Cap & Trade Explained (Story of Cap & Trade)
Cool short cartoon based film on Cap & Trade. Has some good info and a simple approach which should appeal to the masses. Worth the watch!!
Welcome!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A Dance with Rhythm
A dance with rhythm
Individually notes and sounds are just hums, clanks, bangs, tweets, and twangs but together they offer us so much more.. like the ingredients to a fine gourmet meal, once assembled they dance passionately upon the palate with reckless abandon.. mingling for a second in a intricate pattern then changing forms the next, with each shift progressively stirring the elegant movements of the soul.. notes hang like climbers on the highest cliffs, inspiring the heart to race, while the feet move slowly or in accordance with the tempo.. seemingly commanded by some unseen human instinct that fires muscles into rhythmic action, man and music share the same brief moment of precious time and space.. I can think of no better way to spend 3 minutes and 30 second than sinking headlong into the skirmish of sounds to join the dancing souls they inspire.. what marvelous creations can be made from uniquely combining such independently lonely reverberations! Together, strung compellingly along with the woeful cry of a human voice displaying their bare soul in tune, they exist solely for your listening pleasure.. a release for them from the chains of imagination, and a capture for you.. carnal rhythmic instinct again makes the head bob with the tempo as the brain soaks up the sounds like a thirsty sponge on a baron sea floor.. two souls, perhaps distant in time and space, sharing love, joy, pain, and sorrow against a hauntingly beautiful auditory backdrop.. whether it’s the echo of piano strings being hammered by a man on one side of the earth, or air being delicately gifted from a woman’s lungs to a flute on the other side, the captured echo still compels a soul somewhere stranded in the middle.. and I am that soul! since the days of baying by cavemen to the progressive indie electro funk hop movement the feelings of the willing recipients of sound remain the same.. elevated, motivated, frustrated, sedated, or simply just in tune, and nothing matters until the beat slides away softly into the past.. in days gone by it only survived in the memory, the whistle, the heart, and the soul of the listener but now we are lucky enough to be able to hit “rewind” and resurrect the very same soul stirring ballad that plucked our heartstrings with just the right timing and rhythm.. we can play it over and over and dance close with it until the stars fade away and return to shine again the next day.. there’s no worry about life boorishly cutting in and stealing the next dance, leaving you lonely in a quiet corner.. now the notes of each song are captured and enslaved.. ours forever.. or at least until our own final hymn is sung at a solemn funeral procession.. until then, selfishly I continue my eternal love affair and dance with rhythm.. an open soul and a humble partner is all I can offer it in return..
John Thomas
Individually notes and sounds are just hums, clanks, bangs, tweets, and twangs but together they offer us so much more.. like the ingredients to a fine gourmet meal, once assembled they dance passionately upon the palate with reckless abandon.. mingling for a second in a intricate pattern then changing forms the next, with each shift progressively stirring the elegant movements of the soul.. notes hang like climbers on the highest cliffs, inspiring the heart to race, while the feet move slowly or in accordance with the tempo.. seemingly commanded by some unseen human instinct that fires muscles into rhythmic action, man and music share the same brief moment of precious time and space.. I can think of no better way to spend 3 minutes and 30 second than sinking headlong into the skirmish of sounds to join the dancing souls they inspire.. what marvelous creations can be made from uniquely combining such independently lonely reverberations! Together, strung compellingly along with the woeful cry of a human voice displaying their bare soul in tune, they exist solely for your listening pleasure.. a release for them from the chains of imagination, and a capture for you.. carnal rhythmic instinct again makes the head bob with the tempo as the brain soaks up the sounds like a thirsty sponge on a baron sea floor.. two souls, perhaps distant in time and space, sharing love, joy, pain, and sorrow against a hauntingly beautiful auditory backdrop.. whether it’s the echo of piano strings being hammered by a man on one side of the earth, or air being delicately gifted from a woman’s lungs to a flute on the other side, the captured echo still compels a soul somewhere stranded in the middle.. and I am that soul! since the days of baying by cavemen to the progressive indie electro funk hop movement the feelings of the willing recipients of sound remain the same.. elevated, motivated, frustrated, sedated, or simply just in tune, and nothing matters until the beat slides away softly into the past.. in days gone by it only survived in the memory, the whistle, the heart, and the soul of the listener but now we are lucky enough to be able to hit “rewind” and resurrect the very same soul stirring ballad that plucked our heartstrings with just the right timing and rhythm.. we can play it over and over and dance close with it until the stars fade away and return to shine again the next day.. there’s no worry about life boorishly cutting in and stealing the next dance, leaving you lonely in a quiet corner.. now the notes of each song are captured and enslaved.. ours forever.. or at least until our own final hymn is sung at a solemn funeral procession.. until then, selfishly I continue my eternal love affair and dance with rhythm.. an open soul and a humble partner is all I can offer it in return..
