Okay, so my premise might be a “little out there” (pun intended) but what about the views of ancient cultures, like the Hopi Indians, who have been in North America for eons of years. What do they have to say about our society? What warnings do they offer? What hopes do they offer?

Turns out that a couple years back, circa 2000, when a jeweler friend of mine was selling some of my moldavite she used in her jewelry, one of the buyers was a young man who happened to have all the oral and written Hopi prophecies ever recorded. He handed me a photocopied deck of 100-plus pages and said, “Chuck you can give this away all you want provided you never charge for it.”

I made a handful of physical copies and gave them away to circles of people I thought would enjoy them, but then it occurred to me, “Hey, why not digitize these papers and park on the web?”

Thus I paid $500 to have a service bureau scan these pages, as 300 dpi tiff files, then I assembled them into a pdf which you can download here - Techqua Ikachi.

This is an amazing read and they have a lot to say about our current times. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag but suffice it to say, most of their message boils down to the issue of “Progressives vs Traditionalists” and however the Hopi society goes, so does the rest of our global society.

This issue of progressives and traditionalists is pretty deep and it is my hope that we will strike a balance and get the best of both worlds. I say this too because years back I heard Peruvian elders talking about their legends and prophecies, one of which stated, “There will come a time when the Eagle of the North flies with the Condor of the South.”

I always interpreted that to be “north = industrialized countries with technology emphasis” and “south = indigenous cultures that are one with the land and nature, steeped in traditions of balance, respect and harmony with earth.”

Apparently the Hopis had a rift in their culture circa 1908. Up till then, they were mostly traditionalist and believed themselves to be “keepers of the keys.” But as white Europeans started to expand westward and invade their territories, some of the Hopis started to say, “Hey. The white man might be on to something. Running water, cars, comfortable living conditions, etc. these are things we too should embrace. After all, it’s hard living in these here desert parts …” And thus they became the progressives advocating change from the traditions of their forefathers.

When I got done reading these prophecies, I was angered at the corruption (e.g., Mineral companies hiring terrorists to get access to land rights) and wanted to do something. But then I quickly realized that I don’t really know who to believe, or who is truly a legit traditionalist or progressive. So instead of taking sides, I put my money where my mouth was and digitized their words and in a small way, am helping these words continue forth, free of charge - enjoy!

PS - I also bought GoHopi.com with the idea that sometime in the future, I (or others) will be able to convert these scanned pages into OCR (optical character recognition) so they become searchable text vs scans. If you are interested in helping out is said OCR and proofing depts, let me know!

Here is my reply to their email:

Dear John McCain -

Your survey has no options for comments and your email below has no “opt out” option - it is also spam in that i did not give you permission to use my email … all of which confirms my reason to distance myself from the Republican Party as you are a huge historical embarrassment … consider the following:

1. The war in Iraq was result from lies headed by Republicans …

2. The supreme court let Exxon off the hook even though “the people” as juries saw the truth but this was over-run by a biased, perhaps even corrupt court …

3. The passage of FISA allows criminal behavior to go on without accountability …

I could go on but suffice it to say the Republican party is out of touch … the only candidate who seemed to make any sense was Mike Huckabee … note my displeasure with Republican’s does not mean I approve of Democrats but I can not continue to support a party where lies continue to be told …

Consider Mark Twain, “Once a man is caught in a lie, everything he says there after is followed by a question mark.” … with Bush saying, “yes there are weapons of mass destruction …” how can we believe anything he (or his administration or the republican party) has to say about any other matter …

John McCain, you might be a good man but you’re coming to the dance floor literally with the wrong party …

cordially, chuck scott

And here is the original email they sent:

Subject: Victory 2008 Critical Issues Survey

Dear Friend,

I am 100 percent committed to leading our Party to victory in this November’s elections all across the country.

As a critical first step in uniting our Party and putting together a winning campaign plan I am asking you to take part in a Victory 2008 critical issues survey. I hope you will help our efforts today by following this link and completing it online.

Your support for RNC VICTORY 2008 and your survey answers are vital to electing Republicans this November. Your participation will give us a greater understanding of the views of voters in your area. And it will provide an invaluable up-to-date reading on many of the key issues that will decide the outcome of this momentous election.

The fate of all of our Republican candidates and the fate of our Party in the 2008 election is in the hands of Americans like you. We cannot succeed without your immediate input. Please join us in our campaign to make sure America is on the right path by completing your Victory 2008 Critical Issues Survey today.

With warmest regards,

John McCain

P.S. Your participation in the Victory 2008 Survey Project is crucial to getting a better understanding of the views of voters in your area. I hope you will return your completed Survey to RNC Headquarters today.

Contributions or gifts to the Republican National Committee are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Contributions from corporations, labor unions, federal contractors and foreign nationals
without permanent residency status are prohibited.

