Equidistant from Pat

This is my strangely accurate testing tool for romantic relationship compatibility:

The main idea is that people are happiest in relationships that are equidistant from a gender-neutral center of cultural gender roles.

(I know it will sound sexist to both genders, but the generalizations are essential for the tool to function. Despite its apparent gross prejudices, every person I have presented this theory to has agreed with it in one way or another. I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with any one gender-role position, I'm saying that relationships work out better if you are as far away from the neutral gender-role center as your partner is.)

"Pat" is a representation of a person who is right in the middle of two gender role extremes: On the feminine side we use the iconic Barbie, and on the masculine side we use the iconic G.I. Joe. Pat is represented best as the Saturday Night Live character played by Julia Sweeney. It's a very generalized spectrum, to be sure, but it's a very good prediction tool.

Essentially, if you are a woman and you find you are more culturally feminine, you will be more happy if you are in a romantic relationship with a man who is culturally more masculine, and vice-versa.

Notice that a romantic pairing of Barbie and her supposed mate Ken is not a good match. The problem is that people all along the spectrum prefer to have their own role in the relationship. Overlapping of roles is less likely to produce happiness in the long run. Ken is portrayed with good taste in clothes, pretty eyes, and very few tools. Not masculine at all, or at the very least not stereotypically so.

(Remember, this is about stereotypes and cultural gender roles, so please take my generalizations about tools and clothes in that context.)

Here's a diagram that might help understand the spectrum:

BARBIE ------------------PAT---------------------GI JOE

Feminine--------------gender neutral------------Masculine


Further in the theory, the ends of the spectrum are occupied with people who are more rigid in their gender roles. Conservative in that sense, perhaps, but not necessarily politically so.

RIGID FEMININE------------Open Minded------------RIGID MASCULINE


The scale/diagram could also be seen in this light:


Traditional attitude--------Liberal attitude--------Traditional attitude


As the theory delves deeper, it became clearer that although it might be thought that relationships in which both parties are closer to the center would be happier relationships, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, as you go toward the center, you get much more complicated relationships and somewhat more instability in general:

Straightforward----------------Complex--------------Straightforward

People on the traditional edges of the spectrum are more likely to know where they stand in terms of cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. People toward the center are more likely to be somewhat confused about themselves and their roles. This can lead to a great deal of difficulty in relationships. Not to say that any relationship is easy, but that those relationships with people nearer to the center tend have a particular kind of difficulty due in part to their being open minded about aspects of their relationships.

People on the traditional edges can also have the difficult task of managing their relationship when either partner breaks from their traditional roles. There is more rigidity on the traditional edges, and less overall tolerance of shifts or changes in behavior over time. For these relationships to work, there must be an agreed-upon (either implicitly or explicitly) set of rules that cannot be broken or even bent. If the supposedly feminine woman decides to run her own business, it can be upsetting to the supposedly masculine man who thinks it's his job to bring home the bacon so-to-speak.

People in the center relationships have the benefit of flexibility, but it sometimes comes at the expense of not having as much solid ground to stand on in terms of self-knowledge and self-perception. And although I maintain that there is flexibility closer to the center, it doesn't mean that it's good to have a lot of role overlapping. If there is an overlap of roles, it has to work in both directions. For instance, if the masculine-leaning partner decides to take up cooking, it's not actually a good idea for the feminine partner to also do the cooking. Somebody has to clean up!

Overlap is the pitfall in the center, and change is the pitfall at the edges.

Interestingly enough, the EFP theory works with Gay and Straight folks equally well. Ask your friendly neighborhood gay person, and they'll likely say they also like an equidistant relationship. Although I try to avoid the "butch-fem" generalization most of the time, my gay pals have noted that it's pretty much spot-on. They don't like to have a fem-fem or butch-butch situation. Again, too much overlap on roles and activities. Remember, you can both enjoy doing the same activities but take different roles during those activities.

Imagine a scenario where the woman in a heterosexual relationship is kind of a "tom-boy". They will usually prefer to do the heavy-lifting, the tool-toting, the more aggressive negotiations. A woman like that might tend to prefer to have her more traditionally masculine traits balanced out with someone who is more nurturing and gentle.

Then again, (and very interestingly so) they might actually want an even more masculine man so that they feel more feminine culturally. Still getting the equidistant sensation from their relationship, but a bit more off-center.

Remember, as you drift towards the center of the spectrum, the more central-neutral partner can be more flexible in their needs for partners. This is a relationship that is more tense than a straight-equidistant one, but can work if the two are in good communication and really like the thing they have going. Boundaries and mutual understandings in this scenario are required.

Another pseudo-proof (as this is pseudo-psychology after all) of the theory is the exeption that prooves the rule:

Sometimes the partner who knows themselves the least will try to manipulate the scale in order to have a more culturally acceptable partner in the eyes of others. In one example you might have seen, a more physically feminine man might try to artificially alter his masculinity in order to date a more traditionally feminine woman.

This manipulation might take the form of a muscle-car (literally), a macho-type construction job, a lot of leather straps on his coat, cool sunglasses, you name it. Trying to avoid the pervasive pressure to date a feminine woman and avoid the gender-neutral center (out of some amount of self-hatred perhaps), he will try to impress upon the woman of his desires the idea that he's a "real man". This scenario as you might imagine is a setup for a fall. The overall truth of the role will eventually be uncovered, or at least the tension can cause some very upsetting relationship moments.

Case in point; the really bad idea of closeted gays marrying and having kids. They may very well want children, and even love their spouse down deep, but gay people tend to truly want to partner with other gay people. This cross-compensation is usually another recipe for pain in the long run. Of course, some people will again be able to manage their lives with a great deal of intent, boundaries and love. I hope that's the rule, not the exception.

Another common type of self-deception (and other-deception as well) geared at shifting a couple to an artificial balance happens often with smart women pretending to be much more shallow or less intelligent than they really are.

This is done often in order to "fit in" by allowing the woman to date a more masculine man they perhaps they would normally. They might even get jobs that are beneath them intellectually or for which they are over-qualified in order to maintain their facade of mainstream femininity. (This is typically just as see-through as the guy who buys a Corvette to look macho, when actually he really likes the looks and styling of a Mazda Miata. )

Sadly, woman who tries to dumb herself down in order to get a particular mate is often subject to some form of abuse, whether verbal, mental or even physical. I cannot explain this behavior well, to be honest. Perhaps the man down deep knows she could be more than she portrays herself, or he is also pretending to be someone he isn't and it makes him angry and confused. Perhaps the man in this type of skewed relationship suspects he's being manipulated but cannot quite put his finger on how or why. It's something I noticed in my research but I still haven't quite figured out.

The reverse is also possible, but more rare in my estimation. I know of only one woman in my world who has tried to make herself more masculine in order to attract a more gentle mate, and it didn't work out so well. She admitted it was related to her upbringing and the stigma she felt as a more feminine woman. For years she felt out of place in her masculine field of work and yearned for a more nurturing relationship where she could be comfortable in her skin as a more feminine partner. As you might imagine, the self-deception could only last so long.

There are always exceptions to these admittedly amateur "rules" I've come up with, but before you send me flame comments, please ask your local couple friends if they disagree with my theory. Often, people who hear the theory will not self-diagnose as well as their friends or family will. EFP does take some amount of self-knowledge and introspection to be able to accurately assess whether it's a good theory and if there might need to be some kind of adjustment in your relationship.

