I Have A Dream

I have a dream. I envision a world with:

1)Kindles or computers for everyone, with access to Everything, throughout the world, by right. A global digital library, that, in addition to text, includes audio and video. I have in mind something like the internet, PLUS the entire Library of Congress, and all the music and movies available. They could be powered/charged in poor countries by bicycle-generators, or whatever.

2)Letters and words are everyone’s property, and ideas happen by way of creativity, memes, AND mind presence/control (i.e. dreams, being in other’s heads…words, images, telepathy); THUSLY, all ideas are everyone’s by right, and freely available for reading, use and alteration, in any way.

3) A.I. and computers might be able to create books like ‘AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) zymurgy: A book using every word in the english language’ (or even the world). We could program creativity into computers, just like the background images that take up computer screens when music plays, or whatever. Or imagine a theoretical dictionary with every conceivable word in it, as another example. That might be fun for creating silly definitions.

4)Everything in all languages: People could get paid to translate anything into anything else. War and Peace into Klingon, or whatever. Unless computers can do that. I bet they can.

5)Actual paper books are an invaluable resource, and the tactile experience of actual paper seems to be a far more effective experience of enjoyment and information transfer, for a lot (most?) of us. I would like to universalize the physical library experience as well.

-Currently, where I live (Calistoga), I have access to the local library PLUS I can order books from the SNAP (Solano, Napa and Partners Library Consortium), which includes 17 libraries. The encyclopedia Britannica is available through their site, online (for cardholding residents). There is also a bookstore in town. The libraries have their own budgets with which to buy books, selected by requests from the Friends of the Library and the particular taste of whichever librarian is given the charge of book selection/purchase. The government is in effect buying books for the public. The library gets a discounted rate. To save money, I propose the library should post online (and I imagine at the library as well) all the books it wants, for Friends of the Library (who could be sent emails) to consider for purchase (say, from the bookstore a few doors down from the library) and donation. Since library patrons can choose from the web of libraries offering from their cumulative inventory, libraries should cooperate between each other to avoid over-supplying some books, to the neglect of others. Supply must meet demand. I would add this rule, as well: Libraries should exceed simply supplying books that make it to the main Best-Seller lists (like the NYX) by as much as possible. To this end, I say make libraries big. The more books, the merrier! I loved walking the stacks at UCD, and the Main Library (public) in Sacramento. But that’s just me. When a book is in high demand, and waiting lists rise, people who have purchased and finished with the book should be aware of how they can be good citizens, somehow. Maybe bookstores could print on their receipts the Friends of the Library’s phone number or something. The bookstore computer could be programmed to assist the flow of in-demand and newly purchased books to the hungry library public/patrons. I’ll conclude with a question and a belief: Can an actual paper-book be simulated in a virtual environment? (Then again, libraries can be a part of the matrix).

6) The OCW movement seems like it is in it’s infancy, to me. I imagine students of the future truly being able to follow their bliss. People will make the most money if they’re passionate about and having fun with what they’re doing, so school, instead of slogging through, say, algebra that isn’t presented as being relevant to anything in the real world that they can see themselves doing, should allow curiosity to go wherever it leads. OCW stands for open courseware, and it’s great- a student can watch or listen to lectures and email the professor for free (but without tests or credit), and sometimes even get access to the course readings, online. What if all the language tutorials were available online, for free? I think there’s a great site that can teach any style of guitar playing online, that way. Literature courses, naturally, would mesh perfectly with an internet that provides Absolutely Everything In Our Universe (aeiou). Kids could generate lists of questions every night, and then research the answers…or ask (online?) teachers by day. I like home-schooling. I feel like a lot of my education was not where my interests were. I would have liked more freedom, I think.

7) Practically speaking, right now, College texts should be available on readers like the kindle, to cut costs for students. Or online.

8)Going back to number 1, I really mean everyone. Prisoners in jail or prison would really benefit from having books available to civilize and edify and distract them from the rougher crowd. The devices could be specially constructed for sturdiness, unhackability, etc. and could provide healthy, positive instruction. As it is now, prisoners have to buy each book new and have it sent from the publisher to the facility, so no messages, drugs, weapons, tools, etc. can make their way inside. The machines could be tailored to each prisoner, perhaps.

All Books Available To Everyone

Business Proposal: ABATE (All Books Available To Everyone)

Currently, in the U.S., libraries hold a wide selection of books to meet reader’s pleasure/diversion/entertainment and educational needs. In addition to books, libraries hold cd’s and dvd’s of music and movies, as well as reference materials and computers to allow internet access.