Republican National Committee | 310 First Street, SE | Washington, D.C. 20003
p: 202.863.8500 | f: 202.863.8820 | e: info@gop.com

Paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by John McCain 2008
310 First Street, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20003

Copyright 2008 Republican National Committee

And here is the link to their survey - click here

And take special notice that they HAVE NO PRIVACY POLICY on their site … again, another reminder (at least for me) that they don’t get it.

If you can’t take privacy seriously and respect individual rights, well then, you’re not the man for the job IMHO.

First, I was in the process of digitizing many of the motivational tapes in my library, one of which was a six cassette series by Nightingale-Conant that featured Dr. Wayne Dyer’s “How to be a no-limit person.” Note I had purchased these tapes in the early 1980s long before CDs and MP3 Players hit the scene hence the cassette conversions.

At the end of that series, they gave a free sample lecture from one of Wayne’s other books, “What do you really want for your children” where Dr. Dyer talks about creativity. In this sample lecture, which I’m including here in this post as mp3 audio clip, Dr. Dyer defines creativity as follows: “… You don’t become creative by being like everybody else … Especially if you were raised to fit in and be like others … Creativity is about how you apply your own matchless-self to everything you do …”

And here is the mp3 file as a down load click here

To a great extent I like what he says and concur, but I have some problems in that he is giving a philosophical approach first without providing the scientific basis on which such philosophy can ride. Thus on some level he is promoting the idea of creativity as being merely an approach to life when that is only partially correct, which leads me to the other data point.

Around the time I was digitizing said cassettes, I enjoyed a lively debate with one of our pool attendants during a quiet afternoon when not many others were pool side. She started the conversation with, “I’m just not creative, at least not compared to my brother and this accounting class I’m taking is really soooo uncreative.”

I laughed. As a business school trained accountant, I told her that accounting can be extremely creative, just look at Enron, MCI-WorldCom, forecasts of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, etc. And one can quickly grasp how numbers and the numbering of numbers can get wildly creative.

There is even an old accounting joke to this effect that goes something like this:

An employer is looking to hire a new controller and interviews three people: one young, one middle aged, one older, all CPAs.

The employer asks the first prospect, the younger one, “How much is one plus one?” To which the young accountant says, “Two.” “Are you sure?” “Yes absolutely. One plus one is always two.”

Then the employer interviews the second prospect, the middle aged CPA, and asks the same question, “How much is one plus one?” To which the CPA said, “Well, it’s usually two, but sometimes it can be two and a half or one and three quarters depending on how you value inventory, spoilage, returns, etc., but yes, most of the times one plus one is two.”

Then the employer interviews the third CPA and asks the same question, “How much is one plus one?” To which the older CPA states, “What do you want it to be?”

Guess who got the job and guess why we have so much fuzzy accounting in governments and public companies despite our best efforts to legislate transparency

Back to the pool attendant.

Ultimately our conversation got to how creativity-expressed comes in many shapes and styles - e.g., Your creativity might not look like others as she was comparing her creativity level to her brother’s and how he seemingly can riff with new ideas in a given dept and she can’t quite compete in said dept.; We spoke about how creativity comes in many forms and how visual creativity is different from accounting creativity which is different from music and/or painting and/or acting and/or physical creativity, etc…

Which brings me to the final point and that is of brainstorming. It seems like most people think that brainstorming is being creative when in truth, brainstorming and idea generation is only 25% of the creative science.

The other 75% of the creative process is where the rubber really hits the road. This includes selecting one or more of the ideas from the brainstorming process, implementing said ideas, measuring the results of said implementation, then analyzing the results by comparing them to where you were before you had the ideas you just implemented.

I’ve even heard this from the heads of top advertising agencies. In particular, one president was discussing a certain weight-loss food brand and he said, “Chuck, coming up with the new marketing ideas is the smallest part of the process, perhaps less than 10%, and yes it is the fun part. But, the implementation of the marketing campaign is the larger part of the process. Project management of getting all the items printed, out into the stores on time and within budget, without any mistakes in copy, colors, brand messaging, etc.”

This agency executive even went on to say that his team got paid $2 million per year to manage the account. One million was for the creative consultations and the other million was to manage and implement. He confessed that the second million was a royal pain and full of traps and gatchas and that he would gladly give up that second million but also knew that it would only be a matter of time before he would lose the first million if all he did was the creative. Thus while this executive could riff on new marketing ideas in his sleep, he also knew that creativity expressed and implemented is a package and not just brainstorming.

Here is the version on Vimeo:

And here is the same clip but on Google Video:

“Be ye like children …” Perhaps this Biblical Wisdom Is Reminder to Tap Into One’s Entrepreneurial Inner-Child And Profit Joyfully by Serving the Rest of Us …

“When I Work, I Play. When I Play, I Work.” - Pablo Picasso

“Go Play Hard at Work And Have a Good Time!” - Kasha Scott

I was first hit with this lemonade season reminder a couple of weeks back when walking Kasha around the neighborhood.

