I have "dated" through text before.  How is this possible?  Sexting is already a movie title!  God, I pity those woman who get off on what most men say!  My big play was observing inspirational beauty, scrawling something on a napkin, and dropping on their table as I walked by.  This works far better with European women as they are better educated culturally and more open to random interaction with people.  Cali girls tend to be all frightful.  Girls go out in groups, protect each other from dealing with men they don't all approve of, and then helping decide if a guy seems nice enough to go home with.  Interesting dynamic.  Reminds me of the movie "A Beautiful Mind".  There is always a prettiest girl in the crowd.  Often they surround themselves with uglier girls to appear more attractive.  Okay, no I feel a bit too judgmental.  Of course there are generalities.

Dating in a relationship is a common concept recently adapted by popular culture.  "Date Nights" are a good way of keeping up with each other and dedicating some regular time together.  In families with children time alone may be minimal, or depending on work schedules and lifestyle.  Besides, people are constantly changing, and the person you dated, probably isn't exactly the person you married, or are with now.  People tend to put their best foot forward, only showing you what they want to.  Overtime, their ability to hide what they do not want you to see becomes less affective, especially if living together.

Dating yourself.  I developed this personal technique while going through divorce.  It was a very difficult time for me and it helped to be around people, but not necessarily have to interact.  Besides, I got to use the time to "date" myself and get to know myself better.  What do I really want to do now?  What movie do I want to see?  What cafe do I want to frequent?  When and where do I want to be.  These kind of things come up all the time in relationships, including, one might say, "relationships" with our selves.

I made a big deal out of date night.  I allowed myself to get to know myself all over again each time.  I made a conscious effort to really make the most of it!  Time with ourselves and without distractions is becoming far too rare. 

I suggest sitting with yourself.  Do nothing.  Try and let your thoughts flow.  Let them go.  Be still.  Then, rise into the moment, let the world take you in and guide you to your highest potential.

The Super Bowl is all about half time and commercials.  Everyone watches for the best commercials of the year when companies throw all sorts of money to make :statements", get attention, be the most talked about.  More money is thrown at Super bowl commercials for 30 second spots than most any other "artistic" endeavor we support.  It is probably the most popularly "artistic" representation of our consumerist society, commercials!  This is a perfect example of our society.

Personally, I miss the Bud Bowl.  That was always fun.  The one time a year I'd usually bet was occasionally on the super bowl.  I like all the eating and the cultural significance of millions of people doing the very same thing at the very same time "watching the television", and not only that, but watching the same thing on television!  Call it cultural unity.  I call it cultural dediversification, and capitalistic "better than godly" programming (literally) of consumers.

Anyway.  I gave up on "boys playing with their balls" as anything really important.  Should an inflated leather ball's trajectory really change the "fate" of anything?  It only does because we allow it to.  We attribute meaning and importance to things all the time.  Many of these things may not really be important in the "grand scheme of things" but for whatever personal reason we have.

So, yea…time to eat, and veg on some commercials.  Couldn't care less about the game!

Checkout Sarah Junes website http://sarahjunephotography.com/ and be some of the first people to be exposed to her true talent!

Many thanks for sharing such dramatic beauty!

www.tavius.org

The phonograph was invented near the time of our current modern technological era.  Finally, music was captured and reproduced to be played outside proximity of the original source.  With the advent of radio, music was now broadcast for simultaneous experience to wider ranges of listeners who may not have ever experienced that particular song or style of music.  Album covers became artistic, and collected by music fans.  Musicians image was contained mostly as a performer on stage and representative of their album artwork.  Once television offered music visually the image and attitude of a band or musician even more typecast.   Now musicians were competing, not only for a sound of the times, but the image as well.  Now, music videos often set styles and trends in pop culture even outside of music.  The music industry now mass produces similar styles and images to take advantage of other musicians popularity.  Everyone began chasing the same thing (money) until all there was was trend setters, and everyone else.  Music has become much more about the outward appearance people attempt to project and motives are now materialistic rather than spiritual or cultural.

The came "The Real World".  MTV would not only revolutionize the music industry, but recreate television programing across the board.  Once "reality TV" took hold, everything one could think of has a reality TV show about it.  Now, the stars are not only born in Hollywood, but in regular life.  As Andy Warhol said, "In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame", and well, it seems to be moving that direction.  I already have family members that have been on reality TV shows!

