finally, an ai avatar generator that delivers

by

I normally don’t take part in internet trends, especially ones that ask you to take a selfie and upload it to the internet. My conspiracy theory hackles go on alert. They want you to upload your selfies so that THEY can build a facial recognition database that THEY can use to imprison you in a prison with no walls, no doors, or bars.

But this one I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t resist because I’ve been looking for an AI app that can turn my photo into a realistic comic representation of me. There are plenty of them out there, but I have yet to find one that makes an accurate representation of me. Most of them are junk, at least when it comes to rendering me; the only one I’ve found so far that does a half-decent job is Pop Dot.

made with Pop Dot

Then Lensa found its way into my feed through an influencer I follow on Instagram.

I thought, “Holy cow, that’s good.” I immediately scanned through the comments to see what app she used. I couldn’t resist. Could this be the one app that did what it said it would do and turned me into a stunning photo-realistic comic?

Despite the £4 price tag to get a set of 50 images without any proof of quality, I went for it.

I uploaded 20 selfies. The company does state that it will delete your uploaded selfies from its database once it renders your images. It doesn’t say that it will delete the images it makes of you!

Curiosity overruled caution. I had to know if Lensa could deliver.

Tech note: Lensa uses the Stable Diffusion‘s generative AI model to make the images.

OK so here we go…

For a one-time, you get a set of 50 images broken down into several categories. I picked the ones I liked the best (looked the most like me).

Mystical

Sci-fi

Stylish

Cyborg

Anime

Rockstar

Superhero

Adventure

Astronaut

Cosmic

I’m pretty impressed with the results. I know some people have complained that some of the images the AI produces of women are misogynistic. And one asian lady, said the AI doesn’t represent asians well. And a lady who is proud of her size, said the AI slimmed her down without giving her the option to retain her body type.

You can download the Lensa app for iOS and Android. There is no free option. You either have to take out a subscription or pay a one-time for to get a set number of images. The cheapest option is just over $4 dollars and produces 50 images.

What do you think? Did the AI do a good job of replicating me?

the road leads back to here

by 
old notebook
life is curiosity
kept alive

The Road to Santiago is a spiritual path. It was originally a Catholic pilgrimage for sinners who were trying to work off any time they might have to spend in Purgatory before they could go to heaven. It’s a 500-mile trail that runs across northern Spain from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela.

I first came across the Road to Santiago through reading Robert Twigger’s book On Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World. In the book, he talks about the death of action versus unisex blandness, where style is more important than substance, and how we look is more important than what we do.

I later came across the Road to Santiago through Paulo Coelho’s book, The Pilgrimage, which is his account of the Great Walk. He walked the Road to find something he had lost. I wanted to walk the road to see what I could find. I was going through a serious low point in my life. I felt on the verge of falling apart.

I needed to believe the Road to Santiago would help me find what was missing in my life. On the surface, I didn’t seem to lack anything. I was living the American Dream: wife, children, a nice house, and a good job. But something was gnawing at me from the inside.

On the Road to Santiago, I hoped I could find what was missing. Of course, it’s kind of hard to find something if you don’t know what you’re looking for in the first place. Every epic journey must have a goal the explorer is seeking. Since I did not know what I was looking for, I set myself some sub-goals to give the journey some meaning. So on the Road to Santiago, I set out to do something I had never done before, which was to walk 500 miles as part of a single venture. I also wanted to meet other pilgrims and find out what they were seeking on the Road.

A month before I set out to walk the Road, I told a friend of mine that I didn’t know what I would find on the Road to Santiago, and he said, “I suspect that on the Road to Santiago, you will find Santiago. It’s what you’ll bring back that intrigues me.”

When I relaxed into the profoundness of his words, the Road suddenly took on a new meaning for me. Instead of walking the Road as a frustrated man who didn’t know what he was looking for, I would walk the Road as an explorer, open to whatever I might find.

What I brought back came in the form of an epiphany:

Open your eyes to the joy and wonder all around you, and appreciate the little things in life.

We can make life more complicated than it needs to be. And I’ll confess now, I have done my fair share of complicating life, making it into a great big tangled melodrama when it doesn’t have to be.

morning breeze 
inside the stillness
brings peace

a nostalgic turn

by

OK. I’m feeling a little nostalgic tonight, and I’m in the mood to listen to some tunes. I’ve been firing on all cylinders today, and now I’m ready to let my hair down. I thought I’d be a bit frivolous tonight and share my 80’s music crushes.

My Top Ten 80’s Crushes

Let’s get this one on the table first. Vanity was my NUMBER 1 crush. I had a poster her above my headboard. I watched the Last Dragon about a thousand times, just to see her. I didn’t really care too much for her music, but wow, did she capture my imagination.

