The Hi-Ju-Yo blog almost has 6,000 hits!

The Fist of Cheese is a special image created by Cheeseball, portraying the power of CHEESE! Here’s our iScribble.net version:

However, we recommend drawing this doodle with a pen on paper. In ten simple steps, you can try it too!

1. Start with drawing the thumb (finger on the left side of picture).
2. On top of the thumb, add a line straight up, then move the line to the right side as if drawing a square.
3. Bend the shape [cheese] a bit, as if someone had taken a bite out of it.
4. Continue a vertical line below the bite mark.
5. Wrap the rest of the hand’s fingers around the cheese.
6. Draw a line below the unfinished square [cheese] to finish up the shape.
7. Below the fingers, add an arm segment that looks like a rectangular shape tilting to the left.
8. Scribble some circles inside the square, which will be the cheese holes.
9. Just for fun: decorate with a background/border using awesome smiley faces, stars, and more!
10. Optional: Add color!

If you followed the steps above, you should have something similar to the Fist of Cheese pic we showed! After you’ve created your cheesy masterpiece, don’t be afraid to show it to everyone you know [even us!]. SPREAD DA CHEEZ!

How well were you able to successfully draw the Fist of Cheese?

Revelation 3:10-12 (Message)

“Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I’ll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon, and all over the earth, every man, woman, and child put to the test. I’m on my way; I’ll be there soon. Keep a tight grip on what you have so no one distracts you and steals your crown. I’ll make each conqueror a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, a permanent position of honor. Then I’ll write names on you, the pillars: the Name of my God, the Name of God’s City—the new Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven—and my new Name.”

The time of the return of Jesus Christ may be sooner than we think as prophecy daily is fulfilled with astonishing clarity. Cunning coincidence or clear revelation it is a time filled with great testing and trials for God’s Children to hope tight to their faith in the midst of great uncertainty. The world daily offers situations and circumstances designed to make an evil exchange of Jesus-based faith for enemy-derived fear. There is a spiritual struggle not to hang on to the faith woven in salvation and grown through painstaking perseverance. No one knows the day or hour of our Lord’s return. Yet there are things that God has given us in careful preparation for that day and then there are those unsuitable notions that the enemy has attempted to smuggle into our Spirit! Those who are able to “keep a tight grip” on what God has given us and avoid the distractions of the thief who wants to steal everything that is good are those who will be richly rewarded for their passionate patience.

Newborns arrive with the distinct ability to tightly grasp anything placed in their tiny palm. As they begin to grow, this grip reflex intensifies as their little human minds develop selfish wills refuse to release that which they covet. Unknowingly a baby will firmly grab things that are dangerous as their ability to discern such has not developed yet through knowledge and experience. Once they decide they want something, a child will simply refuse to let go. This often results in a struggle between worried parent and willful child to wrestle away the unwise choice. When born again, a person gains access to a peaceful and purposeful life. With a secure future and constant provision, there really is nothing to worry or be anxious for yet in our immaturity we choose to hold tightly to fear rather than release it to obtain the faith and the benefits found in a life based on it! The intense innate need to hold tightly to something has creating a generation motivated by fear and God is calling His Generation, His “Temple Pillars” to release their hold on fear and doubt and get a “tight grip” on faith-generated living that calls us to persevere, praise and pray under pressure. Those who can see beyond the order of the day to the Ordination of the New Jerusalem understanding the current state of affairs is no reflection on the future plan and promise of the Savior.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

God has not given His Children the “gift” of fear so it is not something that we should readily hold on to. God has given us power, love and self-discipline. It is these things we should grab hold of with great passion and patience. Self-control allows us to choose that which we hold on to in life whether it is overwhelming faith or undermining fear is totally up to you. The Lord has called us to keep a tight grip on the reality of the spiritual realm and its impact not only on today but the future. Release those things that call you to doubt God and all that He has promised you! Jesus is offering power to the powerlessness, love to the unlovable and self-discipline to the undisciplined. What an offer? Three key characteristics for productive powerful living in exchange for completely worthless notions define the constant giving of our Savior. The Lord has plenty of good things for His Children to hang on to today! Release doubt and begin to take hold of all your Father has for you!

Responding to the call by the Home Minister and prime Minister of India to halt violence to facilitate talks, Maoist leaders ridiculed them and asked them to get their history right. According to them it was wrong to say that the ‘war’ that is now being played out in the theatre of the jungles of  Chhatisgarh, Jangalmahal of Bengal, Jharkhand , Orissa and other states is of recent origin. This is only the latest   phase of the “people’s war” that is being waged since 1967 and would not stop until the ultimate objective of establishing Communism is achieved.  The Constitution of the CPI(Maoist) is very unambiguous, “The ultimate aim or maximum programme of the party is the establishment of communist society. This New Democratic Revolution will be carried out and completed through armed agrarian revolutionary war i.e. the Protracted People’s War with area wise seizure of power remaining as its central task.”

