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Image the Personal Evolution you would have if you grew to have the ability to instantly shift perceptions about any topic (politics, religion, health, relationships, technology, career) as easily as Amy Walker can shift language accents! Less judgmental, more open-minded, less fear-full, more adventurous, less depressed, more happiness… Think about it… all.
I am even more INSPIRED to work for more positive change now that I am reminded that this insidious human mental disease we call RACISM if far from cured, and that “Rainbows and butterflies are not a solution.” http://generationinstantgratification.com/2009/04/06/racism-is-over by Brigitte Secard author of SoulFire: The Birth of Wild Aliveness.
Soulfire: The Birth of Wild Aliveness
About Brigitte, and GenerationInstantGratificaton.com:
I completely agree with Max’s reply: “Holy shit that is the best thing I have ever read. I am speechless. I have read a great deal about race in my day but never something quite as pointed and enlightened as this. I hope her voice is heard wide and far. We need it. In every community.”
Create a Personalized Facebook Username
Want a personalized FaceBook username?
Go to: http://www.facebook.com/username
Here’s the one I created: http://www.facebook.com/jdmumma
Would love any and all constructive feedback on our new website – www.VeganExcellence.com.
How can we help even more people be wise about their eating habits?
Our focus and mission is to make the site mostly educational so that there are millions more eating a raw & vegan… that are wisely educated to influence even more people. Therefore we will also be adding a Forum, expert columnists, dozens of hard to find/get products (especially educational products), classes (online and in person), tips & tricks an ELearning system… and much more!
Please leave your wise comments below.
Many thanks!
Mental Exl. ? Montel Williams: How he went from managing depression to gaining happiness – Living Well Emotionally http://ping.fm/kpFhE
Ubiquity Logo - Browser Add-on
Tech. Exl. ? Ubiquity: Amazzzzing FREE add-on tool for Firefox & Flock browser. Introduction Video (6 min.) http://ping.fm/toW23
Count the # days in a month with your knuckles! - photo by eliazar
Seth Godin presents the thinking behind his new book, Tribes
Have you been SpoutMixing? Has anyone had any experience actually using or testing this service? http://SproutMixer.com
Below I write about my personal experience with the FA 18 Hornet military jet that crashed in University City, San Diego, CA (California).
NOTE: This is only a preliminary rough DRAFT. I will be editing, correcting and adding more. Especially in response to your comments.
Who is that crazy person in the photo?
I write this to tell you my experiences, realizations and maybe pass on some lessons I learned during this tragedy that will help you or someone you know in the future.
NOTE: I am no expert and not giving professional advice – just sharing my thoughts and experiences.
First – BRAVO to the professionals!!! It seemed that the fire, police, military, hazard chemical, media, utilities… and yes even the politicians! all did an excellent job of arriving early, controlling the fire and maintaining safety, securing the area, informing the public and so on.
My on the Scene Experience:
I live less than three block from the crash site of the FA 18 Hornet military jet that crashed into the residential area University City, a northern town in San Diego, CA (California). It is the town just west of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (‘Top Gun’ base). At about 11:59 am on Monday December 8th I heard two large booms. My wife happened to be walking through the living room so I immediately told her look outside to see what happened. Noting nothing out the window we heard another loud boom and felt the ground slightly shake, so we ran outside looked around and noticed a tall black chimney of smoke rising about 20-30 stories into the sky just due north-west of our house. I told her to get ready we’re taking the car to go see ho we could help – we normally ride electric scooters for environmental reasons but I knew we could get there quicker to help by car. Within a minute we were heading toward the smoke. We parked on Huggins Street about a block from the fire and got out and started running toward the fire. We noticed about 10-15 people standing around on the side walks. When we arrived I could see through the heavy black smoke a small car in the middle of the road completely engulphed in flames. I immediately thought a car had exploded, but then I noticed all kinds of large chunks of metal throw about and on fire. As I looked around to see what needed to be done to help a large black pick-up truck started to back-up out of a driveway on he north side of Huggins Street. As it backed out I heard loud metal grinding sounds and noticed large twisted pieced of metal he was driving over and some that got stuck under his axle. He made it ill he was parallel to the street but could go no further from the metal that jammed under his rear wheel axle.
Looking west down Huggins Street, University City
At this point his truck was in eminent danger at about 10 – 20 feet from numerous flaming object. I yelled to move forward a little while I moved out of the way a large chuck of metal that was formerly under his axle and then motioned for him to try to back up again. All he could get his rear drive (my assumption) truck to do was spin it’s tires I yelled to several men standing around to come and help and one ran forward as I jumped on his right rear bumper, and as he tried to back up again I proceeded to jump up and down, all the time hoping other would follow to at least get one wheel some traction. When I saw that it was only me I jumped out and yelled for the driver to abandon his truck.