1 Nasty Girl – Vanity 6

This is really the only song I liked of her, although I did own the one and only album they made. Watching her on screen in the Last Dragon is what mad me fall in love with her. My ultimate fantasy girl.

The rest of these I’ll put in any order, because after Vanity, the rest didn’t matter.

2 Opposites Attract – Paula Abdul

3 Like a Virgin – Madonna

4 The Glamorous Life – Sheila E.

Another Prince protege.

5 Total Eclipse of the Heart

6 What I Am – Edie Brickell

7 How Will I Know – Whitney Houston

If I was going to pick a number to crush, Whitney would be it. I lost count of how many times I watched this video.

8 I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett & the Black Hearts

I love a good rock chick. Joan would hit the number 3 slot on this list.

9 The Sweetest Taboo

10 Call Me – Blondie

Rounding out the list is Debbie Harry

Thanks for taking this little nostalgic road trip with me back to the 80s to meet my crushes.

some phrases stick with you for life

by

Going through some old papers, I came across a phrase that for years has been my unofficial motto. I even used it to caption my yearbook picture. I wrote (and I used to believe) that “winning is an attitude.” Like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, I stole this phrase from my judo coach. I remember the exact moment I became bonded to these words.

We were competing in the Eastern Collegiate Judo championships in Maryland. I was competing out of my weight class. Normally, I fought in the 209 pound division, but coach needed someone to fight in the unlimited weight class. I was a big boy, but I would be going up against even bigger boys who outweighed me by 30 to 40 pounds.

I was used to lifting heavy weight.  I’d been a weightlifter and a bodybuilder since I was fourteen. Gym weights, however, don’t tend to move around and fight back. Despite all of that, I made it to the finals. My opponent was humongous and as solid as oak. He was the immovable object, but I certainly wasn’t the irresistible force. I’d tug on his gi and he wouldn’t budge. He’d tug on mine and I felt like a Raggedy Andy doll in his grip.

I knew that I would have to use speed and endurance if I wanted to win. The big guys tended to tire quickly. I had to keep him moving. The strategy was working. I managed to get a foot sweep in for a koka.

I was winning. 

I went into defence mode. And that’s when coach got pissed. During a short break, he grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled my forehead against his forehead and said:

“You’re playing not to lose. Don’t worry about losing; losing will take care of itself. Focus on winning. Winning is an attitude,”

And with that, he sent me back out onto the mat.

I’d like to say his speech fired me up and I went on to win the match, but I didn’t. I didn’t escape out of one my attempted throws fast enough and this beast of a judoka got a hold of me. My feet left the ground and the next thing I became aware of was the ref yelling Ippone! 

Match over!

I may have lost the match, but I gained something valuable. I learned that no matter what challenges I face, never worry about losing. Instead, focus on winning and let losing take care of itself. This simple change in attitude did wonders for my self-esteem and confidence. Now my default mode is to face into the challenge.

Death, 
Fears big brother,
Drops the gauntlet

I have definitely fallen in love with the haibun, which is a form of Japanese poetry that combines prose and haiku. It originated in the 17th century and typically consists of a brief lyrical prose story followed by a haiku poem. The haiku usually relates to the prose in some way, providing insight or elaboration on the story or scene being described in the prose. The haibun often has a meditative or contemplative tone, and may be autobiographical in nature.

There is something about the form that really resonates with me. I really excited about exploring the fomr some more. I am even contemplating doing a 365 day haibun project for 2023. I reckon if I were to write a haibun a day, I could master the form in a year or at least be proficient in it.

I am struggling to imagine myself committing to a project of this sort for a whole year. My personality type doesn’t lend itself to sustained projects. I’m more of a butterfly flittering from one idea to the next. My blog archives would bare witness to that. I fall in love with a new idea at least every other week.

But I really like the haibun. As a literary form, it seems well suited for me.

We’ll see…

seeking fire

by

1
Vast array of masks
Hide the many roles we play
I remain hidden

2
Pressing against the
Portals of consciousness, each
Moment changes me

3
See things as they are
Enraptured with mythic mind
Stillness turned within

4
On the road to awareness
Self disrupts reality
Experience yourself completely

5
From now into now
Changeless mind moves inside out
Making you aware

6
Control is a choice
Manipulated against us
Free will relinquished

7
Drink tea, eat cookies
Something is there if you look
into it and let go

8
From basic goodness
Flows natural elegance
This life is spacious.

9
Unwrap the present
Let the past fall back inside
Embrace what is new

10
I was alive with madness back then
It brought me only pain and suffering,
But at least I felt alive

11
I understood nothing
But I carried on listening
To the wisdom of the trees

i do love a good burger

by

So an idea I’ve had in my head for some time is to make a travel documentary based on my love of hamburgers. The idea would be to travel around the world in search of the world’s best hamburger. I want to do it Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman style, which is to say with a buddy, traveling around on a couple of motorcycles. Or maybe I’ll do it Scooby-Doo style.

