My Writings. My Thoughts.
Swine flu is not the swine flu!
// September 13th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
This just in from an independent source, Edward Salaguinto, Doctor of Pharmacy, Pharmacy. And always remember to do the research, everything you read or hear from your news source IS NOT necessarily the way it is. After watching the following video I asked Ed if this “new” swine flu was really and old swine flu?…his answer after the jump.
The Foreign Exchange @ Yoshis SF September 12th
// September 5th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized, raimonnemar
Ok so I’ve been slackin’ on my mackin’ in regards to posting music and that’s especially true with my favorites FE so here you go, a little catchup!
‘CITY LIGHTS VOL. 2: SHIBUYA’ SAMPLER
[right click and save to download MP3 file]
The sampler includes snippets of the following tracks::
01 Shibuya Station
02 Crossing
03 Omotesando
04 Meiji Shrine
05 Shadow Dancing
06 Bullet Train
07 Saturday Night feat. Carlitta Durand
The Foreign Exchange feat. Muhsinah – “House Of Cards” from The Foreign Exchange on Vimeo.
IKEA Heights from DaveAOK on Vimeo.
IKEA HEIGHTS – Now this is living!
// September 4th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
IKEA Heights from DaveAOK on Vimeo.
Life is good!
// September 4th, 2009 // Comments Off // Plumtreepr
Man I’ve been through alot this last summer. I’ve gone from feeling like I had no idea where my life was going to being clearer then I’ve ever been before. I talked in my last post about envy and realized that if that’s what it takes to get you off your ass then go with it.
The cool thing for me is seeing all the stuff I get done while I call myself being “on my ass”. I now have my own PR company which is super dope plumtreepr.com/news and LEGENDmag has been interviewing some of the biggest independent business owners in the country the last couple of months….not to mention really great musical talent, and here’s a list of all the great things to look for in the coming months that I’ve been working on this summer.
Look for WINE & BEATS™(original event) in October and also make sure you show up for Independent Artists’ Week Sept. 6th – 12th in San Francisco (PR Client) and don’t miss my first film screening in San Francisco…we’ll be screening Beer Wars at 21st Amendment. How can I possibly complain?
Life is good!
Why Envy?
// September 2nd, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
I seem to look at things through these selfish envious eyes lately. Someone I know or like gets an award I think, why not me? Someone gets a write up I think, what am I doing wrong? I’m not really sure when it started but I’m sure I don’t like it.
I know I’ve read a book at some point the talking about how unhealthy this is and how / why you shouldn’t do it and I wish i had that book now. I usually pause at posting these kinds thoughts as I feel they make me look and feel as if I don’t know the answers and at the same time I love posting them because it reminds me I don’t know the answers.
First vacay thoughts: 10 year chapter come to an end
// August 12th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
As I arrived at the airport today I was reminded of the mind altering experience of travel. Even when I’m visiting a familiar place, if I’m in a different place in my life then when I first visited it can still be transforming. I can already feel the weight of this past years trials and hard times lift from my shoulders and my gut.
It seems like forever ago (and in reality it’s not far from the truth) that I was traveling to Denver for the first time. I was the Director of PACURH, the “Pacific Affiliate” of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. In lamens terms I was the main contact for College and University Dorm governments located in California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Alaska, and the national conference was happening in Denver that year.
By this time I had traveled literally all over the country with the organization in multiple roles and Denver seemed like just another city that would be marked by a red stick pin on my map of the world.
That year was especially fun for me, I was on my game. I had what I remember to be the best Board of Directors in any region in the country and my VP and I got along so well it was sickening for most people not on the board. I was looked up to and respected and this was something I liked alot. But on the academic side of things….life was going in the opposite direction.
Classes had begun to bore me to death long ago and my college money had almost run out. My lack of interest in classes and huge interest in college organizations had come to it’s natural conclusion. I had to leave school because my GPA tanked and I had no idea how I would pay for things if I were to stay and stick it out. At the time I rationalized my decision to leave school by reflecting often on all the friends I knew who had degrees but no job.
But all this wasn’t going to stop one of the last trips I would get to take as Director. At the time I was on the down side of a bad relationship and looking forward to being a free man after being locked down for years while still traveling to conferences.
It could be said I was opening myself up to what ever was there for me, little did I know that there was also someone in Denver who would also be open, and I would know even less about how that encounter 10 years ago would be the very reason for my flight today.