At the commencement of our walk, we first started to spy various hand-drawn flyers posted on the light poles with scotch tape promoting neighborhood lemonade availability.

And then we soon started to hear the audio ripples of lemonade barker-cries via a chorus of children off in the distant background, “Lemonade. Lemonade! Get Your Ice Cold Lemonade. Lemonade. Ice Cold Lemonade Here. Lemonade.”

All of which was quickly followed by a boy on a bicycle who approached us while engaged in the lemonade sales promotion route for his sister’s lemonade enterprise, whom Kasha and I would soon go on to meet and interview but more on that later.

Okay, I know many high powered business types and serious economists who might shrug, as well as everyday folk, and say, “Yea, so what! What’s the point of reflecting on the economics of local lemonade entrepreneurs?”

To which I think I have a good reply: First in consideration of the big media backdrop of economic headlines of bad news; and second, with regards to Karl Marx and how all the collectivists economists have got it fundamentally wrong and how the lemonade entrepreneurs have got it fundamentally right.

But first, the media headlines.

Big media is in the business of big headlines and they do it well. After all, if they can’t grab us, they can’t hold our attention or sell us on their agenda(s) let alone promote the agendas of the people who buy their advertising space.

And it seems to me that currently big media would have us believe in all their negative economic press that they get paid to sell. Not that we do not love the press but with business models like, “If it bleeds, it leads” how can we blame them for selling us negativity when they know full well we only buy what grabs our attention, including killer negative headlines that cut through the clutter in supermarket checkout lines.

So while the press and ourselves might be to blame for buying in on the collective consciousness of economic woes, part of this post is about the other economic story not being told. Well actually the story is being told and shared but not in headlines or by big media, at least not yet. Bare with me, and you’ll see my point and why lemonade entrepreneurs hold the keys to understanding long term economic successes.

A couple weeks after Kasha and I encountered our first neighborhood lemonade entrepreneurs, I was driving through Main Street Ridgefield and came across another lemonade stand and snapped the pics you see here. In this case, these entrepreneurs were closed for business so I did not get to interview them or sample their brew(s), but the spirit of their humble endeavor was yet another reminder of how the keys to our fundamental economic success in this country lie among the spirit of budding lemonade entrepreneurs.

Now I’ve traveled the world and while not hit every corner, I have yet to see an entrepreneurial front-yard lemonade stand in any other country. Sure, I’ve seen young people selling crafts, fruits, performing for coins, but somehow the young lemonade entrepreneur and their humble neighborhood lemonade stand seems uniquely red-white-n-blue and I’m not positive why but I have some theories.

When growing up as a teenager in Argentina as a Rotary exchange student in 1978, I always seemed to win when playing monopoly with my new Argentinean friends. At the time they would often chide me and prod me with, “Oh! You Capitalists! You Yankees! You Gringos! You are all the same! You take everything! You win at all costs! You yada yada …”

But it was also during those loved South American times that I enjoyed many a debate about the evils and merits of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, and other ism’s. But somehow that despite the debates, I knew that they too were capitalists at heart no matter what their official ism was that they subscribed to publicly. My capitalistic proof of innate free-trade was the flourishing of black markets in every corner of the globe that I’ve ever traveled to. Which supports my theory: That left alone, all humans will trade in a manner that is win-win for them and those they trade with, but the key point is “left alone.”

Governments are necessary and good governments that serve the people and individual freedoms first with state second are an amazing blessing. Yet governments often get over-run by special interests, collectivists, Leninists, and others who quietely delight in chipping away at personal freedoms by advocating more tariffs, trade barriers, licensing, laws, obfuscation of agendas, etc. - all of which is fertilizer for big business and big corruption.

The lemonade entrepreneur is a noble example of the balance of supply and demand when left alone - no town permits, no labor laws, no minimum wages, no sales tax, no use taxes, no mandatory state licensing, certification or registration, etc.

“Be ye like little children” is Biblical wisdom that should perhaps be extended to commercial affairs ala the example of seasonal lemonade entrepreneurs.

Consider Adam Smith and his groundbreaking 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, that cemented the principles of laissez-faire and the “invisible hand” of balance naturally occurring from supply and demand cycles that find equilibrium over time.

These same laissez-faire economic principles were also confirmed in more modern times by Milton Friedman’s groundbreaking book, Freedom to Choose - a book I would argue that anybody running for any office (e.g., state, local, federal and/or condo board) should be required to read and take a standarized test to confirm they can pass and exhibit a certain mastery of the message but I jest (although, I’m serious if you are).

Even today in 2008, those economies with the least amount of government intervention are the ones on the fast track. But back to my friendly conversations with Argentineans about economic policies, merits and pitfalls of isms.