The history of the hamburger

I asked my chatbot about the history of the hamburger and this is what it had to say:

The hamburger has a long and interesting history, dating back to the 19th century. The origins of the hamburger are somewhat disputed, but it is generally believed that the modern hamburger originated in the United States.

One popular story about the origins of the hamburger is that it was created by a man named Walter Anderson, who co-founded the White Castle hamburger chain in 1921. According to this story, Anderson was inspired by the hamburgers he ate during a trip to Hamburg, Germany, and he used this inspiration to create the first White Castle hamburger.

Another story about the origins of the hamburger involves a man named Charles Nagreen, who is said to have sold the first hamburger at a county fair in Wisconsin in 1885. Nagreen, who was only 15 at the time, was selling meatballs at the fair, but he noticed that people were having trouble eating them while walking around. So, he flattened the meatballs and put them between two slices of bread, creating the first hamburger.

Regardless of its exact origins, the hamburger has become a popular and iconic food in the United States and around the world. Today, there are countless variations on the hamburger, with different types of meat, toppings, and sauces. The hamburger continues to be a staple of American cuisine and a beloved food by many.

My wall of hamburgers

I went through all of the photos on my phone and found these photos of the hamburgers I’ve eaten over the years.

[FGAL id=10821]

I remember a lot of these burgers with fondness!

If you’re into hamburgers, what restaurant would you recommend I include on my hamburger world tour? Leave a picture in the comments of the best burger you’ve ever eaten?

on the places you’ll go

by

My blog brother, @MrFresh, wrote a post yesterday sharing the places he’s travelled to. That inspired me to reflect on my own travel habits.

We used to travel a lot. Our goal was to travel to at least one new country each year. It was easier to make that happen when we lived in Germany with easy access to mainland Europe. On weekends or during holidays, we could simply hop in the car and drive to a new country. When we moved back to the States, our foreign travel essentially came to a halt, apart from our family trips to England to visit the in-laws.

I have seen quite a bit of the U.S. I’ve been to 30 out of the 50 States (60%).

These are the States I’ve visited so far

Once we moved back to Europe, we restarted our goal of visiting a new country every year. That slowed down a bit as our priorities shifted to raising kids. We did still travel, but not as much. Then came the pandemic, and everything changed. We went abroad this year for the first time since the lock down officially ended. We didn’t go anywhere new. We did a beach holiday in Mallorca, a country we’ve been to many times. Mallorca is the perfect place to chill.

[FGAL id=10801]

@MrFresh inspired me to plot out the countries I’ve visited, and in the spirit of getting ready to set goals for 2023, I’ve added foreign travel to my list. I need to finish off Western Europe and then see the rest of Eastern Europe.

China

After watching a couple Youtube videos on China, I really want to go there, well, when the current unrest settles back down. China looks like a very fascinating place. And I’m a big fan of Chinese philosophy. My favourite modern Chinese philosopher is Lin Yutang. His book, The Importance of Living, is one of my favorite modern Chinese philosophy books. And of course I dig the classics, the Tao Te Ching, and the writings of Chuang Tzu. My two favourite Chinese poets are Li Po and Tu Fu. As a spiritual being, I lean heavily toward Taoism as a practice.

I also want to do more domestic travel in 2023. I’ve recently renewed my interest in medieval history. England is ripe with medieval history. 2023 will see the return of my passion for travel and travel photography/videography. I have an idea for 360 video project I want to launch in the new year as well that will involve lots of getting out and about and exploring more of the history of this island.

If you’re interested in plotting out the countries you’ve visited, here’s cool site that will generate an interactive map for you.

a long way from being a grandmaster

by

Well, it appears to be that time of the year when all of the year-in-review stuff starts to come out. Yesterday, I shared with you my music year-in-review. Today, let me share with you my chess year-in-review.

Yes chess!

I played a lot of chess when I was in high school. I was even in the chess club. Yes I was a geek. But I was also a jock and a scholar. I tell people i was a non-affiliated teen. I had friends in all of the tribes. I had my geek friends who I played chess and dungeons and dragons with and collected comics and stamps. I had my jock friends who I played football, basketball, wrestling, and track and field with. I was also on the rifle team. I had my brainiac friends who took their studies seriously. I graduated number two in my high school. While I did have lots of friends in all of these groups, I was quite the lone wolf. I walked among them, but was not one of them. To the people who knew me, I was “a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma” (Winston Churchill said that).

After high school, I continued to play chess, but not that often. Until finally, I didn’t play at all. I got back into when I joined www.chess.com in 2011. I played for bit and then stopped again. But this year, I started playing again. Not a whole lot, but enough. Oh, if you do fancy a game, use this link to connect with me on chess.com (I’m soulcruzer there as well if you just want to look me up).