Then I noticed someone was pulling out a garden hose so I helped to make it longer and get the kinks out since he was having no water flow. I can back out from the front patio and noticed the hose was abandoned at the end of the driveway so I grabbed it and brought to back to the west side of the front of the house. Just before I jumped on the cement wall and started hosing down the house the owner came out of her house and asked, “what are you doing” I said “hosing down your house so it wouldn’t burn.” Within seconds she was on her way to safety – away from her house and the fire. I hope she and her house are doing well.
The original photo says it was my house, but no it wasn’t my house on Huggins Street
Me - Hosing down a neighbors house
but after the police and fire kicked out everyone somehow they never said anything to me so I stayed – It may have been my big red jacket that fooled them. The photo shows me in a moment when I was focusing on making sure the gutter debris was wet (where many fires can start due to a collection of leaves) in a moment when the embers where not flying down on me like rain. The plane crash and burning houses were on the other side (west) of the white house in the above image. At that time I had was unaware that a jet had that crashed. I never would have gotten that close or even stayed especially once the public service people showed up.
It was difficult to breath most of the time so luckily I can hold my breath for long times until the wind would shift. At times the smoke was so bad I would jump down and huddle on the west side of the house and spray a mist of air in front of my mouth – partial affective.
At about 12:25 pm I knew my job was done when I started to get sprayed by the foam from the fire department truck on the west side of the fire. I’m guessing they were purposefully over shooting the east side of the fire to protect the surrounding houses from the fire.
This photo shows the street side of the house I stayed to protect.
Street in front of the house I was spraying with water
The large chunk of metal on the left side of the above photo is what I pulled away from behind the black truck when I was helping the truck owner to back out his truck. It was stuck under his truck so I had him pull forward in hopes that the metal debris that got caught under his rear axle would dislodge, so I could clear it out of the way. You can see the remaining debris still stuck under his axle, which made him unable to drive away.
Video: http://www.sandiego6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=242419 / http://www.sandiego6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoID=547138&articleID=547197
LESSON 1 – Two things about people to be aware of in a crisis situation.
After having 30+ plus very diverse “jobs” (most were part time while I had a full time job) in your life you begin to understand people and what it takes to get things done in crisis situations. A few people are unselfish and access quickly and immediately take action, and yet a higher percentage of people are use to being 1) selfish (often times can be a good human trait) and 2) not taking initiative (waiting to be told what to do), so what I have found useful is to be prepared to: inspire, instruct and then lead (probably in this order). Yes of course there are the heroes, action takers, courageous people, professionally trained service personal and yet there are also to often more public bystanders, watchers, curious… They are usually just scared and inexperienced and often just need the right – inspiration, instructions and leadership.
LESSON 2 - What it might be like to live in a war zone.
I got a very small taste of what it might be like for people living in a war zone’ where innocent people/bystanders are killed from accidents and purposeful acts of aggression and violence. Face-to-face with the reality of living in an active military town, filled with both weapons of mass destruction and people trained to fight and kill other humans whenever the political leadership deems it necessary for real and honest imminent or potential threats, or the all to often trumped up political, financial, ego, insecurity… reasons. Not questioning authority is a double edged sword, able on the one side to swiftly act in focused united service for a greater cause when needed, yet the other more dangerous side is that it has been trained to not question until it is often to late, and any questioning during is taking orders from high-up is deemed un-Patriotic and un-American.
LESSON 3 – Beware of toxins. Not all that burns is harmless wood.
As I later learned there were dangerous chemical burning and thus the reason my lungs are a bit sensitive today. For all I know I breathed in numerous toxic chemical, yet at the time I just thought something exploded in a house and a house was on fire.
LESSON 4 – When, where and how to breath.
The wind was headed east most of the time but would often change so I would do my breathing in phases. Breathing as much as I could (through my nose) when the smoke was gone or not so bad and holding for as long as I could. I would also pull the front of my shirt collar over my nose and breath the filtered air under my shirt. At one point it was so bad I got down from the wall and went to the fenced in side of the house were I got low to the ground and would switch the hose head nozzle to mist, placed the mist in front of my mouth and would breath the moistened/misted air. I figured if it was not filtering the smoke it would at the very least add lots of moisture to my lungs to help my lungs do clean up quicker.
LESSON 5 – Make few or zero assumptions until you have all or a majority of the facts.
