silent thunder

Been hankering for Alderwood or Cedar Salmon as well... Salmon baked in the oven on Alderwood planks that have been saturated in herbal water... Looks like I'll have to up my cardio this weekend, we're gonna be eating big! lol

Same. I can't imagine showing up to the same place every day, repeating familiar tasks. I'd burn out in a year or less. Our biz is constantly in new locations, working out solutions to highly creative, multi million dollar puzzles that I get to decide how to shape the pieces and out of what to make them... it's blissful, laying out giant elipses one day, castle buttresses the next and figuring out how to harness and fly them overhead, or how to build them in sections so they come apart, load on a plane and get reassembled overseas somewhere. More than anything i appreciate the time I can take off between gigs. I seldom work more than 7 months a year any more. Partly because long ago I learned to live on a budget of 32 hours a week. And my wife had a more standard job back then... she's now stay at home mom. A standard week for my craft is five 10 hour days, though routinely in a crunch we'll put in 72 hours a week and work 30-50 days in a row... whatever it takes to meet the schedule. All that overtime gets socked away and either invested in stocks to generate passive income, or savings, so between shows I can cultivate full time and be with my family. It's blissful really. i routinely pinch myself at my fortunate situation.

and... um... this... i mean... stone fried... but the lake in the background... the sounds of the process... just appreciate this channel so much. I said to my son, just this evening as I raised a forkfull of roast pork to my mouth. "man is never so honest, as when he's praising good food."

Haven't watched an episode of Almazan Kitchen since my last post. Both my wife and I love to cook. I tend toward breakfasts and have been compelled to try my hand at Shakshouka. So I logged in to their channel, hoping to find a Shakshouka episode for research, and found this instead. oh. my. gawd. the other is Shakshuka...

Friday night... long weekend ahead. Jazz!

I spent my first 12 or so years on stage and in front of camera, then transitioned to what I do now when my internal landscape shifted. I'm utterly blessed in the crews I have fallen in with over the years. Just gobsmacked. There are some utterly horrible crews in Hollyweird. I'm now at a point in my career where I can thankfully pick and choose when and with whom I care to work, not having to chase a check every week to survive. I have three main crews that keep me busy when I want to work, but one really is my home base. That Coordinator and I have known each other for 16 years and I've done everything in my abilities to help him rise to where he is now. Together, we've compiled a comprehensive list of all the most intelligent, open, caring and creative people we've worked with over the years. We fill our roster as much as possible from that list. As such, I'm constantly surrounded by some of the most adroit, fiercely intelligent, well read people I've ever encountered. It's staggering. Most of them are professional artists in outside fields who fill time between gigs with us when they can... as such I'm constantly stunned at the mix of creative types I'll find myself partnered up with... one memorable example from a few years ago. I was swinging a hammer on The Voice, back for Season 5. My partner was this british cat. Older, almost retired. When he heard me gushing over 12 string guitar music, we got to talking. Turns out, he revealed in a whisper, " I was in town at the right time, answered my phone and was invited by John to play on some of the studio sessions for Imagine." It's a phenomenal business. If one can handle the intensity, uncertainty and unstable income.

I've been in Hollywood proper for the last 16 years. I work in Props/Construction. Our general Foreman is a gal. My partner is a gal. We yuck it up all day every day. Working on an apple show currently and while there is definitely increased awareness of and toning down of some levels of joking, the atmosphere has not been overly hampered in my experience. Biggest shift I've seen is quite positive, in that safety protocols have finally been thoroughly revamped systemically... across the board. There is now a passport system of standard safety protocols with required training and instruction for each department based on their craft and tech... If anyone fails to maintain status of current training standards they are dropped from the roster until they've completed all required training. Used to be very wild westy with permits and noobs, handling gear and rigs they were dangerously unqualified to handle. As to firing and laying off with or without reason... I see none of the committee bs you describe over there in Aussie land. That sounds utterly crippling and absurd. Above all, we have a schedule to meet. Camera is coming and what is required to make things happen safely is the main drive... so folks are let go constantly. Very recently, I witnessed a pretty rare one. The firing of a Stage Foreman. These cats control all that happens on their stage, which often involves 3-7 sets, many many millions of dollars worth of scenery. They are directly under the General Foreman who reports to the Construction Coordinator. This firing happened in a series of interactions over a few days. Disagreement over how and when work should be carried out seems to be the cruxt. Stage Foreman and the General had one short conversation the final morning... the General fired the Stage Foreman, who loaded his tools and went home. No commitee, no meetings, just a simple conversation, "you're services are not required. I cannot use you as a Foreman any longer and you have no call for tomorrow. You're paid for 8 hours today. Have a nice life... oh, and lose my number." That was the jist of it. Of our 10 crew, 3 are gals, swinging hammers and another is our General. We usually have three other gals who are hammers with us, but they're currently working other crews for the moment. Soon we'll be six gals and four guys. We joke and dump on each other relentlessly day in day out. "you hear how much shit they were just talking about you?" "Of course, I was up in the Perms, hear everything from up there... top notch stuff! Honestly, I only ever worry when they stop talking shit." The other day, we needed 1 inch staples for a sub floor installation. The staples were on another stage, where the bathrooms are located. Since I had to pee, I offered this. "I gotta go to the bathroom, I'll grab the one inch..." Them: buaahahahahahaaaa "grab the one inch!" that morphed into Hedwig and the Angry Inch... by the time I got back with the staples... I'm now "Hagrid of The Angry Inch"

The space between The tears we cry... Is the laughter that keeps us coming back for more The space between... The wicked lies we tell and hope to keep safe from the pain But will I hold you again These fickle fuddled words confuse me Like will it rain today We waste the hours with talking, talking These twisted games we're playing We're strange allies With warring hearts What a wild eyed beast you be The space between The wicked lies we tell and hope to keep safe from the pain But will I hold you again The space between our wicked lies is Where we hope to keep safe from pain Take my hand Cause we're walking out of here.