The theory of Equidistant from Pat has been discussed many many times with couples and individuals in relationships of all stripes. It seems to me as I write it out for potential worldwide consumption that I am more aware of the potentially non-PC reading of the various "rules" of the theory. I accept that in some ways, but it's important to understand that I am not trying to pigeonhole anyone or any relationship into a one-size-fits-all scientific explanation of reality. I am simply aware of certain things in my own worldview and life experience that have led me to this theory. I have so far seen nothing that quite explains relationships as well, so please forgive the method in which I'm describing it and try to focus on the heart of the matter.

My main intention is to try to answer the question "why aren't we getting along?" or "why did we break up when it seemed things were going so well?". It's not meant to offend or tell people what they should do or not do. If it helps you at all, I am happy to be of service. If it offends you, just take it in stride as yet another nutball who thinks he knows it all and ignore it if you wish. Many people I have told the theory to have had a genuine "A-HA!" moment in their past or present relationship self-assessment.
They often ask me when I am going to write my book on the theory, so I decided to blog it first and get people's impressions (and input) before I push forward into authoring anything.

If you have any notes, comments, disagreements or constructive criticism of the theory, please let me know. After all, so far it's just a theory...

Superstringy Biggie Smalls

I just looked over my bloglet and realized that I haven't explained my pet symbol theory:

[∞]

The symbol is actually tattooed on my left hand, between my forefinger and thumb. I drew it in ink for a year or so before I tattooed it. On my hand, it's a bit more stylized, but the essence is there.

The theory goes like this: I believe that The Smallest Thing is a vibrating string. I believe that this string moves in space in what looks like a figure-eight pattern. If you turn that 8 on its side, it's a ∞. Option+5 on my keyboard.

I believe that the mass of this smallest thing is undetectable directly, but can be inferred by the overall location of the mass. I put the symbol in a bracket, like a mathematical set. This also serves another purpose, to imply the "idea" of the thing/string rather than be so crazy as to say I know what or where the smallest thing really is. In literary terms, so to speak.

[∞] = The idea of one smallest building block for the entire Universe. Hubris, for sure. The idea that we are all, at our cores, built of the exact same things. Equal.
The idea that infinity is uncountable, but that the idea that infinity is out there/in here is intrinsically good.

The loop-back of the mobius strip is key, that it's always hovering over the same space, forever, never dying. That down deep, there is no such thing as death, but only much much slower interactions with things next to you. That the Heisenberg Theory of Uncertainty is alive and well, since you cannot know where and how fast the string/thing is, it's all very uncertain on one level. On the other level(s), there is obviously something in there doing something, moving somewhere.

Which brings me to the biggie part of the smalls stuff. If you cannot know the location and velocity of the smallest thing at the same time, then you have to Believe in it rather than be able to prove it. This is Belief, this is the core of Religion.

My "Religion" is clear to me. I believe that the universe is made of these tiny strings (and the dark space or energy that they float in), that you can't really know the depth of their mysteries (or how they truly came into being). I believe that this faith of mine is identical in value to all other faiths. Given that, I believe that all other faiths can get along due to their intrinsic basic equality. Sure, there are some faiths that are not really faiths, they are cults of personality or cults of rituals, or cults of Spaghetti Monsters, but for the most part I think we can all get along based on the concept that we're made of the exact same stuff, and that the major religions all believe in a single consciousness that they cannot prove but nonetheless loves.

This is for me the basis of Peace: The coming together of all religions and science and neither of these in harmony based on the equality of uncertainty.

Let's put our differences aside (but not behind us), and get together before we all kill ourselves off. Let's make and discover and revel in more love.

Obama for Change

A friend of mine just recently asked if I wanted to take part in an Obama for President fundraiser. I immediately replied via email "Yes" and couldn't help but add the famous "And". Yes, I want to help, And here's how I want to do it.

I want to get right to changing the things that I know (and Obama elucidates so eloquently) need to be changed here in America. I think we can do much much more than simply become a fundraising arm for Obama. I know we can actually start the process of bringing about the Change that Obama espouses.

Back before the 2004 election, I had become jaded about political fundraising. Yes, I know that people watch TV and that ads on TV are expensive. I know that sending out flyers and paying for canvassers isn't free. But I couldn't help but wonder why we weren't doing more. Why we were accepting the current state of candidate shilling as if it was the only way to get someone elected. Cash can't be the only factor.

I watched in horror as my theory was proven in the 2004 presidential election. John Kerry had plenty of money. He had his own millions as well as his wife's, and of course he also had our millions. Instead of making use of that huge wad of money, he spent it doing the same things that had always been done. Proving that he likely would do the same things that had always been done as president. The sad truth is that money does not buy elections outright. Money can help, but it has to be used in innovative and progressive ways, mimicking the innovative and progressive ways that the candidate will use the entire country's money during his or her tenure in office.

After discussing it with my wife Elise, I realized that what we needed to do for America was pretty clear: we needed to rebuild it from the ground up, starting with the places that need it the most. Don't just trickle down the money, flood it down with intent, wisdom, and action. We needed to rebuild a city, starting with a neighborhood.

Yes, it sounds expensive and perhaps risky, but it would be the most clear statement of what it is that progressive Democrats need to do. It's what America needs to do. I figured that we could do it like a miniature CCC project, or even better, a huge Habitat for Humanity project. We could go to a section of a big city (ideally, one with some previously disenfranchised voters...) that needed some serious community building, and we could organize the people in that section of the city to help put a permanent community center, or rebuild one that was in need of repair.

The money spent would go directly into a project that progressive Democrats want to do writ large. The thing would be architected properly, permits gathered, teams organized, foremen and forewomen chosen, environmental impact studies done, and the entire thing would be exhaustively documented.

Clearly, this would be a large task and it would take a lot of effort to do it in a short amount of time, but isn't that the task at hand for America? Don't we have an emergency to deal with and precious little time to spare? Don't we want to change things? Don't we want to lead the way? Don't we want to show our core values in a tangible way? Don't we want to dig ditches instead of sling mud?

The metaphor would not be lost on Americans. They love to see their neighbors pitch in when people are in need. We do it all the time, but usually only right after natural disasters. It's inspiring, it's hear-warming, it's community building at its core.
It would show what we will do for the country on a small scale, but it would matter on a large scale for the community we do it with and for. The publicity alone would be enough, but it would be something we could point to as a direct change of course for the election process. My guess is that we could make it work once, and then with that boilerplate we could repeat the process in other communities. Use the strategies and fundraising techniques for other projects around the country. Prove that we can spend money the right way while gathering up people and communities that will not just vote for our candidate, but grab hammers and work for the country itself.

To that end, I would definitely like some feedback on this post. If you would like to do a project like this as an Obama fundraiser (community raiser?), I'd love to hear about it and try to make it happen. We've got some time before the election and I think this kind of thing would make a huge difference. Even if we don't win the election, we'd be doing something that would reinforce what we want to do in this world: Change it for the better.

What I mean, Again

Another shot at what I mean:

If we can decentralize power production of all types (caloric, electric, mechanical) and put the means of production and storage of energy in each individual's hands, then the fight for resources will diminish.