Area wise seizure of power is what the Maoists are busy with. They have succeeded, partially or fully in many areas of different states. What needs to be understood is that it is not development they are opposed to as is evident from the statements of their leaders.  They are ready to let development activities take place, provided it is under their supervision. They are interested more in making themselves the lone political voice of the people. One should ask why do they keep abducting, harassing, threatening or killing the members and leaders of other political parties in the areas where they rule using the strength of their guns? Why do they force people to resign from other political parties? Their answer is very simple: whoever is seen to interrupt or impede the armed people’s war is either a class enemy or an agent of the class enemy represented by the state and is therefore on the other side of the war.
The metaphor of war which is being used describe the state led operations is in fact not even a metaphor for the Maoists. To them it is not something, which is to be dreaded and shunned, for them it is already on and it is the naivety of the liberal political class to think that it would start with the state assault on them. The Maoists  would rather love to draw the state in a protracted war. The lives lost are sacrifices on the altar of the impending revolution. The  constitution of the CPI( Maoist) incidentally states that the road to communism is long, “The struggle between socialist road and capitalist road will also continue to exist. Only depending on and carrying forward the theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat can correctly resolve all these contradictions.” (Author’s emphasis)

There would always remain peoples’ enemies and it would be the revolutionary duty of the party to keep identifying them and eliminating them to safeguard the gains of the revolution.

We who are opposed to laws which rob us of our democratic rights like the AFSPA, UAPA and Public Security Acts in various garbs and want them repealed and very rightly so, how do we react to the Constitution of the CPI( Maoist)? Is it permissible to allow armed political formations to operate in a democratic framework, which works on the principle of contestation between ideas and ideologies and mobilizing public opinion around them? When the fear of the gun paralyzes this process, democracy suffocates.  Since Maoists have already established their “Areas” which are small states in themselves, it would useful and educative to study the status of democratic freedom there.

How is it that we who stand up and fight for every inch of our democratic space remain silent on this methodical, ideological assault on the very idea of democracy? Let us realize before it is too late that those who regard armed struggle as ‘the main form of struggle’ and the people’s army as ‘the main form of organization’   would only tactically tolerate civil liberty action or other mass political actions as “their purpose is to serve the war.” Once they outlive this purpose they will become dispensable items on the agenda of revolution!

The “Take Back the Night” campaign to end sexual assault and abuse has the best intentions. But it is problematic because it perpetuates the idea that women’s sexual assault and abuse follows the dark night, man-behind-the bushes-with-a-knife narrative. In reality, the “night” is a constructed demon. All too often abusers closely mimic the warmth and appearance of sunshine.

Traditional stereotypes for profiling bad guys completely fail us when it comes to identifying abusers. Abusers come in all shapes and sizes, and oftentimes they capitalize on their normal appearance and normative success in order to persuade us of their goodness. The “Take Back the Night” campaign is a symbolic reduction—an oversimplification—of the experience of assault and abuse. It implies that women are assaulted suddenly by a stranger when they are alone at night.  In reality assault and abuse can be short to long term projects where the predator chips away at the victim’s protective walls. According to Statistics Canada, 80% of sexual assault survivors knew their abusers (Statistics Canada 2003). Assault and abuse are usually psychological as well as physical projects, leaving the victim distressed with complicated grief.

So it isn’t a particular profile or scene we need to avoid in order to protect ourselves. Instead, it is a particular pattern within our existing relationships that we need to look for: a pattern of power asymmetry. Sexual assault and abuse is a function of unequal pattern relations; it happens when the abuser establishes dominance over you. We need to work on strengthening our discriminatory power until we become pros at identifying the problematic power structures that constitute assault or abuse. The fact is that women are not educated enough about their rights. Certainly, we are familiar with and celebrate the equality we are entitled to in politics and law, but many of us forget that we are entitled to the same equality in the relationships that comprise our everyday lives.

Inequality in romantic relationships has become so normalized in our culture that we now romanticize the idea of the man that yields power over us. The popular Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer portrays power asymmetry as an enviable relationship dynamic. Bella’s obsession with Edward shows that he yields enormous power over her, and his paternalistic babysitting is patronizing. The idealization of an unequal power relationship sends a negative message to women. Women today should be taught that a healthy relationship should leave them feeling empowered, not disempowered.

In preparation for the traditional rape narrative we have rape whistles. But there is no simple tool for blowing the whistle on everyday toxic relationships. We want to ask you if you have any ideas on how we can help facilitate a better understanding of the importance of power symmetry in relationships. You can suggest a conceptual theory, a slogan, or even a symbolic artefact.

“Green power energy.If you are interested in learning exactly how to generate power and reduce your bill. Green power energy,I hear out..green power energy then this is the perfect resource for you!

With the ever increasing costs of living, there is no better time than right now to stop throwing money out the window and start generating our own electricity.

Over the last few years I have figured out how to significantly reduce the cost of solar panels making it more affordable for the average home owner just like you.

Now you can build a single panel or a complete array of panels to power your home for a fraction of retail cost.

Click here Green Power Energy

Got home late tonight at around 10:30pm.  I need to goto sleep soon and be ready for tomorrow.  My personal life is pretty much gone, but they did say “tell your friends and family you won’t see them for a month or two.”  Basically, anyone who’s not with you is against you.

We were in the training classroom all day today from 7:30am to 8:30pm.  Yes, you have to go into the office to study.  You can’t study at home.  On top of that, I don’t think we get paid during this study period.

A new group of trainees started today.  They had to remember the same pitch as me, and present it to a guy who’s now my senior broker.  As expected, these guys started shitting their pants when it came time to actually do the pitch.  People think it’s easy to remember a few lines on a piece of paper, but when you’re being drilled by senior brokers, it’s different.

Occasionally, I feel like I might snap and have a physical/mental/emotional breakdown because there’s all this stuff I will have to sacrifice in my life.  Then as I walk through Manhattan and I see homeless people and the average Joe, I remember that I’ve been presented with an opportunity that few will get.  You have to go through hell to get to heaven.  I forget sometimes.

Just watch the video…you don’t need a setup.

