Keep this in mind next time you are playing with your awareness.
Feeling the pump of Rad Wings of Destiny
“When Ugly Kid Joe sold their souls to the devil in the pursuit of rock ‘n’ roll they drove a harder bargain than Robert Johnson at the Crossroads. Not only did they trade their souls for over thirty years of globetrotting and metal extravagance. They also haggled to keep their playing abilities, they bartered to keep their looks – we get older, gain weight and lose hair, yet they look like they’ve just walked off “that” song’s beach video set from 1992!”
(Black, 2022)
I was pumping iron the other day and wanted something different to listen to. I’d been overdosing on Creed’s second album, Human Clay.
In my search, I stumbled upon Ugly Kid Joe‘s latest album, Rad Wings of Destiny. I haven’t really listened to Ugly Kid Joe since their 1992 hit, ‘Everything About You‘.
I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the tracks have just the right heaviness to channel into my muscles and give me that extra boost to get one more rep in!
I did skip over the slower songs, promising to give them a proper listen after my workout. On reflection, I think the album is really good fun. They stick to what they’re known for, which is one-hit wonders, weird covers, and good old AC/DC-style rock.
My favourite tracks:
Radio Soulcruzer 30.10.2022
It’s been a hot minute since I last did a Mixcloud live stream. There’s no particular reason why not, I just haven’t. But it is my intention to get back in the game and stream more regularly. I’m not going to commit to a specific day or time. They’ll happen when they happen.
I’ll drop a heads up on my twitter when I know I’m going live. It would be wonderful if you could join me live, but if not, I’ll always post the replay here.
Or you can follow me on Mixcloud and get notified there when I go live.
All this talk of leaving Twitter has got me thinking
My favourite social network seems to be under threat now that Elon Musk is the new boss. On the one hand, Musk is seen as the person who will restore freedom of speech. On the other hand, he’s seen as the person who will let Twitter become a free for all for bad actors to spread hate and lies.
There’s talk of a great Twitter migration of people who don’t want to be associated with the platform with Musk at the helm. One of the places people are heading is Mastodon.
I’ve had an account on Mastodon for a few years now, left over from my experiments with the IndieWeb movement. I like the platform. It’s much the same as Twitter. But as a decentralised platform, it can be confusing because there are so many instances of Mastodon, which is its strength because you can join an instance that caters to your interests. If you have the server space, you can even start your own instance and invite only the people you want on it.
The most popular instance is mastodon.social which is maintained by the founder and CEO of Mastodon. I’m there at @soulcruzer@mastodon.social
I’m currently hedging my bets between the two platforms. I’m using moa to link my Twitter and Mastodon accounts. With this link, I can crosspost from one to the other. So I can either Toot or Tweet and the post will appear on both platforms. Moa can be a little slow at crossposting, though.
I was looking for a way I could just use my WordPress powered blog as the central point of all of my documentation. While I can syndicate out from my blog to Twitter and Mastodon, I don’t want to use my main blog as a microblog. WordPress isn’t really designed to function as a microblogging platform.
My other option would be to go back to micro.blog and syndicate out from there to WordPress, Twitter, and Mastodon. Or even to switch back to Tumblr and syndicate out from there.
For now, I’ll continue using my WordPress blog for longer posts and syndicate them out to Twitter, Mastodon, and Tumblr. And I’ll continue to use Twitter as my main microblogging platform.
Some people might ask why I don’t just return to blogging full-time and forget about the social networks. And as cool as that would be, the reality is that if you want to reach more people and make connections with others who share your interests, you need to use platforms where there are lots of people.
I don’t think blogging will ever return to its former glory. The social networks are too pervasive. And let’s face it, they are super convenient. You don’t have to worry about keeping the software updated or your plugins updated. You don’t have to pay hosting fees and domain name fees etc.
Of course, you give up a lot in return for this convenience like your data, and ownership and control of your content. Your audience belongs to the platform, not you. This doesn’t really matter if all you really want to do is share a few status updates to your family and friends and you’re not really looking to expand your network beyond the one you already have with the people you already know.
I’m a big fan of social networks as opposed to social media. The key word for me is social. I like socialising with diverse groups of people from all walks of life and interests. The media bit gets in the way. Really I should say using social media as marketing tool gets in the way. It’s get tiresome when every other post you read is someone or some business clearly trying to sell you something or get you to buy something (that you probably don’t need).
A cool place to get away from all of that is Neocities. You’ll find proper old-school blogging there. Dead Journal is another place you can go if just want to blog and not be bothered with coding.