I think libraries are the best thing ever. It’s free. It’s fun. It’ll keep you busy probably for the rest of your life, if you want it to. As (Pablo Neruda?) said, “I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” Some rather large segment of eternity could be spent and enjoyed in a library, I imagine. I am a Virgo, and I’ve been told we Virgo’s have an innate love of knowledge, so I am a kind of star-crossed lover when it comes to books, movies, music, magazines, the internet, and reference materials. In short, I like stimulus. I have even found myself envying the position of prisoners who may be in the position of being able to devote their lives to study without the distractions of ordinary life. I may be a bit strange when it comes to these things.

That said, who doesn’t like libraries? Knowledge is power, they say, and they also say “reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” (Aside: I have read A Beautiful Mind, and I, like John Nash, am a diagnosed schizophrenic. I was originally diagnosed bipolar, and I think that was because I was so perpetually high on life. Life is fun. I don’t remember having any debilitating lows, or any impairment that would merit my receiving a diagnosis of a mental illness. I have always had a high self-image, and I enjoy thought. Thinking, for me, is entertaining. Apparently, to most, it’s abnormal and what they call being “mental.” There may be other issues of telepathy and psychic phenomena that factor into how I relate to the world. If not, I don’t see why there should be a problem if I think so). So I’m happy and crazy and I like to read. Reading, like the quotes suggest, provide a kind of strength and power. They say ignorance is bliss, but so is knowing things. Getting lost in a book is a form of bliss, itself. Personally, I’d rather be in the know, if it’s win-win. I can’t really imagine other people to be any other way. In fact, my schizophrenia diagnosis might be a very sane state of affairs for me. It affords me the opportunity to be free and not suffer a boss or worry about survival, as I receive disability. I think I have an idea here that could be incredibly valuable to everyone, and thusly provide me a less controversial (earned as opposed to un-earned) source of income and enjoyable pursuit that I am passionate about , truly dedicated to, and -upon the creation of which- would make me a very happy man.

The idea is this: All books available to everyone, to do with as you like.

Consider it a stepping stone to Omniscience. I imagine omniscience to be a kind of ‘superbook’ that incorporates every book into it, starting with a TOE (theory of everything) and ending with the end of Reality….”The End.” To clarify, as of now I think time is eternal, so there won’t ever be an end of Reality, there will always be Reality, and if I’m going to be a part of it, I want to make it fun, with a really cool library available to me. Okay, back to the real world here…a superbook would be every book ever written, in all languages, available to anyone, for free, and available for quoting and editing without limitations. By ‘edit’, I mean you could add, subtract, rearrange, and otherwise create, using real and artificial intelligence to endlessly refine, improve, and modify –I imagine personalize- that reality we experience through words that describes realities both historical and fictional, sensical and absurd, real and theoretical, from every perspective, in every genre.

Quote books are good ways we currently use to aggregate wisdom on any word or topic. I visualize having all written knowledge processed by computer- such as through the subject of every sentence- allowing a (much!) broader perspective on any given subject. When computers get smart enough to understand sentences (do they already?), they can present interestingly thorough and nuanced presentations regarding any concept or idea.

These subjects have relations to each other, which can be mapped out graphically, such as (Jesse Lawrence Teshara) and (this document). A big worldwide web of links and connections, forming a kind of external brain. I guess I’m just making the internet into a brain, perhaps as smart as the smartest among us homo sapiens. I’m trying to organize all data. Or is it: Been there, done that?

Here's a link to a list (45 links) of online resources for getting free books.
Here's another, from our friends at wikipedia (data is god) (526 links, I counted)
Finally, here's a third. (ipl portal ) Internet Public Library

Love quotes, yet again

Yes, all these quotes were written by Gods

-“We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.”