Kudos Lincoln…I believe it was the great hip hop storyteller Redman who said, “I’ll Be Dat”.

Do it.

1. Phil Jones writes to University of Hull to try to stop sceptic Sonia Boehmer Christiansen using her Hull affiliation. Graham F Haughton of Hull University says its easier to push greenery there now SB-C has retired.(1256765544)
2. Michael Mann discusses how to destroy a journal that has published sceptic papers.(1047388489)
3. Tim Osborn discusses how data are truncated to stop an apparent cooling trend showing up in the results (0939154709). Analysis of impact here. Wow!
4. Phil Jones describes the death of sceptic, John Daly, as “cheering news”.(1075403821)
5. Phil Jones encourages colleagues to delete information subject to FoI request.(1212063122)
6. Phil Jones says he has use Mann’s “Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series”…to hide the decline”. Real Climate says “hiding” was an unfortunate turn of phrase.(0942777075)
7. Letter to The Times from climate scientists was drafted with the help of Greenpeace.(0872202064)
8. Mann thinks he will contact BBC’s Richard Black to find out why another BBC journalist was allowed to publish a vaguely sceptical article.(1255352257)
9. Kevin Trenberth says they can’t account for the lack of recent warming and that it is a travesty that they can’t.(1255352257)
10. Tom Wigley says that Lindzen and Choi’s paper is crap.(1257532857)
11. Tom Wigley says that von Storch is partly to blame for sceptic papers getting published at Climate Research. Says he encourages the publication of crap science. Says they should tell publisher that the journal is being used for misinformation. Says that whether this is true or not doesn’t matter. Says they need to get editorial board to resign. Says they need to get rid of von Storch too. (1051190249)
12. Ben Santer says (presumably jokingly!) he’s “tempted, very tempted, to beat the crap” out of sceptic Pat Michaels. (1255100876)
13. Mann tells Jones that it would be nice to ‘”contain” the putative Medieval Warm Period’. (1054736277)
14. Tom Wigley tells Jones that the land warming since 1980 has been twice the ocean warming and that this might be used by sceptics as evidence for urban heat islands.(1257546975)
15. Tom Wigley say that Keith Briffa has got himself into a mess over the Yamal chronology (although also says it’s insignificant. Wonders how Briffa explains McIntyre’s sensitivity test on Yamal and how he explains the use of a less-well replicated chronology over a better one. Wonders if he can. Says data withholding issue is hot potato, since many “good” scientists condemn it.(1254756944)
16. Briffa is funding Russian dendro Shiyatov, who asks him to send money to personal bank account so as to avoid tax, thereby retaining money for research.(0826209667)
17. Kevin Trenberth says climatologists are nowhere near knowing where the energy goes or what the effect of clouds is. Says nowhere balancing the energy budget. Geoengineering is not possible.(1255523796)