To write this off as coincidence in my opinion would be to consider myself unable or unwilling to see the obvious path laid out behind me.
And so as the plane roles up to Terminal A15 and I prepare to power-down my compy, I have a great since of purpose and calm. This is the end of a chapter started 10 years ago and the beginning of a new one, started this past year. I can’t wait to see how it ends.
Washing the bloody diamonds of Sierra Leone
// August 3rd, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
I recently watched a video on the diamond trade in Sierra Leone on Current. It’s not a new story, if you’re someone who pays attention to international politics and commerce you know this story. What interested me in this particular story was the short mention of a program called Integrated Diamond Management.
In the piece they speak about how part of the problem for labors is that most of them are uneducated. Not only do they have little concept of what a diamond might sale for, they have little understanding of arithmetic. If you have no understanding of these things it makes it hard to ask for simple things like better working conditions or a bigger slice of the profit from diamonds you have found.
Integrated Diamond Management looks to change all of that, by educating the workers on how to spot quality among other things and help foster a better environment. The program has since ceased but I think it’s important to take note of the victories won no matter how large or small. The smiles from positives stories are just as valuable as the knowledge and perspective gained from sad ones.
War….undelcared, learning to read between the lines!
// August 3rd, 2009 // Comments Off // politics
Being able to read between the lines in politics depends almost entirely on what you think the person or group speaking is capable of. If you don’t believe that your governement (no matter where you live) would lie to you, then when they tell you they would not and have not declared war on any group or nation you take their words at face value.
When I saw this pod done by Current TV’s Vanguard series, in which groups who fight against Iran spoke of the U.S. “offering support”, my ability to read between the lines was once again taken to a new level. I like most people have never heard the term ‘proxy war’. It seems fairly logical but when you hear your elected officials tell you we’re not at war with anyone you just make certain assumptions. None of our U.S. dollars are being given to people who are at war with people we’re not officially at war with. We wouldn’t support people who are currently at war, when we don’t want to be at war because that would seem like a sure path to war. You could go on this way for days….but the subtleties of politics and military posturing has become more and more apparent to me.
I plan to share these things with you as I find them and offer them up for your incite. I do not ask or think you should believe all that you see. I simply ask you to take in as much information as you can, do you best to judge the sources and then make an attempt at forming your own opinion and at the least reading between the lines of what you’re being told.
***
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Great movie for anyone who has that entrepreneurial bug
// July 30th, 2009 // Comments Off // Leadership / Productivity, The Independent, Vlog
When I was watching this movie, at times I felt like I was watching a train wreck. Mr. Brickland is one of the most determined people I’ve seen. I found myself asking “have I done that”? Or “how many times have I really put things on the line in that way”? Surprisingly, always coming to the conclusion given my age, I’m not too far off Mr. Bricklands path. Whether that is a blessing or a curse is something I think is left to interpretation. What I do know is living life to it’s fullest IS the only option.
Back from the future and focusing on today
// July 30th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized
It has come to my attention through reading several blogs, talking to friends and self analysis that I spend ALOT of time in the future. I don’t have a Flux Capasitor and I haven’t mastered Quantum Physics but marketing goals, life strategies and visions boards fill in nicely. This time traveling of mine has become a knee jerk reaction to not liking my current circumstance or simply being bored.
“Man, you didn’t get much done today you need to finish your life goals and strategies”! I’ll say to myself. At other times I think “the business seems stagnant, what are the things we need to accomplish in the next year or 5 to get where we want to be”? Before I even get to those the important ones have come and gone, “dude if you want to have a happy girlfriend you better get more money rolling in fast, not to mention a family…..how you gonna make that happen if you don’t do better now. I know lets make a time line of when these things will be done by so you can get on track”.
The thing is that I have no idea where I’ll be in five years. That is the reality, the cold hard truth and the joy of life. By avoiding the present I have learned to neglect my daily life chores and also begun to neglect what is most important, my own self worth and happiness.
Over time and with alot of practice I have convinced myself that in order to succeed I need to add pressure to my current circumstance (goals and visions) in order to propel myself out of my current situation. Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying say I should never make a goal or think about the future but if I plan on enjoying the journey at all, I better show up to have fun that day and not work so I can have fun in the future.
So today I’m making a commitment to wake up and enjoy each activity of the day, knowing that if I focus all my energy towards the days activities I’ll get to a place I want to be. I might not get to where I set my goal or where my vision suggested but I’m sure I’ll still like it.