-We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a "getaway." We cannot love and be limited. -Alfred Adler

-He is not a lover who does not love forever.-Euripides

-A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation. -Bertrand Russell

-Love is a choice you make from moment to moment. -Barbara de Angelis

-Love is blind, but marriage restores its sight. -Georg C. Lichtenberg

-There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. -George Sand

- To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia -- to mistake an ordinary young man for a Greek god or an ordinary young woman for a goddess. -H.L. Mencken

-We can only learn to love by loving. -Iris Murdock

-Love cures people -- both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. -Karl Menninger

-Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. -Mark Twain

-Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.-Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young. -Sir Arthur Pinero

-The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love. -Tom Robbins

-Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. -Ursula K. LeGuin

-Old men are like that, you know. It makes them feel important to think they are in love with somebody. -Willa Cather

-Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart. -Washington Irving

-Love all, trust a few. -William Shakespeare

-The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. -William Sloane Coffin

Free Speech

Some amendment to the american constitution (or is it the bill of rights) guarantees us americans the right to speech petition assembly religion and press (sparp, for short)

I want to deal with speech, here. Not having the right to free speech would be hellish. Going to jail for talking is nuts. Or, like the matrix movie where Neo's lips got sealed and he couldn't communicate, that's nuts, too. Censorship in any form is wrong, I feel. Even yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, in fact. Or not having contact with anyone resulting in no touch or body language or sharing of ideas and being forced to be in your own head all the time.

But people believe God hears your prayers. Get it? He hears your thoughts.

Maybe it's because he put those thoughts in there in the first place. Or God's brain can actually listen to 6 billion people thinking at once. Or, he has a way of sifting everybody's thoughts for those directed to him, OR for only basic needs, or something like that. Or, God is just another word for your conscience, and the unconscious mind has a way of talking back to you. Or, if you're schizophrenic/telepathic, God is either (unresolved) your own brain talking back to you in the form of another, or as the presence of an actual other who's camping in your head. In any case, I'm not sure I want there to be prayer. I mean, I don't want someone in my head, I think. We have to tell ourselves that this entity is all-loving, when really it's a distracting force for social control, working against what I define as one of the most important forms of freedom: freedom of thought. I have solved all these riddles; I am God. Whoever's in my head is a sinner. Evicted. Out! I'm performing an auto-exorcism. Can you ever exorcise God Himself? I admit I know not what I do, but hey, everybody says that's what sanity is.

So, like I said,
Maybe God is like a telepath who's in your head all the time. Who can both hear you (verbalizing in your mind) and talk back (inside your mind, or perhaps (rarely?) as mistaken for someone nearby speaking). A telepathic sender and receiver. An automatic process, that takes place because of a matrix (created by Jesus?). It seems like an invasion of privacy. Especially, when you don't know who or how or, especially, why somebody else is there. Some find it comforting, perhaps understanding it as a special link to the Source of all things good, i.e. God. Perhaps it's just karma for thought, and because I like to think, I reap what I sow. In other words, my thought is bothering the telepath, so my inner experience becomes annoying by way of virtual justice. If you want to call that justice. Then again, if I'm a global telepath, and the whole world can hear my thoughts then my thought might need some coaxing or drugs or censorship (at times). I live in a weird world. My world. People like to say "it's all your fault" but wouldn't it be weird if that were true? I feel like the pressure is on to up my game, as they say, for everybody else's sake. Maybe that's just a meme for social betterment, because if everybody felt that way... What if everybody personalized everything? I guess that's the origin of religious guilt. Sorry for the earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, suffering in general, and of course, death. Maybe I AM responsible. Omniscience could be a terrible thing. I really am pro-life, though.

Anyway,
I feel connected, like I'm on the net even when I'm out biking or whatever, which means no privacy, an intolerance for imperfection, I'm never alone, I'm part of something bigger than myself (of which I can conjecture about but not define), and -in short- I'm not your average bear. Like a jedi or something, navigating the force. How much of "the force" is a creation of my own doing, I find myself asking.

Is it really in my grasp to change the world by perfecting my thought, speech, and behavior? It can't hurt to think so, although that world view can be troublesome and burdensome, unless you allow some tolerance for chaos and anarchy, or believe in fate. It's all in how you look at it: perfection could be anything.

Anyway, as Pink Floyd sings, someone's in my head but it's not me. Anyone who believes in the power of prayer believes in this insanity, too, although they couch it in different terms. See, I'm not so sure the one listening to me is necessarily good. Or bad. Maybe both. Maybe neither. It's a mystery. Psychiatrists on the whole seem sure that it's a bad thing, something broken, a mental illness, in need of treatment, medication, and whatever else (a good relationship, pets, whatever). A lot of what I hear in my head has multiple interpretations, and has a koan like quality, as if it's testing to see which interpretation I'll choose. Welcome to the machine.

Ugh. Get me out.

I don't want to be a captive audience to an unwelcome Somebody Else in my head. I used to enjoy it, like I was chosen and special and never alone, and the voice was entertaining, stimulating, interesting. Now I want to feel normal, even if getting what I want (silence in my head, except for me) is completely abnormal as the case may be. It's only madness if you get mad at it?