All economic models are based on cycles - boom and bust, followed by more boom and bust, etc. It is the length of cycles which most isms and economists disagree with - e.g., some say these economic cycles are every 5-10 years, others say every 35 years, and others say every 50 or 75 years. Some also argue (i.e., the collectivists) that it is the role of government to “soften” these cycles so they are not so “forceful” on the masses, ala rationale for recent Federal Reserve to bailout Bear Stearns - what a joke and a true tragedy.

Yet my favorite debate about economic cycles took place in college during a Western Civ class when we were asked to read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and support or defend his economic ideas.

Karl had relatively good reasoning and essentially said, “Hey look. Each society pretty much boils down to two primary classes - the haves and the have-nots - and with each turn of the economic cycles of bust periods, some of the haves lose their economic power and become members of the have-nots. Thus it is only a matter of time, a number of economic cycles, that will ultimately reduce all the haves to have-nots, so let’s cut to the chase, save everybody the drama of enduring all these awful cycles and just get there (a flat collectivist society that is ruled by the state). After all, in the end there will only be one class, so let’s get there now and save everybody the grief and plan accordingly.”

Sounds like a great concept but for one big commercial blunder on Mr. Marx’s reasoning, and that is, he totally forgot and left out the concept of entrepreneurs - that enterprising group that somehow seems to spring forth despite the odds and replinshes the class of haves with every economic down turn.

America has lived an economic history of ups and downs. And, we know in this country that with every bust cycle, there are those who find ways to make it work and often go on to great fortune by finding opportunity when others see only failure.

Our culture is also one of “Yankee ingenuity” whereby we tend to invent things for ourselves that solve our own problems, even if less than perfect; but then continue to perfect said inventions and spin out improved inventions for sale to neighbors and thereby give birth to new markets.

Consider the Lightning Rod invented by Benjamin Franklin or Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin. In both cases, these men sought to solve a problem and were looking for solutions. In the process of inventing their own solutions, they both went on to give birth to new markets and efficiencies - all of which had positive economic impacts on the greatest good for all of us. Note: some economic historians will even argue that Whitney’s Cotton Gin was the birth of the American industrialized revolution — and yet his path of intellectual property rights via his Cotton Gin patent and the realities of enforcing said patent are chapters for another post.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there isn’t great innovation coming from other parts of the world, certainly there is. Even in governmental entrepreneurship, perhaps England’s greatest gift to the world was the invention of the Magna Carta, which was essentially a balancing of power between Nobles and the Crown, and became the genesis for many of our principles today re:rights to private property, habeas corpus, etc.

Back to my walk with Kasha.

So right around the time I enjoyed my interview with the local lemonade entrepreneurs, I also read the May 2008 edition of Imprimis - see www.Hillsdale.edu. They have over 1.6 million monthly readers and their publication is free to subscribe to, and each month is very thought provoking so yes, I would encourage you to get your free copies.

In the May edition they featured adapted text from a January speech at Hillsdale College given by Mr. Patrick Toomey, President of the Club for Growth. The title of this article was, “The Greatest Story Never Told: Today’s Economy in Perspective.”

In that article, some of what Mr. Toomey stated included, “Over the last 25 years, more wealth has been created, more people have been lifted out of poverty, standards of living have been elevated more dramatically, and the quality and length of the life have improved, more than ever before in the recorded history.”

That’s a mighty tall claim but consider some of the stats he provided to support his premise:

• Our nation’s total economic output in 1982 was $5.1 trillion; In 2007 it was $11.3 trillion (in real 2000 dollars)
• Per capita economic output in 1982 was $22,400; In 2007 it was $37,807 (in real 2000 dollars)
• Unemployment in the 1970s was nearly seven percent; During the last decade it has remained below five percent
• The service sector was $1 trillion in 1982; It was $5.5 trillion in 2006
• In 2007, US factories produced more than in any previous year in our history
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1980 was at 825; Today (despite its ups and downs) remains above 11,000
• In 1983, 19 percent of households owned stocks; In 2005 50% were investors
• In 1989 median family net worth was $69,000; In 2004 it was $93,000
• And regarding American families living below the official poverty line in the 1970s - Less than 40 percent had a car, almost none had color televisions, and air conditioning was almost unheard of; In 2004, 46 percent owned their own homes, 75% owned a car (indeed 30 percent owned two or more cars), 97 percent had color TVs, 67% had air conditioning
• With respect to technology - In 1975 there were 9.8 million cable TV subscribers and in 2006 there were 65 million; In 1985 there were 2.1 million personal computers and in 2007 there was 243 million; In 1985 there were 340 cell phone subscribers and 243 million in 2007
• On health fronts - In 1970 infant mortality was 20 deaths per 1000 people and in 2002 it was seven deaths per 1000; In 1980 life expectancy was 74 years, today it is 78
• And this growth has been occurring around the globe - between 1999 and 2004 some 135 million people emerged from destitution and there are twice as many countries with fast-growing economies as there were in 1980

In the end, Mr. Toomey credits these massive economic growths from several factors, namely - economic freedoms, the Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which reduced marginal tax rate from 70 percent to 28%, and a series of major deregulation and broad expansion of trade.

