ways to Disappear by Lilli Carré

I love Lilli Carré.  She is probably one of my favorites of all time.  I follow her work with a devotion unlike any other, and her latest work is no exception to the high quality of work she has already produced.

The little book feels like a treasure when you hold it, and you read along and absorb these nine wonderful stories.  Most of them may not be as quirky as Woodsman Pete, but I love them nevertheless.

Her illustrations are sometimes zany, other times brilliantly simple, other times filled with pattern-like complexity.  After reading this book, I felt like I had learned something about myself and the world… So, I read it again.

7. Chew by Jon Layman and Rob Guillory

If you went back and reread all of my reviews that I did of Chew, you probably would not expect it to be found anywhere near this list.  In fact, you may have imagined it on the worst of list.

Really, I wouldn’t have been too surprised either about a month ago.  Then, I reread all of them, and I realized that I was wrong.  There is a brilliance in this series that far surpasses most comic books on the market with its crazy and original content.

Hell, the created dictionary-like terms for most of their characters that will forever easily be said in lore as if they didn’t come from a comic.  “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you could be a cybopath!”

Tony Chu works for the FDA.  He eats things.  He solves crimes.

8. The Walking Dead: Fear the Hunters by Robert Kirman and Charlie Adlard

Robert Kirkman sure is consistent with his output.  This was a great story really digging in to tell how far humanity can get away from being human when under forced circumstances.

Plus, the standoff is probably one of the most badass moments in the entire series.  I gasped aloud and reread that issue.

If you’ve never read this series and are either a) interested in comics b) interested in zombies c) interested in human morality systems amongst many other things, then you should read this.  No doubt.

9. Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca and Frank D’Armata

The best series out of Marvel, by far.  Watching Tony Stark erode and work backwards through his past to become a cripple was strangely one of the most entertaining things I looked forward to every month.  I came onto this series midway through, and it didn’t scare me at all.  It made sense with its small cast of characters.

I can’t really say much else about this one because it seems so inherently obvious that it deserved a place on this list, and that others should check it out.

10. Tales of the TMNT #56, 59, and 61 by Tristan Jones and Paul Harmon, Tristan Jones and Paul Harmon, and Tristan Jones and Andres Ponce, respectively.

Tristan Jones, you brought the grit back to the Mirage Universe for the handful of issues that you got to work on before the end of the series.  You made the turtles kick ass again.  You made new characters in the Turtles-verse which, in a single issue, suddenly reminded me that the Turtles can lose.

I loved each and every one of these comics, and I know it seems unfair to pick and choose from the run, but these were some of the best of the entire volume two of Tales of the TMNT.

Paul Harmon and Andres Ponce, you guys made B x W comics look way better than most colored comics in my entire collection.

Notables: Batman and Robin (issues #1-3, at least… 4-6 were really bad), Batgirl, Secret Six, Incredible Hercules, and Barack the Barbarian (I love this mini more than I probably should).

Things ranked high on other lists that I still haven’t read and may have placed on the above list: Stitches by David Small, Scalped by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra, Driven by Lemons by Josh Cotter, Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke, and The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert and Didier Lefevre.

The Worst of 09:

I thought about doing a separate blog post about these, but really… it would just be a lot of me bitching, and I’m tired of working on best list for the last three hours.

1. Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth
2. Dark Wolverine #78 to current
3. Batman: Battle for the Cowl
4. Buck Rogers (everything except #0)
5. and everything else I tried to avoid.

As we head into a new year together, I want to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to give themselves a break this Christmas. 2009 may have not turned out how you would have liked, but if we waste our energy focusing on what could have been we may miss the opportunities put before us to move forward in 2010!

It is a sad statistic that more people give up the fight at this time of year than at any other. They feel they have failed again, not moving forward at all, and wonder if it is all worth it. Over the many hours of sitting with people, listening to their story, I have compiled a list of things to avoid when I assess my year.

* comparing myself to others,
* measuring my success by “things gained” or “tasks completed”,
* over thinking and dwelling on past mistakes, and
* the negative influences and words spoken over me by others.

Drawing a line in the sand and deciding to move forward, despite the past, is the only way to start your journey into a bigger, better 2010. We remove the power our past can have over us by only spending time on the “past” side of the line long enough to reflect on what we can learn from to build a better future, whilst enjoying the present.

* Who did I help in 2009?
* What new skills did my year help me develop?
* What have I got to be thankful for?
* Who did I get to meet?
* Why am I doing what I have chosen to do?
* What is really important to me and why?

Take a look at your life like a small fishing boat. The boat itself represents our present, sometimes on calm waters, other times tossed by storms and sometimes it seems like it is sinking. Our past can be an anchor or an engine, we choose. One stops us from moving forward and the other propels us forward, moving us into calmer waters.

Let me encourage you that no matter how stormy the seas may look for you at the moment, don’t abandon ship. Pull up your anchor, let go of 2009, set a well planned course into 2010 and rely on the power of the engine to bring stability back into your life.

Here’s a few guidelines for the journey.