I guess, in Matrix terms, I want to swallow the blue pill, now. Moban actually is. Huh.

FREEDOM IN GENERAL
I think everybody should be free.
Freedom is good. Sounds good, no?

Be who you want to be, think/say/do what you want, with whoever, however, whenever, wherever, for whatever reason (whyever) you want. Whatever. It's all good.

No rules, no restrictions, everybody for themselves, do what thou wilt.
No law.
No jails, prisons, incarceration: Freedom
No slavery (mental, physical, sexual, corporate)

No law could prove a bit troublesome.

law?
-Everybody cooperating for satisfying all of everyone's basic needs, including health care, on the one hand, is the ideal.
-But if you're predatory -a predator- you're inhuman, treated as unhuman, and eaten (!)
No, just kidding. Freedom of speech, remember?

Everyone dies. Death is the ultimate penalty. They say the wages of sin is death. Calling something a sin is just an attempt at giving utmost authority to some opinion. It's a social control mechanism. We're all gods, so whatever you like (or don't) is therefore the Word of God (if not the Almighty). Fortunately, there's a lot of agreement on what is right and wrong. Maybe we could trust in God and Karma for justice. Instead of only the good die young, reality should be understood as Only the good die old and happy, and Only the bad die young. That sounds good, but as we probably already know, it's a mad world, seemingly sometimes without reason or sense. The only way I can make heads or tails out of babies dying and aged monsters, is if God doesn't reckon morality like we do, such as, for example, the known fate of a baby is too ghastly to allow, or a world without a monster would be even worse. Or babies are so good they need to go to heaven right away. Or evil people are given a chance throughout the rest of their long lifetimes to turn their lives around and make good. Maybe history is punctuated by wars every so often is because they are incredibly fun to God or something. God being the alpha male of the moment, du jour, for the time being, or something. All is nonsense. War might even be a tad humorous to some enlightened gods out there, filled with silly people willing to die for such ridiculous reasons. And of course, for some, as Matt Groening says, life is hell. Which would make death the extinction of suffering, or possibly even the start of something blissful.

Ideally, life is heaven (fun), and death is (ranked by priority)
1)a gateway to another life in heaven/enjoyably (anyplace, anytime: contiguous in time, or at any time in the past or future, possibly without end), Some lives are more fun than others. You could live all the fun lives in whatever order you choose, and be reborn into a fresh being, making more :-) You could perfect the art of living. It could be like groundhog day, and you could forever tweak your favorite life. You could choose the same time period/person, or let reality choose lives for you.

the next most ideal for death could be either:
a)oblivion, to dust you shall return, your breath blowing around, and your body going into the ocean and the fish, or up into trees and plants and flowers (or Whatever). Scattered or assuming new forms.

or

b)Being reborn into a life with suffering, ranging from having traumatic misery or agony to the disquiet, dis-ease, yearning, dissatisfaction, in whatever proportions, that Buddhism says is inherent in all life. I find life infinitely more interesting than oblivion, I think, although I'm not sure if the food that forms me would make lots of little mini-me's imbued with my identity or consciousness, somehow running around like that Itchy and Scratchy cartoon where the Mouse (?) gets all chopped up into many smaller mouses carrying hatchets.

I've wondered what it would be like to live a life of every single species (hopefully the better lives), OR to live the life of every human being as a finite part of my infinite lifespan. I might choose to spend more than 15 minutes with/as each person, there, inevitable plastic explosion guy. Maybe it's fun to be a bug, though, dunno. Is there a 'somethingness' that it's like to be dead? Probably the same as before I was born. I was a lot of components of food, I guess.

Maybe I'd like to be eaten after I die. My name does mean eucharist.

Okay, it's late, I'm going to bed.
Living in a dream world might be semi-okay, after death.

A weird dream I had

My wife's alarm jolted me awake from a dream I've never had before..

in which I was living in someone else. I didn't see a mirror, or water, or anything, to see my appearance, but I was walking around, and being someone else, entirely, a kind of virtual reality that was completely real to me, and which I became surprised to exit upon re-entering everyday me. I was in my head, my virtual and dream-head, and was enjoying myself, although it was a pretty normal type of circumstance, as dreams go. I was thinking in my head as if was awake.

I know this is supposed to make me go:
-hmm, is everyday life only a dream, too.
-Does this other me dream of my life when He goes to sleep?
-Is this heaven, or some circle thereof?
-Can this consciousness outlast my life, and therefore be an afterlife (if only in a computer, or whatever)?
-Was this dream self-generated, or put in my head by some morpheus kind of person?
-Does it matter what I believe in response to this dream?