These are some of the innate principles American Lemonade Entrepreneurs know instinctively, but they probably won’t be making any big headlines in traditional media, yet perhaps they will make it BIG around the Blogosphere.

Lemonade Here. Get Your Lemonade. 50 Cents. Sugar Free. Tax Free. And Always Served with a Smile.

Viva the entrepreneurs who progress to make life better for all of us and keep Karl rolling in his grave!

[Show as slideshow]

Kasha on Stairs

Lemonade Stand Header

Lemonade Stand Base

Lemonade Stand Perspective

Store Hours

Lemonade Stand in Sunshine

Lemonade on Main Street

Lemonade Under Tree

Neighboring Planter

Vintage Ride

Flag Field - Part 1

Flag Field - Part 2

Town Hall Flags

Thank You Mike

Go Liberty, Go!

Pledge - Freedom

Foundation - Basis

Nation - United

Liberty - Justice for All

Soar - Fly with Vision

Some of the technical issues were simple like making sure the server path was correctly listed in a section of code. Other issues were more troublesome in that certain plugins had conflicts (e.g., took me better part of two days to find out why my board was not creating thumbnails from image uploads yet did so perfectly before the upgrade).

Along my journeys to find technical answers, clues and/or wisdom, I came across a site listed as an example of a technical fix I needed but also had some wild content about the Secrets of the Mayan Calendar Unveiled.

Here is link to that forum -> http://wachadoo.com/forum/sutra1623.html

So I paused and gave myself permission to watch these videos by Ian Lungold as he proceeded to unlock and explain the eternal truths about these Mayan Secrets.

It was a happy find and one of the things I enjoyed learning about the Mayan calendar was the different forms of consciousness that correspond to periods of Earth time and are physically represented in how the Mayan’s construct pyramids. The last and final consciousness Ian claims is “Galactic and/or Universal Consciousness” also the shortest span and represented by a pyramid’s top tier.

So that got me to thinking about all the skeptics I’ve danced with about the realities of aliens and/or angels.

Technically I believe in both, but it does not matter what I believe in because belief is just that, a concept I own or subscribe to but it is not scientific fact. Thus I never try to convince my friends of one or the other, but I do enjoy the dialogue in these depts.

And one of my other beliefs is that if I learn just one thing from something, somebody, some book, some movie, or some song, well then bravo - one thing learned makes that thing worthy.

So years back I started getting emails from a group claiming they were channeling Orion - see Orion Transmissions.

Before these emails, I had read a book by Fran Rosen-Sawyer, aka Parvati, whose book, “I Wish I Had Known” was positive inspiration and instrumental in moving me out of a funk at a time in my life and back into the joy of living.

Thus she is at the center of these Orion Transmissions and while I’ve never met her, I have been admirer of her penmanship and messages so I tried to approach these Orion messages with an open mind.

Over the years, these Orion Transmissions have become great fertilizer for internal thought and reflection, offering new perspectives, friendship, laughter, warnings and wisdom all combined into a format that to this day, I cherish when the latest version hits my inbox.

So back to the Mayan Calendars and my main point of this post, which is this - What do Aliens and Angels share in common?

Given the Mayan Calendar and this final phase of time we are approaching, I would argue that in both cases the Aliens and the Angels have “other worldly view points” - and probably view points that are galactic and universal.

This hit home with the latest Orion messages when they said, “What do you think the purpose of humanity is all about?”

Good question and I thought I knew but below is excerpt from their point of view so you tell me if they are onto something

Quote from Orion:

On our spiritual evolution and Unity

Yes. Yes. We would like to describe to our vehicle what to expect in the coming years from a positive standpoint. We all know what destructive forces are at work on the environment of planet Earth. For every negative force, there are greater numbers of Light Workers being ‘employed’ if you will, by the Light Energy on your planet, to combat the darkness. They are well-armed with positive energies, fuelled by love of a different nature—love of a more universal nature. And indeed, these Light Workers are working feverishly to achieve their goal. We are working together for the sanctity and preservation of our beloved planet Earth, the record-keeper of the universe.

We are walking through mysterious circumstances being heralded as progress by some and digress by others. Still, we are moving through the maze of traps manufactured by those employed by the dark forces on your planet. We do not see them as a threat to the integrity and balance on this planet, because their power is losing the battle. We know the directions they are taking and from whence they come. We are aware of the ‘opposition’ to good, to Light. We are quite aware of the big players in their ultimate world domination game. We have not been dealt a hand. We have created our own solutions. We have created our own force field of protection which cannot be penetrated by those whose natures are not pure, whose goals are not those reflecting the higher purpose of humanity.