1. Mann discusses tactics for screening and delaying postings at Real Climate.(1139521913)
2. Tom Wigley discusses how to deal with the advent of FoI law in UK. Jones says use IPR argument to hold onto code. Says data is covered by agreements with outsiders and that CRU will be “hiding behind them”.(1106338806)
3. Overpeck has no recollection of saying that he wanted to “get rid of the Medieval Warm Period”. Thinks he may have been quoted out of context.(1206628118)
4. Mann launches RealClimate to the scientific community.(1102687002)
5. Santer complaining about FoI requests from McIntyre. Says he expects support of Lawrence Livermore Lab management. Jones says that once support staff at CRU realised the kind of people the scientists were dealing with they became very supportive. Says the VC [vice chancellor] knows what is going on (in one case).(1228330629)
6. Rob Wilson concerned about upsetting Mann in a manuscript. Says he needs to word things diplomatically.(1140554230)
7. Briffa says he is sick to death of Mann claiming his reconstruction is tropical because it has a few poorly temp sensitive tropical proxies. Says he should regress these against something else like the “increasing trend of self-opinionated verbiage” he produces. Ed Cook agrees with problems.(1024334440)
8. Overpeck tells Team to write emails as if they would be made public. Discussion of what to do with McIntyre finding an error in Kaufman paper. Kaufman’s admits error and wants to correct. Appears interested in Climate Audit findings.(1252164302)
9. Jones calls Pielke Snr a prat.(1233249393)
10. Santer says he will no longer publish in Royal Met Soc journals if they enforce intermediate data being made available. Jones has complained to head of Royal Met Soc about new editor of Weather [why?data?] and has threatened to resign from RMS.(1237496573)
11. Reaction to McIntyre’s 2005 paper in GRL. Mann has challenged GRL editor-in-chief over the publication. Mann is concerned about the connections of the paper’s editor James Saiers with U Virginia [does he mean Pat Michaels?]. Tom Wigley says that if Saiers is a sceptic they should go through official GRL channels to get him ousted. (1106322460) [Note to readers - Saiers was subsequently ousted]
12. Later on Mann refers to the leak at GRL being plugged.(1132094873)
13. Jones says he’s found a way around releasing AR4 review comments to David Holland.(1210367056)
14. Wigley says Keenan’s fraud accusation against Wang is correct. (1188557698)
15. Jones calls for Wahl and Ammann to try to change the received date on their alleged refutation of McIntyre [presumably so it can get into AR4](1189722851)
16. Mann tells Jones that he is on board and that they are working towards a common goal.(0926010576)
17. Mann sends calibration residuals for MBH99 to Osborn. Says they are pretty red, and that they shouldn’t be passed on to others, this being the kind of dirty laundry they don’t want in the hands of those who might distort it.(1059664704)
18. Prior to AR3 Briffa talks of pressure to produce a tidy picture of “apparent unprecedented warming in a thousand years or more in the proxy data”. [This appears to be the politics leading the science] Briffa says it was just as warm a thousand years ago.(0938018124)
19. Jones says that UK climate organisations are coordinating themselves to resist FoI. They got advice from the Information Commissioner [!](1219239172)
20. Mann tells Revkin that McIntyre is not to be trusted.(1254259645)
21. Revkin quotes von Storch as saying it is time to toss the Hockey Stick . This back in 2004.(1096382684)
22. Funkhouser says he’s pulled every trick up his sleeve to milk his Kyrgistan series. Doesn’t think it’s productive to juggle the chronology statistics any more than he has.(0843161829)
23. Wigley discusses fixing an issue with sea surface temperatures in the context of making the results look both warmer but still plausible. (1254108338)
24. Jones says he and Kevin will keep some papers out of the next IPCC report.(1089318616)
25. Tom Wigley tells Mann that a figure Schmidt put together to refute Monckton is deceptive and that the match it shows of instrumental to model predictions is a fluke. Says there have been a number of dishonest presentations of model output by authors and IPCC.(1255553034)
26. Grant Foster putting together a critical comment on a sceptic paper. Asks for help for names of possible reviewers. Jones replies with a list of people, telling Foster they know what to say about the paper and the comment without any prompting.(1249503274)
27. David Parker discussing the possibility of changing the reference period for global temperature index. Thinks this shouldn’t be done because it confuses people and because it will make things look less warm.(1105019698)
28. Briffa discusses an sceptic article review with Ed Cook. Says that confidentially he needs to put together a case to reject it (1054756929)
29. Ben Santer, referring to McIntyre says he hopes Mr “I’m not entirely there in the head” will not be at the AGU.(1233249393)
30. Jones tells Mann that he is sending station data. Says that if McIntyre requests it under FoI he will delete it rather than hand it over. Says he will hide behind data protection laws. Says Rutherford screwed up big time by creating an FTP directory for Osborn. Says Wigley worried he will have to release his model code. Also discuss AR4 draft. Mann says paleoclimate chapter will be contentious but that the author team has the right personalities to deal with sceptics.(1107454306)
31. Phil Jones having problems with explaining issues over the Lamb image of global temps in the early IPCC reports. Says it shouldn’t be discussed openly at Real Climate. Says better left buried.(1168356704)
32. Phil Jones emails Steve [Schneider], editor of Climatic Change [plus others, editorial board of the journal?], telling him he shouldn’t accede to McIntyre’s request for Mann’s computer code. In later email to Mann (“For your eyes only, delete after reading”) Jones says he told Jones separately [presumably meaning without saying to the rest of the board] that he should seek advice elsewhere and also consult the publisher and take legal advice.(1074277559)
33. Briffa says he tried hard to balance the needs of the IPCC and science, which were not always the same.(1177890796)
34. An anonymous source says that robustness problems with the Hockey Stick are known to anyone who understands his methodology. The source says that there will be a lot of noise over McIntyre’s 2003 paper and that knowing Mann’svery thin skin he will react strongly, unless he has learned from the past.(1067194064)
35. Giorgio Filippo (University of Trieste) says that IPCC is not an assessment of published science but about production of results. Says there are very few rules and anything goes. Thinks this will undermine IPCC credibility. Says everyone seems to think it’s OK to do this.(0968705882)
36. IPCC review editor John Mitchell says that the issue of why proxy data for recent decades is not shown (he says it’s because they don’t show warming) needs to be explained. [Note to readers, this was not done Let's say that the explanation was nuanced - it said that the divergence problem, as this issue is known, was restricted to a few areas]. Also says that Mann’s short-centred PC analysis is wrong and that Mann’s results are not statistically significant.(1150923423)

I’m sure you have heard about this. Apple has released the i7 iMacs. Yes, you heard me correctly. i7, perhaps one of the fastest chips known to date. After running several tests, MacWorld’s Jason Snell confirmed via Twitter update that the 27 inch iMac was the fastest stock mac they have tested to date, IE, the iMac is faster than the current Mac Pro.

Problem? Not necessarily, but to does raise some questions.

One of these questions is: “If the iMac is better than the Mac Pro right now, then doesn’t that mean Apple will upgrade the Mac Pro in the future?” I have an answer to this question, and I believe it is yes. But just because I am answering yes doesn’t mean I think that’s the best thing to do.

If you follow my Twitter updates you may remember a specific one which I suggested that Apple drop the iPod Shuffle from it’s line. I suggest this because it is simply irrelevant. I can’t imagine anyone buying it unless they are completely clueless about MP3 players or they simply want to have proof to back up them saying “I own an iPod”. It’s too cheap, and frankly, too usless (but not completely, I have to give Apple that.)

This may be the case for the Mac Pro now. I do understand that there are “super” people who need to pimp out with Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM and 8-core 3.2 Ghz Processors, and I do understand there are some people that need 4TB of HDD space, but with the iMac screen getting larger, and it being an all-in-one machine after all, don’t you see those possibilities within the near future?

Yes, I am suggesting that the Mac Pro be dropped, but not soon, not soon at all. I’m saying that the iMac is up there in terms of speed with the Mac Pro, and it only makes sense that you upgrade the Mac Pro, get rid of it if the iMac is testing faster than it.

But, I do know that Apple will update the Mac Pro, and this post is nonetheless, a thought.