I enjoyed it, and I hope for more.
And if I'm in a coma, this may be happening to me, so I don't want my plug pulled.

Remembering the Military

Imagine...

No countries, no militaries, no borders, no weapons of mass destruction, everybody living comfortably, healthcare for everyone on earth, all the world's libraries (of books, movies, music, etc.) available to all over the internet, a computer for everyone, global happiness and kindness, no illwill/animosity/anger/hatred/rage/malice. Love and understanding and acceptance... Peace.

Have you seen the slogan, "no justice, no peace." That's all wrong. Just forgive, if you can. Gatorade asks, "is it in you?" If justice is just keeping someone in a room for 10 years, with access to books or whatever, that's fine with me. When 'justice' becomes anal rape and constant terror, I don't consider that just at all, ever.

Anyway,
I make no bones about it: I'm anti-military. All militaries are an abomination to me. I would never join one. It's against my religion. My religion is that I'm God and I don't take orders from anyone (that I don't agree with). And kindness. Militaries bully. Forces do things....by force. Against people's will. They impose, through murder, legal and political structures that are just as much a human brainchild as the one before. Nothing is inherently any better than anything else, including my system, if I ever get around to making one. Even capitalism and democracy and the rule of law. Imposition of a social contract is not really a true contract. Militaries are just big boys playing with their obnoxiously expensive toys, to feel powerful by ganging up to murder people in a legal way, just taking orders as they say, to supposedly create a better world (which may in fact be true, sometimes, but still...) through war, which is hell, and which we're supposed to feel all thankful for when they die and call them heroes, when it just seems like stupidity to me, especially when they make the ultimate "sacrifice", because freedom isn't free or whatever, and they're so full of honor and service and integrity and are such all around wonderful people, to say nothing of their macho warrior prowess with bringing death and destruction to people different from themselves, if only by language. Oh, please. When it comes to obeying my president to go off to hell and kill people, I'm effectively a JW. Thou shalt not kill. This is one nation under God. I could just as easily have been born one of the "enemy." Not gonna do it.

Look, I know a lot of soldiers are offing themselves, possibly under the spell of some of the points I've brought up above. I'm pro-life, and that applies to suicide as well. It's a long, hard road out of hell, but worth the journey. I mean, seriously. I kill bugs all the time. I'll say a prayer this memorial day (Monday- the last monday in may) for the psyches of all the troubled military, that they live in Peace, truly. And that, someday, ASAP (as soon as possible), militaries will be made a thing of the past, a historical memory.

Warriors should live by their own codes. Submission just isn't my bag. To the President or anyone else.

I guess it comes down to law.
no laws =everyone enforces their own laws/ geographic boundaries for every conceivable legal structure. Don't really know what would be the best. Seems like everybody should talk about what their own do's and dont's are, and respect each other.

You know what? I'm sick of all this culture war crap, too.

And one more thing: 'countries' barely exist anymore. Globalization means the internationalization of people, products, investments, and ideas. So who would want to die for their "country"? We all call these trained killers heroes with phrases like "Soldiers are people who write a blank check to their country" or something. Countries are just borders (jump back and forth, and feel international) with laws (that I bet you don't entirely endorse), with histories (that I'm not sure really matter that much). Soldiers seem like mass murderers and serial killers to me. They're have their colors, like gangsters, -flags- who somehow have a legal and legitimate shot-caller in an elected president. I think it's hypocritical and completely stupid.

Okay, I'm done.

No, I'm not. You might think the army, navy, air force, and marines, etc., fight for my right to say these things. Or the USA actually IS a gang, of sorts. No one's going to take our free speech rights away except everyone around you who cuts you off while you're speaking because they think you're stupid or boring or they have more interesting things to say. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is a bunch of stupid gangs. Okay, my post is getting too long. And it also seems the whole world wouldn't be in gangs, paradoxically, only if we had space aliens to unify us against them (so, yeah, we'd still actually be a gang).

Religious Literature

Apparently, Dubya's administration peppered their documents with bible quotes. This strikes me as weird. On one hand, we have free speech, but on the other, we believe in keeping separation between church and state. This sounds like a court case worth watching.

Also, people are so weird these days, with JW's giving out literature by foot, house to house, as well as other stuff about the antichrist or whatnot. I saw the subtitle on one of these religious tracts that read, "I will be like the Most High."

