So much has changed in the past month with the School for Designing a Society, this trip, and the development of a relationship with my dear Lucy Joyce. Through these three major pieces, I feel as though I’m where I desired to be two months ago, when I designed this trip.

I’m glad that this trip unfolded the way it did. The way it was designed wasn’t necessarily the best: I didn’t time the trip in any particular way, I didn’t particularly enjoy living out of a backpack, it would’ve worked better to have more money, and my own method of transportation. However, it was good to have time to myself to reflect and understand how I approach people, ideas, and conversation. Keeping a journal helped me with that, as well as helping to develop my critical thinking, and provided insight into my thought process. Writing, drawing, and painting in it also will make it into an interesting record for posterity.  I would say this trip was highly successful, because I had good times, saw new places, gained new knowledge, met new people, reinforced connections with people I had met before, and learned a lot about myself in the process.

Some of the highlights include:  visiting NYC for the first time!  What an awesome city!  The richness and detail in the culture of that city and those people is truly beautiful!  Visiting New England for the first time!  Jon and Lydia are two of the kindest, most righteous people I’ve ever met.  Swimming with them at that waterfall was a rejuvinating delight, and they helped me realize how much I wanted and needed to go back to school.  For that I am eternally grateful.  Being in Chicago with Tom, Ursula, and their two munchkins, Alex and Julian, was a highlight as well!  They have a good thing going, and I’m glad to have caught a glimpse of it now.  I’m happy that I managed to develop a kinship with Alex, so that I can catch up with her later on.  Going to the Buddhist temple was good as well, and I think I’ll keep experimenting with different religious experiences.  It’s interesting to see what synchronicities there are throughout each religion.  Visiting Urbana was a big highlight as well.  Not only did I get to meet up with several people from the School for Designing A Society, stay in an awesome collective house, meet new people, sit in on some more meetings with the SDaS, but I also got to paint a shark on the wall at the Independent Media Center! Aw yea!

The whole gang from SDaS is of such a high quality. It was one of my better choices in recent history to attend the summer session this July. They put so much stress on the usage of language, and how cliches and sayings can block effective communication. It’s got me trying to think up my own sayings and exclamations. Booty!

So all in all, I feel very good about where I’m at right now. I’m trying to be more responsive to my thoughts and feelings, and I definitely felt that it was time to pick up where I left off. I’m inspired in putting this experience, knowledge, and opportunity, to good use. I’m heading back to Broadway now, where I can recollect myself, establish a base of operations, and begin rebuilding my life. I’ll be focusing my efforts on finding a place to live (maybe Woodfolk, maybe not?), sorting out a job situation (The hospital said they’d hire me back but I’m interested in my alternatives), and painting (!). I saw a lot of art on the trip, experienced a wide range of feelings and emotions, and I feel like painting will be the way to make sense of it. I’ll end up with some cool artwork out of it too! Maybe this could be my new job..

Oh and my birthday was good. People from the SDaS sang me the happy birthday thing, and was able to give thanks for life up until now, and chart out what I want to develop in the next year.

Good music I’m listening to:
Ponytail
Dirty Projectors

Please read this story on the homeless in our country. This is a big problem.

and..

here’s what I feel like right now

“..The first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by oil-producing countries, a feature that is set to result in an “oil crunch” within the next five years which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession, he said.”

also:

“The IEA estimates that the decline in oil production in existing fields is now running at 6.7 per cent a year compared to the 3.7 per cent decline it had estimated in 2007, which it now acknowledges to be wrong.”

and:

“”One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day,” Dr Birol said. “The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously,” he said.”

Here’s the article

New England was fantastic. The land up there is absolutely gorgeous. It was the perfect time to be there: the weather was warm, the sky was blue, and everything was in full bloom. I spent my time there mostly with two friends, Jon Sivel and Lydia Irons. They are both wizards of the highest merit. Their generosity was unending and of the sweetest variety. They introduced me to all of their friends, who were all kind and intelligent. Lydia, who works at a spa, let me come in and sit in the hot tub with her and Jon. Jon, who is studying Chinese herbal medecine, even let me practice driving manual in his new car while he was at class! The beauty of the town included a swimming hole that Jon’s roommate knew about, a place complete with a waterfall.. it was so gorgeous. Between sitting in the waterfall, and our synchronized diving, I had so much fun with those people, Jon, Daley, Lydia, Joe, and Nicole. I feel like I was reminded of something I had forgotten long ago that day..