John Thomas
Monday, July 19, 2010
Success and Failure
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
Looking back throughout history and in modern time we find the most successful people have one thing in common. They will usually be the first to tell you that true success is born from the frustrating passion of failure. Too often society looks upon failure as a complete loss or reason to never try in the first place. Some societies take failure so seriously that it may have life or death consequences. But is failure necessarily bad?
I’m going to stand with Churchill, Einstein, Confucius and many other brilliant thinkers who say that failure is but a mere step to success. Look at how many entrepreneurs have had multiple different businesses and projects before they hit the one that really embodies success for them! Each failure in life, whether it be in business, love, school, sports, or whatever is an important opportunity to learn a valuable lesson. The people who are truly successful are those who are able to culminate the lessons they’ve learned and find the value in them to offer back to society. This is much easier said than done which is why very few people end up in the proverbial winners circle so to speak. So what does it take to get there?
Short answer: It takes a LOT of willpower and determination to survive no matter what the outcome of each day. Willpower is the most important factor in success and dealing with failure but it seems to be one of the least talked about. Most life coaches and seminar spokespeople for success rarely focus on this important part of the human psyche. They always talk about methods, slogans, plans, steps, and guaranteed results. Little if any time is spent on the inner self and it’s relation to success. Like Churchill mentions in this quote, success is the ability to fail multiple times and still be passionate about getting back up and trying again. The problem is that failing is hard, and carries feeling of shame, remorse, inadequacy, and inferiority. When you pour your heart into something and it gets flushed down the toilet how do you replace that lost heart? I believe it takes willpower and determination to turn the hard lessons from every failure into the ungodly amount of courage, energy, and strength it takes to convince your inner self to try again. The people that make success look easy are the people who have figured out this is what needs to be focused on during reflection and not the specific actions you have taken.
By immediately assessing each setback or shortcoming for the lesson that pertains to YOU, and how YOU are going to solve it, you load your clip for the next round of battle so to speak. They say knowledge is power and there is no power like knowing yourself! If you learn how to react to upsets, chance bad luck, random accidents, and freak occurrences, in addition to your own mistakes, success is only a matter of a few chess moves away. The key is the inner response and having the will to keep playing!
This is not always going to be easy by any means but, it is achievable! The next time you disappoint yourself, do less than expected, or fail to meet your goals, don’t think of it as a bad thing. Think of it as an opportunity to learn for tomorrow. How and why EXACTLY did you fall short? At first this can be frustrating because it sounds so simple but in practice it’s a very difficult thing to do. The key is building the willpower, self discipline, and resolution to stick to it and keep fighting no matter how discouraged you get or how trivial each lesson is. They all have meaning of some form! You just have to convince yourself to find it when it seems hopeless or insignificant to do so!
Remember, the sad days of failure and hard luck make the first day of success all that much sweeter. How would we know the beauty of flowers without the ugliness of clouds and rain? With this in mind we can begin to accept failures as their own thing of beauty. It breaths life and vibrancy into the aura of success and makes it feel so much more rewarding and inspiring when a better day arrives! I will sum this up with a brief quote from Charles F Kettering, inventor, founder of Delco, and holder of 140 patents:
“It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.”
Charles F. Kettering
Learning the art of failure is the key to success in this life!
Persevere my friends!
Looking back throughout history and in modern time we find the most successful people have one thing in common. They will usually be the first to tell you that true success is born from the frustrating passion of failure. Too often society looks upon failure as a complete loss or reason to never try in the first place. Some societies take failure so seriously that it may have life or death consequences. But is failure necessarily bad?
I’m going to stand with Churchill, Einstein, Confucius and many other brilliant thinkers who say that failure is but a mere step to success. Look at how many entrepreneurs have had multiple different businesses and projects before they hit the one that really embodies success for them! Each failure in life, whether it be in business, love, school, sports, or whatever is an important opportunity to learn a valuable lesson. The people who are truly successful are those who are able to culminate the lessons they’ve learned and find the value in them to offer back to society. This is much easier said than done which is why very few people end up in the proverbial winners circle so to speak. So what does it take to get there?
Short answer: It takes a LOT of willpower and determination to survive no matter what the outcome of each day. Willpower is the most important factor in success and dealing with failure but it seems to be one of the least talked about. Most life coaches and seminar spokespeople for success rarely focus on this important part of the human psyche. They always talk about methods, slogans, plans, steps, and guaranteed results. Little if any time is spent on the inner self and it’s relation to success. Like Churchill mentions in this quote, success is the ability to fail multiple times and still be passionate about getting back up and trying again. The problem is that failing is hard, and carries feeling of shame, remorse, inadequacy, and inferiority. When you pour your heart into something and it gets flushed down the toilet how do you replace that lost heart? I believe it takes willpower and determination to turn the hard lessons from every failure into the ungodly amount of courage, energy, and strength it takes to convince your inner self to try again. The people that make success look easy are the people who have figured out this is what needs to be focused on during reflection and not the specific actions you have taken.