Many people I have talked to have their guesses as to what happened in the airplane, instead of waiting to hear from the actual pilot. The pilot could have, should have, might have… All guesses! Please hold your opinions, judgments, assumptions, prejudices till you get all the facts.
My heart goes out to the father/husband/son of those that were killed in the crash and those that knew the family – news story. As well my heart goes out to the pilot, who was able to ejected safely, and those that know and are close to him.
Although it is a tragedy, I find it amazing that only two houses were destroyed. I prefer not to guess, yet I will make an exception – My guess is the we will hear much in the following days how the pilot was instrumental in doing what he could to avoid a tragedy and at leas lessen the damage from his plane malfunctioning.
May we learn and grow from this tragedy.
Why does world renowned creativity and education expert Sir Ken Robinson, strongly believe that the current state of almost every education system may begin holistically but progressively focuses “on the head, and then just to one side?” (See videos below)
Most of our population has attended public school so they mostly have grown up in the “system” and few ever question or wonder…
The Bellamy Salute? These are American's, NOT Germans!
Perhaps Sir Ken Robinson (teacher, author…) has some wisdom for us. Riz (a reporter from http://www.aljazeera.net/english) speaks with world renowned creativity and education expert Sir Ken Robinson, who strongly believes that the current state of almost every education system may begin holistically but progressively focuses “on the head, and then just to one side.”
Sir Ken Robinson interview – Part 1 – 10 Sep 08
Included in the video is a a short video of ‘Futurist’ Alvin Toffler author of Future Shock, The Third Wave and his latest book Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives.
Sir Ken Robinson interview – Part 2 – 10 Sep 08
Look for Sir Ken Robinson latest book: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
“The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.
With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.”
Or check out his previous book: Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
“This really is a remarkable book. It does for human resources what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did for the environment. It makes you wonder why we insist on sustaining an education system that is narrow, partial, entirely inappropriate for the 21st century and deeply destructive of human potential when human beings have so much latent creative ability to offer. A brilliant analysis.” Wally Olins, Founder, Wolff-Olins
“Competitive advantage does not come from the Internet. It comes from leveraging creativity. All corporate leaders should read this book.” Professor Richard Scase, author, Britain in 2010
“I thoroughly recommend this excellent book. Developing our latent creative ability is vital for personal and professional success. Ken Robinson gives us the signposts we need to achieve this.” Sir John Harvey Jones
“If you would like to start to unlock the inherent creativity that exists in every human being (including you), then start (you have to) by reading this book!” Simon Woodroffe, Founder, Yo Sushi, and former Entrepreneur of the Year
“Ken Robinson’s is an original and creative mind. I can think of no better spokesperson on creativity. His views are as much directed to learning institutions as they are to industry. Out of Our Minds is a genuine challenge to complacency.” Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of Investors in People, UK
“Sometimes a writer has an uncanny knack of sharply focusing something which up until then you had not seen in all its simplicity and brilliance. This book does that but at the next moment it makes connections never before imagined… Even the most obstinately prosaic and safe thinkers will be tempted out of their box by Ken Robinson’s ideas, theories and speculations. What’s more, he writes as he speaks, in a way that, magnetically and compulsively, is simply irresistible” Professor Tim Brighouse, Director of Education, Birmingham
NOTE: This is an Unfinished Blog Post, yet I think you will like what I have so far!
Will you be a part of the minority that will rise to the TOP or… join part of the majority that is sinking?
There are times for play, times for work, times for watching… now more than ever it seems this is a time for creative and extraordinary (extra-ordinary) behavior, habits and actions – Improving: service, organizing, efficiency, promotion, marketing, networking, attitude, listening, thinking, communications, resting, exercising…
A high percentage of the world citizens at this time are contemplating, discussing, hears and feels the financial and employment reactions from the dishonorable economic debacle that were primarily started in the United States. The majority is thinking how to survive and yet there is a minority that are planning, positioning and contemplating thriving! Some are thinking how this could be the worst time of their life and yet others in equal or worse situations are thinking this is an opportunity to and the best time to: retool, rethink, remarket, reskill, rebuild, recreate, reconnect, innovate, improve or change themselves and/or their products or services.
A fun reminder that anyone can choose to be better. no matter what the job, location or circumstance.
Here is a quick check list to make you think more about being exta-ordinary an rising and staying on ‘top of your game’. The “O” in front can be used if you print this out. I fill on the “O” when I have mastered that area, that way I know it is done and then I can easily scan to see what to focus on integrating and mastering next.
O 1) Time Management
Increase actions on – Top priorities
Decrease actions on – Things you can delegate. Distractions.