The other interesting thing I noticed lately is that more movie actors are more than moonlighting on television shows and TV actors doing the same in movies.  With the popularity of internet video sites where anyone can post video, and streaming capabilities are designed into social media and even household televisions!  Now the quality of audio and video has no real standard.  Reality TV shows will show video off of camera phones and MP3's seem to satisfy everyone these days when compact disks even sounded better.  I guess more is better, not just quality.  I like having access to media and information.

So I have been rambling in this post and a little all over the place.  Blogging is definitely not my best writing. Real "bloggers" do so much more with theirs.  I am lucky to get a picture or link in mine.  I just want to share ideas.  This is core of it for me.  Not so much time in the packaging or presentations, so much as an attempt to discuss ideas about different things on different levels than is typical.  Some say evolution is about consciousness, others, spirituality.  Whatever it is, it doesn't change based on what we call it, only we change.

It's weird to have two political parties who have the most similar political ideal be so adverse to each other.  There is far more in common with the Democrats and Republicans.  In fact, their political ideals are very close to the same, middle of the road.  However, since there is not a strong third party we are stuck with bipartisan politics.  Dialectic forces can be balancing, however, the more diverse the input the more diverse the output, and the more accurate the representation.

A true democracy would work from the people upwards rather than the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the federal government down.  These three branches are suppose to balance each other as well.  However, each seems to represent their own political agenda's like warring factions with corporate conglomerate divisions for money and power.  Capitalism is what drives our country, consumerism, and corporations are running the show!

The United States is not a true Democracy.  We are a Democratic Republic based on Greco-Roman era politics thousands of years ago.  The electoral college votes by state for their constituents.  However, this does not represent majority vote, which is true Democracy.  If we were a true Democracy and people had the power we would have never elected Bush to begin with.  He did not have the majority vote, but the structure of the electoral college and whatever else went on in Florida changed the course of our history enabling Bush to take power.

We lost respect in the world's eyes during the Bush administration.  His bully nature over 911 and plane idiocracy, along with repression of constitutional rights and political profiteering took our country to the lowest of lows.  We may never fully recovery now.  Our economy is not sustainable.  The government and it's people have been living outside their means for decades on borrowed money to sustain a lifestyle which cannot be maintained.  Just the interest on the debt we owe China is almost too much to pay.  They own us, but we carry on because we are the biggest consumers and they are one of the biggest producers.  They need us to consume their goods.  Besides, there is nothing of real value other than fear and acceptance which gives our monetary system any real value.  Our economy is just numbers in computers sometimes represented by paper. The false economy continues to evolve to maintain it's life.  Numbers are manipulated to keep the idea of value acceptable.  Money is just an idea. 

After WW2 America was the biggest industrial producer.  The fifties were the birth of the suburban bubble middle class which set a standard of living we have lost the ability to support.  Capitalism evolved to force manufacturing abroad for competition and better pricing for us to consume more goods.  United States moving manufacturing overseas built China into the powerhouse it is today.  They do not have a strong middle class to support.  They have mainly rural and urban environments.  These are some of the factors for China's success and the unsustainability of United States culture.

We need to reign our troops in, protect ourselves from ourselves and enforce legal immigration.  We can't keep trying to dominate the world if we are to maintain.  We can't even deal with all our citizens and immigrants breaking the laws in our own country!  Yet, we attempt to enforce "Democracy" and the idea of Freedom over other countries we destroy so we can attempt to rebuild and control!  Every society which has attempted this eventually fails.  We need a balanced budget.  Miss appropriation of government budgets can be better prioritized to actually take care of it's citizens rather than pursue self interest for world domination.  Why waste trillions of dollars on space programs launching billion dollar machines to crash into the moon to find out if their was water there at one point.  Do we really need to know whether the moon could have ever supported life?!  And Hubble has produced beautiful images while the international space station falls apart because the world is no longer working together.  How does this help humanity survive?  Perhaps, the space program is our parachute, are way out of our self destruction? 