If we can let each individual person generate their own fuel, food, and work, then we'll have less need to hoard that fuel.

If we can reduce our consumption on a personal and at the same time national level, the leftover energy can be used as the power tide that raises all ships.

If we are all encouraged and allowed to be in charge of our own actions and personhood, we'll have less need to fight with each other. Freedom leads to peace, and peace leads to freedom.

Energy Puzzle Peaces

I've been thinking about and trying to act on my dream of World Peace since I was in high school. My life path has done plenty of winding since then, but it's always had that focus. I've always had the dream of Peace bouncing around in my head.

How do we do it? Will it take us all, or just a few to start the ball rolling? Will it be presidents or citizens or both? Will it be against our own apparent natures, or will it be due to a discovery of our true natures? Can we actually turn the war clock backwards? Will a few fundamentalists with a different dream (or a different methodology) roll the war clock wittingly (or unwittingly) forward to our doom?

Since middle school in Kennewick, I've done things to work on my internal sense of peace as well. That took the form of journals, student clubs, Amnesty International, meditation, repairing relationships that I could repair, gathering mentors, being a mentor.

Recently, I've noticed that thing that so many notice and not always early enough: Your right livelihood is the best route to world peace. When everyone is busy doing what they truly love (not just what makes them money, but obviously those two are not mutually exclusive), then they have no time for faithlessness, for doubt, and for the fear that leads away from Peace.

My right livelihood has also taken a fairly circuitous route (mimicking my Peace path?). I have been a can collector, a strawberry picker, a fast food drive-in worker, a youth group advisor, a student-athlete tutor, a foodbank volunteer, a music store employee, a server/bar-back at a golf club, an alternative high school teacher, a camp counselor, a camp education director, an Apple computer salesman, an improvisation actor, a computer network technician, a small IT businessman, a thinktank biz/dev founder, a microprint artist, a business creativity instigator, a Radio Shack sales associate, an office/operations manager, an Apple computer service salesman, a tech editor, a biodiesel advocate, and a Volkswagen sales consultant.

Along the way, I've had insights and failures, revelations and disappointments. Throughout my history, however, I've had a few threads that refused to unwind: Peace and Alternative Energy. Something keeps linking my thoughts about Earth's resource distribution and Peace. Perhaps it was my father Richard's work on photovoltaics at Battelle, maybe it was making money by collecting aluminum cans that were thrown on the trails in the canyon behind my house.

When I decided to get on the big blog wagon, I realized that I wanted to write about biodiesel and world peace first. I had to kind of blow the dust out of my pipes at first, but I can see now that this is a valuable exercise related to my right livelihood. Also, it really is my contribution to the worldwide endeavor to end war and promote peace through energy independence.

Any ideas on how I could more effectively leverage myself in peace-action via alternative energy are welcomed.

Love Energy

Love. Energy. Independence. Power. Freedom.

I am rededicating this blog. I will use less words and more heart.

The simple push is to become personally energy independent and help the entire world become same.

Powered by love, both personal and universal, I pledge to become a more energy-independent person and help as many people as I can do the same.

I think the best way to show my love is to help free us all from energy and power dependence.

Onward.

Nightmares and Dreams

In the dream I was watching torture
Others were watching with robotic unfeeling eyes from the other side of a wall

I woke up and realized
With radical eyes
radicalized

I realized
That right now in Hyderabad children were mourning their headless dead father
That right now schemes were being made for the overtake of Venezuela
That right now women were being publicly stoned to death for suspected infidelity
That right now presidents are planning to bomb buildings and people in Iran
That right now prime ministers are allowing or encouraging people to be flown out of the world’s watchful eye into prisons where they will be tortured, and tortured, and then killed when they return home.

How do I go back to sleep?

Right now, I sell cars for a living
I sell diesel cars that can run on modified or unmodified vegetable oil
Fields and vats that don’t need to be guarded with snipers and mortar rounds
But that can’t be enough

I need to do some other thing as well
Something more direct
Something more, period

I will need help with this
I will need the support I offer to you
To do the same thing

I thought this would be enough
That every day I can make a small real difference
That every day I can sell one or two more cars with a badge that says:
I’m trying not to kill as many trees as before
I’m not trying to wipe out as much bird habitat as before
I’m trying not to kill as many Nigerian oil rig workers as before
I’m trying not to give corporations as many reasons to lobby my congressperson to send warheads into suspected underground nuclear facilities.

And sadly for my friends and family, perhaps
I must do more

And sadly for me,
I don’t know what it is yet I must do
To be most effective
To make the best use of 40 more potential years of life

Sad because I might turn out to be a different person altogether
That I’m not exactly they person my wife thinks she married
That inside me was a person who was willing to die
So others might not have to kill or be killed themselves.

And how would I die?
Hit by a truck in North Dakota while walking from Washington to Washington?
Drowned while chained to a boat in Bremerton?
Crushed by the wheels of a transport plane bound for Baquba, sent from Fort Lewis?
Heart Attack from screaming for hours in Olympia?
I have no idea right now

I just know I can’t go back to sleep tonight,
And I will need your help to make sure others can.

Radical eyes

He gets his pants
He loads up his belt
With the weapons
To keep him safe
To make him sane
To keep his mind free
From trouble

One has an new iPod
With 60 wonderful gigs
One has an explosive belt
With 60 inward and outward pointing nails
One will enter a square of hundreds of people
And do what he always wanted to do
One will listen to the voices that overwhelm
His good thoughts, his normal thoughts

Blow up, go up, blow up
Wired for sound
Wired for death
Music from his [∞]
Instruction from his imam
Instruction from the producer
Instruction from his father
Instruction from his general
That he thinks he must obey
In order to live
In order to die

But this music
Doesn’t have to hate
And this word doesn’t have to wait
For you to have your bad dream

Can you find a way,
Can you find a way to weave all this into hope
Into a quilt of sanity
That you spread around the world

Can you take this radical notion
To stop it all
To do it all yourself
And ensure you are never alone?

As those two men were alone
With their belts and their dashed dreams and their hungry families
When they woke up this morning
Waking from the nightmare that isn’t going away
Until you do something yourself, for the people who can’t wake up.

NW Biodiesel Party

Greener Party

Great event put on by the NW biodiesel folks. While I've only been to a few events, the Zeke's party was excellent on many counts. Good Food. Good Conversation. I met Lisa and Dave who are involved with a project to help Guatemala get started in biodiesel, and it was an excellent Central American connection, considering my recent trip to El Salvador. It seems everyone else does diesel but the USA. Let's change that, shall we?

Meeting Greg from GreenCarCo was interesting. I asked most of the questions, and we had a pretty good talk about the present and future situation with diesel car sales, biodiesel quality/price points, and ethanol filling station futures. It would be interesting to take a trip to Kirkland and see what the fuss is about. My impression of GreenCarCo improved after talking with Greg, but I need to do my own research.

The biggest spark (after the Central American glimmer) of the night was the ever-building hum of algae-biodiesel interest. The more people see folks acting crazy with palm oil deforestation, the more algae-methyl-ester sound like an ideal focus. Algae has the most promise, but it's the least researched and most misunderstood oil source. Max and Bioleco and I have our work cut out for us, but we're up for the challenge, methinks.