* Only bring people into your boat that want you to move forward,
* Have a clear path set with contingencies for uncharted waters,
* Stop comparing your boat to the other ones around you,
* Surround yourself with “lighthouse” people who can warn you when you are moving too close to the rocks,
* Throw unnecessary items overboard like past hurts, conflicts and unforgiveness, and
* Make a decision to spend more time enjoying the ride in the boat knowing it is the boat you have been called to be the captain of.

Thank you so much for allowing me to share my life experiences with you in 2009. I hope in some small way I have been able to encourage you to believe in yourself and the power within you. Take a break, service your boat engine, clean the decks and I look forward to a bigger and brighter 2010 with all of you.

Have an outrageously enjoyable Christmas and New Year season. I pray that each of you would enjoy the peace, joy and love that was provided for us all at this great time of year.

Cheers

Grant Herbert
The People Builder

After my last post, I thought it was appropriate to write a short article on beliefs and limitations.

From everything I have read, learnt and experienced over the last year, everything we believe gets attracted to us and the reason this happens is because of our subconscious emotional state, which is based on our beliefs and perception of the world around us.

And what we’re brought up with is an arbitrary set of rules and limitations and, once they are bought into by our belief system they become our reality and stay that way until we challenge the rules and limitations and release the ideas that are being held by them.

It’s our own belief system that keeps people working in the same job year after year, because perhaps “I don’t deserve any better” or “it’s far too hard for me to do something different”. Our belief system that keeps us in or out of relationships, or having strings of relationships that go wrong. Our belief system that makes it okay to run our bank accounts in the red month after month.

And, there’s also the philosophy that says every person has the exact same unlimited potential, we can each of us do anything anyone has done before, and things that have never been before. Think back to 1953, perhaps you were a child back then, or even younger… where running a mile in 4 minutes was considered impossible for the human body to achieve, no one believed it could be done but once one person, Roger Bannister, had run a mile in under 4 minutes in 1953, a string of people after him achieved it because it was no longer a limitation.

So, how many 4 minute mile limitations have you been set in your life, and what are you doing about them and I know that you’re probably thinking that it doesn’t apply to you, there’s a very simple way to tell – if money wasn’t an option and you could be doing anything at all, would you be doing what you are doing now? If the answer is yes, then great keep doing it! If not then you have some limitations in place stopping you from getting on with it and I would urge you to looking in to replacing these with ones that will be beneficial in your life.

Life Balancing – Align your beliefs, actions with your desires and dreams get what you really want

From Christianity Today about the Nigerian preacher and the chopped off head found in his possession, they quote Benjamin-Lee Hegeman, a former missionary to West Africa:

“Some people call it syncretism, but it may be more like dual religious allegiance, where Christianity is practiced in the daytime and occult [practice] is done at night. Many of the pastors will preach from the pulpit that this type of thing is wrong, but secretly take part in it at night. There is the mentality, especially in African Initiated Churches, where the prosperity gospel is preached, that you do what you’ve got to do to get ahead. You rely on the powers available to you. You are hopeful that Christ will help, but when he can’t come through on Sunday, you may take out a different insurance policy at night.”

In case it’s not obvious, I love segues. By finding this article, it gives me reason to mention the USA Today article recently published about Christians and New Age beliefs they hold along with all their Jesus love. I think dual allegiance is found in all kinds of places, and in all kinds of ways:

Syncretism — mashing up contradictory beliefs like Catholic rocker Madonna’s devotion to a Kabbalah-light version of Jewish mysticism — appears on the rise.

And, according to the survey’s other major finding, devotion to one clear faith is fading.

Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year (excluding holidays, weddings and funerals), 35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations.

They are like President Obama, who currently has no home church. He has worshiped at a Baptist church, an Episcopal one, and the non-denominational chapel at Camp David.

“Mixing and matching practices and beliefs is as much the norm as it is the exception,” Pew’s Alan Cooperman says. “Are they grazing, sampling, just curious? We really don’t know.”

Even so, says Pew researcher Greg Smith, “these findings all point toward a spiritual and religious openness — not necessarily a lack of seriousness.”

Other findings: belief in astrology – 25% of respondents said yes. “Spiritual energy” in living things – 26%. 23% said yoga was “spiritual” and 24% thought reincarnation was likely.

They quote Albert Mohler, currently president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. Not only does he see this as “a failure of the pulpit” but calls this mixture of ideas “au courant confusions” -aka fashionable, in much the same way mysticism and “New Thought” made waves in Dickens’ day and other times. Julia Jarvis, a peer of his embraces the variety a lot more than he does.

“My mother feared for years that I was no longer saved, but just two days before she died, she had an epiphany,” Jarvis says. “She said she was ‘told’ in a spiritual experience to put aside all religious and political differences and just love each other. That was her blessing to me, and that’s what I’m doing.”

And she’s obviously not alone in that. I think that if religions won’t adapt, the people have to. That’s why this happens. And if enough people do enough adapting, a new religion will probably be created to encompass those new beliefs. That seems to be how it’s worked in the past so there’s no reason to assume it won’t happen again in the future.