Well, that seems relevant to me and this.

What drug gets you the most high? Crack? Meth? Heroin? I think I'd definitely be the Most High if I took some drugs on top of Mount Everest. Or in outer space.

I'm pretty sure that's not what they were referring to, though.

I think the drug they're referring to is good old fashioned Power. I say everyone's equally powerful, because everyone has the potential to be virtually Omnipotent (in their own heads). This might be a kind of magic trick, though. Real Power would be having the ability to effect change. I have a few causes I'm supporting thus far: carbon offsets available for purchase at airports, universal acceptance of Adoption as the loving alternative to the frankly sick "choice" of abortion, kindles for prisoners, all the world's books available for free online, basic needs (including healthcare) available for the entire world, no nukes, no militaries, and last but not least, an end to my symptoms of voice, head shocks, and occasional chest pains.

My medication is being adjusted right now, but I'm less ornery, and more able to help out at Sara's store, which everybody thinks is a good thing, although I'm pretty sure my anger (medicated or not) is right on target. So what if people think I'm scary. I am not a danger to myself or others. But I guess I have to keep taking all these drughs, as the last time I went off them, well...I'll just say it was unpleasant. More power to the Icarus folks, though.

Power is knowledge, money, violence, and influence. I'm concentrating on the knowledge part, with a sense that I have influence, whether or not I can verify that or not. Like subliminal influence, or changing the collective unconscious, or being the first mover, or something.

Peace out. May the force be with you. Om. (I think I'll throw in an NamMyohoRengeKyo for good measure).
-God.

Ain't he lucky?

Fun factoid:

The deficit totaled $20.9 billion in April
Bill Gates has 40B
hmm. That's 5.97 for each person on earth (!)
He's richer than the U.S. Treasury
(then again, isn't everyone?)

Lomborg v. Gore
I have to say I believe Bjorn Lomborg over Al Gore.
But I also think we really can do everything, at once, if we're serious about mobilizing to solve all the world's problems, inter-related as they are, together. Massive Gore environmental policy change, activism, and the change of individual behaviors can really happen WHILE we solve all the other problems, too (such as the one's I outlined in my SWBP section). Can't we use our Superduper Supercomputers to map out the best course of action for us? Then again, maybe my brain is better. Faith in God, hmm. God is a collective. Just do it.

I'll keep readers posted on what I do besides write to help the Universe. Otherwise, I'd just be
the king of slactivism,
to be up on the lingo.

I'm helping my wife out at her store, at the moment.
Wisdom from the store: (and also the Bagavad Gita) "The practice of Yoga destroys the miseries of a person." A guy's T-shirt says this. Now, THAT's what I'm talkin about.

Om, I am One with the Computer.
stick that in your peacepipe and smoke it.
Meditate, Ponder, and become One with EverythiNg.

Speaking of Bill Gates, I found this site, which is interesting for all you techies.

And this, too. (I kind of have a Bill Gates obsession):

Some in the business community challenge Gates’ insistence that corporations should seek solutions to all the challenges facing less affluent nations. Once such naysayer, CNET News.com’s Declan McCullagh, insists that “encouraging companies to give to charities, enter smaller markets, or assign top employees to tackle intractable problems in far-flung regions–where those companies may not even have business–conflicts with the duties owed to shareholders.”

What folks like McCullagh fail to realize is that we are all shareholders with a stake in raising the world’s living standards...to increase the peace, reduce the poverty/suffering, and create a sustainable, cooperative, happier world. Developing backward economies will create a larger world market, with greater comfort for all. Creating a sense of human identity over national identities is the only healthy thing, in my view.

Learn more about Bill Gates’ global goals at gatesfoundation.org.