Superstringy Micrography Love

glowplug

I publish my web log specifically so I can help start conversations about topics I am interested in. Particularly, World Peace and Biodiesel. It just so happens that I am interested in a few hundred thousand other things, but I have decided to keep the external chatter to a minimum (At least I am trying to do so).

However, one of the things I am quite interested in is the art of micrography. It's a fairly ancient art, made somewhat known by religious artisans in Safed, Israel. Although I am capable of doing the work in Hebrew, I like to focus my work in English. I have produced Ketubot, memorial pieces, and birthday micrography. I do it solely on commission, and the process is pretty painstaking.

For me, writing hugely important ideas in nearly unreadably small letters is a very Zen experience. My sense of scale gets all out of whack, my eyes get fixated and outside distractions fade away. I admit that sometimes I write things small in order for them to be harder to find. It's paradoxical, as I am interested in sharing as many good ideas as possible. I don't quite understand it myself.

I started doing small writing on the train in Europe so I could write in my journal without having it accidentally read by a passerby or a couchette-mate. Even if you had the thing in your hand, it would be hard to read. It started with a ballpoint pen (actually capable of quite a fine point if you have a light touch).

After 9-11 (hmm, such a potent phrase...) my need to express myself grew stronger as the thoughts I want to share piled up in my head. Trauma spurs much art... The only way I could see that would allow me to "get it all out" was to put as much writing on one page as possible. The smaller I tried to write, the more I realized the sentences were forming lines from farther away, a la Chuck Close or pointilist artists. Once I discovered my handwriting wasn't getting worse as the lines got thinner and smaller, I tried even harder to shrink the letters.

As I got more skilled, I would look for smaller and smaller tipped pens. My original choice was the Micron archival pen at .2mm. It offered a variety of colors and needed no refilling, pretty hassle-free if you avoided crushing the tips and kept the caps on. I moved deeper into a .13mm Koh-i-nor from Germany and found it was the smallest tip (capillary action!), but I only bought two of them due to their tendency to dry up (India Ink cartridges). I settled into a refillable cartridge pen by Rotring called a Rapidoliner. It's also .13mm and delivers solid inkflow.

I enjoy doing my own creative art somewhat by my own direction, but I like doing collaborative art much more. I have done some of my best work with other people's words, with other people's background art (ideally watercolors), and other people's subject matter and symbolism. I add my own feelings, art, and design to the piece, but I like the idea of combining multiple artist's work with my own and seeing what comes of it.

The basic process is:
1. Make a drawing in pencil
2. Write text within the lines of the pencil
3. Erase the pencil lines.

I have done some freehand drawings, but they aren't nearly precise enough. I enjoy doing my writing on other people's watercolors since there is a more freely-flowing set of boundaries to deal with, as well as the obvious benefit of a background color to work with.

The metaphor is clear to me, important things come from important beginnings. Wolfram-esque, I see that small changes in simple rules make large complex patterns emerge. I know that this world is made up of good things, that the base unit of the universe is perfect and spirit infused, and I mimic that creation when I make larger pictures from tiny letters. Each letter is essential, and they collaborate to make the larger picture. Although each letter may not be shaped perfectly, each droplet not be exactly placed, they combine with my loving intent to create a larger image of love-art.

I would like to do this art full-time, but I have not been good at archiving or displaying the work for viewing or sale. I have been reluctant to show the pieces I care most about, for some seemingly unknown reason. It could be fear of rejection, I suppose. Most have liked the work, so it doesn't really make sense. I have collected a number of pieces into a portfolio, but have shown it to very few for fear of seeming overly proud of myself or my work. Odd.

In any case, I will try to put links to jpg's on the blog at some point. I'd like to share the concept with the world via the web, I just don't want it to look silly or self-aggrandizing. I think it's a great art niche and I'd love to see more of it out there. I suppose I really should take that step myself if I expect others to do the same. Hmm...

Where I'm coming from

What do you say to a man
With a disease and real sorrow,
Who is dying every day?
Do you judge only his actions
Or find out what he’s going through?

What do you say to a man
Whose father doesn’t understand him
Whose mother treated him strictly
Who lives in this country
Of greed and power
And can’t find his way?

I’m doing what I think is right
I’m trying to protect the people I love,
Who’ve been threatened with terror
So instead of waiting,
I put together a plan.

Did you forget he tried to kill
His own people, his neighbor’s people,
And then tried to kill my Dad?
In the name of Jesus, I can’t abide.
In my father’s name, I can’t abide.

Did I do it all right?
I don’t know, but I did what I thought would help.
I try to do right by my daughters,
But I couldn’t see them both graduate because
My motorcade would snarl traffic for miles.

All I ask, is that you remember
Where I’m coming from,
That I’m threatened with violent death
Each and every day of my life
And I’m doing the best that I can.

Biodiesel Career?

I'm in a quandry. It's the same quandary I've been in since graduation from the UW with an English Degree. I feel like I'm underqualified for jobs that I am qualified to do.

By this I mean that I have the basic, intermediate and sometimes expert skills in a particular field but do not have the specific accomplishments, job history, or formal education credentials required by employers.

The conundrum is that I have the capacity to get an education in the field I choose, but it seems to mean that I must put actual work experience off until after I have gathered the appropriate degree.

In particular, the burgeoning world of biodiesel seems to have exploded recently, but nary a job can be found in the industry. I am 2nd degree friends with a number of industry players, I'm intimately connected to a number of diverse biodiesel users and promoters, and I've even done specific biodiesel outreach and education. I'm a great public speaker. This is seemingly not enough, and I am becoming a bit flustered in my struggle.

The job titles I am looking to fill look like "biodiesel advocate" or "biodiesel evangelist" or "biofuels educator". Who offers these jobs? Few to none that I've noticed thus far in my search. Am I not looking in the right places? Not connected to the right people? Do I smell like garlic???

SO, I have looked deeply into starting my own biodiesel station (6 months of research, way too expensive to do at this stage). I've volunteered my time with TUWBA (excellent group, no paying work to be had as of yet). I've petitioned environmental groups and transportation lobbyists. Am I simply too early, or am I literally not qualified?

Any comments would be appreciated...

Science Peace [∞]

glowplug

Science, the study of things-as-they-are that tries to measure reality as accurately as possible.

The basis is quantumphysics, the study of the smallest things possible.

One version of the study is based on the one string of the superstring, the one vibrating base "thing".

I believe in the existence of a universal small thing which builds the entire universe. Its counterpart is the antimatter version of it, displaced exactly by the energy/mass by the smallest thing. The "wave" caused by the "particle".

The wave that bumps immediately into the next wave, and all waves interact with their immediate wave-and-particle neighbors. Equality.

The idea of non-dualism is very scientific. You cannot separate the environment from the thing inside the environment.

There's a huge backstory, but the base of it for me is that I believe that there is a One Smallest Buidling Block, and it resides in the soup of its absence. The darkmatter, darkenergy, antimatter.

I cannot prove this, and there is no way to measure it.

The thing is always going to be an unobservable object because of its size. It is too small to be detected or measured or touch by an instrument of any sort. There are ways to discover where it has been, but no way to see where it is or where it will ever be.

I consider this is very Zen. It was this, but it is now that. It is always moving in time, and time is really a place, it is the various measurements of Now.