———-
Side note: via Evolution Is True I discover Roger Ebert’s delightful tirade over the New Age movement and creationism and politics. That’s totally worth a read.

‘Being with you,’ he said, ‘represents a dimension out of the ordinary. It is a place of freedom where I can be myself; honest and protected from the everyday life.’

Months ago I let our friendship disappear in my silence because I had no intention to take part in his shades of gray, where everything that lies in between would become destructive and humiliating, and keep me at a distance from my beliefs.

I do not believe in the unanswered, as I am aware of how it feels to be left behind craving answers, and recently ended my muteness, explaining why he should not make a move out of his wonderful life and get it all messed up in the cruel shades of gray.

I guess I am mostly black and white. Even though I see everything that lies in between.

“That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.” – Thomas Jefferson

There exist many concepts and rules by which we are bound, some of which we may be aware and some of which we may not be aware. Those concepts and rules of which we are aware exist throughout nature and space because we can observe them and learn them, manipulate them and control them, and hear them and speak them. Those concepts and rules of which we are not aware exist because we cannot observe them and learn them, manipulate them and control them, and hear them and speak them. In a sense, we are bounded by that which we can know and cannot know – although those boundaries can and will change throughout the course of history.

It’s interesting to think about our intellectual boundaries, limits, and intersections because they can be sliced and diced a thousand and one different ways. To a chef, his or her capacity may be bound by a colander, letting some things in and others out, clogged and dirty at times and crystal clear at others. To a biologist or chemist, he or she may see it as some semi-permeable membrane that expands and contracts, filters substances based on the needs of the whole system. And to an astronomer, the boundaries may be the vast unknown of our universe: with new discovery always comes more knowns coupled with more unknowns.

Regardless of the profession, it’s valuable to think about. For me, I’ll gladly wear the shoes of a different scientist each waking day but to start, here are a couple different categorizations of our intellectual boundaries, just to jot some thought.

Spatial Dimensionality

Think of our intellectual capacity as bounded by one big room. This room can grow as it’s supported by more material, can shrink with the absence of structural connections, and can lose energy with a loss of insulation, cracks in the windows, etc. It can become more complex or simple in a hour’s time with the addition or removal of new features and can take on a new look and persona with the manipulation of a few simple characteristics such as paint and fixtures. You get the point.

Walls – The walls are the support and protection, and are the primary means by which we are bound. The walls are our rules of lateral movement, being, and knowing. In a room of infinitesimal walls, we’ll find just as many corners (getting us ever close to the perfect circle) but we’ll still be limited by a surrounding perimeters. In our room, the walls are our physical concepts, our school subjects, our theorems and laws, our rules of society.

Floors – The floors are our foundation. Without the floor we would not be able to maintain our position and as a result, move from one position to another. The floors are our foundation for thought – our family, our circumstance, our physicality – our reference point.

Ceilings – The ceiling is our limit. The ceiling provides cover and security, shape and reflection, and a foundation for belief and new thought. The ceilings are our hypotheses and conjectures, our gateway to the unknown as much as it they’re the gateway for belief and clarity of vision.

Corners – The corners are the intersections of life, the crossroads of knowledge and new thought. Every corner is formed by the other structures mentioned above. The corners are the relationships, the interdisciplinary nature of life, the idea that everything is connected.

Existential Dimensionality

Now think a bit differently. Think that our intellectual capacity is bounded by core concepts which, when intersected, form feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and understanding. The core concepts are the things we should study – the basics of existence from which we should gain our foundations. I spoke about studying people earlier, with an overview of Archimedes. For the places, I’ll talk about some of my 2010 visits in the near future. And for time, we’ll it’s the scale by which we can make sense of history, and the perception and reasoning that comes with it. The triangulation of these three things gives an enclosure of feelings, thoughts, and beliefs that form the boundaries of our intellectual capacity.

People – We are who we are as much as we are who we’re with (and who used to be with us). To feel, learn, and think, we must understand how other people feel, learn, and think (or felt, learned, and thought). This is core to society, law, science, religion, and everything else.

Places – We are who we are in the place that we are. If I were in a different place right now, my actions, feelings, thoughts, and beliefs may be different as a result. Place is a part of circumstance which most certainly contributes to our thoughts and beliefs.

Time – We are who we are because of the historical context in which we live. Time forms this context and provides structure to the way we think, how we can act, and as a result, what we might think and believe.

Feelings, Thoughts, & Beliefs – Our coordinates at any one time (say, x=people, y=place, z=time) describe who we are. The result of who we are is an output of feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. These form the boundaries, limits, and intersections of our intellectual capacity. Change coordinates, and we’ll find new outputs. And the most important thing to note: as with mathematical coordinate systems, there’s no limit to our coordinate system space, only to a local solid surrounding a group of coordinates. Limits may exist on my axes, by not on the coordinate system as a whole.

Links

• “Towards a new conception of the human condition” (Existential Analysis, George Berguno)
• Existentialism (Wikipedia)