NOTE: While I was writing this blog post Mark Jardine, a fantastic designer updated Twitter saying that the iMac i7 does slow as you use it more, here is the direct link.

This is for you and me both,

When times are confusing and the answers are hard to find

You are not alone

When life is not clear and the lessons are challenging

You are not alone

You were made of intelligent design.

Your life is not an accident, not a random occurrence and niether are the events in it. At this moment when the trials don’t seem to let up you can decide to accept your finest moment. These are the moments that define you. You have asked for this moment for an eternity to finally make all things right and here is your chance! This is your moment. You are connected to all things. Spiritually and scientifically. When you pray to God you are praying to that deep place Inside You. The illusion we experience right now is that we are separate. How can you be separate from infinity? In infinity there is no line where you begin and infinity takes over. It is one in the same. Only our perception that draws a line from our limited and mislead understanding of the world around us and more importantly the world inside us or even better, the world that we are. The infinity that we are. Your answers are here. There is nothing to fear. Act on the joy that comes from within because that is who you are. Remember that your trials were designed by you to wake you up to the truth that is you! To remind you who you are, not to take anything from you but only to add.

You are a creator! You are designed in perfection, to create perfection! This is you. So when you encounter a problem that seems to large remember, this your ultimate opportunity to make things the way they were meant to be. Your problems can dissappear. It may take time, it may take a life time, but they can. You will find that there are no problems. You will find that there are only moments that call to you to wake up a deeper part of you the the truth that is your life so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

I hope this prayer gives you the patience, strength, endurance, love, and power that you need to not only make it through a difficult moment but everything you need to embrace it.

Monday November 23, 2009  3:17 PM

5 Ways to ALWAYS Win

I was in the shower and the idea came to mind to list 5 ways to always win. Must have been the inspiration of cleansing that sparked the idea, but it really does not matter why. So check out the post.

1. WIN IN YOUR HEAD

Number one is pretty much self explanatory, but I will explain it in depth. I will tell you what I’m “talkin bout…” Say you are in a competition, “I am in a competition…”, just kidding but bare with me. If you are in a competition where there is an imagined winner and an imagined loser, you feel that there are only two outcomes. If you look at it from the “TRUE” standpoint there really is no loser. There really is no competition. The competition is all in your head, the stress from the competition is all in your head.

So no matter what happens in the “competition” know that you are a winner regardless.

You are the only consciousness in your reality, everybody else thinks of you the way you think of you. So however you WIN is how you will WIN.

What you imagine you WIN is up to you.

If I’m at the local park and I play a basketball game, what do I actually win?

I have asked myself this many times, respect, bragging rights, mental superiority? None of these things are really things. They are all in the head.

So now number one is simply WIN in your head.

Find something to derive good from and focus on that.

2. Evaluate what you think losing is.

In order to figure out how to always win, you have to find out what you feel is losing.

What are you losing when you lose? Is there anything you see yourself as winning. An even better way to look at it is to say “There is no losing.”

If I have lost then I have actually won, because losing teaches me what I need to do to win. I can never lose. I can only lose what is not real, and in any case what is not real is an illusion.

So if the “Game” is not real, then I don’t lose anything that is real, I will only lose illusion.

When I lose illusion it is replaced with truth. The truth always wins.

3. NEVER hold on to FAILURE

Never ever hold on to failure. Failure is not real. The only way it becomes real is when you think about it. Other then thinking about it, or making it possible, you never fail. Are you failing right now as you read this blog?

You are perfectly ok as you read this blog. If you are in this moment and not thinking about the future or past then you have no failure. If your attention keeps going back to times that you have failed, then you will think of yourself as a failure.

The spirit can’t hold onto things that are not real. Meaning anything that is not perfect love will not be with your spirit. Just like your body will not be with your spirit. Are you a failure when you leave earth and leave your body behind?

You can’t hold on to your body, so why would you try when it is left behind. That’s why you should never hold on to failure. Mainly because it is a trick of your mind.

4. Know that you are neither a loser nor a winner

Another way to always win is to realize that winning and losing doesn’t exist.

What the heck do I mean?

I’ll find myself in a separated mind if I believe the two are real. The separated mind is the breeding ground for the “EGO”, the EGO is not edible like EGGOS, especially for the spirit.

The spirit, to inspire, inspirational, I’m inspired, is the internal knowing that exists beyond the perception of the mind. So to the spirit there is no concept of winning because it cannot be separated from truth.

It is truth.

When you remember this  it becomes easy to always win, because you know that you cannot lose. No matter what happens in the competitions set up in your mind, the losing and winning are all in your mind. Which means they are subject to your perception. Which means if you want to win when it looks like you have lost, just simply WIN.

HAHA

Nothing is stopping you but you.

5. Heal your mind from LOSS

Whenever you have thoughts about loss in your mind, forgive your self for believing that you have lost. Heal your mind of the illusion and find something that you have “won”  to focus on.

When you heal your mind of loss, you don’t have loss anymore. Think about it.

When heal your mind of the loss of a material item like a car, you no longer feel like you have lost anything. Because you haven’t. Just like the body, you can’t take the car with you when you leave this earth. But you can heal your mind from thinking that you have lost something.

Forgiveness is the new sexy. When you heal your mind, you always. Win.

Speaking of “winners” check out the video below.

Now as I post this I imply nothing about religion or anything material. I see that this man had a different idea of winning and it was his truth. Some people will say he really lost, but to him he won.

So I say to you to whom does it really matter that you have won? To yourself right? So why not ALWAYS win through the TRUTH within yourself?