As you can probably guess, I find that WordPress best suits my needs. To my mind, it provides the most leeway. It is simple to customise the look and feel of your site, whether you know how to code or not. I can blog from anywhere thanks to its mobile feature. There is also a built-in community of other WordPress bloggers to interact with.
With all of this turmoil going on in the social space, I’m definitely consolidating my efforts more around my own space, with this blog and potentially a newsletter.
OK, let’s end this with a cute cat video. We recently added a new member to our cat family. Her name is Rosa.
A quick peek inside Engage VR
Here’s a first look at the metaverse for professionals, the Engage VR app. I’ll be giving the app a thorough review and walkthrough, but for now, I just wanted to give you a brief overview of what it’s like inside of Engage VR.
Exploring the Metaverse
The metaverse isn’t just an idea anymore. It’s a reality that’s ready to explode into the mainstream.
I spent a good portion of my weekend exploring various versions of the metaverse through apps like Engage VR, AltSpaceVR, and Immersed.
I was amazed by what’s already out there and how big the metaverse is going to be in our everyday lives, including how we work, play, relax, and meet new people.
If you think the metaverse is just a fad, you should think again and dig deeper to find out what’s really going on where virtual reality and the metaverse meet. Whether you want it to or not, it is going to change your life.
What exactly is the metaverse?
The metaverse is a virtual reality that includes virtual worlds, augmented reality and a collective virtual shared space. It’s important because it combines all the best things about being in a physical space with the best things about being on the internet: it’s social, it’s immersive, and it offers a sense of community you can’t get from either place alone.
Matthew Ball offers up this definition:
“A massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.”
from The Metaverse: And How It Will Revloutionize Everything
In the world of work, especially hybrid working and remote working, the metaverse is superior to any of our current solutions for helping people and teams bridge the gap created by distance working. The sense of presence and the tools available for creativity and collaboration are unmatched.
On the social side, whether you want to go on an adventure, meet new people, or just hang out with friends or family, there are opportunities for all of these things in the metaverse. You can join a band of adventurers and explore a fantasy world together; you can play games against other players across multiple platforms; you can create your own virtual world and invite people over to visit it, or you can simply hang out with friends while they show off their latest sketches or songs they’ve been working on. The possibilities are endless!
I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on the metaverse.
Table Mountain and Pen Cerrig Calch – Brecon Beacons
Table Mountain and Pen Cerrig Calch are two of Wales’ most popular hiking trails. They provide breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside as well as a challenging hike for experienced hikers.
At 1085 metres above sea level, Table Mountain is the higher of the two peaks. It is a popular climbing and hiking destination, and the views from the top are truly breathtaking. Pen Cerrig Calch, at 973 metres, is slightly lower but no less popular with hikers. It’s famous for its rocky terrain and views of Snowdonia.
Table Mountain and Pen Cerrig Calch are both worth a visit, whether you’re looking for a strenuous hike or a leisurely stroll.
The Route
What would Fonzie say?
The ten emojis that only old people use, according to Gen Z.
Shout out to Belinda Cleary for the inspiration.
The beliefs that shape us
I’ve been playing around with beliefs this week. It’s so easy to get lost in our own beliefs. What I mean by that is most of us don’t question our beliefs. We just believe what we believe because that’s what we’ve always believed. Because our beliefs are built up over time, we forget the foundation on which the belief is built.
It’s like a house. Once the foundation has been laid, you build everything on top of it and you no longer notice the foundation until something like an earthquake comes along and rocks the foundation. Or the foundation was faulty to begin with, and time then reveals the effect of the fault on the house.
I thought I’d build a short microlearning module that gets you to explore your beliefs and the beliefs of others that might be holding you back or limiting you in some way.
Let me know how you get on with the exercise.
Wretched is the Mind
We are never ‘at home’: we are always outside ourselves. Fear, desire, hope, impel us towards the future; they rob us of feelings and concerns for what now is, in order to spend time over what will be – even when ourselves shall be no more. Wretched is the mind anxious about the future.
And yet our whole society is conditioned to think this way. It’s our default position. As I read that passage, I caught myself doing exactly that – ruminating about the future. And if I’m honest with myself, my rumination was driven by all three emotions: desire, fear, and hope.
When I bring my attention to the present, the present seems lacking. I’m sat in my quiet room reading a book written by guy who has been dead for 430 years. What is glorious about the present? Is it the celebration that you’re alive? But alive to do what? Exist? Procreate? It seems as soon as I give myself a purpose or a mission or a goal, I immediately create the condition of concern for the future. Will I achieve my mission? Will I accomplish my goal? Will I live my life on purpose?