This leads us to the next main point. What is the main purpose of Humanity? Do you think that the main purpose is to amass large stores of wealth in order to destroy the planet’s ecosystem? NO. Do you think the main purpose of your individual lives is to hoard wealth, compete with others for the prize of self-importance, fame and pride? NO. Actually, the main purpose for all of HUMANITY is to become enlightened and begin to take your places in the hologram of life, which is ultimately a reflection of the Divine who created all of this—and ultimately, to preserve the Nature which is the reflection of Divinity on the physical plane. In so doing, human beings become elevated to the next dimension and reach a state of ‘I and My Father are ONE.’ Isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Yet, instead of keeping this goal first and foremost in your minds, you fill your minds with daily trivia, who said this to who, who did what, how much, how many, and what is my next conquest? Indeed, one rarely takes time to retreat within to find one’s own direction. One assumes it will simply be revealed to him when the time is right. Well, folks! THE TIME IS RIGHT NOW!

The proverbial saying, “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today” is an excellent one to adopt when assessing your life, your ‘future’. One should place far less emphasis on Future. The present moment is the only breath you have. The breath you take in this very moment is the one you have in hand.

Establish priorities. What priorities? One places on top of the list all one’s menial tasks, one’s work-related daily errands. One’s life work often takes a back seat to the daily grind, leaving rare the moments of solitude and reflection. Indeed, we see this sorely missing in most beings, even those on a spiritual journey of sorts. Spiritual journey is one which connects one to the cosmos, to the greater whole, to the Universe. It does not necessarily make one appear more ethereal or speak in tongues! Indeed, it may make one more grounded and practical, if it is truly a spiritual journey. The greatest Masters have a grounded focus, a clarity which is far from accidental.

One shall perhaps consider a revision in one’s listing of priorities. Really examine the question ‘WHO AM I?’ followed by ‘What am I here for? What is my true higher work in this incarnation?” Then, when you really realize you are present on this glorious planet for a purpose other than economical or emotional, you can get on with your priorities. At the top of the list should be your spiritual awareness. Do something toward the advancement and enhancement of your spiritual awareness daily.

Seek to SERVE daily.

Seek to perform those beautiful ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ daily.

Seek to make amends to those with whom you have had conflict over the years. Do this daily from your heart, in your own time, in your own way.

Seek to assist in the dissemination of material which will serve to lift up humanity and create a sense of awareness so needed in this world. Do this daily.

Seek to become one with your higher spirit, communicate with the Devas, angels, your Master, GOD, the energy of LOVE daily.

If your daily schedule does not have time for INTROSPECTION (not analysis) revamp your schedule to include at least one, if not many more, periods of meditation, prayer or entreaty to Divine for guidance and direction, and clarity of that direction.

You seek to control your universe, but you do not seek to control your own mental faculties! Do not permit your minds to become engrossed in negativity. There is negativity all around you in the world, but if your mind is always or at least in training to be always in tune with your Higher purpose, the negative energies of the world will have no effect on you! This is entirely possible for each and every one of you who have embarked on an inner journey to the Light.

Look at great Saints and beings who embraced GOD or the concept of Divinity—in whatever way it manifested for them. They remain always in a state of BLISS, in the state of TRUTH, in a state of HARMONY. They exist to teach you all to become more engrossed in Divinity. This requires no adherence to a religious philosophy. THIS IS BEYOND PHILOSOPHY! This requires no membership in any spiritual group or following of any outer agenda. This simply means, one begins the search within to find one’s true spiritual quest. And then, without further delay, one embarks on the journey, fully equipped with all the prerequisites. Do you know what are the prerequisites?
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.

No other prerequisite is required. The Divine will feed your every need. Divine will provide direction, spiritual sustenance, Truth and comfort.

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND ALL WILL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.

And with that, we close these present transmissions.

Till next visit,

We are

Orion.

For more information about Orion, talk to Rich at agnihotra.org or go to Orion Transmissions

Special Thank You to Artist Jeff Bowe for permission to include his images here in this post - for more info about Jeff and his art, contact Jeff Bowe directly!

It was also a time when I started to begin the journey through boyhood puberty and migrate into the ongoing evolution of manhood, personhood, humanhood, et al.

It was during this boyhood time while programming random numbers that I was first exposed to some fundamental concepts for achieving ongoing success with computers (e.g., managing the three levels of inputs, processing, and outputs). Thus part of my early picture included computer teachers and experts beating into my growing computer-awareness, “Garbage-in is Garbage-out.”
This became obvious, tactical, hand-felt wisdom with the early punch cards as those cards that were less than perfectly punched or less than perfectly flat were promptly spit out and rejected as unusable. Thus no amount of nifty logic or elegant programming referencing random fruits, berries, and/or dollar signs would ever see the light of day, but I digress.

Moving forward and years later - circa 2001 during days of explosive growth with DAWS (Digital Audio Workstations), project studios and technical advances across the digital audio spectrum, I enjoyed a conversation with an audio engineering expert and friend who candidly stated, “You know Chuck, in my business they call it turd polishing - if the client gives you inputs that are turds, no matter how much audio polishing you do, it’s still a turd.”