Alright, so here are my chess stats for 2022.

I know 19 games isn’t a heck of whole lot, but it’s better than zero. I hope to play even more next year. I do have a chess game in VR which is pretty neat, so that will encourage to play more.

Again, if you want to play, here’s the my link.

my spotify music year-in-review

by

Everyone (or at least everyone with a Spotify account) is currently posting their 2022 music streaming activity on social media. Well, I thought I’d join in the fray and post my Spotify year-in-review highlights.

Let’s start off with my number one listened to song on Spotify. It’s from the Venom soundtrack and features Skylar Grey, Polo G, Mozzy, and Eminem.

One thing you’ll notice about my musical taste is that I’m not that much into new music. I couldn’t even begin to tell what songs are in the chart right now or who is the hot new artist that everyone is raving about. Not my jam. Spotify classifies me as The Time Traveler.

I would say that is totally accurate. I tend to listen by genre and whatever comes up in the genre i’m interested in at the time of search is what I listen too. Spotify helps in this with its weekly discovery playlist based on your listening history.

My top artists was no surprise to me. Leading the list is Creed. Part of the reason for that is Human Clay, their second album, really speaks to me and it is one of my go to weightlifting albums. And if you follow me on social media you know I spend a lot of time in the gym. I’m there 5 days a week nearly without fail. It’s how I start my day.

My top 5 songs for 2022 are quite and eclectic mix – rap, heavy metal, 80’s pop rock, grunge, and alt rock.

My top genres was interested to me.

I didn’t realise I listened to that much New Wave Pop! The electronica makes sense if they are counting trip-hop as electronica. The first half 2022, I was co-hosting a music/talk podcast called the Wisdom Experience. In-between the talk, we played really mellow trip-hop from groups like Ancient Astronauts, Wax Tailor, Hooverphonic, and Sneaker Pimps.

I do listen to music on other platforms like Apple Music and Youtube of course, and my favourite app until the corporate fat rats ruined it for UK residents. The app is called Radio Garden. I could listen to thousands of stations from around the world, which was awesome. I especially liked listening to radio stations in New Jersey to get a little taste of home. Hopefully, the developers will be able to sort out the rights issues. I miss channel surfer on the app.

I share that because, according to Spotify, I listened to 38, 431 minutes of music which more than 90% of other listeners in the UK. That 38, 431 is just my Spotify consumption. It would be cool to know my true total of minutes listened.

Anyway, that’s my year in music according to the lovely algorithms over at Spotify.

My Top 100 Songs of 2022

Now that I’ve shown you mines, let me see yours. Send me a link to your Spotify year-in-review.

building a soundstage in VR

by

Hello, good folks. Today I decided to share some behind-the-scenes footage of me building a soundstage in VR/metaverse in preparation for a future podcast series I have planned for early 2023. If you follow me on the bird or the mastodon, you’ll know that I’ve gone all-in on VR and the Metaverse. Those two mediums together are on the cusp of breaking out to displace mobile tech as the premium means of interaction, collaboration, and community.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the trouble with the metaverse at the moment is it isn’t a singular instance. It’s like a multi-metaverse with different players creating their own version of the metaverse. Some the metaverses I hang out in are: AltspaceVR (owned by Microsoft), Engage VR, and Meta Horizon World. I’ve dabbled on VRchat, Rec Room, and Decentraland.

AltspaceVR is my by far my favorite. It’s a very versatile platform. It’s primarily geared up for events, and community gatherings, but you can run seminars and presentations as well as host talk shows and podcasts. It has limited gaming function, but is great for socializing. You can create your own universe full of many different worlds.

I’m starting to spend more time in Horizon Worlds for its media capable in terms of recording videos or streaming live events. It’s easier to record videos of your productions. In addition to the casting and recording function of the Oculus Quest 2 headset, there is an inbuilt camera inside of Horizon world that position how you like and record short videos in both portrait and landscape mode. For this reason, I’ve decided to build a soundstage in Horizon to record a future podcast series I’m planning to launch next year.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage.

My excitement for VR and the metaverse is beginning to border on obsession. It’s a good thing the Quest 2 has a battery life of only about 2 hours, otherwise I’d be in danger of overdosing on the virtual world.

If you’re VR and metaverse enthusiast, which platforms to you use and why? Also, I’d love to connect with you VR.

the other side of now

by

Day 16. We’re over the hump now on our 30-day blogging challenge. There have been a couple of days when I felt really pressed for time and had no idea what to blog about. If I wasn’t involved in this challenge with my bros, @MrFresh and @SMVGeek, I would have let those days slip by without blogging.

The accountability to my blogging brothers keeps me motivated to blog even if I don’t particularly feel like it.