The moment I bring my mind back to the present, those things vanish. Yet somehow, there’s that little niggle in the back of my mind, poking me, reminding me that I haven’t accomplished all that I want to accomplish yet. Reminds me of the narrator in Robert Frost’s poem – Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep
And as soon as I acknowledge the voice, a dozen different tasks flood my mind, things that need to get done if I have any chance of achieving anything beyond just living in the moment. But living in the moment is meant to bring peace, a settled mind, a oneness of spirit. How can I have both, peace and ambition?
Ambition is fueld by desire. Desire implies lack. Lack induces fear. And hope keeps me hanging on in the belief that this will all work out in the end.
The acknowledged wisdom tells me that the present is exactly where we I need to be. If I spend too much time wandering around in my past reliving old glories, or too much time daydreaming about the future, then I am wasting my life.
Who do you believe? Where should one put their faith?
I know what it feels like to be fully present. It is pure joy. A joy that gets ruined the moment you say to yourself, I wish this joy could last forever, but it’s time to get back into the real world and get shit done. Otherwise, when I get to the end of the year and people start patting themselves on the back about all of the things they’ve accomplished this year, I’ll have nothing to show. All I’ll be able to say is that I lived a life of joy doing nothing but being present.
I want to be insanely obsessed
I want to be crazy about something again. And when I say crazy, I mean insanely obsessed, filled with passion, evangelistic borderline fundamentalist. A fanatic! I think you get the picture. I want to have that feeling when I first fell in love with The Savage Sword of Conan magazine. I was obsessed. I had to have every issue. I would save my lunch money, and forgo eating, which was a big deal for me because I loved my food! Every month, I had to be the first in line at the shop to get the new issue.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had that giddy feeling that comes along with being obsessed with something.
On my last Musical Journey show, the one I did with Tom and Dionne, I asked them the question, “What do you do when you’ve already done so much? How do you get that next metaphorical high? How do you keep everything from just being a variation of the same old same old? You’ve climbed one mountain, you’ve climbed them all. Sure the scenery changes, but a mountain is a mountain after all.
So, the search for my next new obsession is on! Any suggestions, let me know.
In other news, I’m headed down to Bowles Rock tomorrow for a few days. I’m co-facilitating an outdoor adventure challenge for a group of construction apprentices. I do love it when I get to work outdoors and not have to sit on my ass all day staring at a screen.
I started reading, Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy, by Brian Tom O’Connor and it inspired me to make this:
Enough is enough, niching is not in my job description!
How do I master the art of living? I’ve been in pursuit of that answer for most of my adult life. Every time I think I have all of the answers, they change the questions.
Something that I’ve come to realize is this blog has to be first and foremost for me. It has to be a place where I have the freedom to explore my curiosity wherever it may lead. The world has become ever more niched and specialized. Follow any link on ‘how to blog’ and inevitably you’ll reach the bullet point that says you have to find your niche.
But niching is not in my job description.
If you’re looking for my niche, you’ll be looking for a long time because I have no niche apart from life itself and the experience of living. I have folks like Herodotus and Montaigne as my guides. Herodotus for the Hi(s)-tories and Montaigne, as the life philosopher, for his Essays. It’s from these two that I draw my inspiration.
Over the weekend, I found myself back to the Essays and Sarah Bakewell‘s book How to Live: a Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer. This book, in particular, reminded me of why I blog in the first place which is to document and explore things I am interested in – things that I am reading or watching or listening to and then sharing my thoughts on those things in public.
I guess, like a lot of people, I fancy the idea of monetizing the blog. And this is what has led me astray – getting seduced by books like Freedom is Blogging in Your Underwear.
Anyway, I’m done with that. This blog is for me to explore my thoughts and document the things I find. I welcome others’ company here either in the comments or by email or on Twitter.
Of course, if something I write about or podcast or vlog about inspires you or causes you to have an epiphany then feel free, as a thank you, to buy me a cup of ko-fi, or the next time you’re about to buy something from Amazon, consider using my Amazon affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you anything and I get a little kickback off the price of anything you buy. It doesn’t even have to be the book or product I’m linking to. It just has to be my link.
A question from today…
This is some heavy sh%t
This is what happens when the council decides to fix something that isn’t broken. You end up making extra trips to the garbage dump to offload your rubbish because 3 weeks is a long time to wait for the next scheduled collection. Unless that was the plan all along to get us to be our own garbagemen. It wouldn’t surprise me considering how so many other services have gone to the self-service model.
Are you caring about the wrong things?
Sam Harris on the meaning of life
What is the reality of your present moment? What Sam Harris does in this video is to get you to rethink the quality of your attention in the present moment so that when you get to the end of this finite life of ours you won’t feel like you spent your time caring about the wrong things.