I left Massachusetts on Friday, getting a rideshare with a 24-year-old Nepalese woman named Meha. Our ride was about 15 hours long, and we did pretty well with our time spent together! We talked about relationships, spirituality, esoteric ideas on existence, our families, etc. She was so kind to me, even insisting to pay for gas herself! We arrived in Chicago at about 10. My initial plan was to stay with my half-brother, Tom, but I couldn’t get ahold of him! I was a bit concerned about this, but I had originally told Tom that I would be arriving in Chicago in mid-August, rather than on July 31st. Oops. Meha invited me to her friend’s house, where she was having a party, and I stayed for a bit, before I got a weird vibe from her friend, like she wanted me out. I wandered around Navy Pier after this, writing poetry and listening to some awesome ’70′s Afro and Latin Beat music on my radio. This brought some unusual attention. People seemed astounded by me for some reason.. I ended up sleeping on the street that night, after finding a spot near the Prudential headquarters. I figured if I got hassled, I could just say that I was in line to get some home insurance.. I slept okay, after praying to God to help me get through the night. It actually wasn’t that bad, all considered. I had a bizarre dream involving Abbey and Mike. I woke up, got coffee, and walked out to the lakeside, where I meditated and did some Qi Gong.

Last night I stayed in a hostel, and that was much better. It was a relief to have a bed to call my own, even if just for a night. Today I went to my first Buddhist service. It was very nice, very small, and very Westernized. There was a piano, a sermon, and cookies afterwards. I did speak with a man afterwards, and we spoke of several things, like Buddhism, Daoism, and dealing with the world around us. He said that to him, Buddhism was about awareness of the various threads that are running through our minds, and the mastery of the ego. I said that perhaps an ego, or idea of self, might serve some sort of purpose if it is the aggregate or sum total of our experiences and ideas. In this sense, it is our way of understanding ourselves in terms of the world around us. He acknowledged this, saying that is it still important to be able to see those threads that influence us.

I’ve been writing a lot lately. Poems, but mostly writings on things that are going on, such as the New England trip, or thoughts that I’m having. I find that by writing these thoughts down, they develop more fully, and I make more connections. I think that in the past I tended to leave feelings or thoughts unresolved, scared of what they might become. Instead, the thoughts and feelings took control of me, becoming what I didn’t want them to be, instead of working through them, exploring them, understanding them, and transcending them.

I’m thinking about education lately. I realize that I truly do want to go back to school.  I think what I’d get out of it is the environment to develop my artistic ideas more fully.  When I was in art school at VCU, I didn’t really have any idea of what I wanted to do with it.  It definitely helped me out, and served a very important purpose by introducing me to a lot of new ideas, and an excellent group of people; however, I did end up slacking off a lot, not going to classes, and not seeing the full potential of what I could be doing.  I feel, in more ways that just in art, able and willing to create what I desire to be in this world.  If I went back to school, I would be much more inspired and driven to make art.  I feel like I was so young the first time through; I had a very stifling process for creation.  I feel much more free now then I ever did in Richmond.

I think my focus would be to get my teaching degree, so I could have a job that not only would allow for me to make a positive social contribution to society, and if I taught Art, would allow me to work directly in my field.  I think it would work to go back to school next fall. This would give me time to prepare, time to find the right school, and time to develop my band project with Chris. The Mondo/Nectar Bats/’Toid Rage/Free Radical Scavengers/Primary Dads project has too much potential to not fully realize.   Before I left on this trip, I calculated how much tape we had made together, and it totalled over 24 hours!  It’s in the process of digitization, and so CD is in the works.  This project is too important in the long-run to leave it by the wayside.

I’ve been meditating frequently lately, and this has been very helpful.  I feel like up to this point, my emotions had been frozen, lumbering, and slow with the accumulated weight of unresolved experiences and emotions.  I feel like I’m shrugging off weight that has been there far too long.

Tonight I’m going to see a documentary on shopping malls, and tomorrow is TBD.  Tuesday will include a trip to the Contemporary Museum of Art, and I will probably leave shortly thereafter.