I fear that once the challenge is finished, it will be easy to slip into old habits of not blogging for flimsy reasons like the classic, “I don’t have time…” That’s why I love doing these challenges, because even if I don’t have time, I make time, or as the Merovingian says, “If you do not ever take time, how can you ever have time?”

I mentioned in a post a few days ago that I have a folder full of poems that I have been meaning to shape into another poetry collection. It’s been 13 years since I published my last collection.

For today’s post, I thought I’d share a few poems from the folder. These aren’t necessarily in their final form, but here you go…

Who are you?

She asked me the one question
I was afraid to answer. I’ve spent 
too much time constructing and
reconstructing this persona for her 
to come along and deconstruct me
with a single question.

She can sense my stories 
are only skin deep, polite,
easy on the ears, but light on the soul

I’m afraid to reveal myself
to myself, frightened because
I’m not sure what she or I might find

But she really wants to know

Who are you? She asks.
I duck and dive and sidestep
the question that’s on 
everybody’s mind

I hardly know myself
I fall to the ground.
I hand her my head on
a plate.

She burst into tears
laughing madly,
your name is all asked

Don’t be so dramatic.

thoughts

I gave her my thoughts
Until there was nothing
Left of my mind

Captain Hook

as i listen in silence
the tick tock of the clock
grows louder and louder

all i can think about
is how captain hook
freaked out every time
he heard a ticking clock

he knew death was near
but that didn’t stop
old hook from trying
to out sail his fate

or me mine.

reminisce

She reminisced in my name. Fire, meltdown
and the sanity they let loose in a tangled
abstract fantasy of post apocalyptic let down.

She reminisced in the attic for the wind,
the damned, and the free. Her shadow slipped
further. Soft she lay as the boys came for her body.

She looked to reach them in their sleep.
One by one they came inside her, cuddled 
her body like the walking dead carry sheep.

They wouldn’t reminisce in her beauty
took her dress for rags, her hair for 
loose strands of braided hopelessness.

She reminisced in the darkness. No longer
lonely, a mystic fastened like clockwork,
I never tried to see her face.

If you made this far, thanks for reading. And if you’re feeling frisky, then subscribe to the blog. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it makes me feel good.

the interconnectedness of things

by

Arthur Koestler reminds us that each whole thing is made of its own parts, while at the same time being part of a larger whole. He called this a holon.

No creature or system can exist by itself. Being part of a larger system, it must integrate or die!

I’ve always had this sense that we are interconnected. How I am affects how you are and vice versa. I cannot have an interaction with you without some part of you becoming part of me. My whole system rearranges itself to accommodate you. This happens continuously throughout the day, so much so, that by the end of the day, you are not the same person you were at the start of the day. Most of the time, you won’t even notice the difference unless it was something traumatic or highly charged emotionally. But over time, as you look back, you’ll notice the change.

Everything touches everything else.

And if we are to not only survive, but thrive, then we have to take individual ownership of who we are and how we want to be. It’s the only way we’ll ever be able to take care of the world around us, and thus ourselves.

As I reflect on Koestler’s holon idea, I think about our own parts – our conscious self, higher self, and all the subpersonalities that make us who we are – how we must integrate these parts to be truly whole and congruent, thus making it possible for us to vibrate at a high enough frequency to reach of true potential.

And imagine if I’m at my best, and you’re at your best how much power is contained in our interaction.

How much power could we bring to the world…

#holon #Philosophy

connecting and planning

by

This is going to be a short post today. It is Sunday, after all. And Sundays were made for chilling. We had family over for most of the day. My belly is about to burst from all the food we ate for Sunday lunch:

Everyone has left now. The house is once again quiet. I’m enjoying the silence. It’s that time on a Sunday evening when I turn my thoughts to the week ahead.

Tomorrow I’m delivery an important workshop on equity, diversity and inclusion to group of elected council members. The rest of the week will mainly be consumed with podcasting. I’ve recently taking on a new podcasting client helping them get their podcast up and running.

For the first series, I’m acting in the capacity as host and editor. It’s an interesting podcast. It’s called Voices of Resilience. It’s an interview style podcast where each episode, I interview a refugee, or displaced person about their story. The first two interviewees were from Syria. Both with very different experiences and reasons for leaving their home country. I have five more interviews to do this week.

Also this week, I have a meeting with a couple of potential partners in VR/Metaverse project we want collab and launch. The project is in its very early stages, so I don’t have a whole lot I can share about it yet.

And can you believe it? By the end of this week, we will be in December! 2023 is looming just around the corner. I was thinking today that it’s time for me to wind down 2022 and start thinking ahead to 2023 and what I want to accomplish next year.

It’s time for a new adventure. Time to start a new chapter in the Book of Clay. I’m not exactly sure what the plan is, but it involves VR and the Metaverse. After this week, I plan to shift all of my focus on clarifying my intentions and getting a solid plan in place so I can hit the ground running come 2023.