The past is a memory and the future never arrives. So what does that leave you with? That’s right…the present moment. It’s the quality of your present moment that matters.
What we believe we believe
I’ve had this thought about identity. We believe we know who we are, but then there is the ‘who’ we really are, which I gather is the point of meditation and spiritual practice – to discover who we really are.
I often lack the patience to figure it out. That’s when life gets tricky and the wobbles start.
Another trip around the sun
So Coolio passed away today. He was only 59 years old. That’s only 5 years older than me. My reaction to that is damn, I could go at any time, so I best live as though my days are numbered because they are.
This is it. This is my life, here and now. I’ve traveled 54 times around the sun. How many more trips do I have?
More importantly, what do I want this next trip around the sun to be like?
I’m one month into the journey.
Here’s a simple life hack for freeing your identity from a power sink
Here’s something interesting to get your head around and it speaks to the idea of attachment.
The degree to which you attach your identity to something is the degree to which you’ll suffer when your identity is out of alignment with what you’ve attached it to.
For example, the degree to which you are proud, delighted, or smug when you’re “right” is the degree to which you will suffer when you’re wrong.
Think about that for a moment.
If you’re attached to the need to be right all the time, you’ll suffer when you’re wrong.
If you let go of the need to be right, then it won’t matter if you’re wrong. You can go on with your day without getting bent out of shape!
And I’ll leave you with this to think about: what are some things you have your identity tied to that if you were to let them go, you would be better off for it?
[Audio] On Finding the Lost Spirit of the Web
I stumbled upon a few websites that if you are a nostalgic Generation Xer like me, you’ll love!! They are reminiscent of the weird and wonderful spaces that were spawned in places like Geocities and Livejournal.
Here are the links I mention in the episode:
Neocities
Status Cafe
Deadjournal
Here’s my Status Cafe page. You can also find it on my homepage.
Neocities
This is what I miss about the old Internet, individual flare, and creativity, like this ASCII comic from Michelle. You have to duck and dodge the algorithms and echo chambers if you want to find good stuff like this.
I found this on Neocities. If you haven’t heard of Neocities, it’s a social network on a mission to bring back the lost individual creativity of the web. So far they have about 497, 700 websites in the network. You do have to know your way around HTML. They do include an in-browser HTML editor to help you build your site.
You can be as wacky or as normal as you like. You can sign up for free, which gets you 1GB of storage and 200 GB of bandwidth. If you want to go all in and be a supporter, it’ll cost you $5 a month, and you get 50 GB of storage and 3000 GB of bandwidth. Plus no file upload restrictions, multiple site creation, and custom domain support.
It’s a bit geeky but fun. And if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to code, a Neocities webpage is a great place to practice and build your unique piece of the web.
I’ll post a link to my Neocities account once I get my page looking presentable.
Too Many Voices
I needed some inspiration today. I haven’t been happy with my voice lately. There’s too much noise in my head and too many voices competing with each other for attention. It’s kind of like the shell game, my voice is the pea underneath one of the shells, and no matter how confident I am that I’ve picked the right shell, I come up empty (unlike the cat).
On the very top shelf, I found Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. It’s been at least 12 years since I spent any time with this book. I remember liking it at the time, but the only thing I remember from reading it is the story behind the title.
Her brother had a report due about birds. He had had all summer to write it but waited until the day before it was due to start working on it. As you would imagine, he was pretty stressed about it. He had all these books on birds, but he couldn’t get the words to flow.
Their dad, who was a writer, whispered to him by way of encouragement, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” That piece of writing advice stuck with me. Sentence by sentence and eventually you’ll get there.
The other bit of advice I remember is the idea of writing a shitty first draft because that’s the only way to get to a good second draft and a terrific third draft.
Anne’s voice in the introduction is exactly what I needed to hear today.
About her father:
I suspect that he was a child who thought differently than his peers, who may have had serious conversations with grown-ups, who as a young person, like me, accepted being alone quite a lot. I think that this sort of person often becomes either a writer or a career criminal.
Like her father:
Throughout my childhood, I believe that what I thought about was different from what other kids thought about. It was not necessarily more profound, but there was a struggle going on inside me to find some sort of creative or spiritual or aesthetic way of seeing the world and organising it in my head.
I can relate to this:
I read more than other kids; I luxuriated in books. Books were my refuge. I sat in corners with my little finger hooked over my bottom lip, reading, in a trance, lost in this places and time to which books took me…I came to believe that I might be able to put a pencil in my hand and make something magical happen.
I think I’ll spend the rest of the weekend with this book. Maybe it’ll help me get my voice back.