I believe in this one small thing and I believe that we must do our personal best to understand what this thing means, this belief in a system, in a religion that still retains the Ultimate Mystery while working to understand everything else.

This leads me into the concept of equality. On a massive scale, the human body is full of a relative GooglePlex of SuperStrings. The numbers are huge, and we are all very close in numbers, relatively. We know that small people are as good as big people, so we can quickly move forward from that.

We're all made up of the same Original Matter, in roughly similar proportions. We are mathematically equal when you think in terms of superstrings instead of massively huge neurons.

Each homo sapiens are the equal in more ways than they are different.

Skin type and religion are not good measurements of worth.

Scientifically.

And if you want to have a "soul", this is what the athiest humanist is referring to, your core, your intrinsic worth as a human.

We all deserve this sovereignty, this ability to refer to myself as 1. One not half. That means human rights, and that means no more warmongering.

No one group is "better" than any other group at our base core. We are built of the same material and breath the exact same earthly air.

Allow scientists to believe in what they believe in. Allow it not to be a religion as you know it. See the scientist as an equal, as a person like you, struggling with the meaning of life, the measurement of life, the improvement of life.

(Stop killing people, all of you. All of us. Stop killing.)

We need to find a way to gather up, to say what we want. We need to do this while providing others the same space.

Science is not incompatible with [∞] or vise-versa. The mystery is simply in a slightly different light.

[∞] and Equality

[∞]:


World Peace:


Systematically,
Sustainably,
Honestly,
Soberly,
Humorously,
Lovingly,
Courageously,
Respectfully,



What I want to do, what I am doing now, is working on the dream of world peace.

I am working on making my daily life into a contribution to world peace.

It was hard at first, even mentioning the phrase, “World Peace” even to my close friends and family. One of my best friends at the time said he was really concerned for my well-being. He was worried that I would engage in an unwinnable fight and become disenchanted.

I am working with you. If you are reading this, then somehow you were called to read it. Someone thought you might find it interesting or enraging or both. Someone in your family or your community said, “Check out this crazy world peace virus message”. You and I are intertwined now.

You also called up this message because you are somewhat interested in the idea of world peace. I need to know what that message was to you. Why were you compelled? Urban Myth? Office Meme? Snow Crash? What was is that made this something to continue reading, or start in the first place?

For me, it was the understanding of the Wheel of Pain mixed with sociological fascination, with a dash of optimism.

I am by nature an optimist. I have figured out a way to make that optimism the baseline of my experience with reality. It is the very core. I worked at this, journaling and struggling to understand life, since birth.

I have been trying to make it all make sense since I can remember remembering. I’ve been frustrated time and again by my own inability to cope with the crushing fact of suffering.

But here's the hint:

Misery and suffering are not permanent conditions.

Please take a look at that phrase and believe it.

Further, suffering is a way of life until you decided to leave that way of life.

That’s the rub, right?

That human suffering is the truth of life, at least until you realize there’s a way out of it.

If you think there is no way out, then clearly there is no way out for you.

If you think there is a way out (or in), then there is a possibility.


I believe in the utter possibility of world peace. It’s not a fantasy that I am willing to ever give up. This fantasy is honest and from my heart: I don’t want anyone on this earth to suffer. Ever again.

I feel that by simply saying “I believe in the possibility of world peace”, I anchor myself into the combined world of the Knowledge of Suffering and the Knowledge of Relief of Suffering.

This is another catch, the oneness of all things as mandated from a one Great Spirit is misunderstood a great deal and we simply have to gather ourselves up and make a universal translation for each other.

We are the human race. We are the One People of the Earth. We aren’t monkeys or whales or aliens. We are human beings on planet earth and we are all in this together, exactly equal in weight of soul.

Each person is a person, and people are easy to clearly define. We are homo sapiens hominids, an animal, and we have the capability to have reason, forethought, do long-range planning, are multiple language conversable, dream-savvy, and metacognitive.

We have the right and the duty to use this designation to make ourselves equal in weight of soul. That is to say, any human rights that it is possible to be endowed with are Universal Human Rights.

This is a large thing to grasp and takes entire lifetimes to understand for most.

We are all equal.

It’s the real underpinning of world peace work. The baseline understanding required to truly move the entire human race forward. That is, we are all worthy of moving forward. We are worthy of Heaven on Earth.

This is a troublesome idea for some. That we are all going to “Heaven” and nirvana, no matter who we are. Your choice is to have that here on earth, or wait until you are in some way judged on the path to your death.

The rub (more rubs?) is that your death is most likely unknown to you. Some do know the time of their death in advance. This is a blessing and a curse for most.

Either way, if you don’t know when you will die, then you have to be ready at any time to reconcile your life with your death.

================

So, if I was addicted to online chat, caffeine, shopping, orgasms, sugar, pain, THC, pleasure, politics, biodiesel, friendships, reconciliation, and progress and had a hard time balancing them all in my life, then I would feel some serious self-hatred at the thought of dying while wasting my time with my addictions.

Since I am or have been addicted to all those things, what does that make me? Unforgivable? No. It just makes it harder on myself, not easier. I don’t always balance those things, (and many of them are pretty wasteful in the proportion that I think I want them). This gives me a huge guilty complex that wastes my life away and I let it do so, until recently.

I feel this overwhelming sense of guilt and stress about not living exactly as I know I should live. I am not doing enough to make my dreams come true, and my dreams are so huge I can barely see the first 1/100th of it at any one time. I am working at it anyway, and will until my death.

World Peace is taking a lot more work than I thought was possible, or necessary. I thought, “if only people knew this one truth, that we’re all equal as humans, world peace (and it’s mystical results) would be just around the corner”. Talk about an exhausting philosophy.

I’m not saying I don’t believe in it, I’m just saying it’s been a huge burden for me.

It’s nearly sacrificial. The trouble is that sometimes I do think in those terms, that I need to make this ultimate sacrifice; I need to offer up my actual life to the cause of this thing.

That was the release.


I am feeling it again as I type it.

The truth is, I am willing to live fully until my death with this dream in my heart. That cannot be taken away from me, regardless of torture or death. I am sacrificing without intending to do so. We are are sacrificing ourselves for our way of life. I take heart in that fact. It equalizes life for me.

This is my internal coping mechanism. This optimism is my salve. It is better than even the best of my addictions, stabilizing and transforming without the side effects. This is the trouble with most of the world; they are okay with the dangerous side effects.

I am an optimist because I looked deeply into myself and realized I was as good as any other person. The same, surely, and even more than that, not worse than any other person.

It’s an odd motto “I’m no worse than you”, instead of its strange cousin, “I’m better than you”.
They are not the same at all, and not opposites despite the desire to make them so. Stay on track...

The deal is:

We’re equal.

You and I, whoever you are. I don’t know you, but I know you are worth the same as I am. Despite every single differentiation that you can come up with, we are equal.

Jesus said it, Abraham said it, Mohammed said it, Vishnu says it, and the Great Spirit says it.

One can’t list in one page the different cultures, societies, religions, and creeds that espouse this one thought.

This is the one thought: We are a part of the Great Spirit, [∞].

It means you have the same relationship to [∞] as I do, a one-to-one.

One to One is also One to Many. [∞] to you is the same as [∞] to your brother, sister, friend, enemy.