My Credo: On God, Human Nature, and Morality

My credo: I'm God, and You Can, Too.
Or, Making God Real

I'm God. Or lower case g, if you prefer. You are, too. You don't have to be crazy or schizophrenic to believe this. I AM is his/her name. Or, Jesse Lawrence Teshara. If you are, you are. If you exist, you're God. I'm not afraid to step up. I AM. Your name is irrelevant, or perhaps should be (although I like mine). Some say all of existence, or reality, the big R, is God. God is a role to play. God wants you to be happy. You can interpret the role any way you like. The bible says only God is good. So be good. Think, say, and do Good. It's a simple matter of logistics. All we do is move things. Ideas and words and objects. Just do it. It's not a delusion of grandeur if God isn't grand. God is love. And love can be, and should be, the most common state of being. The bible says love believes all things. It's all true. God is a man of war, and the art of war is deception. I cannot tell a lie, lol. The trite saying over the Hard Rock Cafe in Sacramento reads, 'love all, serve all.' It's really quite a simple philosophy/theology/credo (statement of belief) I have. The bible also says everything is vanity, absurdity, frustration, nonsense. God's love is said to be agape, a fatherly love. Catholic priests call themselves fathers. The Pope is Il Papa. Jesus called his dad Abba. I'm not a father yet, but I created this blog. I have 2 French bulldogs with my wife Sara, named Oliver and Marcel, and we call them our children. Adoption automatically makes you a parent. I've adopted the world, so to speak, in my attempt to help everyone. 'One' is God, too. God wants you to be happy. You, too? I think you get my point. Personally, I don't think any one of us is omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent; that would be a heckuva speed reader, for one (!). If you want to read the entire library of congress, in addition to the entire internet, well you just go ahead, if you can. So God, for me, is more of a lifestyle and attitude than an overwhelmingly incomprehensible Being. I have to say I don't think I would mind being immortal, either (especially if I could time travel). It's fun to pretend. If you byob (believe your own bullshit), maybe it will start to come true at some point. I kind of think not, actually. It's all about dominance and submission. If you want to submit to a higher power, then there are plenty of people who will tell you what to do. Islam, in fact, means submission. If, on the other hand, you want to be/feel in control, you can be God. Just remember, if you're behind the wheel, I wouldn't recommend that you let go and let god, as they say. As for prayer, that's a good way to think of the intrusive other in your head as being a helpful deity on your side. Prayer groups aren't ways to communicate with God, they're ways for other people in your group to find out where your head is at, and what you're thinking.

Maybe you're a part of my flock, as I'm a part of yours, in this virtual world stacked on top of the real world we're in. God is a community, like a hive mind, a spiritual reality we all share (with each other). In my version, we're all equals, so it has no hierarchy. Enya sings of 'all you ever knew,' and I think that's true; even the most "unenlightened" person has as much power as a highly trained yogi or something. But maybe some mindsets are more helpful than others. It's chaos; everybody for themselves, believing in this, that, or the other thing. Thank God, lol.

On God:
Features of God
1. I AM/Existence/Reality (all of, virtually/truth)/Being (everything, always, everywhere)
-Nature, beauty: The Universe. The vast.
I don't know much about the matter/antimatter distinction, except that they both disappear when in contact with each other. Do they attract? Is there an equal amt. of both? yikes. Where do they go? Is there an anti-God? (and/or an anti-godparticle?)
2. "The word was God"....writing, talking, thinking (verbiage, speech, communication, body language, data)
3.Love
-the solution to everything; all you need is love; make love, not war.
-an emotion, feeling (cue: Journey-it's more than a feeling)
-a relationship: agape, eros, philia (fatherly/fraternal, romantic/sexual, friendship)
-Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. -Robert Heinlein.
-love is not loving -david bowie, vs. make love
-You call it madness, but I call it love. -Don Byas
-where there is love, there is pain. -spanish proverb
-what's love got to do with it? "kindness is my religion" -HH Dalai Lama/lovingkindness, compassion, empathy.
-love is a battlefield
4. a man of war, fighting for good: meeting basic needs, comfort, and happiness for self & all.
5. one (or One, if case matters)
6. a living man
7. role, identity, self. Jesse L. Teshara. You. Etc.
8. good (only God is good)
9. supreme consciousness (kwuteo: knowledge, wisdom, understanding, truth, enlightenment, omniscience)
-aside: is omniscience when you "know" all, in the biblical sense? i.e. after everything is fuct? (after you've penetrated all mysteries?)
-sanity is not truth, nor truth necessarily sanity. Is (being) God sane? YES.
(God might possibly be the only sane being)
10. perfect: omniscient, omnipresent, benevolent/merciful, omnipotent (all-powerful)
{it might be fun, maybe I'll achieve all this someday, one can at least believe in a town called Hope}
11. invisible
12. ghost-writer
13. first mover
14.a concept (all of the above, some mix, add and subtract..)
for starters... :-)

On Human Nature:
If you can dream it, a human can be it. There is no single human nature. Some of us are vampires, and some of us are Slayers (I miss Buffy). And some of us are Gods. There is pure evil, and there are saints. Tall ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones, smart ones, stupid ones, friendly ones, mean ones, kind/cruel, strong ones, weak ones, normal ones, weird ones, creative ones, boring ones, crazy ones, and consensus reality ones. Predictable and unpredictable ones. Free and slave. Lovers and haters, happy and sad. Over 6B of us. We're animals, like the rest of the zoo. We collect and pass on knowledge and have opposable thumbs, so we use tools and make things that the rest of the natural world (except maybe space aliens) can hardly dream of. We make things that change our nature (like drugs or tv or recipes or crafts or religion or whatever).