Yikes - new multimedia information and different take on conventional wisdom of garbage-in and turd-polished outs.

However, I was recently reminded that we can work with less than perfect inputs on creative level through some “happy accidents” and turn out good stuff.

Below is my point - visually. One of my clients handed me material that was 5-Diamond in spirit, nature of story, and content level, but it was a lot less radiant in the areas of digital resolution and digital quality.

This is a sensitive area and let me state that I honor all those on the digital paths. We all start somewhere and the spirit of this piece is to highlight how we can work creatively with things we think might not work, yet continue to work with what we have and move forward in getting better in using what we have to accomplish our mission at hand.

In this case, the client handed me 18 minutes of video footage from single-chip camera that was hand-shot (e.g., no tripods, no external mics, no lighting, no script - more akin to documentary style shooting), highly compressed as mpeg1 320×240, along with a handful of stills that were 1-2meg jpegs each.

Mission from client was, “Here is our story - how best can it be told effectively online?”

The answer is in the proof below with the ending video result.

Knowing neither the video or stills were commanding (digital resolution wise that is), we decided best to split the screen and use both videos and pics at the same time to tell the story, thus in part distract you from overly focusing in on either one at a time and seeing the granular pixations or other blemishes.

In the finished clip below, on one side you see pictures with the Ken Burns effect with panning and cropping. On the other side of the screen you see the video that corresponds to the story in the pics moving along.

Whenever either the stills or the video gets weird (e.g., quality of color, lighting, shakiness, etc) we then dropped an effect on that clip and voila - all of a sudden, things that seemed like mistakes (e.g., pictures out of focus) became awesome transitions that moved the story along with added effects and emotional dimensions.

But happy accidents with effects and visual polishing was only part of it.

The other part was how to sonically pull the viewer thru the story and hence the need to find some fun, offbeat music that could drive yet fit with the various live recordings of volunteers, pastor, and background beats -> Enter the soundtrack, “Gobble Gobble Funk” by you know who!

In the end, I think this piece works really, really well in telling the client’s story.

The last thing I will mention is the title, “Feeding the Angels Among Us.”

This was perhaps the hardest part about scripting and editing this piece. My customer who pays the bills is obvious, but his stakeholders and the constituents they dance with is something that is multilateral, highly diverse and commands respect from all levels.

Some how to say, “feeding the needy” seemed untruthful to those pictured here in this video. After all, these “stars” played a part in the role of life’s give-in-take and somehow there seemed to be a higher truth in naming the title, one that those standing in line, when viewing this clip, would also be proud of.

Which leads me to concept of - is it more blessed to receive or to give?

I don’t know but it seems like sometimes those of us who give can feel entitled to a little moment of self righteous - e.g., “Hey, I just did something for somebody - doesn’t that count for something, somewhere, on somekind of karmic scorecard?” - and I often wonder if the other person who receives isn’t really an Angel in disguise who isn’t silently saying, “Dude, if only you really knew - it is I who is willing to serve as your reminder that God gives us each different talents and skills. Thanks for sharing and best of success with your unfolding generosity of time, gifts, talents, investment in Highest Good, et al.”

22 April 2008

Mr. Ronald L. Sargent
Chairman & CEO Staples.com
500 Staples Drive
Framingham, MA 01702

Re: Take a Seat and Sit on This - Herculean Customer Service in Danbury CT

Dear Mr. Sargent and Team Staples:

As I pen this thank you note, I am happily sitting on my new cushy, replacement Global Task Chair courtesy of many honorable customer service efforts on behalf of store personnel at your Staples Mill Plain Road, Danbury Connecticut location.

My ordeal started several years ago when I first started hunting for office chair replacements. My multimedia studio had several beautiful Herman Miller Aeron chairs that I spent dearly for but since a car accident and new found titanium-infused bones, the Aeron’s rounded hard-plastic sculpting at the bottom of the sitting surface dug into my left femur bone such that I needed to find replacement chairs effective immediately.

Enter Staples and your line of Global Task chairs.

My initial customer-buying sales reasoning echoed , “Hey, the cushioning is right, the grey color pleasing, and the multi-directional levers to tilt in almost any manner were all very exciting options, but it was the lifetime warranty that sealed the deal.”

My Staples Global Task chair enjoyed a pleasant average life in my studio - bouncing between video edit station, adjusting nicely for 88-weighted musical keyboard station, plus wheeling over to the office station.

A couple of puppy-dog bite marks and scratches here-and-there on the wheel base, and a plastic right arm rest requiring duck tape given some of the repeated desk bumps over the years, all said and done it was a good trusty chair.

But then one day the back broke - just snapped as I leaned back. Screws, or at least partial pieces along with wood shavings fell to the floor and I immediately knew another office chair adventure was in the cards.