[∞] wants us all to see ourselves as Equal. It is the big blasphemy of all time, the idea that [∞] wants this or that from us, other than Peace among ourselves. All humans. All animals if at all possible. If you can muster that, then you eat meat less often, and then think about the environment we all live in.

We are all allotted a little spot of sovereignty, our bodies and the souls they contain.

Our body actually belongs to us, no matter what’s inside it.

We are equal, and in the place that we are un-equal, the ability to bear children, we must equalize as much as possible.

To this I say, healthcare is the most important set of policies to move forward on internationally.
All the money we spend on the aftereffects of bad health care can be cut in ¼ if spent in advance of the health care crisis, no matter the crisis.

Women’s health is the start of it all, the original cycle. She bore you, no matter who you are. (Unless test-tubed, I suppose. Hmm.) It’s essential for women to be able to choose whether or not to take a baby inside her to term, into life.

That’s what I believe and that’s why I believe it. For me, it’s all been intertwined since I was 12.

I have not been a perfect kid by any stretch of the imagination. I have lied, I have done people wrong, I have committed usury, I have sinned. I continue to sin, but in more and more circumspection, and less frequency. This is the goal, to work toward less sin.

I figured out the big sin (for myself). The biggest sin is to regard your neighbor (or stranger) as less worthy than you of living.

This comes in direct conflict with the phrase, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and many other cultural and religious creeds' interpretations of that non-killing directive.

This is then following up on the theme of “I am the Lord your [∞], You shall have no other [∞] but me.”

You (whoever you are) are made in [∞]'s image. Or, you were simply made in your own image, you are a human being. Animals were also made in [∞]’s image, made by [∞] in the first place. Therefore, you are equal. All of you are, all of us are, equal.

"The Ten Commandments", the basis for Christianity and Judaism and all their spawn, are a good idea. Not to be confused with the ONLY idea, but they are a good idea.

Thou shalt not covet is a good idea, isn’t it?

The idea that you should respect your parents, that’s a pretty good idea, right?

These are codified laws for living, and a huge percentage of us humans “believe” in religions that support this basic guide for living.

That’s the key, not the [∞] issue, but the “how do we manage to live on the earth together?” question. That’s the only way, and the cool thing is that if we can finally translate [∞] to ourselves, all the humans, we can agree on some really basic stuff. That makes a path for world peace quickly visible.

True, there are cultures that although they are less in number exert a great deal of force on all other cultures. There are cultures within the human population that actually believe that there is no such thing as equality. They don’t often recognize that we are doing this; we don’t often realize we are doing this.

Any group that believes that it is better than another group intrinsically believes that there is a born-into-ness about being “good” or “evil” or “bad”. This is the simple virus, the Snow Crash.

The basic end result of a group of people who collectively believe that they are worth more than a group or groups of other people, is war.

War is the antithesis of what your [∞] wants you to do with your time. But look how much time and money goes into war. War in all forms. Conflict in general. You and your husband, you and your therapist, you and your computer. Conflict comes from the belief that you are more entitled.

This is the antithesis of progress and peace. It works in the camp of ongoing suffering.

Ongoing suffering is what you get from a concept that your group alone is wise and all other groups are worth conquering.

This is the reason we are fighting a war in Iraq.

We fight in Iraq because we have not handled our energy crisis like adults. We refuse to tell our population that there is a problem, that we don’t have this huge cache of money anymore, we are in real international debt, we are living on a credit card that we put our children into slavery to pay off.

This is misery, this is suffering, and this causes others to suffer.

There is no need to kill other people if you can communicate with them honestly. You’ll find out the answer that is known already: We are all equal.

There is a base of goodness and rightness that you cannot escape. You can be deaf, blind, green, young, dead, or missing all your limbs. You are still the same in your core, your soul.

The soul is real; it’s the sacred mystical place that you are built upon, your core. The soul is the deep place that cannot be sullied. People have gone to great lengths to ignore this fact. That all souls are equal. That makes all people equal.

It’s not as kooky as you’ve been lead to believe.

It’s not new-age. It’s logical spiritualism.

It just makes sense to join the largest group you can, and I think the best place to start.

Start with equality and move out from there.

“We are all [∞]’s Children”.

Pretty direct stuff. The rest has to be aligned with this first thought.

If you believe in the concept of Genesis, that there was nothing and then something, called into being by an already existing [∞], then you will eventually arrive at “we’re all equal”.

I know of pretty much just my own experience of the world, but this is it.

I am optimistic, I am a sinner, and I am convinced that World Peace is worth living for.

Women's Right to Vote

All women must be able to vote


What first? What do we do when we get the Power that we keep asking for?

I think we might have lost sight of the vision, let our eyes drift away from the prize a bit.

I have been trying to straighten stuff out in my mind about that.

The conclusions I have come to are not new, but they are somewhat new to me.

Women need to vote. All women need exactly the same voting rights and abilities as men. This can change a great deal about the way the world runs. Women in places of power and international influence are perhaps the key to world peace more than any other struggle.

Women and men deserve the exact same right to vote and express themselves politically.

Could it be that the true struggle is there? Not in energy policy or economic progress or even human rights. I suppose it is by its nature about human rights, but specifically gender rights.

Maybe it’s the biggest next battle we have. Not in America so much as Africa, Middle-East, Asia, South America. Women need to be able to take the entire day off to vote every year.

Much of sane policy and civil society is catapulted forward when women are given the same access to democracy as men. Faster and more thoroughly in many cases than most other policies.

Give women the universal right to vote and equal access to freedom of speech and you will get a society that functions, on the whole, more progressively, more equitably to all people regardless of creed, color, sexual orientation, geography, age, and religion. They (women) just have a better track record of not going to war at first provocation. This is a pretty significant trait.

Women also seem to be interested in healthcare and health in general. This is good overall policy. It reduces much suffering when we focus on figuring health care out.

Women's voting rights leads to local and world peace.

Biodiesel Nirvana

The Deepest Thing


Sitting under the bodhi tree, 7 days of pure introspection.

What is inside me?

What am I doing here?

Why continue living?

What’s the Way?

How do I help relieve the suffering of others?

Who is with me?

What is the very next step?


And finally,

With a pleasant sigh,

A growing smile,

And a laugh,



Full Release…



[∞]


*


The ego and the self are bid farewell, and they are finally happy to go.

This will be regarded as heresy:
It never required the ingestion of any particular food, drink or drug,
it doesn’t require your solemn vow.
It happened to Him the same way it can happen to You.
He’s just a place-holder. Buddha or [∞] or Science.
A simple reference point, a direction to go towards.
It may happen when you are asleep!


It’s the simple moment when you realize:

It’s all connected.

I’m directly connected.

I’m thankfully and blissfully the same

We’re all in this together,

Suffering alongside each other.

And the Way is to act selfishly and selflessly to remove that suffering.



======================

It’s almost too abstract, it’s almost too easy. In fact, it’s ridiculously easy and that’s when people put their feet down and demand a refund. They think they need to hurt themselves to prove their loyalty or determination. This is not so, but all the money and energy in the world is currently being funneled from people and the earth into war machinery and blind violent faith.

They want to PAY to play. They want to SACRIFICE. The trouble is, there has already been plenty of sacrifice. The truth is that further sacrifice is a huge dishonor to those who’ve gone before you, to your ancestors. There is no need for further sacrifice.