On Morality:
A universal theistic morality, I decree:
1. It's all God? It's all good. Religious lies are good, too, because of the learning dialectic. If you've learned an assertion to be a lie, you are closer to knowing the truth. Conversely, Pinocchio's nose (i.e. knows) grew with each lie he told. Lying is one way to get at the truth.

2. Premature death and suffering is bad. Unless you believe in the redemptive value of suffering, or that everyone dies when their number's up, i.e. when God calls them home or something. Death could be good if it saves the person from undue torment, and also if they die a good death, such as under the belief they are going to (ascend into) heaven, to be with loved ones, after a well-lived life. Everyone dies, and it seems that practically everyone could be said to have died prematurely, for the most part. Whatever. I don't believe in an afterlife, much as I, probably more than most, would enjoy having one, s'pose. Killing bugs and eating meat pretty much puts the smack down on any legitimacy we might suppose to hold regarding moral treatment of animals, and if we're so addicted to meat, then I think we should think of ourselves, humanity, as a vicious race, like tigers, and one step away from cannibalism, at that. People are already plumping themselves up for the worms. If you would kill yourself with the least amount of pain, then that is what you should do, at the very least, for the animals you kill.

examples of evil
-I don't like this 'life is but a dream' business, and I wish we were all truly free. Freedom for all, now, goddamnit, allright?
and
-capital punishment and
-abortion and
-neglect/mistreatment of prisoners.
If death row inmates occasionally want to duke it out in a gladiator ring or something -voluntarily-, I have nothing against that. I imagine few would opt for it, though, given a choice of doing something productive, like science or reading books onto tape, or educating themselves, or whatever the case may be. Capital Punishment is the state being evil, in my opinion. Justice might seem to be a fate worse than death. But that would be cruel and unusual psychological punishment. Just let them be, to live out happy lives, if possible, I say. We're better than that. As an adoptee, abortion just pisses me off. Seriously, ladies. You can't just give birth? Too painful, is it? Well, just try and imagine getting your limbs pulled off, like you might consider doing to YOUR CHILD. God damn. Alright, I'll get off my high horse now. But I am God, you know. I am inclined to not look kindly on this cruelty, and dish out some serious karmic consequence, let it be known.

-I also don't like militaries, nukes, homicide, and war. They all boil down to the same thing. Scary, destabilizing, terrorizing, absolutely fricking evil rottenness. We all have a human right to health, and that includes mental health, which does not derive from having nuclear weapons, under a mad policy of mutually assured destruction or whatever, that could lead to nuclear winter, despite global warming. How can humanity be so retarded? We can all hate each other, but we don't need to destroy our planet in the process. Militaries and nationalism and borders and this jingoistic us/them mentality is so yesterday. Get on with it! I am not an American, first and foremost. I am a human. I will not support any policy that robs quality of life from other countries for our benefit. This stuff is just so basic.

Examples of Good
-Action, keeping busy, keeps the depression away, and solves problems. Your career should be fun, and work should not seem like work, because life is too short for drudgery.
-I propose a central website online that serves as a center for solutions to problems, large and small, to unleash the creativity that lies in all of us. Post a problem, get feedback. Barack had one before he became president, and I think he should re-open the gates of the White House to the American (and global) spirit of ingenuity, controversy, and debate. The attitude that people, the masses, are gullible and stupid needs to be tempered by the very true reality that we can also be the source of vast creative and effective problem-solving.
-All books should be available on an internet library, in my opinion. Humanity's collective historical knowledge should be free to the world, as the internet emerges in places like Africa, for example
-Doing right by the environment, in the midst of our planet's ongoing 'extinction event', is massively important, possibly for our own survival as a species.

Here's a kind of koan that I submitted to the Washington Post:

It's easy to be an atheist. After all, God is.To explain:The bible says God is love.The bible also says love believes all things.Therefore, God is an atheist.All is vanity, frustration, futility, nonsense. (Maybe God needs to believe in Himself). Love, u.c., doesn't believe in itself, sometimes, I'd say-God