AI a mechanical extension/exploration of human curiosity.

A related note, but not a technological, rather a purely 'natural' process. The daily 'waking state' now routinely mirrors harmonically (think octaves) the nightly personal dream state. Lucidity in the dream state and true lucidity in the waking state are experienced as nigh on identical in nature and essence. As are non-lucid dreaming and daily human living when in hypnosis and trance. Much of what used to pass for 'waking' consciousness, i.e. going to work, school, shopping, daily life, has revealed itself to be various vibrational states of trance and hypnosis.

Machine Elves anyone?

I'm reminded of the accounts of Socrates and his rants on the evils of the reliance upon the written word? Reading weakens minds. Keeping things stored in books... pfft. This will cause the rot of the active mind... My wife and I have been together over 30 years now... and it's fascinating when we begin to diverge on our memories of long ago happenings, or of recent ones... I recall in my acting days, 80's and 90's, I memorized not just my lines... but the entire show, often without trying, just through the repetition and having my mind in that state of memory and recollection so regularly. Then six months later, running into one of the actors from the show @ an audition... and while I could still recite their soliloquy from Act 2, somehow their name.... uhhhhhh... hmm... . Memory and our relationship to it is fascinating. Particularly in how depending on the mood one is in when retelling a tale, will bring up different details from it.

Have a conversation with a friend that is ongoing about how humans are already partial cyborg conversions. Pacemakers and mechanical hearts are the obvious components we already use to augment weak biological bits. But the computers we carry in our pockets, which we refer to as 'phones'... my buddy says those are the first brain augmentations. Consider how often we no longer bother to wrack memory for answers to questions, instead using the phone to augment memory for answers to questions that arise in conversation. They're just not installed in our physical bodies yet, we carry them externally. We certainly are an endlessly intriguing form of life. What will we think up next?

From experience... this is right on point. While I'm deeply grateful for the expansion of localized awareness, and for the ability to empathize and connect, the challenge in many cases is intense. On a very personal note, as cultivation and expansion of self arises, also arising is a palpable experience that no thing anywhere is without spiritual essence. Spiritual is nature. Nature is spiritual. Spirit used to be considered something 'out there' separate from my body process and from the stones and bushes and trees. With few certainties left in mind, one that is imbued indelibly into local awareness for me is that Spirit is no longer divested from the manifest in any way. Spirit is form, arising coalescing and falling away again... as the Tao moves like a bellows... so too, spirit breathes in all that arises, flows through and falls away. It's all spiritual for me these days... this too is as welcome as it is challenging at times. While I would never choose to 'put the toothpaste back in the tube' even were that possible, I would not. But gosh, there are times when I breathe deep, raise my eyes to heaven and wonder at the intensity of it. Best to you on your path @Scholar. May your feet remain rooted while your heart and mind soar.

Wow, it's staggering... between our recent local wild fires (now all out), the apocalypthic burning of Oz and your volcanic eruptions, I'm vividly reminded that even when we have our inner life together and do all we can to train diligently and cultivate vitality and peace internally, the outer life can disassemble so quickly... we are so small in the framework of life... yet our minds and hearts can expand so. ironies abound lately. holding space for you all in mind and heart. Be well friend.

The woman involved in this case, recently reached out and asked folks to share the following. As per her request. Hawaiian Civil Rights Commission Fair Housing Gender Identity Discrimination Case

when I was about 8 or so... i walked in on Grandpa getting dressed... yup... never going to get that image of him, reeling up his 10" satchel and gently placing it in his basket. never. ever

awake... no hypnosis none of the perpetual thought trance no more storyteller blissful perpetual doubt of assumption mind empty and clear like a spherical mirror reflecting in presence awake...

What remains unfed, soon whithers and falls away. Attention craves more.

Burned through God's Debris by Scott Adams last night. Clever, witty and at times quite deep. Didn't know the Dilbert Artist was such a deep well. Next up is Mindfulness. The Path to the Deathless by Ajahn Sumedho. Going into this one blind, found it while sifting through boxes of my wife's Buddhist collections for books to donate to our library.

I would not characterize it as wei wu wei. On reflection, I haven't seen an American, (or modern policitican anywhere) who to me embodies anything near the qualities of Wei Wu Wei. But I'm rather skewed against our Imperialist Machine from a foundational perspective. To me she's very purposely and calculatedtly maneuvering through the modern American political bog with obvious skill and experience, seemingly deftly... but I have almost no stomach for any of this in recent years. Modern American politics or as I call it, The Corporatocracy is a nauseating bog to me, in both its membership, intentions and process. Oligarchy doesn't begin to describe the depth of the sycophancy I perceive in the voting actions of our 'representatives' to corporate interests and self serving budget parasitism. It's really nauseating. I spent years utterly ignoring the news to great effect internally. Lately, with all the surreal behavior I try to poke my nose in briefly a couple times a week, but I sense another impending Media Fast approaching for me.