Kevin Morrow out….Watch the video

It lied there. Forgotten, caked in the dried blood of what may have been a Russian Cossack, or a British Dragoon. Perhaps, it was the blood of a general or, perhaps, just of a simple infantryman. The soft grey blade rested amongst the stems of grass, it’s grim ornamentation glistening in the noon sun.
I touched the hilt and felt the twisted leather’s rough texture underneath my palm. I pulled it free from it’s prison and raised it above my head. Unlike what I had heard from those who tell stories, it did not shine brilliantly. The only thing that happened was that more light was cast upon the scratched, bloody surface.
I wondered, with some childish excitement, who could have held a sword as fine as this. It could have been a  mounted cavalryman or an officer, perhaps even a general! I lowered it and dragged it’s edge along the grass, watching the grass bending underneath the blade. Holding it in my hand, I could feel the power, the essence of it’s glorious owner overtaking me. I imagined that I was the Emperor himself, riding into battle, the cavalry of the Guard struggling to keep up with me and artillery firing in the distance, the loud explosions frightening man and beast alike. Of course, that’s not how it happens. He doesn’t ride into battle like a suicidally brave soldier. He stays behind the lines and plans, thoughts and strategies swirling in his mind, until he comes up with something so perfect that it cannot fail. And, usually, it doesn’t. He has tasted defeat, of course, but not nearly as much as his enemies.
Slowly dragging the sword behind me, I left the field and stood on the road that led to a city. I imagined that along this road with me walk the grenadiers, fusiliers and many other soldiers, the music of the drummers ringing in my ears, the song of these frightening citizen-soldiers striking fear into the hearts of the enemy.
I sang with them that day. I walked along the dusty dirt road and sang every song I knew, whether it was a marching song I heard from the storytellers or a lullaby my mother taught me.
I could see the ghosts of the past coming back to life in the fields around me. Tens of thousands of soldiers rose from the fields, like armies doomed to fight for an eternity. To my sides stood the fusiliers, the glorious Guard, the cuirassiers  and carabiniers with their shining armour. On the opposite side stood the the vile enemy, who only come to burn the land, steal treasure and enslave us.
As quickly as they appeared, the ghosts vanish. I sit down in the shade of a tree and wait, minutes passing slowly as I lean on the sword, staring at a ditch in front of me. Perhaps, this reality is better than the one I imagined. It is peaceful now. The sea is not far. Birds sing as they soar across the sky and the lazy spring dust settles upon the road I’ve walked since I was born. The snow had already melted and the may sun sends it’s warmth down to us earth dwellers.
I heard something and looked to the skies. It sounded like a dragon, roaring and spitting fire, but there was nothing.
I stood once more and walked into the centre of the road. Dust was  being raised in the distance.
This was something I had not seen before.
Slowly, it was moving towards me – the cloud of dust, so thick I couldn’t see anything. It was frightening, but I held firm the sword and stood my ground. It was closer now and I could make out what was coming.
Barrels jutted like spikes from the cloud as the tanks neared, the black crosses on their sign appearing as the eyes of the beast. Tracks pressed into the dirt, but the war machines moved swiftly.
My father had spoken of them. He saw some, in the War. The roaring returned and I looked up. This time, the sky was filled with dark shapes. Many dark shapes, similar to still birds, their wings extended. Hundreds, maybe.
The dust cloud was now only a few kilometres away and I could see the trucks, the war machines, artillery. I stood on the side of the road, to let them by.
The steel beast passed me, it’s dark grey frame like a monster from ghost stories. They were all grey. The machines, the trucks, the artillery and even the soldiers. A single man broke off the final column and approached me. He asked me what was I doing here and I answered, with unnecessary bravado, that I was watching for the enemy and defending my homeland. He just laughed.
He removed a small blue helmet from his side and placed it on my head. Now, I was a real soldier. With another laugh, he stood back up and appeared much taller than he was before. He grinned down at me and said, with a heavy accent:
“To protect your homeland, you’ll need a lot more than a stick and a helmet.”
And then he left, running after his platoon. I dropped the stick, which until now was a sword, and ran towards home. That day, I learned a lesson. Sometimes, the enemy is far closer thank you think. And sometimes, he is not even my enemy.

It’s All About Jesus!

Spirit of Prophecy Bulletin

THE TRUMPET by Bill Burns — November 23, 2009:

The Lord says to you today, have you heard My Word? Have you heard My exhortation? Rise up My people. Gather yourselves up and dig for the waters of this season. Dig for the anointing that you have lost. Dig new wells of great and strong anointing, for indeed the anointing will bring the glory and the presence of My kingdom upon your life. Dig and drink. Sing to the well. Dig and drink. Dig and do not stop. Are you thirsty? Then dig. Are you thirsty? Then take a drink. For you will find that there is a river of life that flows through My kingdom where trees are planted. Therein lies the mystery and the secret of the promise of My living water. So I say today let all dryness be gone. You have walked through the valley of the shadow of death; you have walked through the wilderness; you have walked through the dry places, but now you are coming to the place of living water where springs bubble up out of the depth of My kingdom. Therefore, I say unto you, dig and drink. As you drink, life will again enter in to your temple. As you drink, wellness will again come. As you drink the powers of darkness will leave. As you drink the glory of the kingdom will manifest in you, and you will become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. So, I say, drink. It is the season for the digging of the wells in the pattern and the type of those that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob dug. Use your faith as a shovel and dig and drink, says the Lord.