Anyway.  Whatever?  Right?  Apathy, laziness, selfish self center materialistic consumerism disables individuals motivation for change.  As long as we are fat, happy, and have reality of TV nothing else matters?  The fat needs to be cut back, and it is.  All things have a nature and life that ultiamtely requires balance, even in change.  However, every voice should be heard!  But our education system does not foster individual thinkers, or citizens that know anything about life, relationships, money, parenting, law, health, life support, etc.  We waste trillions of dollars and children's lives teaching them to be ill prepared for life and full of useless information which obscures the truth.

especially my feelings

As they hide behind childish lies 

I cannot hear.

In life with early incident reflections before critique de colors

Lost in lust 

My love materializes flesh

Sometimes you just don't care

And that is what scares me most

Spun off into oblivion

I sought truth

Coming down

Having retrieved

Something beyond

The perfection in chaos.

Eventually,

I had to do something

Rather than take something

In order to feel

Different. 

Better.

I cannot imagine you ever having shared pleasure before, nor ecstasy, especially orgasm.

Can you protect and control the infection of my desires?

Amazing ife goes in without you here somewhere else we simultaneously exist in time but

Not space

I fist blue steel

Resist weight

I can hear the potential in a train wreck

But black streeks across the highway

Indicate where you flipped off the road 

And my love for you became vertigo

You know how I feel even when I am not around

Dreams bring me to you!

Fallen Angel

Why give people the power to "make" you do things?

You'll never feel as good as you did with me

Without me

The last star of night

Reached for morning

Racing the sunrise home

Into the first fog of fall

My deer bound over barbed wire

Around the corner 

From my place.

Tavius Dyer (Scraps to become in 1/6/12)

This Holiday Season was very challenging.  A new family, and a mixed family, and different people doing different things.  Communication seems most important all the time.  I have been listening to how others feel lately, which gives me insight into myself, my behavior and how I am being perceived.  I am rarely aware of the affect of my actions.  If I am with someone I can feel them, but so much communication is online, or text, or some other form which transmits so little of what I really want to say.  Recently, someone was tripping on a single statement out of slews of emails I had been sending, and because of how they took that statement they ceased communicating with me.  They took it to mean the worst possible meaning, and left it at that, without inquiring as to what I really meant.  Once I finally heard from them about it, I was upset ill communication had existed for so long and that I didn't have an opportunity to explain myself sooner.  People just don't ask, "what did you mean by this"?  Or, "I hear you saying".  Communication is so ill these days.  I must edit and reedit myself it seems.  Luckily, my spelling is so bad, I have started to reread most everything I write because spell check doesn't not catch all of my mistakes.  When I reread what I wrote I take in what I put out and gain a little better understanding of just how clear I am being, and whether I want to say everything i wrote initially.  Often times editing makes a big difference.  I can say so many things I really don't need to say if I edit myself. 

Journaling is a safe place to express myself freely.  I enjoy having a journal to write in and practice self honesty, just letting whatever out.  i am doing it now, to a degree, however, I am generalizing for the possibility of the public eye rather than being specific as I could be in my journals.  I have over 100 journals written probably since 1997.  Journaling has been  way to have a relationship with myself and get to know myself better.  It allows me to express my thoughts and feelings freely without censorship in a fairly safe environment.

I guess I can use my blog as a journal more.  I fear what others may think of me if I open myself freely.  Thoughts are thoughts and feelings are feelings.  They are something I have and experience, but they are not me.  Thoughts and feelings change.  They are merely symbolic of an experience in that given moment and are not necessarily indicative of who I really am as a person.  My actions are what matter in the world.  Action makes change in the world in which we share.  That makes the difference.  However, the world within me quite often yearns for out.  The more we communicate with less and less actual information needed for communication (body language, tone of voice, gestures, etc.) the more I have to fill in the gaps and tell myself a story about what it all means assuming most of the information I need to achieve an understanding.  I must be aware of the meaning I attribute to things.  The story I tell myself becomes my reality.  I am responsible for what I do with my thoughts, how I feel, and the behavior I have.  Unfortunately, free will, or choices and decisions are often reactive or unconscious and I do not take the time to think much before I act.  I like being in the moment responding to my environment, taking it in and reflecting it back.  It can be a very powerful experience, but then I am susceptible to my environment and loose autonomy and conscious choice.  I can think all day and rationalize anything.  That is why I tend to go off feelings.  But feelings are the last step before action.  It's tough to alter my course of action if i am mainly aware of feelings and react.  There is not much opportunity for perspective or consideration of consequences.  This is a challenge in not thinking in words.  I must pause when feeling something and step back into my mind to see where the feeling is coming from and either accept how I have created it, and do something to change it or nurture it.  every choice I make, whether conscious or unconscious, (and most are unconscious) reinforces my story and gives rise to thoughts which create feelings when my body reacts to those thoughts, motivating action.  I must interrupt the cycle at some point as regularly as possible to enact change.