This is the essence of the absolute tyranny of war: That the dead before are desecrated by the continued need to fight war irrespective of the circumstances.




If you are not defending yourself, you are attacking.


The war in Iraq is a war not a war of defense but one of aggression.

If we are to understand peace in any way, then we must by our nature lend a hand in protecting the innocent from suffering. By that, I mean all people deserve freedom from suffering. We are all innocent, even the guilty. We are all worthy of life and love, and none (not one) of us “deserves” punishment or death, irrespective of even our worst actions.

This is the ultimate insistence from all of our [∞]. Science, laws, religion, philosophy, cultures over time, all insist that we end War. Our collective body has learned its lesson from war. War is actual hell and we should plan out a way for All of Us to reduce our collective time in hell.

Hell, (blasphemy again?) is found right here on earth, if we tacitly allow or encourage the suffering of others. Even if you have suffered, especially if you have suffered, the way to end suffering is obvious: do not spread that suffering from yourself to others.

This is the crux of it. When you violently act outwardly, it threatens to kill others or damage the world. No matter the expression, no matter the intent, violence is simply allowing or encouraging suffering.

This is what we mean by saying no to torture. It doesn’t matter what a person has done, we need a universal human pact against the practice of torture. This is the sole purpose of the UN and any unified national group established to promote peace among nations and peoples. This is why there are people in the USA (and elsewhere) who want the UN to be abolished. There are people that are financially invested in the continuation of war. There is no other reason for this.

People who believe in their hearts that it’s a good idea to torture one or more other people in order to reduce the suffering of their own people are ensuring that the torture cycle continues. This is an unwinnable strategy. If you torture any one person of a group, the entire group is being tortured. They usually therefore reserve the right to torture the first group in order to stop their own from being tortured. There is no end to this cycle.

Ask any truly honorable military person and they will all tell you that allowing any kind of torture will always guarantee a longer war, a bloodier war, a huge history to overcome. Torture (even clandestine torture as we have seen in Abu Ghraib and in secret CIA prisons around the globe) leads to torture. It is the perfect way to guarantee the entire population will rise against you. Not just those who have had family who have been tortured, but the entire population.

Torture must end, and it must end for all people, forever. This is not a fire drill, this is a not a prediction. Continuing to encourage physical and mental abuse of prisoners (no matter intended the outcome) makes every bit of war more deadly, less likely to bring about real change, and usually ensures that your soldiers (or civilians) that are captured by the group that has been tortured, will surely be tortured.

This is how war works.

This is how the world will die before our eyes, at our very hands, and we will all be guilty of guaranteeing our own miserable suffering suicides.

That is why we vow to resist all torture.


If you are a fellow peace-worker (either in practice or in philosophy), then you are called by your heart to end all suffering. If you don’t wish the termination of all suffering, then you are not peace-working. It is as beautiful and simple as that.

To that end, If you love peace at all, regardless of religion, creed, color, gender, geographical location, etc. etc, you are called upon now and every minute of your life to end the suffering that comes from war. It sounds odd, but it’s a simple piece of logic: Peace-lovers are driven to end War.

This is not an option, and your ancestors would (to the one of them) insist that you finally understand, once and for all, that Peace is the only answer to “how will this problem of our suffering be solved?”

And it logically follows (and simultaneously precedes) that the Way to Peace is Food.

Food is one of the best paths to peace. Suffering ends for billions of people when they have enough food to eat. There is enough food on the earth to feed all its people, regardless of race, creed, religion or color. There is enough food, and people do not own food. Food is the earth itself and you do not own it. It belongs to all of you, each to their own need. The way to end all suffering, then is simple: Establish a way to allow all people to get the food they need, everyday, to survive. IF you still want more food, you have to wait until everyone else that needs it gets it first.

All nations must work on this, all at once, all year during 2006. Right now is of course the optimal time to begin the process, and the more “right nows” we get to the more Right Now comes closer for us all.


These, then , are the things that you cannot own more than what you personally can consume:


Air for yourself and your family to breathe.

Water for you and your family to drink.

Food for you and your family to eat.

Shelter for you and your family to live beneath.


For some, even the family part is omitted. And still others, the shelter part is omitted.

But if you do the math, the sociological and biological research, you will find that there are more than enough resources on the planet for the entire planet to survive quite easily.

Once this is realized, and you are a peace-worker, you will realize that you cannot partake in activities that avoid the work of distributing the Clean Air, Clean Water, Healthy Food, to all people. The rest of it is not as crucial. For some, shelter is crucial and so is a form of heatlh care, but there must be a clear path.

Food Distribution is one direct path to Peace.

============================



Energy distribution is also a direct path to peace. The best way to ensure both happen is to make the energy that we need to progress (usually in the form of electricity or horsepower) with seed oil crops or algae production on our own countries’ land. If we do not have land, neighboring countries would benefit by sharing their land for energy production for the region.

Biodiesel is the most current, easiest to produce, least-dangerous, least toxic, least chemically harmful, least likely to generate the need for war fuel. It will be overwhelmed in about 5-7 years by other superior solutions, but biodiesel is the fastest and most sensible use of time, money and energy investment. It’s better than military spending when it comes to national defense. It’s better than taxes or advertising.

Biodiesel doesn’t require the upgrading of the energy infrastructure, it doesn’t use hydrogen gas as its fuel. It helps farmers. It won’t require changing our basic car-driving overnight. It won’t hurt kids. It won’t kill wildlife when spilled in mass quantities. It won’t combust when you drop a lit match in it. It won’t require military protection here or abroad. It’s just a different form of diesel fuel.

It can liberate the entire world from suffering. It can be made with waste animal fat, vegetable oil, or algae. It can be produced locally and used locally. It does not require cross-continent pipelines to be protected with heavy artillery or soldiers. It does not require drilling into the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. It does not require huge research and development budgets. It can be stored in plastic containers. It can be used in home heating oil, it reduces sulfuric acid emissions and therefore acid rain. What else do you want? What more do you need? If you’ve got a better solution that can be acted on right now, I’d love to hear it.

Eventually, electric cars might work out well, but that electricity has to be created, why not create that power without nuclear waste, hydroelectric dams, or world war? Why not generate all power without petroleum? It can be done, but not overnight. The best thing to do is A) Believe it can be done eventually and B) do seomthing right now to help.

I have found biodiesel and it helps. The only group that might fight this very subtle change in behavior are the big oil companies. They have much to loose when power production moves away from petroleum oil combustion. We all know that they can get into a different business with all the money they have, but they insist on making more money and fighting anything that reduces their hold on money and power.

This is how the war in Iraq is fought: with money derived from oil, in order to protect large quantities of oil for our consumption and control. There is no other reason. Saddam Hussein is not a threat. Iraq is not a threat. Big Oil is a real threat to your security, health and happiness.

More than that, our own isolationist ignorance and fear allow entities like Big Oil to convince our government (with money or threats) to sacrifice our soldiers (mostly young people) to protect it with war.

You can do something right now about this: Sell your current car and buy a used (or new if you must) diesel car and fill it with biodiesel or if you are adventurous, heated straight vegetable oil. If you don't drive, you can simply recommend the idea to others. Tell them that Jetta TDI's get 45mpg and can run on non-petroleum vegetable diesel. Tell them to talk to me about it! Go to NBB.org and learn before you decide. Happy Biodesel!