Peace.

In Death: Unchained my new favourite VR game

by

In Death: Unchained is a roguelike bow and arrow archery game.

You find yourself in an unholy world where you must constantly battle terrible creatures. Grab your longbow and go for the afterlife’s forsaken souls, angelic creatures, and demons.

Each level is procedurally created, so each time you play you will have a unique experience. The aim is to last as long as you possibly can before dying.

This is not your usual game with regular stages and a typical story. You are not attempting to “complete a level.” You’re trying to see how long you can last and how far you can get before dying. I love because you don’t have to think too much, just fight and die valiantly.

I’ve only been playing for a day, but it’s my new favourite VR game for the Quest 2. I can already see myself losing many hours to this game.

In Death: Unchained is a TOTAL winner.

Here’s my referral link if you do decide to buy it you’ll get 25% off.

Track of the Day: Harness Your Hopes – Pavement

meanwhile, elsewhere…

by

Well, look at that! It’s Friday again already. This week has flown by, as do most weeks as you get older. You know the Eternal Footman is waiting to take your cloak. But who has time for that? I don’t. At least, that’s what I tell myself. But I know I’ll have to deal with him sooner or later. Until then, let the weekend begin.

From time to time, I like to flick through my old journal entries. You see, in addition to personal blogging, which is, in essence, a form public journal/diary, I also keep an offline journal, one reserved for me deepest, darkest thoughts. It’s also where I scribble out my poems and experimental fiction pieces. I’ve been hemming and hawing about publish another poetry book. I have one that is nearly ready. I just snickered to myself because it’s been nearly ready for a couple years now. I’m not a hundred percent sure what the hold up is.

As it’s the weekend, and my brain is a little fried, I thought I share with prose poem I wrote a while back. I was in a post-modern, surrealistic mood. I love playing with language. It is, after all, a virus, as William Burroughs said. You can slip language into a person’s mind, and cause all kinds of reaction. Even these 225 words you’ve read so far are having an affect on you of some sort.

And now I’m going to slip these words in and tinker with your mind a little more.

There were always cracks in the system. But somehow we missed or ignored the warning signs: the increased angst, dread, and anxiety; the war to end all wars; Oppenheimer’s deadly toy; women’s liberation; the sexual revolution; civil rights; Vietnam; Aids; an actor playing the part of the president; a president playing God. Stop. Get grip MR Lowe, you’re spiralling out of control again.

Where was I? Oh yes, God. Dead. Life. Meaningless.

It took us awhile to realise that if we wanted meaning, we’d have to make it for ourselves.

“No answers will be forthcoming”, said the priest who was the last human to see God alive. He then promptly committed suicide. The people were shocked. He was finally out from under God’s thumb, finally able to experience true freedom. Why would he commit suicide?

Several days later, when they were clearing his room, they stumbled upon the priest’s journal:

“There’s no way I can tell them what really happened. I wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told me. There was only one part that mattered, to me anyway. I don’t even know if I remember all of it. I can’t remember how it ended, exactly, but when it ended, I knew the question would drive me insane.”

How should I live?

Track of the Day: We Don’t Need Another Hero – Tina Turner

my first impressions of Wakanda Forever!

by

Hello good people! Greetings. It’s been a cold, wet day here in the West Midlands. I was in Birmingham most of the day co-facilitating a workshop on creating innovation in legal practice. We had about forty people altogether featuring a mix of lawyers, people who support lawyers, and law students. Overall, it was a successful workshop.

Last night, I saw Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever. What a fantastic film. It was always going to be a tall order to follow up the success of “Black Panther 1”, but the team managed to pull it off. Ryan Coogler brings his passion, his appreciation for family rituals, and his deep love back to the world of Wakanda. Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Danai Gurira shine as the lead female characters. Wright’s performance as Shuri is brilliant. And Tenoch Huerta brings Namor to life in ways I had not expected. Superb!

“Wakanda Forever” stands out. I’d put it up there, without a doubt, as one of the greatest Marvel movies to date. The acting, the cinematography, the story, were all superb.

Oh and I must give a nod to the director for weaving such a beautiful tribute to Chadwick Boseman in the film.

On another note, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends and family celebrating Thanksgiving today. I hope that you have found plenty to be thankful for in these uncertain and turbulent times.

Wakanda Forever! 🖤💜

on giving thanks

by

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the States.

I haven’t formally celebrated Thanksgiving Day for the past 10 years or so. It’s not a holiday in Britain.

Side note: Why have the British adopted Black Friday, which celebrates the worse in consumerism and not Thanksgiving? You would have thought that spending time with family and giving thanks for the good things in your life would have taken precedence over standing in long lines to be the first in the door to run around a shop like a lunatic to buy some piece of junk you probably don’t need just because it’s on sale!