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns — Nov. 23, 2009:

Beloved, refuse to allow the voice of the enemy to bring discouragement and keep you from fulfilling your destiny in Me, says the Lord. I have called and chosen you to manifest My kingdom in this time and in this generation. You live in a critical age where darkness abounds, but My grace and truth abound even more. I will empower you to do the impossible, because with Me all things are possible. Only believe!

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

One may have awakened to the sound of the alarm going off at 3:00 AM.   One went into a different bathroom. One began to confess one’s sins.  After one finished, one may have read the Spirit of Prophecy Bulletin.  One may have thought that the messages were powerful.

One may have Grabbed one’s Bible, book and chair and went back into one’s chosen place to worship this morning.

One may have sung songs of praise, prayed for the sick and spoke in tongues.  One may have asked the Lord to lead one to passages of scripture.  One may have been led to a passage in Isaiah, one may not remember where.  One may have been led to Zephaniah 1 and Luke 8:48.

One just sat there afterwards waiting for one’s time to be over.  One may have felt discouraged.  One may have many reasons to be overjoyed, yet one may have been worrying about situations and circumstances.  One may have prayed.  Thank you Jesus, one may believe it’s already answered, in Jesus’ name.

Looking for a camping inverter/generator can be hard if you don’t know what you are looking for. With so many options to choose from getting the right portable generator for camping can be hard and picking the one for the job can be even more difficult. With camping and camping for extended periods of time for example on a RV it’s important to have a generator that can power your laptop and the all important coffee maker. I recommend the Honeywell 2000i portable generator for camping trips.

A 2000 watt Honeywell invertor/generator is a good choice because it runs quiet and it can power almost about whatever you throw its way.  The HW2000i has a 1.5 gallon fuel tank and can run at 50% load for 5 hours.  Typically it can support a 2-3 person operation on an R.V.  An inverter can charge almost anything from batteries for your R.V. or extra car and power boat.

Inverter generators produce DC electricity which is then converted to clean AC power at the output connections. Inverter generators are very light and are extremely portable, the HW2001 weighs 58 pounds.  Getting the best portable generator is not an easy decision. However, you’ll simply love your new inverter/generator because it is so useful. The beauty of an inverter or a generator is that they come in handy for whatever situation you might be in – from emergencies to extreme outdoor camping.   An Inverter great thing to have in your box of tools and will come in handy when you least expect it.

by GennyPowered

I have re-started an experiment I started back in ‘97 when I had the honor of meeting Herbert Brün and attending one of his classes at the School for Designing a Society in Urbana, IL, where I learned how words could shape reality.  Mr. Brun had proposed a discussion for that particular class based on whether “Power” can be a positive force.  In the end, after much (sometimes heated) discourse by the students, his position was that it could not; that any use of the word “power” was inherently flawed, but that is another post for another day.  On that morning, Mr. Brün had forever changed my outlook on life and on the use of words; how words affect us and the world around us.  The concept of “reality is a word construct” never once occurred to me before that discussion.

When I returned back home to Dreamtime Village, I made a plan to begin an experiment based on what I had learned at the School.  After the loss of my son Yogi in ‘95, I had developed an acute case of anthrophobia, or fear of people or society, which was highly problematic since I was living in a community filled with lots of transient folks!  It kept me hidden away from everyone, and consequently I missed a lot of life during that time.

One night, when Lyx and Zon were relating to me all the colorful details of yet another fantastic party that I had missed, I decided it was high time to take some action.  The next day I would “leave the womb” and pretend I was not afraid.  At first the intention was to go over to where the visitors resided (at one of Dreamtime’s buildings called the “hotel“) and finally meet who was there.   Of course, the fear was still there, underneath the mask, but I was determined to play the game through, even if it was only to be for one hour.  I remember thinking “Can’t they see that I’m faking?  It’s so obvious I’m petrified to even be here!”  but if they did notice, they must have been pretending themselves, because I couldn’t see any evidence of it.  On the walk home that afternoon, I was walking on air, elated and yet still shaking with the effort that it took to put on such an extravagant performance.

The next day was a repeat performance, followed by another day of the same results, and so on.  This experiment continued, growing incrementally each time, until one day, about a month later, while I was laughing with someone at a party, it occurred to me that I wasn’t afraid any more.  It wasn’t that my acting skills had improved, I actually wasn’t afraid any more.  It was an overwhelming realization.  I was stunned.  I wasn’t afraid at all, in fact, I was totally relaxed and having a great time!  I never expected to alter my personality.  It was simply an experiment to see if I could fool myself for short periods of time.  Even now, after more than 10 years of this revelatory moment, I am overcome with emotion at the wonder of it all.

These days I am no longer anthrophobic, but I am still battling with stage fright.  Recently I was helping a friend through some grief issues, and when I shared this story with him, it reminded me that I could take on another experiment to overcome this remaining phobia.  I was thinking about a dear friend of mine who doesn’t have stage fright.  In fact, she is one of the most bold and outgoing people I know.  She is an Aries, and whether or not you believe in astrology, she is the very picture of this sign.

If you don’t know anything about the astrological sign Aries, here is a brief description:

(a) The Ram; the first of the twelve signs in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the vernal equinox, about the 21st of March.
(b) A constellation west of Taurus, drawn on the celestial globe in the figure of a ram.