None of the Staples store personnel where thrilled to see me when I came wheeling through the automatic glass sliding doors with my broken chair in the lead. An announcement from the customer service counter was made that could be heard throughout the store’s PA, and soon a young gentleman approached offering to help. I showed him the guarantee and the Staples product bar codes under the sitting-part of the chair, and he asked for time to confer with store management.

When he returned, I was given two options - I could either get a store credit for the current retail value of the chair ($125 versus the $300-plus I initially paid), or I could leave the chair there and see if they could order the replacement parts.

Neither of us had been down this path before so I asked him what his preference would be, and he said, “Chuck, your warranty does state that we have first option to replace defective parts. The guy who services our furniture is gonna be in here tomorrow, so if it’s all right with you, I’d prefer we see if we can get the replacement parts, and I’ll give you a call once I hear back.”

Fair enough. I left without my chair but felt great that a warranty / guarantee effort was set in motion. I wasn’t sure going in if I would be tossed out because the manufacturer went out of business, lack of store receipt, etc., so just knowing that options were on deck was a breath of fresh air in our seemingly time crunched, often unresponsive, mega-store, impersonal, not-my-problem, hurried culture of ours but I digress.

Two days went by when a voicemail was left, “Mr. Scott, we spoke to the Global rep. Your new chair back is on order. We are also going to replace your tape-ducked arm rest as a professional courtesy. Parts should be in during the next couple of weeks, so I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Yippee! My old, trusty chair that had been with me during so many late night editing sessions and played the seat to many a musical performance would be returned, to be somewhat akin to the comfort of a favorite old shoe.

For several weeks I sat on a hard metal fold-up chair. Then after four weeks I decided to call to check on the status. My Staples customer service champion was not in, so I asked to leave a message for him, which they reluctantly took down. I could almost hear his inner voice say to me over the phone, “Dude - I’m busy. Why do I have to write down this message, and why can’t you just call back tomorrow morning when he’s in?”

The next day I was about to follow-up until I played back the morning voice mails, and there was one of panic from my Staples customer service hero. “Mr. Scott. Can you please call me at your earliest convenience. It’s Important.”

With that I thought, “Okay - here we go, they changed their mind and the parts were never ordered, not available, or management changed their mind about supporting the guarantee.”

It turned out that parts arrived, but during the waiting process my chair was mistaken as junk and tossed out.

Then the drama started to play out. Apparently a frustrated management team mused, “How could we let this happen. Now we owe the guy a new chair. Somebody is gonna have to buy this guy a new chair, and it’s not me. I just hope he doesn’t want one of those $600 leather chairs. How the heck …”

When my hero replied and chimed in during management huddle, ” … but he’s the customer. He had a guarantee. We promised.” Said hero was promptly told to leave work effective immediately hence the cell phone call I got from him as he was driving home per management request.

I asked if this was just bad timing and if better picked up another day or two once management cooled down. I asked if he would prefer I support his suggested next steps or if he’d prefer I deal with management directly, which is what happened next.

I was given the name and number for head manager. I called and got directed to his office when an assistant picked up, claimed the manager was busy, and asked if he could take a message.

At this point, I started to laugh at what kind of message to leave given all the twists and turns, so I started at the top,

“This is Chuck Scott, and I’m the guy with the missing chair.”

“Oh, yea! We know who you are. How can I help you?”

I asked if my customer service hero’s job was in trouble and what could we reasonably work out given all that went on.

Suffice it to say, I drove up there that afternoon before the assistant manager’s shift ended and rolled away with a floor demo model that is very close in style to my original trusted old one.

Without naming names, Jonathan, Jim and Rob at Team Staples know who they are, and I just wanted to go on record of appreciation for all of your Danbury CT Staples customer service efforts.

Cordially,

Chuck Scott

PS - On the way out, I did purchase an extra padded memory foam cushion. Now, only if you sold designer foot-stoles to accompany said chairs!

Charleston was good to us and an eye opener on many levels (note I snapped over 1500 high rez pictures, recorded 8 gigs of audio data from birds to dinner interviews, and shot 1.5 hours of awesome video footage so more on the Carolinas to come).

During our trip, one of my church clients asked me to post the following video clip on their home page. Both Katie and I love Amazing Grace but did not know of the origins or history of this song.

As an aside, I also now love to play just the black keys on the piano which was something I first started doing five years ago when I was in the hospital recovering for three months from nasty car incident on black ice and the black keys were the only ones my fingers could reach and play given that both arms were in casts (as well as host of other broken bones).

Here is the copy that I posted on my client’s site:

Below is a clip from GodTube featuring Wintley Phipps, President of the US Dream Academy - an organization for children of prisoners … “If the mountain was smooth you couldn’t climb it … Five black notes per scale on the piano and you can play almost any Negro Spiritual by playing just the black notes … Slave Ship Captain, John Newtown, penned the words for Amazing Grace after he became a Christian but the melody was based on the West African Sorrow Chant he heard rising from the belly of the slave ships he sailed …”