Go figure, as they say!

As an adult, Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday. The family used to travel from all over the country to gather at my grandma’s house in New Jersey for Thanksgiving. She would put on a feast fit for kings.

When we first moved to England back in 2000, we came over with a bunch of other American families, and as a group of expats, we would gather together to celebrate the tradition of Thanksgiving. But once the project we came over for was finished, all the families, except for mine, moved back to the States. Because my wife is British, we stayed.

And over the years, we just stopped formally celebrating Thanksgiving Day.

Of course, giving thanks in the form of gratitude should be something that everyone practices regularly. There are numerous advantages to practicing gratitude on a regular basis. Here are a few that I think are important.

5 Reasons to be thankful

1 Gratitude improves your mental health by helping you manage emotions more effectively and avoiding negative thinking patterns like rumination or blame-placing guilt cycles that lead to depression symptoms like hopelessness and despair (not fun!).

2. Gratitude helps you appreciate what you have. Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, or obsessing over what you do have, practicing gratitude will help you see all the good things in life that are already there for you.

3. Gratitude can change your life. When we focus on being grateful for everything in our lives, we start to see our lives differently and become more aware of how lucky we are to have what we do have! This changes everything: your relationship with yourself and others, your moods and your energy levels.

4. Gratitude helps build self-confidence. When we practice gratitude regularly, it helps us realize how amazing we are as human beings—how powerful we are as creators of our own happiness! The more confident you are in yourself, the more confident you will be in your ability to attract all of the good things you want into your life.

And lastly:

5. Gratitude makes you more optimistic about the future. Practicing gratitude helps build resilience because when things go wrong—and they will at some point in your life—you won’t be as likely to fall apart if you know that everything has worked out well in the past and will continue working out well in the future because of all the good things that came before it!

If you’ve made it this far, here’s a big THANK YOU from me. I appreciate you giving up some of your valuable time to read my words. It means a lot to me.

Track of the Day: I’ve Got Plenty to be Thankful For – Bing Crosby

on humanism

by

For thousands of years, humans believed that authority came from the gods. Then, during the modern era, humanism gradually shifted authority from deities to people.

Yuval Noah Harari

Maybe it’s because I spent most of the morning in the Metaverse that I find myself sitting here in a dimly lit room thinking about humanism.

I wasn’t playing games (Ok I did sneak off to watch some of the World Cup in VR), but apart from that, I was doing some serious work with a lady from Canada. She was giving me some useful tips on running events in AltSpaceVR which is Microsoft’s version of the Metaverse.

As I returned to the “real” world, a random question popped into my head: What is the downside of humanism? Where that came from, I’m not sure, but I decided to do some research on humanism.

Here’s what I found:

Humanism is a belief system that emphasizes the value and importance of human beings, as opposed to supernatural powers or deities. It focuses on human potential and culture, rather than religious belief.

Humanism is often associated with scientific thinking, but it is not strictly tied to science. It involves a philosophy based on reason and empathy for other humans and animals alike.

Humanists believe that people should live in harmony with nature, rather than dominating it; we should avoid harming other creatures unnecessarily. We can find meaning in our lives through things like art, music, literature and science—not just by following rules created by religions or governments.

One of the most important figures in humanist thought was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536), who wrote On Copia of Words and Ideas, a treatise on education that emphasized critical thinking and learning to think for oneself instead of just accepting what others say. He also wrote In Praise of Folly: A Dialogue Between Folly and Prudence, where he criticized religious superstitions like relics and saints.

The benefits of humanism include:

  • Acceptance of all people regardless of race or religion
  • A focus on personal growth instead of dogma (and so fewer rules)
  • A belief that humans have a responsibility towards each other (rather than just towards God)

Some criticisms about humanism include:

  • A lack of ritual (some people find this comforting)
  • No belief in an afterlife or divine intervention (some people find this scary)
  • A lack of moral guidance (people have to make up their own minds about right and wrong)

Some people say humanism is a religion, but it isn’t. It doesn’t involve rituals such as prayer or worship, and there are no churches or priests who can perform weddings or funerals. Humanism is also different from atheism—people who don’t believe in God aren’t necessarily humanists, though many are.

From what I’ve found so far, I like humanism. Especially since I blow hot and cold on religion and spirituality. Sometimes I feel connected to a high power or spiritual energy; other times, I don’t. Humanism seems like a good play in terms of being a decent human being.

I suspect the big issue, though, is reconciling the religious/spiritual question.

What are your thoughts?

the little hidden door

by

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends. Dreams are the facts from which we must proceed.

Carl Jung, The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man

Dreams are wild things and don’t always lend themselves to easy interpretation. I’ve embarked on a journey to explore the mythic imagination. I’m excited to see what treasures I might find and what new magic I can learn.