O 2) Socializing - Is your socializing rising/building you up or dragging you down? Keeping you on track or distracting (dis-tracking) you? You may need to reduce and/or eliminate time with some and improve upon or change your social interactions that are moving you away or toward building, improving and promoting you and your win-win goals.\
O 3) Health - Listen more to your body’s innate wisdom (not to be confused with your learned poor habits). Move frequently throughout the day. Sleep or nap when you are tired. Eat power-full foods. Now is not the time to play 10 year old that needs unhealthy “reward” or pacifying foods that lead to feeling tired, poor thinking and a destructive lifestyle. You know the ‘foods’… that ones that your tongue says yes to while all the other organs get destroyed from, the ones that make you feel good for a few moments and thereafter slowly destroying your health and robbing you of your power and your ability to experience true health wealth. You know what to eat and if don’t then be smart and do what it takes to get help – the information, support or coaching on what to eat and maybe more importantly how to shop (label reading, identify ripeness, organize…), store and prepare food.
O 4) Marketing - As an employee, entrepreneur, or business owner now is the time to think like those who want or need what you have to offer. NOT just what are you selling, but rather how or why you are different, better, and/or unique. Do you really know what your clients/buyers/employers want and need or have you been just guessing or thinking from your perspective all these years? Have you ever actually asked what your clients want? Do you know how to ask to get the best answers?
O 5) Thinking – Take more control! Stop letting your mind run wild! Take the captain seat and tell your mind what to think, instead of your mind telling you wat to think. Learn how to think what you want to think and not what ever idea, image, sound or topic your mind happens to think about. Q: If you went to buy food, hardware, clothing would you just give them money up front and say just bring me anything? How about when you watch TV, do you just let anyone continuously flip through the channels while you watch? My wild and ‘call me crazy’ guess that you would want to pick and choose what you buy and watch. I recommend you learn to do the same with your mind. One way to improve this simle yet VERY POWER-FULL skill is to divide a piece of paper with a line down the middle and write down your thoughts you don’t want on the left side and the thoughts you do want be thinking on the right. Start focusing your mind more and more on the ‘right’ side of your list.
O 6) Lists – You lists of To Do’s, Habits, Goals, Events,
O 7)
O 
O 9)
O 10)
Comments? What should 7-10 be? Finances? Employment? Services?…
NOTE: Truth in Promotion Unless otherwise stated in my blogs - I am not being financially rewarded in any way for blogging this information.
A new FREE PDF version (print versions are also available) Productive! Magazine. It is downloadable, so you can read it yourself and share pass it on to your friends and family.
You could download it from here Download Issue #1 (November 2008) – FREE PDF (3MB) or it might serve you better is you were to be on their mailing list to be advised of future issues http://productivemagazine.com/editions
FREE Productivity advice - Productive! Magazine
Preview (very professional with flash simulated page turning) of the new Productive Magazine:
It includes examples of real-life people who are struggling to be better and more productive just like we are.
The articles were written by top bloggers and productivity experts from around the world.
The magazine is in PDF format but looks like a professional magazine
There is an interview with the David Allen himself – the best-selling author of the Getting Things Done book.
Productive Magazine is sponsored by Nozbe – Simply Get Things Done tool that keeps you productive when you’re by the computer or with the mobile phone or the iPhone.
17 great articles by the most active productivity bloggers in the blogoshpere!
Productivity! Magazine Articles
Good Habits or Bad Habits? There are more than just two ways to think about habits! There are hundreds of ways to change, eliminate, replace, upgrade, alter… habits as well. Are your habits by design or default?
My great friend Bronson Tang (creator of ‘The Rat Who Became A Lion‘ and founder of EtomicMail.com) interviewed me (audio) about habits recently and posted online the audio files (listen or download) to his great blog BTang.net
Is there really only - Good Habits or Bad Habits?
we discussed why you may have consciously, preconsciously or subconsciously chosen your habits, how to evaluate and change habits, how long it takes to change habits and much more… Yes, habits do make you and change you, but can you change your habits? Do you have enough or are you using the right type of: tools, skills, experience social alignment to improve, alter or change your habits? The interview was completely unscripted, and so my flow was a little rough, plus I was walking and relaxing at the park – still lots of salient advice from both of us that you may have never heard before. Much success to you as you continue to build and rebuild the life you so richly desire and deserve. Let me know if there is anything more I can do (for you or the world) to quicken your journey to your greater magnificence. Remember always – Habit changing happens NOW!
Please respond by expressing what kind of habit changing support you need or what has worked for you or others.