We rode the subways frequentlyl, and this method of transportation is endlessly amusing. Not only were there musicians involved in almost every subway interaction I had (ranging from Arabic string music, to a Jazz trio, to a lone guitarist with an amp strapped to his back, to an old man hunched over his Casio keyboard, head down, with several plastic dolls taped to it, some broken,while playing demento-organ music in the Times Square subway), but the dynamic of subway interaction is endlessly fascinating.  I feel like I had a relatively tame experience with it, but I know that on some of the lesser-used lines there are some weirdos out there, doing their thing.  Most of my experience with it involved people listening to their iPods, going to work, not talking, and not looking at anybody else on the train.  I, being curious, looked at everybody, including and especially the malformed, misshapen, and odd.  I recall seeing an albino black woman–she was absolutely gorgeous.  Toward the end of the trip, on some of the more empty, spacious nighttime subway rides, myself and my crew got a bit loose and would play a bit on the train, getting both derision and other playful spirits.

Some of the highlights of the trip include the show at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn, featuring Javelin, Teengirl Fantasy, and Extreme Animals. The venue had simply a dingy door on the street side, but when we went upstairs, we found a cavernous, heavily ornate room complete with sick awesome jams. The whole show lasted until about 4 in the morning, and we spent approximately 4-5 hours dancing and grooving. Extreme Animals capped it off with a water party. Great show.  It definitely influenced Chris and myself–we saw a level that we can achieve with some ingenuity, some luck, and a whole lotta work.

Riding the ferry to Staten Island provided an excellent break to the New York noise; the salty wind provided some balance to the New York experience.  As we rolled into the fog-shrouded port, it was obvious that Staten Island is a bit different than NYC.  It has a very palatable flavor–small, cozy, wordly, and with much more foliage than Manhattan.  We visited an urban commune there called Ganas, and they were kind enough to feed us dinner, show us around, and give Chris and Josh a place to stay (I chose to stay in Brooklyn with Lucy and her family). They have an interesting approach to living together. Check out their website if you’re interested.

We also visited Times Square. Blech. It felt much like Hollywood in the sense of how shitty, soul-less, and environmentally destructive it is. The whole experience was a fleshy, ear-splitting, flashing experience. I absolutely had to feel this. The whole experience is designed to seduce you into spending money, into giving them your time and energy, for their benefit. People were lapping it up. I saw people getting their picture taken, most likely to put on Myspace, like it is the pinnacle of human evolution and culture. What I saw was consumer culture, misinformation, and the weak people who fall prey to this vacant facade. One cool thing about this was an excellent sound installation right in the heart of Times Square, installed in the grate of an island in the middle of the street. It emits this ominous humming, much like what I would imagine the sound of the Times Square machine to sound like.

Biking on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan with Lucy was fantastic. We got to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge walkway, and there I got to look out on Manhattan. I could only think about how unsustainable it was. I wonder what NYC will be like in 20 years…

Being in New York made me realize how much I love the big city, but also how I could never live in one. I need silence and stillness in order to lead my healthy life, and that is the one thing NYC does not have. While it is fascinating there, I felt scrambled when I left.

I’m starting to run out of things to say, so here are some parting thoughts:
What’s it like to live in a cave without money for 10 years? – Check out the FAQ, the man is very wise
Martial Law and the Militarization of Public Health: The Worldwide H1N1 Flu Vaccination Program – “The underlying political intent is to use the WHO level six pandemic to divert public attention from an impending and far-reaching social crisis, which is largely the consequence of a deep-seated global economic depression.” check this out, very important to understand.

Right now I’m in North Hampton, Massachusetts with a couple friends. I’m leaving on Friday, and all is well. I love you all, and I hope all is well. Namaste.

From Wikipedia:  A meme (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “dream”^[1]) is a postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, and is transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. (The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word mimema for “something imitated”.)

The resources I will use to inform this project include the internet, conversations and interactions with friends and strangers, my own instincts, and anything and everything I experience in our world.   The scope of this project includes human culture, science, technology, the paranormal, the past, the present, and most importantly, the future.  I seek to prolilficate memes, information, ideas, questions, dialogues, exchanges, interactions, self-education, and psychic freedom.  In our globalizing world, it is too easy to allow the propoganda and misinformation that surrounds us to shape us, rather than seeking our own information, and creating our own values.  This blog will represent the shaping of my own information and values, and as clear a vision of the world I can achieve.  I hope this inspires other people to do the same in whatever way they feel is right.  In that spirit, let’s go!