For instance, let's say you wanted to loose 20lbs this New Year.  First you must find out what it takes to achieve this goals.  A personal trainer and nutritionists may be needed to better understand what it will take and how to progress towards the end goal without doing too much too soon and burning out, or not elevating enough to achieve the goal.  It is a balance of what is doable, while pushing a little bit more regularly, until the routine enables maintenance of the goal.  Often, people loose weight, stop doing whatever achieved their weight loss goal and gain the weight back.  Change over time requires daily commitment to routines that enable the change to continue to exist.

If weight loss is your goal the number one concept is to consume less calories than you burn.  Additionally, the calories you choose for fuel can dictate what types of body weight are gained or loss.  Increasing activity is another way to burn more calories than before as long as the caloric intake doesn't increase as well.

Most people who resolve to loose weight this year join a gym and go all out on cardio equipment.  This tends to burn people out as they are working too hard too soon to maintain progress.  Furthermore, working harder is not necessarily working smarter.  If you were wanting to loose fat, fat metabolizes at a particular heart rate.  The max human heart rate is 220 beats per minute.  A general rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 220 and multiple the remainder by .60 or 60%.  My target heart rate is 220-34=186 x 0.6 = about 111 beats per minute.  This is my ideal heart rate for burning fat.  The more time I spent in this heart rate range the more fat I burn.  This equation is far from strenuous activity.  You do not have to run to loose weight.  Your target heart rate for fat burning can be achieved by a brisk walk.  If you exercise at heart rates above this range, you are working towards other gains, like cardiovascular fitness, where you will be able to increase the rate over time of your exercising.  This is very good, too, but it does not target fat loss if that is your goal.

If you cannot afford a personal trainer and nutritionists, or want to try are your own, I suggest starting with 20 minutes at your target heart rate three times a week.  After the first week, you can go 25 minutes three times a week, building in another 5 minutes each week until you achieve 45-60 minutes within your target heart rate.  At his point, if you want to continue progress, add 4 days a week until you can do 5 days a week 45-60 minutes at target heart rate.  By this time, if you have not increased your eating habits too much, and are making better choices in what you do eat, you will have reached your goal of loosing 20 lbs. after the first few months.

Then, the challenge becomes, how do I stay resolute and motivated to do more over time?  Well, results are a number one motivator.  However, you must be patient.  Initially, your body main need to get used to the exercise.  Muscles may be tight or sore.  Increase your intake of water, and decrease alcohol and caffeinated beverages, and sugar.  These actions will help the body recover and assist in weight loss as well. 

When you increase you activity your body may hunger more.  Instead of increasing your food intake increase your water intake.  Water is a good way of curbing hunger and is vitally necessary for proper functioning of the body and recovery from exercise.

If you have tried all of this and are not satisfied with your results enroll assistance.  Seek personal training by someone who understands your goals and can advise on a program of exercise and nutrition to achieve your goals.  Many of these basic ideas I have mentioned are guideposts to gauge whether any particular resource knows the first thing about what it takes.

Goal setting is all about defining the goal specifically, understanding the path to achieve that goal incrementally so realistic and achievable goals can be met along the way while balancing your effort and energy for the long haul to the end goal!

In doctor Daniel G. Amen's book "Magnificent Mind at Any Age" he uses brain scan imagery and case studies over decades to discuss types of mental health issues, treatments (natural and pharmaceutical) while laying out the do's and don't for brain health.