Biodiesel Peace

biodiesel peace

Fuel from algae-based oil can gradually replace petroleum diesel as our major fuel source. (Google algae and biodiesel)

Incentives and profits can be shifted from petroleum-based fuels by citizen or government action. (Google fuel tax incentives)

Vehicle Manufacturers can produce more diesel hybrid cars and trucks, the transportation industry can use increasingly higher blends of biodiesel to petrodiesel. (Google VW, Mercedes, Daimler/Chrysler)

With less dependency on oil in general, our dependency on foreign (and I by this I mean, not in your particular geographic region irrespective of national borders) is reduced in particular.

With less dependency on foriegn oil, less international disputes over energy and oil will be required.

World Peace has more of a fighting chance to be discovered/enacted/effected by 2020.

Simultaneous collaboration

Massively Parallel Processing Peace Outlilne


1. Take 5 minutes, meditate, dance, read.
2. Play some music, then Fill in blank
3. Brainstorm
4. publish or broadcast
5. Edit and improve
6. publish and broadcast again
7. Eat or drink something healthy
8. Get ready for work, then get to work.


Simultaneous Positive Collaboration.

Fancy name for "working together at the and having a good time at the same time", but it's more important to me than that.
The thing that we need to DO as we move closer to the ability to people to share some BIG thoughts is to do so slowly and deliberately. That's the first guideline.

The second guideline I suggest is that all suggestions are responded to with "yes, and..."
This is what is required when things are happening in the now. (Can't help but happen in the now, because that is the Way...)

Peace is working together. Peace is not just working at peace together, in fact, that's a good way to unnecessarily delay peace for yourself. It's probably not readily seen, but the discussion is now clouding the best practices for action.

Concrete heartfelt steps can include a thought experiment on peace creation from within.
(That's the first step to peace, and that's the wacky tragedy). I believe the only way (and the slow way) is to understand peace from your own point of view, very deeply.

Preparations for understanding your own point of view:

Get right with yourself for at least 5 minutes. It's not a long time, but it's important not to rush into it.
Meditate or look at something growing for 5 minutes. Just leave the war behind for 5 minutes.

To some this will seem like a crazy delay. Why not just get to the answer if you think you have it?! Why, when people are dying right now, right this second, are you not sharing your secret to realizing Peace?!

If you want that, just cut straight to the bottom, but donÂ’t say I didnÂ’t tell you soÂ…

For those who arenÂ’t used to just going right to it and accepting, these steps are pretty important.

Take 5 minutes to yourself. This is the most political thing you can possibly do, and it starts with, YOU.

This may seem somewhat contradictory to people who think that putting you into the mix first is sacrilege, but those who believe that we were all made in the image of [∞] will see that this is the best place to start.

Take 5 minutes to yourself. If you have to read, re-read this suggested primer or a bit of a short story, preferably something about peace whatever it is.

It’s akin to the “Room of one’s own” that Woolf spoke of, that 5 minutes to yourself is your room. You can take it anytime you want. I suggest not taking 10 minutes for many reasons, but you can do what you’d like in the name of Peace.

Then, fill in the blank in the following thought experiment.



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Thought Experiment for Peace:

" __________________________" is the key to the whole puzzle.

Just take a look at it, really "yes-and" it in your mind and heart, then slowly fill that word or phrase in.
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ItÂ’s 8 minutes from when you started, and you have to remember that you canÂ’t actually spend the whole day doing this stuff. You have to have to get off the computer and get out there and work. If you are lucky, then your work is about this very topic of peace, but you have to get back out there and work.

Once you have taken the 5 minutes, filled in the blank anew, then I suggest you do a little brainstorming.

BRAINSTORMING

Once you have taken 5, focused your thoughts on the phrase/word/idea you want to link to and from, itÂ’s a good idea to get together with other people and discuss those ideas. That often requires a community of some sort to do most effectively, but a group of 2 people will do. This is your brainstorm group, whether you thought so or not. A place in space and time must be made to discuss whatÂ’s on your mind.

Try your hardest to make at least one brainstorm group within your closest friend or partner. If you have neither, make it a brother or sister, if you have neither, make it your mother or father, kids or close kin. If you have no close kin, make it a friend. It’s different brainstorming, but your friend is only slightly less ideal, considering genetics and the ability to “share thoughts”.

Share the biggest thoughts on your mind. Do it over the phone, do it over internet chat, do it in person if at all possible.

RECORD AND INDEX THE BRAINSTORM

If possible, put the brainstorm directly into the Network. Label it, make it anonymous if you wish, but do it truthfully. Make it digital and share it as soon as you can do so. Blogging is the most simple and free version of this expression. Make a list serv of you donÂ’t want to go instantaneous.

Do it with as much richness and directness as possible. DonÂ’t use this space for rantings and

BRAINSTORMING INTO THE HOPPER

The hopper is pretty much the entire collected information that we have access to, the parallel processor of the Network. Call it the Internet if you wish, but itÂ’s just the big collection of processors that are running applications across and within them.

Putting your thoughts into the hopper is as easy as typing or writing them up. The rest is simply elementary publishing. The idea that free Network access will be universal is, in fact, universal. ItÂ’s in our evolution. We are moving always towards Open Information Age. Not just the Information Age, but the Open Information Age. ItÂ’s an essential distinction.

The ShortcutÂ…


LOVE:

This is the only shortcut to world peace available. You canÂ’t make world peace through war, people remember when their families are split apart by war and that memory clouds their ability to see peace as realistic and true.

It would be a misreading of my suggestion to think I am putting me, a mere human being, above [∞] in importance simply because I put it first in the suggested order.

Love of self must come first, because you must believe that your version of Love is a good version. You must believe you are simply worth understanding what Love is in the first place, and therefore you are worth even some small amount
Of love by default.

Then, love of family (if still alive and known) is next. Get that down, because most war is at itÂ’s heart, family-driven from itÂ’s base, where kids are taught what war (or peace) is in the first place.

Once you have at least loved your family (even if your family doesnÂ’t seem to be loving you), you can move on to the community, the Earth (all other communities), and then the Entire Universe, [∞].

ItÂ’s not a panacea, since you can still try to harm those you love, but you have to do things logically. Love as much as you can, as many as you can (obviously, the closer people are to you geographically, the easier they are to love/understand. Practice practice practice.

I will try to expand upon these guidelines as often as I can, but suffice it to say, that this would be a good start to it all. If I wrote no more about how to create world peace, I would have done a pretty good effort today, methinks.

Love Self
Love Family
Love Community
Love Earth
Love Universe

(The above is a list of things you might consider loving, in the order suggested. Remember that people who believe in a strict constructionist [∞] can consider the entire list as one iteration of the Great Spirit you believe in.)

World Peace by 2020

It's not just possible, it's inevitable. New levels of community and communication provide all the tools (mostly free) to gather people up, make informed decisions about voting, rights, security, and everything else needed to make local peace. From there, we share our best practices and methods for local peace at regional and state levels. The constitution still puts states first, and we can influence the states we live in far more now than we ever have been able to. Thus, we can put real pressure on our national government if need be. Truth is, putting groups together locally will do most of the heavy lifting anyway. With the USA emerging as a peace leader once again, we can usher in an era of growth and peace in relatively short order.