Dreams offer a passageway to the mythic imagination. The challenge is remembering our dreams. They are often fleeting. The demands of the waking world quickly fill our minds with the day’s mundane but necessary thoughts. Practical stuff has no room for dreams. The dream world swiftly retreats back into the subconscious mind. There are times when we are aware that we have had a dream, but the details are vague, if they are there at all.

Enter the dream journal

A dream journal is a journal where you write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. Keeping a dream journal can help you better understand yourself and your emotions by considering the meaning of your dreams. They offer clues as to what is going on with your inner life and personal growth. They are also a way to create new ideas and solve problems in our lives—and sometimes help us make decisions about things we would otherwise be too afraid or stressed out to decide on our own.

I keep a dream journal from time to time. I seem to do this when I’m actively working on my mental or spiritual growth. The metaphors and symbols that appear in our dreams are potent guides.

Here is an example from one of my dream journal entries:

In this dream, I was walking down the high street in Southam on my way back to see someone. I was walking and thinking about starting another podcast. I didn’t want to start a “live” show because people don’t listen live, they prefer podcasts. I was thinking maybe I could start a Marc Maron style podcast. In the middle of my thoughts while walking, I noticed there were a lot of slugs on the pavement. Big brown slugs. I took a closer look and realised that they were actually slugs morphing into snakes. I thought I was imaging the slug/snakes were following me. It wasn’t until one of the slugs became a full on snake that I realised they were actually after me. This one snake in particular drew a bead on me and started coming directly for me. I walked faster, but it was gaining on me. I had a sudden flash of inspiration. If I walked onto the busy main road and the snake followed me, it would get turnover by a car. Just as I stepped backwards off of the curb, the snake struck. I jumped awake.

Date of entry: Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Considering the timeframe, it’s easy to see that this would have been my subconscious processing covid and the pandemic.

As a confirmation, here’s what the dream dictionary has to say about dreams that involve snakes:

Snakes commonly symbolize fear or transformation. Dreaming of a snake is a sign that you are afraid of something in your waking life, or it could be a forewarning of changes to come… or

A snake in your dream may represent something in your life that is unpredictable and out of your control. You are afraid of the unknown. Snake refers to hidden threats: Because snakes are sometimes hard to see and are slithering in bushes, they are also symbolic of a hidden threat and/or a betrayal.

I think this is a fairly easy dream to interpret. I have other more complex dreams in my journal, but I’ll refrain from sharing those just now. But I will let you know how my dream journaling goes over the course of the next several weeks.

Do you keep a dream journal?

we will all go down together

by

“When did Noah build the Ark? Before the rain.”

Robert Redford as Nathan Muir in Spy Game

Those of you who are Billy Joel fans will recognize the reference in the title of this post. And for those of us who are diehard Twitter fans, we’ll be singing the chorus from this song before too long.

My day job centres around helping leaders lead high performing teams. What’s happening at Twitter right now is a classic example of what not to do as a leader. People are the most valuable asset of any company. A good leader treats their people with dignity and respect, and should make everyone they lead feel valued for their contribution to the company. When a leader shows total disregard for the people they lead, that for me, is a signal of the beginning of the end of a cohesive, high performing team.

I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed hoping things will settle down at Twitter so we can get on with enjoying the platform we love. But after Musk’s decision to issue an ultimatum to his employees on last Thursday, I seriously doubt the company can survive.

Here’s where we are:

I’ve been on Twitter since May 2007. I have a lot of time and content invested in the platform. I probably should have done this sooner, but better late than never. Today, I’ve initiated the download sequence to get my Twitter archive. Hopefully it’s not too late. Hopefully the team that handles the archives haven’t all left Twitter. I’ll let you know in 24 hours, which is how long Twitter says the process could take.

If you haven’t downloaded your archive, I recommend you do and here’s how to do it.

How to download your Twitter archive

When you download your Twitter archive, you take a snapshot of all your Twitter information, starting with your very first tweet.

Click on the More icon in the navigation bar right above the blue draft new Tweet icon. Select “Settings and Support” from the menu options. Click “Settings and privacy.” Select “Your account” from the menu options.

  1. Click “Download an archive of your data.” You’ll be asked to enter your password, do so and click “Confirm.”
  2. Next you’ll have to verify your identity. Click “Send code” to your email and/or your phone number. You’ll be redirected to the “Account information” page where you’ll be able to enter the code that was sent to your email or phone.
  3. Once your identity is verified, click “Request archive.”
  4. When your download is finished, Twitter will send you an email where you can download a .zip file of your Twitter archive.
  5. If you have the app downloaded, you’ll get a push notification letting you know your Twitter archive has finished downloading. Navigate back to “Settings” on the app where you can click the “Download data” button under the Download data section.

Note: This may take a while. Twitter says “it can take 24 hours or longer for your data to be ready.”

That’s it!