One of Amen's discoveries is that watching television regularly reduces brain function as much as smoking marijuana regularly!  Often, these activities go "hand in hand" so who is to say the net loss ; )

Television is like a drug in that it induces passive receptive states of mind while functioning like meditation altering brain chemistry.  The stimulation from television can cause dependency over time.  The brain learns to need it to function "normally".  The more time spent watching television, the more mediated your perceptions become as the images on television move and change far faster than in reality.  This, I posit adds to ADD and ADHD issues in our society as we are programmed to constantly change our perspective and perceptions unnaturally.

Both audio and imagery are optimized to transmit a message as subliminally as possible.  The mere fact that television causes passive receptive states of mind, means we are taking information in without thinking much about it or filtering it, so it literally programs us!  Not only this, but advertisers take it a step further by compressing audio to sound louder in commercials to get your attention and also using basic human desires to associate product with personal fulfillment.  Your material desires, including financial, sexual, and reputation are vied for by each and every advertiser during commercials.  Now channels advertise with pop ups during regular television as well.  The science behind marketing, media, and advertising is state of the art, and constantly being refined to gain greater control over your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions to make the most dependent consumers possible.

Norm Chomsky discusses how media was invented to control the minds of the masses and create mindless consumers out of us.  What I see, too, is that are lives, not only what we buy are being affected and controlled.

Movie has become the new religion of our society.  people find their sense of otherness and understanding from the movies they watch.  Movie stories have replaced biblical stories in much of our sense of selves, not only individually, but collectively as well. 

The bottom line is that those in power, those who have the money to control the government are using media, internet, television, movies to control society and maintain wealth and power over everyone.  As Niestche posited Religion was the opiate of the masses, film and media have replaced religion in becoming the dominant opiate of the masses!  So whether you sit down to watch a movie, surf the internet, or watch television and spark up a joint or not, you are losing brain function as those in power gain more power over us breeding an apathetic society which is most easy to control!

The pinnacle of the rave scene having spilled into the club scene rooted in the dot com bubble of the Bay Area was the international house music scene!  It was all about San Francisco house music!  Mark Farnia slowed beats down and created the Mushroom Jazz series.  John Howard was another flap ship DJ of the era accompanied with keyboarders and hand drummers!  Record stores were booming all along the Height and Valencia.  The city was full of young dot commies starry-eyed and disillusioned with the idea that they, like their parents, would only make even more money as time went on.  It was a free for all!  SOMA was the spot for startups and night clubs, which spread throughout the city!

Parties began Thursday night and ran through the weekend spilling into clubs that opened one after another until Monday!  The End Up filled the gaps opening Saturday morning at 6 am while most of the other clubs had just closed.  2nd Sunday started Sunday morning and ran until early Monday morning! 

I remember showing up at the first 2nd Sunday party around 10am on Sunday morning.  There was a DJ already spinning records, but hardly anyone there, yet.  I had been dancing for days, so I hit the floor for fun, cuz why stop?  We danced our hearts and minds and bodies out on the dance floor for we all became the music.

By the afternoon, things had warmed up, several DJ's played in two rooms and outside on a patio.  The crowd had definitely thickened, and the buzz was beginning to blaze!  The sun and beats were unreal as the party began to bust at the seems.  By night, practicably every local I had ever seen at a club was there.  It was the scene.

To partake in an all day house music party is quite the experience as the crowd and atmosphere grows and feeds upon itself.  Especially one where everyone who was anyone in the San Francisco club scene converged!

By the end of the night party promoters had already burned live CD recordings of DJ's from that night!  I recall getting my 2nd Sunday CD, and hearing others blaring it from out their open car windows!  I could hear that recording through the streets of San Francisco throughout the entire summer of 1999!  It was the ultimate arrival of house music and the club/rave scene.

One of the greatest build ups in a live recorded house DJ set on wax is in the track at the top of the page by Norm for the first ever 2nd Sunday party, and signifier that San Francisco was once again a world wide scene, capturing culture as the center stage of the spectacle society becomes when it reaches it's climatic crescendo before it collapses back into the balance of the viable real world.

2nd Sunday has carried on over a decade now!  Checkout their website for New Years Even party! http://www.2ndsunday.com/index.html

Ha Ha Happy Ho Ho Holidays!

Tavius.org