By immediately assessing each setback or shortcoming for the lesson that pertains to YOU, and how YOU are going to solve it, you load your clip for the next round of battle so to speak. They say knowledge is power and there is no power like knowing yourself! If you learn how to react to upsets, chance bad luck, random accidents, and freak occurrences, in addition to your own mistakes, success is only a matter of a few chess moves away. The key is the inner response and having the will to keep playing!
This is not always going to be easy by any means but, it is achievable! The next time you disappoint yourself, do less than expected, or fail to meet your goals, don’t think of it as a bad thing. Think of it as an opportunity to learn for tomorrow. How and why EXACTLY did you fall short? At first this can be frustrating because it sounds so simple but in practice it’s a very difficult thing to do. The key is building the willpower, self discipline, and resolution to stick to it and keep fighting no matter how discouraged you get or how trivial each lesson is. They all have meaning of some form! You just have to convince yourself to find it when it seems hopeless or insignificant to do so!
Remember, the sad days of failure and hard luck make the first day of success all that much sweeter. How would we know the beauty of flowers without the ugliness of clouds and rain? With this in mind we can begin to accept failures as their own thing of beauty. It breaths life and vibrancy into the aura of success and makes it feel so much more rewarding and inspiring when a better day arrives! I will sum this up with a brief quote from Charles F Kettering, inventor, founder of Delco, and holder of 140 patents:
“It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.”
Charles F. Kettering
Learning the art of failure is the key to success in this life!
Persevere my friends!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Excellent documentary on the HAARP Project and Tesla Technology!!
Very informative documentary on the HAARP project. I have legitimate concerns about the use of this technology for less than humanitarian purposes. Please watch it and at least digest the information yourself. Knowledge is power!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Ode to Langston Hughes "Dreams"
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams.
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field
Covered with snow.
- Langston Hughes
It’s from within the strength of dreams in which we summon the actions of happiness. By this I don’t mean the dreams we succumb to every night during REM sleep, I mean the dreams you have of what is, what’s possible, and what you want to accomplish. Your reality, goals, passions, creativity, and your view of the bigger picture make you who you are. These aspects are what give our spirits buoyancy to resist the eroding waves of negative things that are inherent in life. Everybody has setbacks and situations that make you wanna shake your fist at fate. Without something to aspire to and a passion to embrace even those with faith can find life lackluster at best. It doesn’t have to be grand goals of taking over the world, being a millionaire, or anything over the top. It just has to be something that means the world to you. Whatever shape, passion, person, or inspiration it takes form in is irrelevant. Langston Hughes reminds us with this poem that inspiration and purpose are developed within, in his case, our dreams. If you feel like the world is overwhelming take a second to evaluate where you’re at. If you wake up and trudge through the day dreading work, life, bad situations, relationships, money issues, and the rest of life’s drama you may need to assess why you do it all. What is your impact in this world and on who? What is the change you wish to see, to paraphrase Gandhi? What is your ideal purpose? If these questions are unanswered you must take a second and devote a short percentage of your day to assessing these questions and figuring out what your ideal input into the world is. Having this knowledge is a critical start to being at peace with yourself and your connection with this collective existence we all partake in. There may or may not be a bigger picture before and after the life of each person, but all that humans can ever be certain of is, their own input and signature on history. This is what your dreams manifest into so it’s imperative to hold onto them with the utmost passion! Without this passion and creativity we’re just cogs turning in place leaving nothing but a track record of success for the machine itself. Do the parts get the credit when the car wins the race? No! You have to dream to be the driver!
John
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams.
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field
Covered with snow.