Now, here is Webster’s definition of a battering ram:

1 : a military siege engine consisting of a large wooden beam with a head of iron used in ancient times to beat down the walls of a besieged place
2 : a heavy metal bar with handles used (as by firefighters) to batter down doors and walls

Here is an astrological description of Aries:

Like the ram, Aries sees a target, puts its head down, and charges. After the initial thrust, he or she looks around, resets its direction and charges again.  A phrase that is associated with Aries is: “I AM,”

Here is a description of Virgo, which is my astrological sign:

The Virgo personality is nothing if not practical. You can be attentive to details to the point of obsession. Virgos have encyclopedic memories for detail, and can often recall casual references to minor subjects.  A phrase that most aptly describes this personality is: “I analyze.”

Now, it makes no difference if you believe in astrology or not, as for me, I believe and don’t believe in just about everything.  In the words of Robert Anton Wilson, “Belief is the death of intelligence.”  This is less about astrology than it is about my experimenting with the concept of reality being a word construct.  If I pretend I have these bold qualities of this archetype, then I will perhaps acquire them with practice.

Stay tuned to see if the experiment works!…..

It's Crisis Time!

CORPORATE POWER AND OWNERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I would like to announce the recent publication of my new book:

Corporate Power and Ownership in Contemporary Capitalism:
The Politics of Resistance and Domination (London: Routledge, 2009)

For more information see URL: http://www.routledge.com/9780415467889

Blurb:
Despite the influence corporations wield over all aspects of everyday life, there has been a remarkable absence of critical inquiry into the social constitution of this power. In analysing the complex relationship between corporate power and the widespread phenomenon of share ownership, this book seeks to map and define the nature of resistance and domination in contemporary capitalism.

Drawing on a Marxist-informed framework, this book reconnects the social constitution of corporate power and changing forms of shareholder activism. In contrast to other texts that deal with corporate governance, this study examines a diverse and comprehensive set of themes, from socially responsible investing to labour-led shareholder activism and its limitations. Through this ambitious and critical study, author Susanne Soederberg demonstrates how the corporate governance doctrine represents an inherent feature of neoliberal rule, effectively disembedding and depoliticising relations of domination and resistance from the wider power and paradoxes of capitalism.

Examining corporate governance and shareholder activism in a number of different contexts that include the United States and the global South, this important book will be of interest to students and scholars of international political economy, international relations and development studies. It will also be of relevance to a wider range of disciplines including finance, economics, and business and management studies.

“Soederberg should be thanked for revealing the elephant in the room – that corporations, along with their governance, power, ownership and management, are profoundly political, yet undemocratic. Through careful analysis, wide-ranging research and elegant writing she deconstructs comforting myths and shows us the true and unsettling politics and impacts of corporations in the world today. A must read – and also a good read – for anyone seeking true understanding of current economic, social and environmental upheavals.” — Joel Bakan, Professor of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada, and author/filmmaker of The Corporation

“In a capitalism deep into its second major crisis in 75 years, Soederberg’s book is very welcome. It critically examines the real (as opposed to the ideologically glossed) mechanisms enabling the crisis-producing decisions of corporate boards of directors. She performs a valuable deconstruction of the mythologies of mainstream ‘corporate governance’ literature.” — Richard D. Wolff, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts and the New School University, New York

“This book presents a much-needed and powerful critique of the ‘corporate governance doctrine’ that was promoted both by the US state and by dominant capitalist interests in many societies to underpin the priority given to ’shareholder value’, to take advantage of workers’ pension funds, and to direct labour and social movement challenges to corporate decisions into what Soederberg appropriately calls the ‘marketization of resistance’. As empirically rich as it is theoretically strong, this is another important contribution by one of the most creative political economy scholars writing today.’ — Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto

Cheers,
Susanne
Susanne Soederberg, DPhil
Canada Research Chair (Global Political Economy)
Associate Professor in Global Development Studies and Political Studies
Mackintosh-Corry, Room A-406
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 Canada
Tel: 613.533.6000 x 78391
Fax: 613.533.2986
Email: soederberg@queensu.ca
Homepage: http://www.queensu.ca/devs/faculty/ProfileSoederberg.html

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Everything in life seems to be a trade-off. When trying to design a little ecologically smart beach hotel in Tulum, it gets challenging fast. Firstly there is no electricity provided along the Tulum beach. So we needed to generate and store enough power to supply our cabanas and guests, as well as the restaurant and bar.

We wanted our guests to have 24 hr electricity so they could have fans and lights and their laptops whenever they wanted. And of course we wanted refrigeration in the restaurant and bar to keep everything fresh and healthy. So we invested heaps of money in a 6kw wind turbine, with back up generator and a huge bank of batteries to store all the power we make.

Secondly we have no sewerage services along the beach. We were not prepared to just drill holes into the ground and dispose of our waste in the way that the big all-inclusive hotels do (gross!). So we invested in 2 US made bio-treatment systems that produce 99% clean water that can be used on the gardens (and yes, we tested the water to see if the claims of 99% were true…yes!). But we didn’t count on the systems needing 8 amps of power…so back to the electrical system which now needed an upgrade.

Thirdly, there is no water supply along the beach. We had to find low salt content water from a well, and then build a cistern to hold it and mix with fresh water that gets trucked in every day…what a pain.

Then we invested in putting in solar hot water heating on the roof of each cabana, but found that the water corroded all the tubing really fast. And of course the installation wasn’t done properly…so back to the drawing board on cabana solar hot water. Attempt 2 is scheduled for the fall this year. We will keep you posted.

We have just built some new gardens over in the jungle and will be growing our own organic vegetables, herbs and fruits, which is leading us into composting all the kitchen waste. And they say that recycling is just around the corner…so with a little luck we will just get more and more eco-real as time goes by. So in a nutshell it is really difficult to design a little ecologically smart beach Tulum Hotel.