- Langston Hughes
It’s from within the strength of dreams in which we summon the actions of happiness. By this I don’t mean the dreams we succumb to every night during REM sleep, I mean the dreams you have of what is, what’s possible, and what you want to accomplish. Your reality, goals, passions, creativity, and your view of the bigger picture make you who you are. These aspects are what give our spirits buoyancy to resist the eroding waves of negative things that are inherent in life. Everybody has setbacks and situations that make you wanna shake your fist at fate. Without something to aspire to and a passion to embrace even those with faith can find life lackluster at best. It doesn’t have to be grand goals of taking over the world, being a millionaire, or anything over the top. It just has to be something that means the world to you. Whatever shape, passion, person, or inspiration it takes form in is irrelevant. Langston Hughes reminds us with this poem that inspiration and purpose are developed within, in his case, our dreams. If you feel like the world is overwhelming take a second to evaluate where you’re at. If you wake up and trudge through the day dreading work, life, bad situations, relationships, money issues, and the rest of life’s drama you may need to assess why you do it all. What is your impact in this world and on who? What is the change you wish to see, to paraphrase Gandhi? What is your ideal purpose? If these questions are unanswered you must take a second and devote a short percentage of your day to assessing these questions and figuring out what your ideal input into the world is. Having this knowledge is a critical start to being at peace with yourself and your connection with this collective existence we all partake in. There may or may not be a bigger picture before and after the life of each person, but all that humans can ever be certain of is, their own input and signature on history. This is what your dreams manifest into so it’s imperative to hold onto them with the utmost passion! Without this passion and creativity we’re just cogs turning in place leaving nothing but a track record of success for the machine itself. Do the parts get the credit when the car wins the race? No! You have to dream to be the driver!
John
Falling in love for a second.
Falling in love for a second
The tingle passes quickly from your stomach to your throat..
Like silent cells singing every second seemingly shuddering to a note..
The breeze as she walked by me restarted the limp sails ferrying my boat..
Refreshed, her very existence left me with just enough clarity and hope..
I think I fell in love again, at least for just a second or so..
But days pass slowly followed each day by nights icy cloak..
Every lonely hour swallowed by the clocks mocking stroke..
I’ve never been a lucky man, but every now and then, I still try knocking on oak..
After bittersweet dreams of her slipping outta my hands again, wishing I hadn’t just awoke..
Cause in my slumber last night, I fell in love again, at least for just a second or so..
But every time it happens, it seems it’s gone as fast as it arose..
Back to the real world again, with the proverbial stone grinding on my nose..
All these feelings of love relegated to a cluttered mind full of prose..
Inspired by girls with stunning eyes, tattoos, glitter, and sexy clothes..
I catch her eye driving by, and think I fell in love again, at least for a second or so..
But then traffic passes by and I’m shaken from my trance and left with nowhere else to go..
Searching a baron wasteland for the glance that melts the guarded walls of my heart built with snow…
I’d hike through the heart of France looking for romance or diligently circumnavigate the globe..
But sometimes I get the feeling that I’ve walked right by her and was just too stunned to say hello..
Makes me think, who knows…
Maybe I did just fall in love again... even if it was for just a second or so…
by
John Thomas
The tingle passes quickly from your stomach to your throat..
Like silent cells singing every second seemingly shuddering to a note..
The breeze as she walked by me restarted the limp sails ferrying my boat..
Refreshed, her very existence left me with just enough clarity and hope..
I think I fell in love again, at least for just a second or so..
But days pass slowly followed each day by nights icy cloak..
Every lonely hour swallowed by the clocks mocking stroke..
I’ve never been a lucky man, but every now and then, I still try knocking on oak..
After bittersweet dreams of her slipping outta my hands again, wishing I hadn’t just awoke..
Cause in my slumber last night, I fell in love again, at least for just a second or so..
But every time it happens, it seems it’s gone as fast as it arose..
Back to the real world again, with the proverbial stone grinding on my nose..
All these feelings of love relegated to a cluttered mind full of prose..
Inspired by girls with stunning eyes, tattoos, glitter, and sexy clothes..
I catch her eye driving by, and think I fell in love again, at least for a second or so..
But then traffic passes by and I’m shaken from my trance and left with nowhere else to go..
Searching a baron wasteland for the glance that melts the guarded walls of my heart built with snow…
I’d hike through the heart of France looking for romance or diligently circumnavigate the globe..
But sometimes I get the feeling that I’ve walked right by her and was just too stunned to say hello..
Makes me think, who knows…
Maybe I did just fall in love again... even if it was for just a second or so…
by
John Thomas
Friday, July 16, 2010
Welcome to The Bigger Picture
Hey, everyone! So, I finally decided to start a blog. I've always got a lot on my mind and I hate posting a ton of stuff on facebook and forcing it down peoples throat. So today, the inspiration hit me to burrow into my own little corner of the interwebz and speak my piece here for those who wish to listen. I decided to call my blog "The Bigger Picture" because that's what I find my self reflecting back to in almost every aspect of life. My writings and postings on here will be my interpretation of the world as it relates to the bigger picture of everything. I hope to share my thoughts, writings, poetry, and insight as well and share content from other creative and inspiring writers, poets, musicians, and generally kick ass human beings. My aim is to enlighten, inspire, and at the very least, entertain! At this point even I have no idea what to expect so sit back and enjoy the show!!
Thanks!!
John Thomas
Thanks!!
John Thomas
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